When you commit a crime and you are convicted, you go to prison. This is common knowledge throughout America and the world. What most citizens don’t know is that within prison walls, there is a lifestyle much different than the life you and I are used to outside of bars. Within the walls of American prisons, the occupants are deprived of many freedoms you and me take for granted. There is not much to do. Many inmates used drugs outside of prison, so there is a high demand to smuggle drugs into the prison system for use by the inmates. The purpose of prison is to rehabilitate prisoners to become productive citizens when their sentences are over. So the question I raise is, how do we stop the flow of narcotics into the system?
There are several ways to hinder the flow of narcotics into the prison system. One effective way would be to have more guards present during visitation hours. One of the only times prisoners have contact with the outside world is when friends or family come to visit. These visitations are often in wide open spaces, with guards present. Security cameras are usually all over prisons, but I think many of them should be concentrated both in the visiting area and in the public entrance of the prison. The inmates only have a limited amount of time with their visitors. Guards should be specially trained to spot signs of a hand off. There should be a large quantity of guards in visiting areas, to deter any potential hand offs of contraband. The more guards
I hope you all can agree that a better idea would go after the source of the drugs or even the treatment of the people using them and hopefully in time the number of people using narcotics drops dramatically. But realistically what happens is people using and distributing narcotics are entered into a never ending life of crime because the government punishes the criminal offenders’ absurd amounts that the government knows they cannot afford. So once released from prison or jail these criminals have debts that they have to repay and no way to pay them. So what is the answer? Crime is the answer. That is where the cynical cycle starts all over again and these released inmates find themselves in a familiar situation; trying to make money for reasons that don’t benefit themselves. But, unfortunately, the only way these people know how to make money is deemed deviant by society.
The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the world's population, our country houses nearly twenty-five percent of the world's reported prisoners. Currently there are approximately two million people in American prisons or jails. Since 1984 the prison population for drug offenders has risen from ten percent to now over thirty percent of the total prison population. Federal prisons were estimated to hold 179,204 sentenced inmates in 2007; 95,446 for drug offenses. State prisons held a total of 1,296,700 inmates in 2005; 253,300 for drug offenses. Sixty percent of the drug offenders in prisons are nonviolent and were purely in prison because of drug offenses (Drug War Facts). The question then arises,
Prison culture or the “values, norms and attitudes that inmates form in terms of institutional survival” (Bartollas, 2013), can be described in one of three models. The Deprivation Model describes the inmate’s behavior as the product of the environment, more specifically the attempt to adapt to that which he is deprived of as a result of incarceration (Bartollas, 2013). An example of such would be the pseudo family unit or physical relationships that inmates form as a result of the absence of such relationships while incarcerated.
There are too many people in prison in our country and any people in prison today are non-violent drug offenders. The American war on drugs has targeted people in poverty and minorities, who are more likely to be involved in drug use. This has created a pattern of crime and incarceration and “...[a] connection between increased prison rates and lower crime is tenuous and small.” (Wyler). The prison system in our country today focuses on punishment for the inmates rather than rehabilitation for life after their release.
