Inmate's Abuse in Prison Essay

Jacoby states, “in 1994 that more than 200,000 prison inmates are raped each year, usually to the indifference of the guards.” (Jacoby, 1997, P. 2) A lot of the seventeen year olds and up that go to prison with lesser charges shouldn’t have to deal with this psychological trauma and should rather want to go through corporal punishment even with the humiliation that comes with

Simply because inmates are smaller, weaker, or more intimidated by the cell and cellmates they are assigned, they are ultimately categorized as “victims” of these ghastly assaults and thus, their “femininity” determines their fate. Despite the high number of these crimes committed each year, the flawed system in which these facilities are run have yet to truly recognize the danger and harm that is placed upon these male prisoners. Joanne Mariner’s article is therefore an effective attempt to spark reform within the system; just because these inmates have been convicted of crimes does not mean they should not get the proper treatment and justice they too deserve.

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

Kalief Browder was 16 years old when he was arrested for stealing a backpack. After spending three years in prison awaiting trial due to his inability to post bail, Kalief was set free because of the insubstantial evidence to prosecute him. Being in a prison, and more specifically, isolation for around 800 days in total of his stay, had evident negative effects on Kalief. He spoke about how he had been affected by prison and he then committed suicide at the age of 22 (The Marshall Project). The American prison system persecutes felons, people of color, and those of a lower socioeconomic status.

Chair holder and Executive Director of Just Detention International, David Kaisner and Lovisa Stannow, in their article, “The Rape of American Prisoners”, divulge into the harrowing statistic of inmates across America. Kaisner and Stannow’s purpose is to shed light on the frequency of inmate-on-inmate rape, staff sexual misconduct, and what ensues afterwards. They adopt an empathetic yet informative tone in order to convey to their readers that these treacherous deeds in fact occur on a daily basis, and many times, the violators do not receive the proper punishments.

Within the chapter “How Gender Structures the prison system” the issue of sexual assault behind prison walls is brought to light. Female prisoners were being sexually violated and humiliated. Davis states throughout this passage that woman experience sexualy assault, before and after they enter the prison system. Personally, after reading this chapter and reading external sources, I feel that women became the targets for sexual abuse by an authority figure. Whomever commits these heinous acts are using their role of authority as a coverup to inflict pain on these individuals. In the prison writings of Kate Richards O’Hare, we see her share a view similar to Davis. O’Hare states, “I found that under the guise of punishment for crime, and in

Approximately 240,000 brutal rapes occur in our prison systems each year (Lozoff). Most of the victims are young, nonviolent male inmates, many of them teenaged first offenders. They are traumatized beyond imagination. Most of these inmates are nonviolent criminals who cannot or will not defend themselves. Unfortunately, this results in many of those nonviolent offenders turning violent by the time they leave prison.

When we do research on daily prison life, we come across two typical but less than ideal situations: either social imaginaries cloud our judgment or information provided by the prisons themselves hide certain weak or bad aspects that they do not want to make public. We can also find information on TV, but most of the time it either exaggerates or minimizes the facts. In order to obtain more reliable information, we have to have access to people who are working or have worked in this institution, and such will be the sources of this essay. We will be describing and giving examples of prison violence according to three types of violence: sexual, physical and psychological violence.

The minimum security is federal prison camps adjacent to other federal prisons near military bases. Male prisoners who need only minimum security are set up in camps and those who will be transitioned [Passive voice] back into society and served their sentence will be set-up in a halfway house.

Contrary to popular belief sexually transmitted diseases are not the only physical harm victims of prison rape endure. Many rape victims endure broken bones, broken noses, bruises, cuts, concussions, and the obvious genital injuries. Sexual assaults also increases violent behavior in prisons because inmates who feel like they may be a future target of sexually assault, defend themselves, and lash out in these violent rages and fights to establish themselves with a “tough guy” reputation to prevent any sexual misconduct from other inmates.

The issue of sexual assault in correctional facilities is very complex and the implications reach far beyond the walls of the institution. Congress found that “prison rape endangers the public’s safety by making brutalized inmates more likely to commit crimes when they are released.”

The ethical theory of utilitarianism and the perspective on relativism, of prison labor along with the relativism on criminal behavior of individuals incarcerated are two issues that need to be addressed. Does the utilitarianism of prisoner’s right laws actually protect them? Or are the unethical actions of the international and states right laws exploiting the prison labor? Unethical procedures that impact incarcerated individuals and correctional staff, the relativism of respect as people and not just prisoner’s; the safety of all inmates and correctional staff, are all issues worth continuous reflection.

Proceedings of The National Conference On Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2009 University of Wisconsin La-Crosse La-Crosse, Wisconsin April 16 - 18, 2009

Prisons have many policies set in place to help aid inmates’ with adjusting to prison life. No matter what policies are set in place to help aid inmates they will always have a hard time especially for first timers. According to Frank Schmalleger and John Ortiz Smykla (2009) new inmates face major problems because of the loss of liberty, lack of material possessions, the depravation of materials and services, the lack of heterosexual relationships, and feeling unsecured. I think that inmates can be helped with the adjustment process by initiating and enforcing a program to deal with such issues. I think I would eliminate policies that are designed to make prison life unpleasant and concentrate more on policies that help inmates progress in their educational and rehabilitation programs. One policy that is very important to inmates is to feel safe in their prison environment. As a result there have been many debates on the rights of the inmates. I think the most important policy I would enforce is educational programs that will

Crimes in prison have been a part of our prisons since prisons themselves have been developed. It is almost certain that the criminals who end up in an institution in the first place will commit crimes while incarcerated. Prisons have come a long way over the years and with trial and error they have discovered many effective ways to help drop crime rates. Mail is monitored and read on occasion and is a privilege for inmates that can be taken away. Though many of the new policies and procedures have been effective, it is the well- trained staff that keeps crimes down. Crimes in our prisons have been declining, having the proper staffing in these institution’s plays a crucial part in keeping crimes down.