Corruption In The Correctional System

What is the cause of such an infestation as the corruption in the Maryland corrections system? The answer lies in the lives of those involved. Generally speaking, it will always come down to the morals, beliefs, and needs of the individual who is faced with the opportunity to become corrupt. Individuals who are employed by the corrections system are, in reality, mercenaries employed by the system to guard and control the inmate populations.

Even though people used work programs in the past for personal profit and prison labor has been compared to slavery the programs are successful. Corrupt people are removed from their positions with their exposure by outside organizations. Watchdog groups are necessary for any industry, including the prison work force, and are welcomed. As with any organization, there will always be some bad apples. In American prisons workers are paid for work performed. Presently 80,000 inmates are employed manufacturing blue jeans, auto parts, electronics, furniture, handling reservations, telemarketing, data entry, record keeping, desk top publishing, digital mapping, computer-aided design work, auto repairs and, are paid at a rate of $.21 to $.50 an hour (Whyte).

Privately owned prisons began to emerge in the mid-1980s. These prisons emerged because of the ideological imperatives of the free market, the huge increase in the number of prisoners, and the substantial increase in imprisonment costs. (1) Proponents of privatized prisons put forward a simple case: The private sector can do it cheaper and more efficiently. Corporations such as Correction Corporation of America and Wackenhut promised design and management innovations without reducing costs or sacrificing quality of service. (1) Many interest groups comprised of correctional officers, labor works, and a few citizen groups strongly oppose the privatization of the prison system. I will identify four

The prison system in America is far from perfect. When Reagan took office, the idea of private prisons took off (Chang & Thompkins, 2002). With the increase of private prisons in America, comes the increase of incarceration rates. Private prisons were designed to keep money in taxpayers pockets; therefore, private corporations came into play to make money in the prison system (Chang at el., 2002). Chang at el. (2002) states, “ Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) is the largest correctional corporation in the US, thus it holds 50 percent of the U.S market”. The capacity of private prisons has increased 300 percent in the last 30 years (Chang at el., 2002). Additionally, private prisons operate at 90 percent of their capacity (Chang at

As prisons grow in size, governments look for new methods to aid in cutting costs and increase efficiency. Over the last decade government run institutions have been replaced with privately funded, for-profit prisons. Although it is cheaper for governments to run contract based institutions this mass industrialization of the prison system has seen many issues with corruption, decreases in efficiency and even mistreatment and exploitation of incarcerated individuals. The prison system should remain under government control and in this essay I will discuss the faults and errors of for-profit institutions and why this system should not be overseen by private corporations.

Inhumane treatment of inmates and poor living conditions seem to be reoccurring issues within the private prison system. Oddly enough the United States government continues to allow the privatizing of prisons when as it stands private companies already owned and/or operate over more than half of the U.S correctional facilities (Mason , 2010). Privatization of prisons was initially expected not only relieve the overcrowding of prisons but also to house inmates for a lesser cost. Yet until this day there is no tangible evidence that private prisons have met these goals. It seems that time and time again private prison companies are costing society much more than they are helping while simultaneously exploiting inmates to make a greater profit. It is evident that the privatization of prisons has created a multi-billion dollar industry at the expense of taxpayers and with the enslavement of prisoners.

The U.S. prison system includes private prisons operated for profit by corporations contracted by the federal government (“Privatization Of”, n.d.). Years ago, the industry was heavily boosted by the “war on drugs” efforts of the Reagan

Throughout history, there has been many different methods for corrections. Looking back over time, you can see how the correctional system has evolved from the harsh, brutal, inhumane ways of the 16th century, to the rehabilitation methods of today. In the correctional system, there are different types of correctional facilities, various custody levels, and a time where it all started.

Prison’s were established a long time ago to try to put an end to the rapidly increasing crime rate, however over time we are seeing the effectiveness of the most prisons decreasing. As a result of this epidemic, prisons have a higher recidivism rate and over 40 percents are currently operating over maximum capacity (Holder.) Through different types of research, we are finding out that our prison systems are no longer effective and there is a serious need for improvement. The United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population, yet we incarcerate almost ¼ of the worlds prisoners (Holder.)

Throughout mankind, the ideas of avarice and prosperity have pushed companies to work harder, although sometimes this can come with a price. Corruption infiltrates all manners of society like government and industries and the American prison system is no different. Since America must provide housing for those who are incarcerated, they build one prison per week due to the increased rate of criminals (Franklin). Many peoples’ crimes do not fit their punishment and additionally the duration of the punishment does not match the crime committed. Why is that? The corruption of state and local governments have an incentive to maintain a certain population within prisons. This is a current conflict within the United States. Therefore, state and local governments should not have the power to dictate the amount people who reside in America’s prisons. Further, financial incentives from companies should be banned from influencing the population of prisons.

In 2011, I spent time serving in prisons with a church organization who’s goal was to change the systemic problems within the prison system. This caused me to examine all aspects of inequality and oppression that disproportionately affects people of color.

It is obvious that police officers are using their jobs as law enforcers to obtain illegal items and are shamefully betraying their police departments. The policemen who were involved in this drug smuggle were veterans. When people think of veterans, whether it be a veteran of war or a veteran of a police department, we think of someone who has devoted many years, served and been loyal to the service. People have admiration for veterans and recognize them for being committed to the service as well as being faithful to every year they have been involved in it. Now the four veteran police officers from Chicago will be spending time in prison instead of adding more years to the service of policing. Those years that the veteran police officers were dedicated to the policing is now history, they could have helped lower crime rates in Chicago, but instead they are facing prison time.

Late 1980s marked the increase of crime rate in the country, around that time a small and influential criminology group decided that time has come to point out the menace. They did it well and along came the fear and malice towards “super-predators”. Astonishingly this so called fast creeping breed of criminals were not some mutants, but children as young as 11! (Garinger, 2012) As expected there was no turning back from the data and the facts, and government was forced to make strict decisions. Thus began the tyrant of transfer laws, marked at the inadequacies of the state juvenile justice systems. To say those reforms or decisions were overbearing would be sensible, apparently those disciplinary actions were much needed.

Shortages in the corrections system generally occur when upper management does not hire qualified staff. Leadership should hire staff whom meet the minimum qualifications to get the job done as well as whom may exceed any expectations. Qualified staff should have the education, skills and experience necessary to perform the required job duties. A large percentage of employers feel by hiring less qualified staff that they can save money. Although, the quantity of the hired employees may be up to par but the quality of the staff may be below average. All salaries should be commendable with an employees job duties regardless of deficiencies. Hiring staff whom are not qualified usually opens the door for liabilities and lawsuits.

As a Bolivian, I know the sad reality of the country respect of corruption and drug trafficking, how people appreciate more the money they can make than human lives or how they show the lack of values they have; the worst thing is that this reality is something that everyone knows but they do not try to solve it. The list of things that have happened or still happening is very long, but the solution is not that hard, all summarize un corruption and to reduce corruption and the amount of repeat offenders prisoners in Bolivian prisons, it is necessary to create a rehabilitation program for prisoners and remove the police officers from the administration of jail and set again the civil