There are currently over two million people in our nation 's state and federal prisons and jails. Nearly one and a half million of these offenders occupy state and federal prisons, serving over a year in detention for felonies.(1) The most alarming statistic is the fact that the United States houses twenty five percent of the world 's inmates. A good percentage of these convicts are serving time for drug crimes, most of which are first time,
I believe the War on Drugs continues to be a major issue for this country for a while, but that doesn’t mean we should be seeing the same people in and out of prison. I believe we need to create programs within the criminal justice system to help individuals become successful and get drugs far away from them. Group therapy may be a start for some of these individuals. They can talk about why they became
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
According to the webpage DrugPolicy.org, under the section titled “Approaches to decriminalize drug use” it states that the best solution to reduce the number of people being swept into jail or prison is to enact various forms of decriminalizing drug use and possession. “Decriminalizing is the removal of criminal penalties for drug
Eventually, the government is going to realize that they are wasting money and putting people’s lives in danger. Overcrowded prisons are a threat to everyone involved. To alleviate the situation, correctional institutions need to downsize inmate populations. I believe one of the main reasons prisons are overcrowded is due to mandatory minimum sentencing. The U.S has very strict sentencing guidelines when it comes to sentencing. According to Hooker and Hirsh, “A felony conviction generally, by law, means a term of mandatory incarceration. An accused faces mandatory sentencing if he/she has any past felony conviction, or if he/she is accused of being a repetitive offender. As to the former, any past conviction counts, no matter how old” (Berlatsky 94-95). Hooker and Hirsh follow this claim up with the perfect example, “As to the latter, one would become a repetitive offender if he were to sell a marijuana cigarette on one day, and repeat that act the next day. All these trigger mandatory sentences at conviction” (Berlatsky 95). This become somewhat of a never ending circle for such a small petty crime. Which brings me to nonviolent drug users.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world with over 2.4 million people in jail (American Friends Service Committee). A census taken in 2005 discovered that out of those 2.4 million prisoners behind bars, 81,622 of them were being held in solitary confinement (Casella and Ridgeway). In that same 2005 census, it was gathered that 44 states use solitary confinement in their prisons (Casella and Ridgeway). Eleven years later one can only image how these numbers have changed, and most likely grown. As defined by Solitary Watch, “Solitary confinement is the practice of isolating people in closed cells for 22-24 hours a day, virtually free of human contact, for periods of time ranging from days to decades.” Solitary confinement
If you listen close enough, to really the only object making any sort of noise in the entire building, you could hear the air conditioning vents pumping air to counteract the Riverside heat. The corridors were long and skinny, and only lit by the light from outside. The “pitter-patter” of your footsteps bounced off the walls and slowly fainted in pitch as you moved down the hall. The rooms on the side were just as dark, if not darker, with no one around at the mere afternoon hours. Walk far enough in this prison-like building and you would reach the front, where there is a three-ring-binder that says on the cover “Early Childhood Services.” This obviously was not a prison at all, it is the University of California, Riverside’s Child Development Center. I had the opportunity to walk around and explore both of the buildings that they have; unfortunately, it was during nap time. Therefore, I could not ask any of the children what they thought of the school, but I am sure my comparison of a prison was not too far-fetched. In contrast, many students clearly love it by the numerous decorations on the walls. From various pumpkin creations for Halloween to cut-outs of the wide-range fall leafs. The school hosts infants to kindergarteners to allow for students and professors at the University to ensure that their child receives the proper care and attention they deserve for proper development. The classrooms are designed so that the door is on the right and the student’s proud art is
First and far most what is considered proper living conditions for a criminal. Yes, I believe they should have a sanitary establishment where they could sleep, eat, and shower, that is least we could provide for anyone. I do not think taking away privileges from any confinement facility will promote less repeat offenders. Instead of taking away we should be trying to help the individuals who can be rehabilitated, with programs that can teach them how stay on the right track, help them get a job, and provide for themselves. I know that everyone is not able to recover but if we gave those men and women who are willing to learn these tools then we would see less repeat offenders. Prison should not just be a place of confinement, it's where these
When the average person thinks of jails and prisons, they typically think of horrible criminals being locked up in order to protect the rest of society. They think justice has been served, and those who did the crime are now doing the time. But what goes on inside a prison, and inside the minds of the inmates? What about after those offenders have served their time, and are now being released back into the general public? People don’t really think about how prison affects a person’s mentality, or how incarceration impacts both relationships the inmate currently has, or ones that will develop in the future. Although it isn’t something most people think of first, incarceration is an experience that can have a negative psychological impact on a person for quite some time.
The drug war has dramatically affected the number of imprisoned Americans, as well as its prisons. According to DrugSense.Org, 1,576,339 people have been arrested for drug law offenses this year alone. And out of those, 9,261 have been incarcerated. As for marijuana offenses, 747,183 people have been detained. In fact, most of the non-violent offenders sitting in state, local and federal prisons
Drug abuse and crime is not a new concept and the statistics around the problem have continued to rise. According to (Office of Justice Programs, 2011), there were an estimated 1,846,400 state and local arrests for drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs (Office of Justice Programs, 2011). Based on this information, we can conclude that our criminal justice systems are saturated with drug abusers. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate and about 83 percent of arrests are for possession of illegal drugs (Prisons & Drug Offenders, 2011). Based on these figures, I can conclude that we should be more concerned about solving the drug abusers problems and showing them an alternative lifestyle rather than strict penalty of long term incarceration which will inevitably challenge their ability to be fully functioning citizens after release.