Inmates Rights Research Paper

The United States prison system struggles eminently with keeping offenders out of prison after being released. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than third of all prisoners who were arrested within five years of released were arrested within six months after release, with more than half arrested by the end of the year (Hughes, Wilson, & Beck, 2001). Among prisoners released in 2005 in 23 states with available data on inmates returned to prison, about half (55 percent) had either a parole or probation violation or an arrest for a new offense within three years that led to imprisonment (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder, 2014). Why are there many ex-offenders going back to prison within the first five years of release? Are there not enough resources to help offenders before or/and after being released from prison.

New Life Prison is a private prison located in an unincorporated area of Brentwood, CA New Life prison is a dormitory setting and a minimum security prison for level one and two male inmate population of 500. New Life Prison is too focused on lowering the recidivism rate in CA. New Life prison is a new private prison and receives funding from grants and donations. New Life mission is to focus on the level one and two inmate’s within the state prison system. New Life mission is to help these individuals move on passed the crime they have committed and began to live their life again. In 2004 Folsom state prison was able to move their level one and two inmates to a minimum security facility (Department of Correction 2015). Most of these inmates

Throughout time many prisoners have lost man rights not because they deserve to lose them but because they take their rights away without them knowing. Although being held in a prison they are still entitled to what the constitution has to offer for every individual in this country. Our rights and for those in jails or prisons, they hold prisoner rights as well. The authorities will treat most inmate’s unequal for the circumstances that led them there. American Civil Liberties Union also known as ACLU has been working for the rights of the prisoner’s that are in jail or prison to gain what belongs to them.

The appropriate measure of punishment to be imposed on Thomas Dudley and Edward Stephens is hard to pinpoint; simply meaning, that if their punishment were to be based on retributive justification, Dudley and Stephens would be put to death. However, because there were mitigating circumstances surrounding the death of Seaman Richard Parker, the punishment would not be as harsh as it should be for committing murder. Otherwise, for Stephens and Dudley, the death penalty should be sought to avenge the death of Richard Parker and the devouring of his flesh. Therefore, I would impose incapacitation through incarceration.

English convicts, who were treated with harsh brutality, should not have been sent to Australia in the time around seventeen eighty-eight.

Over the past years, it have been obvious, that jailhouse lawyers have increased the number of lawsuits filed by prisoners. In the year of 1980, prisoners filed 12,395 petitions of civil rights claims and in the year of 2000, prisoners filed 24,463 petitions of civil rights claims, in the Federal Courts, by State prisoners.(Mays & Winfree Jr, 2005, pp.304). Jailhouse lawyers have helped inmates file these petitions against the Federal Courts, in the favor of other inmates challenging their conditions of confinement. The conditions of their confinement seems to be, prisoners way for wanting to receive a sentence reduction, sometimes, a release from prison. On the other hand, prisoners tend to use jailhouse lawyers to file petitions that

America has one of the largest prison population and according to the bureau of the justice department. States and federal prisons held 1574700 inmates in December 2013.and it increased by 4300 inmates over the years end. More than two-thirds of prisoners were arrested within the first six months of release. These statistics show that prison as punishment alone do not work and some measures need to be but in place to decrease the population of inmates and recidivism. Prison should be used as both rehabilitation and punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged the growing distress, deeming California’s state prisons unconstitutionally crowded. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled out that California’s 33 state prisons have become too overcrowded to the point where there are no sufficient medical and mental health care available (Realignment AB 109, 2013). The U.S. Supreme Court determined that the 33 state prisons are violating constitutional exclusions, under the Eighth Amendment, against unfamiliar punishment and brutality, says the American Legislative Exchange Council, an American organization producing model policies for state legislators (ALEC, 2010).

The figure above compares the U.S incarceration rate with the rates of countries such as Canada, Australia, and European countries. The Western European democracies possess a rate of incarceration that taken together is only one-seventh the rate of the United States. Moreover, the rate imprisonment of Russia is only two-thirds of the U.S. rate. For instance, there is a reason why the rate of incarceration is significantly high compared to the rest of the world, profit. The bigger the number of people incarcerated, the bigger the pool of workers in correctional institutions.

Healthcare is a big topic no matter how you view it, but when looking at it from the point of a person who is in prison, it takes on a whole new view. Those who are in prison have federal and state laws that say that the prisons must provide them with medical facilities for their healthcare needs. This paper will identify a governmental agency that regulates the healthcare that is provided to prisoners in an institution within the United States, along with the foundation of such an agency and who regulates the licenses, accreditation, certifications, and authorization for employment for those who work within one of these

America has a major problem with overcrowding in its prisons, and action needs to be taken. Since 1970, the inmate population in the United States has increased over 700%, far greater than the general population as a whole. This has led to declining quality of life within the prison system including 8th Amendment violations and it represents a needless drain on state finances. There is simply no value in keeping non-violent convicts in the prison system, sometimes for years. The costs are high, and there is very little benefit to America. The justice system needs to be overhauled to relieve the massive crowding in US prisons.

Prisons and jails remain skeptical of the differences revealed between stabilizing the constitutional rights of prisoners and the function of the actual facility. Constitutional rights kept by inmates must be balanced against security concerns of the prison. However, these constitutional rights can be disregarded for security purposes if the situation presents itself. The Supreme Court developed a test consisting of four questions to indorse the constitutional rights of inmates and the valid needs of prison administrators. (Collins, 2007) This test is known as The Turner Test.

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.

While lawful incarceration deprives prisoners of most of Americas Constitutional rights, they do maintain a few constitutional rights. Federal courts, while hesitant to impede with the internal administration of prisons, will interfere to rectify violations of the constitutional rights that prisoners are still entitled to. A prison guideline that oversteps on a prisoner’s constitutional rights is lawful only if it is reasonably related to the safety of the inmates or the rehabilitation of that prisoner.

There has been much debate about how to tackle the problem of crime. While people believe that it is beneficial to send lawbreakers to prison, I argue that providing people with a better education is more effective.