The American Prison System

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The American Prison System The fear of going to prison strikes fear in some and in others, it is an opportunity for rehabilitation and a chance to reflect. The magnitude of punishment is currently dependent on the location of the crime and trial as well as the prison where the offender is sent for their punishment. The privatization of the prison system and the lack of efficient and effective punishments through out the United State’s prison systems have left our prisons overpopulated, under funded and mismanaged. Creating standard guidelines throughout both public and private prisons, as well as making uniform punishments that fit their crimes, will make a transfer to a private prison no different than a stay in a publicly funded prison.…show more content…
Most of the current practices are fueled by two primary factors; availability and funds. Whether a prison is public or private, the primary necessity is room. Whether crime is caused by social, economic or biological reasons, our prisons are overcrowded with no end in sight. The first prisons that were built were based primarily on rehabilitating the prisoner rather than containing the prisoner. The Eastern Penitentiary opened in 1829 was built with isolation as the key goal. The prisoners were kept separate and the holding cells were built with this goal in mind. Current prisons are so over crowded that prisoner’s sleep on mats on the floor and the rooms are usually filled to their maximum capacity if they don’t already exceed their capacities. This difference between penitentiaries in 1829 and modern day establishments shows the shift in beliefs from punishment and rehabilitation to modern day punishment without the chance for rehabilitation. The privatization of prisons by large corporations has both fueled this issue as well as helped resolve some of the system’s…show more content…
Furthermore, the psychological, physical care and treatment of prisoners should be studied and a protocol that either rehabilitates or punishes the prisoners should be created and the “system” or better yet, our government should decide if prisons are used for rehabilitation or for punishment. Either way, once a standard that is created by scientific means is set, it should be the standard practice in all prisons whether private or publicly owned. It is not fair for tax payers to pay $28 a day for a murderer to stay in a private prison and $36 a day for a person with the same or lesser charge to stay in the state penitentiary. The accountability should fall on the institutes that oversee the prisons such as the National Institute of Justice, the Bureau of Prisons and the states that the prisons reside
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