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Does Prisons Really Work

Decent Essays

Dymond McCoy
2/25/13
English 102

Lesson Never Learned

It is often said “prisons work” but does it actually teach the inmates a lesson? Or does it just give criminals a holding place until their sentence is up? These questions come up often because of the security issues inside the prisons, the percentage rates of the inmates that end up back in prison, and taxes that affect the citizens of the community surrounded.
In prison movies, the actors in the movies usually are thugs in prison for murder or drugs. But in reality there are two different types of prisoners and the reason they serve prison time is not only because of murder or drugs. Terrie Moffitt published a paper in Psychological Review that stated how there are two types …show more content…

Jon Venables has now been rehabilitated and is trying to build a new life. Robert Thompson has gone back into prison for his parole. This is also an example of Adolescent-Limited and Lifelong Persistent. (Kanazawa). For some inmates it is hard for them to get an occupation after being out of prison for a certain amount of time. This gives them incentive to go back to their old ways, which also puts them right back in prison. Society pays taxes for prisons, but why? Prisons aren’t working there are more prisons being built with tax payers money, just for convicts to keep repeating the same crime. American tax payers spent Nine Billion for corrections in 1982; by 2002 the figure climbed to sixty billion. (Justice Center). When asking others of their viewpoints about paying taxes for prisons some replied to they would much rather have their money in their pockets, while a select said they did not care about paying taxes because they pay for pointless taxes anyway. In conclusion there are two different types of prisoners Adolescent-Limited and Lifelong Persistent. Adolescent-Limited are the people who change their life around when released, while Lifelong Persistent does not ever learn their lesson and continues to live the lifestyle of a prisoner. Also, Security issues are the main issues going on prisons today, from fights to death over gang related activities. Once released out of prisons, convicts that are Lifelong

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