Essay on Cost of Incarceration

For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families

Over-incarceration in the United States is an issue that is quite known, but there hasn't been much done in order to reduce the amount of inmates incarcerated. In specific, Dade County Jail located in Miami has received criticism regarding the over population of inmates in their facility. So much that processing procedure of new inmates was switched from Dade County Jail to Turner Guilford Knight. " The main jail, across from Miami-Dade criminal courthouse, was built in 1959 and never intended to hold such a large population. Inmates sued for overcrowding in the 1970s — a federal judge later declared the conditions unconstitutional." (Ovalle, "Notorious Miami-Dade psychiatric jail ward finally shuttered", 2015) During its operating times, Dade

In addition to the previously noted negative psychological effects of prisonization, it is common for individuals who were wrongly imprisoned to be angry and bitter about the injustice they suffered (Cook et al., 2014). The fact of their innocence heightens the psychological toll, which exacerbates the overall effects of imprisonment (Campbell & Denov, 2004). In a seminal study on the psychological consequences of wrongful conviction, Grounds (2004) completed systematic psychiatric assessments of 18 exonerated men who had no psychiatric histories prior to their wrongful arrests. His findings were telling: 14 met the criteria for “enduring personality change after catastrophic experience” (p. 168), 12 met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, 10 were diagnosed with depressive disorder, 5 exhibited panic disorder features, 4 exhibited paranoid symptoms, and three were alcohol or drug dependent. As case managers, social workers should be aware of likely psychological effects common among exonerees and should have a pool of therapeutic resources to draw from as referrals for them. As mental health care providers working with exonerees, social workers should learn as much as possible about problems common among this population, and recognize that they have unique needs beyond the needs shared by all former

Prisons and jails hold some similar characteristics but are completely different models in which they serve in the criminal justice system. Some of the types of crimes that America faces today are: violent crimes, property, white collar or organized crime, and public order crimes (Worrall, 2008). The criminal justice system sets the regulations and policies of how an offender will be held accountable for their inappropriate actions. The criminal justice system is a process that takes time and money from society. The following information will briefly discuss the main purposes for the jail and prison systems, which will focus on the length of sentencing, funding sources, and private sector ownership. Let’s begin by explaining the length of

“I never realized that once I was labeled as a criminal, I had forfeited my right to be considered a victim,” says Elizabeth Reid at the end of an article she wrote describing her horrific experience as a resident at one of Washington Department of Corrections Work Release facilities (Reid 2013). Elizabeth was led to a secluded room of the facility where she was raped by one of the staff/ guards. She was forced to face the wall as he forcibly raped her. At first she did not report the rape because she feared that he would cause her to be sent back to prison. However, instead of telling someone inside the facility, she went to the local police to report the rape. To her amazement, the cops did not follow through because they were informed that she was on a form of supervised release. As a result, Elizabeth’s rapist was never charged or apprehended for her rape. Sexual misconduct between female inmates and male correctional officers (CO) has been a problem that

In addition to discrimination, the author also adds that the bill costs a lot of money to have people in prison. In the same article by (Yassky) "The second cost is that an unacceptable number of Americans are in prison". The cost of incarcerating people would rise and so would a lot of problem within the prison as well. The cost to have many people incarcerated would come at cost taxpayer a lot of money. Also, the cost to have to hire more officers when there not all of the inmate was a problem. In addition to already had some law that plays a part in this area. I do agree with the author in this part of argument because he states that cost to have many people incarcerated is too much some can be admitted for a simple thing such theft.

Incarceration is the practice of confining people in prisons as a way of rehabilitation or punishment. The practice plays a great role in the modification of the behavior of the people in the society. Through it, the ethical practices of the society and is the way of ensuring the aspect of peaceful co-existence and respect are upheld. Over the years, the number of people incarcerated in the United States has been on the increase. This trend can be attributed to a wide range of factors such as the race, gender, societal class, and age. Each of these primary factors is vital in influencing the behavior of the person and their likelihood of engaging in criminal activities.

