Prisons have been utilized as a means to punish individuals for crimes committed since 1790 in the United States. The philosophy behind how punishment should be administered to inmates has flip-flopped back and forth from the harsher forms of retribution to the milder forms of rehabilitation. Prisons have experienced a booming population, worker exploitation, and medical reform for the inmates. Prisons serve a well needed part of the criminal justice system, yet they are the least thought of part of the criminal justice system. References Banks, C. 2005.
The second factor that needs to be considered is the routine the inmates faced on a day to day basis and the outcome of the rehabilitation. Prior to Pentonville, prisons were used as holding bays for those on death row and debtors, due to prisons being unfeasible for long term incarceration. Prisons were corrupt environments were ‘prisoners were in the company of criminals of every class and degree’ . Subsequently it can be claimed that having ‘passed time, he returns a greater adept in crime, with a wider acquaintance among criminals’ . During the time of the report the Lords Select Committee had promoted the silent system which had been adopted at Wakefield Goal and Coldbath fields in 1834.
Another major point is that our justice system shows more sympathy for criminals than it does victims. DNA testing and other methods of modern crime scene science can now effectively eliminate almost all uncertainty as to a person's guilt or innocence. Prisoner parole or escapes can give criminals another chance to kill. This contributes to the problem of overpopulation in the prison system. Has one ever thought of the victim’s family when the whole court cases are going on?
When you have a warden like Luther, willing to help inmates regardless of their criminal record or status, it gives hope that the prison can be called a correctional facility. If the system would have more people who are willing to help the inmates by providing them with available resources that will guide them to succeed, there should not be so many violations in the correctional institutions. On the other hand, when Warden Meko took over, he did not supply any resources or
REHABILITATION VERSES INCARCERATION Rehabilitation should be viewed as more key than incarceration itself. People who are convicted of crimes should be allowed to heal and better themselves. Many of those people have serious addictions and issues that need to be addressed. In jail however, those issues will only worsen or fester. When the prisoner is released, they may be very angry about the lack of attention they recieved, and become a repeat offender.
However, the implementation of; Prison improvement program has made it possible for prison to preserve the basic human rights of inmates. A prison is a place that holds people who have been convicted, or found guilty, of serious crimes, although there are a number of reasons why we use imprisonment. Customary we use prison to deter those who commit crime, and also to serve as a punishment for those who commit crime. Nonetheless we also use prison to reform people in order to get them ready for reintroduction of society. The most important thing that we use prison for is to keep people in our society safe, and to offer protection.
I do believe we should not coddle them with taxpayer treatment programs that a lot of them enter and exit repeatedly. But, on the other hand, if those treatment centers do offer some sort of success, then it a good thing to offer them in hopes of the offenders not depending on drugs and having to commit crimes to get those drugs thus reducing crime, the courts, jails, and prison population. Drug treatment programs are less expensive than prisons and more effective at helping people turn their lives around. Many of the programs available to inmates are provided by organizations like AA and NA, which send volunteers into the prisons. Most of the volunteers are previous offenders who have changed their lives and now want to help other change their life.
There are many laws that come into play with the end result being less crime. They are intended to make punishments harsher for offenders with the hopes that the offender will not repeat crimes. The Habitual Felon Act was developed in order to increase sentencing time for the repeat offenders. This was considered to be a ""tough on crime" legislation that was adopted by the North Carolina General Assemble in the early 1990s" (Young). The law was also adapted in order to get more violent individuals off of the street, instead it filled the prisons with nonviolent, low priority felons.
What is done is to “instill habits of work in people, help build their skills' then they will be rehabilitated. The third one, which believes that true rehabilitation takes place when such person is allowed back into the community and is a combination of both retributive and rehabilitative theories, seeks to: “1) deter future and past criminals from doing a crime because the threat of incarceration looms 2) incapacitate the offender to stop the individual from possibly endangering others 3) punish the criminal by serving time and living a restricted lifestyle and 4) rehabilitate them for release into society (Fuller , 125-27). By the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the probation success rate is 62%. Most probation programs are designed to (1) protect the community by assisting judges in sentencing and supervising offenders, (2) carry out sanctions imposed by the court, (3)
Community Corrections Barb Vorachek University of Phoenix (Axia) CJS/230 Theresa Degard 12/11/11 Community Corrections The goals of community corrections are to contribute to public safety, and reduce future criminal conduct (Martin, 2006). Community corrections are a big part of the criminal justice system. Community corrections are a form of punishment that an offender can receive to serve time in the community, instead of serving it in jail. There are many forms of community corrections it does not only involve probation and parole. Other forms include community service and house arrest (Foster, 2006).