Harsher Sentences For More Serious Crimes

Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Imprisonment has historically been the popular solution. However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. Prison as a punishment has its pros and cons; although it may be necessary for some, it can be harmful for those who would be better suited for alternative means

Mass incarceration is the greatest moral and racial injustice of our time. There are 2.2 million people that are imprisoned. 39% of prisoners should not be in prison. People who commit crimes should not go to prison, unless such crime is severe and harsher punishment is needed to be placed. "As a society, we have chosen to prioritize the public safety of our citizens over programs designed to enhance the personal growth of inmates."- Quarts - Allison Schrager The only rational purpose for a prison is to restrain those who are violent, while we help them to change their behavior and return to the community. Prison is meant to give offenders punishment for their actions but to also help them understand why their actions isn’t righteous. Rehabilitation programs in prison are the alternative to a lengthy sentence. It helps build the character and skills so that prisoners can be able to function as citizens in society. Unfortunately, that is not what’s happening in prison as of today. The system is very broken and certain crimes that have been committed should not result to incarceration because there are other alternatives that best suit the consequences of the crime.

The graying of the nation’s inmates is also an issue which continues to swell the cost of health care within the prison. According to the Pew Center, “…between 1992 and 2001, the number of state and federal inmates aged 50 or older rose from 41,586 to 113,358.” Older inmates are gradually making up a larger proportion of the overall count. While one may say that aging decreases criminal activity, such as those that result from communicable diseases mentioned from the previous paragraph, there are many more factors that should be considered. One problem is that older inmates are often preyed upon by younger, stronger inmates; therefore, older inmates may require special housing. Hearing and visual

Between 1900 and 2000, the life expectancy in this country has risen from 47 to 78 years of age (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p. 404). Although the older population has grown from 4% to 13% in the United States during the same period, the elder prison population has grown substantially. For example, between 1994 and 1998, Texas saw an 86% increase in the elderly prison populations while California expects to see a 200% increase by 2020 (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p. 404). When determining the need to incarcerate an elderly individual, several costly considerations must be made. Elderly inmates require more medical care compared to the younger prisoners and special accommodations must be consider for older inmates (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p.

Prison reform must be implicated for the general public to feel safe once again. Society has trained us from a very young age to believe that that anyone who committed a crime belongs in jail despite “recent studies find no correlation between incarceration and low crime rates” (Machelor). There has actually been more studies that has suggest children who are raised in homes where the parents has spent most of their lives in jails are five times more likely to grow up to commit similar crimes of their parents. This is especially true in poverty stricken areas where children will resort to petty crimes like their parents. Government officials should consider crimes that correlate to economic and social disadvantages in society and “create

When assessing current problems associated with the prison system, many of the issues arise from the central finding that increases in the United States incarceration rates have led to overcrowding in prison which negatively impact the living conditions for inmates and working conditions for staff. To improve these conditions overall, efforts must focus on decreasing the number of inmates in state and federal facilities. Over the years, prison sentencing reform proposals have targeted revisions to sentencing guideline with a goal of reducing the number of citizens entering the prison system. In a editorial from staff at The Economist, the authors discuss one of the many reforms that could aid in decreasing the number of prisoners entering

[In an effort to reduce crime rates over the last two decades, there was a push to increase arrests, and length of incarceration of criminal offenders. Due to the increase in numbers of offenders incarcerated and the length of their sentences the prison has an increasing population of elderly offenders. In light of this situation, the need to provide medical care for this population has become increasingly more expensive than anyone anticipated. Therefore, there has been a great deal of attention to what is known as compassionate release. In order to evaluate the arguments for and against this legislation we will look at the arguments on both sides, what values underlie each position, how medical release fits into the discussion, and alternatives to the problem.

Today’s prisons do not effectively rehabilitate criminals, they are likely to reoffend and be incarcerated multiple times. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “At least 95% of inmates in the U.S. state prisons will return to their communities upon release, and more than 66% will be rearrested within three years.” (Beyer 2). The majority of prisoners who are in the same environment both before and after they were arrested continue to break the law. If jails and prisons focused more on rehabilitating criminals rather than only punishment, this number is likely to decrease. Prisons in the United states are overcrowded. This became a legal issue in 2011, when the Supreme Court required a reduction in California’s prison population by over 40,000 inmates. (Beyer 1). Cramming too many prisoners together does not benefit any party in the correctional system, and it is likely to cause more issues between prisoners. This also puts the safety of prison guards and correctional officers in jeopardy, because physical altercations between prisoners are more likely to occur. 676 per 100,000 people in the United States are imprisoned, which is the largest incarceration rate in the world. (Beyer 2). This number could decrease with a prison system that focused on a prisoner’s need as an individual. This includes education, job preparedness, and a plan for life