Rehabilitation could be reached by attempting to a psychologist or social worker, or by taking educational courses in prison. However, this purpose is obviously forgotten with the implementation of solitary confinement. The goal of a convict that is under solitary confinement is oftento let time pass by as quickly as possible; not to change his

The foremost action to locking people in jail starts with an interaction between a police officer and the individual who is creating the heinous misdeed. And subtly, it is not just about the crime taking place, it is the story behind the crime. Why was the person creating the act? Could they have done anything to prevent it? When an officer thinks to himself, he suggests that the best thing for that individual is to be locked up. Shortly after, it is up to America’s prison system to give the consequences. How logical is it though? And can’t their incarceration be taught as a learning ground instead of brainless imprisonment? If we had an educational program for the wrongdoers in our

Is keeping inmates by the hundreds in prison cafeterias instead of cells becoming the norm? This is what a documentary, Life In Prison: The Cost of Punishment, asks. It explores the lives of incarcerated peoples in three California state prisons, portraying the dire consequences of prison overcrowding. As of 2013, the total prison population in the United States was 2,217,000. This is nearly five times the total of 1980, 503,586. The United States has the largest number of incarcerated people in the world, and more than the next two countries combined (China and Russia). Its rate of incarceration is 698 per each 100,000. The issue of overcrowding in jails and prisons has become a growing problem nationally since the early 2000’s. It relates to the policy areas of Corrections and the Criminal Justice system, two very complex subjects. The criminal justice system has two distinct parts: federal and state, which only exacerbates the difficulty of addressing prison overcrowding. Here we will look at and try to understand the causes and effects of the overcrowding issue, as well as analyze what possible solutions are already out there. We will show that prison overcrowding is caused by ‘tough on crime’ policies as well as a shift in corrections models, combining many solutions, will allow this issue to be controlled.

For this discussion I chose to focus on chapter 2: mental health problems in prison. I made this decision mainly because this is a topic that also influences inmates behavior on the outside, and significantly contributes to the choices they make which can inevitably land them behind bars. I also believe that mental illnesses can easily develop while an offender is serving time, even if they have no history of being affected. Mental illnesses involve trouble coping with highly stressful situations (very common in a jail or prison environment) and life in general. "Such difficulties often manifest themselves in terms of low self-esteem, self-neglect, alienation, and social isolation".

Currently as a nation we use severity as our biggest form of deterrence; our threat of imprisonment has grown dramatically over time. In 1985 the average release time for a conviction of robbery was 32 months and in 2002 it jumped to a minimum of 53 months (Incarceration and Crime). We focus heavily on severity and longer incarceration rates; the idea is that a 10% increase in incarceration would lead to a 1.6%-5.5% decrease in crime (Lieka 2006) but this is not true. Prison rates have increased tenfold since 1970 and yet the crime rates have not dropped near those percents.The leading argument against increase in incarceration uses other states as examples of how ineffective it is; for example Florida heavily focuses on imprisonment to reduce crime with no effect (Incarceration and Crime). This idea would be great and a good mode of deterrence if those who go to prison actually learn their lessons and mend their future ways. Also if the unwanted effects of prison were at least tolerable this might deter crime but sadly even after experiment and evidence it is not a well functioning theory. The cost of funding our mass incarceration does balance out the decrease in overall crime. Besides when we have a nation who is majority hard on crimes compared to other crimes we end up severely punishing people who probably would respond better to rehabilitation than jail.

In 1996, Anderson and Dyson published a study to investigate boot camp success and offender risk assessment for CRIPP (Court Regimented Intensive Probation Program) participants. This study was conducted on 1225 male boot camp graduates. Logistic regression was used to determine which participants were more likely to reoffend after boot camp. Independent variables were recoded for the logistical regression model analysis used in this study. The effect of a prior felony conviction increases the probability of failure by a significant 27%. Those found to be most likely to recidivate are those who have prior felony convictions, prior drug offenses, prior personal offenses, prior misdemeanors, and be between the ages of 17-20. This

Begging the question fallacy is used every day, all the time, and by everyone. Fallacy is defined as an invalid or false argument or statement to deceive someone to make him believe that what is said is true. Politics use fallacies most of the time to convince people that they are good candidates for a political position. Teenagers, use fallacies to convince other teenagers that doing something is not really bad. For example they can argue that ditching school is not bad as long as their parents do not find out, or that sometimes lying could be beneficial.

Prison subculture, prison subculture describes the customs, beliefs, attitudes, values and lifestyles of the prison inmates. Why do inmates have to learn Prisonization which is when a new inmate has to adapt to a new way of life, which also involves learning the prison code which is the set of norms, or the expected behavior of the inmates. Why can't a new prison inmate live how they want to live? What is prison argot and why is it so important to know what it is in prison?