The issue with aging prison members is that our legal system spends a majority of the money on our older inmates than our younger members. The three-strike rule in the United States is a big factor on why we have such a high rate with older inmates in our prisons. We imprison older members for life after they have committed more than three felonies regardless of the crime. That leads to our legal system being stuck with a lot of aging inmates. Our legal system has to pay more money in order to accommodate our older inmates because they require more medical needs. The Criminal justice system is spending a significant amount of money on our elderly sick inmates even though they are unable to commit any more crimes, leading to more problems

Disconnecting elderly folks from their families and incarcerating every person who commits crime without thinking logically: Is this what modernization and our teachings adds up to? Is it even fair that human beings are taught to do these things to us from the very beginning of our educational lives? Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses several points in “How The Future Will Judge Us?” that he believes are negatively affecting our society in terms of how we treat people directly or indirectly. These points include criticism of our prison system, institutionalized and isolated elderly, the destruction of the environment, and the industrial meat production system. His main concern regarding these subjects is for the upcoming generation which might view us negatively. He makes two important claims; firstly, no other country has as extensive a populace in jail as compared to America, including non-violent offenders, and secondly, while some elderly Americans may live freely, they are frequently disconnected from their families despite having many living relatives. These problems can be solved by thinking logically to figure out permanent solutions. For instance, we should provide the elderly with emotional and medical needs because they deserve it, and secondly, a more profound way to deal with prisoners is through rehabilitation programs because unlike animals, they have the ability to understand the difference between right and wrong.

Defining who can be considered “old” in the prison setting can be extremely challenging due to the biological, physiological and social characteristics of older offenders (Lemieux, Dyeson, Castiglione, 2002). As older offenders demonstrate different characteristics of aging then the general population, it becomes difficult to categorize them. When compared to societal views, the criteria in which classifies old or elderly is distinct in a prison setting. Although, many provinces may use varying criteria to classify subgroups in the prison population, the age range consisting of individuals between 50 to 55 years of age is most recognized in the literature (Aday, 1994; Hurley, 2014; Stojkovic, 2008). However, Correctional Service Canada categorizes elderly or older offenders as those who are 50 years of age or older (Correctional Service Canada, 2013). This range is based off the assumption that a prisoner can age 10 to 15 years more physiologically than their chronological age (Handtke &Wangmo, 2014). In fact, individuals incarcerated age faster than the general population due to their unhealthy lifestyles, the prison environment and the limited medical services (Handtke &Wagmo, 2014). Similar to societal age sub-group, the older individuals in prison are not considered a homogeneous group (Filinson, 2006). Moreover, the prison’s ageing population has been divided into 3 to 4 subgroups of offenders (Aday, 1994; Hurley, 2014; Uzoaba, 1988). Aday (1994) divides older offenders into three categories; the first includes individual serving life sentences also known as long-term offenders (Hurley, 2014). The second group consists of offenders with a long-history of crime or “career criminals” (Goetting, 1983, 18). The last and third category consists of individuals who have committed crimes later on in life. Each category embodies

Elderly inmates are a growing segment of the incarcerated population: just under 20% of federal inmates which is a 50% increase in he past decade and 30% of federal offenders under supervision in the community are more than 50 years old (Ottawa, 2011). These offenders are more likely to have been convicted of more serious violent offences or sexual offences, although many of their cases involve cold case or historical crimes, which makes them a lower risk to society (Griffiths, C. T., & Murdoch, D. J. 2014).

The United States of America has the largest corrections system in the world. The incarceration rate in the U.S. is over one in every one hundred citizens, the highest ratio in the world. The population of prisoners is expanding at a rate at which the U.S. correction system can just manage. The introductions of “three strikes”, tougher sentences, and mandatory minimum sentence laws have vastly contributed to growth in prison population. Inmates serving mandatory longer sentences are a part of one the biggest growing concerns with the American correctional system, an aging population with increased needs. Between 1981 and 2010, the number of U.S. prisoners age 55 and over increased from 8,853 to 124,900 (Criminal Justice Hub, n.d.). If the problem is not addressed and the rate continues to grow, by

“You actually create victims by not letting elderly prisoners go and use your resources on rehabilitation for the ones that are going to get out...When I came here and saw the elderly population, I said “Why are they here? Our name is corrections to correct deviant behavior, but there’s nothing to correct in the guys; they’re harmless.” — Burl Cain, warden of Louisiana state penitentiary at Angola.

There should be tougher sentencing for crimes because it would scare criminals, crime rate will decrease, and we would save money. Have you ever thought about the sentencing for criminals, or if they should be tougher? The National Bureau of Economic Research states that, “the law requiring longer sentences has been effective in lowering crime. Within three years, crimes covered by the law fell an estimated 8 percent. Seven years after the law changed, these crimes were down 20 percent” (Sentence Enhancements). There should be tougher sentencing for crimes because there are less criminals on the street, criminals will learn their lesson, and less people would commit crime. By addressing the following justifications, it goes to show that tougher sentencing will reduce crime.