Persuasive Essay On Prisoner Reentrance

The diversity issue focused on in this paper will be racial disparity in sentencing. This paper will also focus on some of the reasons why racial disparity exists within sentencing. One of the research methods used in this paper will be case studies. In society today there are a diversity of citizens, of offenders, and leaders within in the court system. However, race still plays a big role in the Criminal Justice system especially during the sentencing portion. Although racial dynamics may have changed over time, race still exerts an undeniable presence in sentencing process. This ranges from disparate traffic stops due to racial profiling to imposition of the death penalty based on the race of

The problem with prison reentry has been going on for many years in the United States, as I discussed in assignments one and two. Recidivism issues can often be linked with reentry issues because when offenders are returning to society, they need to be prepared, which is something that our current criminal justice system is not trying to achieve. In order to create some defensible solutions for prison reentry and the recidivism issues linked to prison reentry, the criminal justice system has to realize that there is no one overall solution because every offender have different offenses, different stories, different outcomes, and different prison sentences. Because of this, each offender's return to society will be different, and the reentry

The criminal justice system in America is a system designed to work in three distinct steps. The first being to fairly identify those breaking the law, second, create a process through which to both punish and rehabilitate criminals, and lastly integrate them back into society. The current system typically goes unquestioned, as those in the system seem to be deserving of what ever happens while they are in it, even once they have served their prison sentence. It is only upon deeper inspection that we begin to realize the discrimination and unfair tactics used to introduce certain groups of society into the criminal justice system and proceed to trap them there. This is the issue addressed in Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, and it is through arrests, sentencing and further upon release from jail that this oppressive system is created and maintained.

Today, it seems almost incomprehensible that so many people with serious mental illnesses reside in prisons instead of receiving treatment. Over a century and a half ago, reform advocates like Dorothea Dix campaigned for prison reform, urging lawmakers to house the mentally ill in hospitals rather than in prisons. The efforts undertaken by Dix and other like-minded reformers were successful: from around 1870 to 1970, most of the United States’ mentally ill population was housed in hospitals rather than in prisons. Considering reformers made great strides in improving this situation over a century and a half ago. Granted, mental hospitals in the late 19th and early 20th century were often badly run and critically flawed, but rather than pushing for reform of these hospitals, many politicians lobbied for them to close their doors, switching instead to a community-based system for treating the mentally ill. Although deinstitutionalization was originally understood as a humane way to offer more suitable services to the mentally ill in community-based settings, some politicians seized upon it as a way to save money by shutting down institutions without providing any meaningful treatment alternatives. This callousness has created a one-way road to prison for massive numbers of impaired individuals and the inhumane warehousing of thousands of mentally ill people. Nevertheless, there are things that can be done to lower the rate mentally ill persons are being incarcerated. Such

Over the past few decades, the United States has witnessed a huge surge in the number of individuals in jail and in prison. Evidence suggests the mass imprisonment policy from the last 40 years was a horrible catastrophe. Putting more people in prison not only ruined lives, it disrupted families, prevented ex-prisoners to find housing, to get an education, or even a good job. Regrettably, the United States has a higher percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is increasing exponentially. The expense produced by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. Although people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. By researching mass incarceration, I hope to get society to understand that incarcerating an individual not only effects the family, but we will look at the long term consequences on society and how the United States can remain safe and, at the same time, undo much of the damage that results from large-scale imprisonment.

Mass Incarceration in the United States has been a large topic of choice because rapid growth in the prison and jail populations, the long sentences the inmates face, and the inability for some inmates to incorporate themselves back into society. Since the 1970’s the U.S. prison population quadrupled from 158 to 635 people per 100,000, causing the U.S. to gain the title of country with the highest incarceration rate. (Massoglia, Firebaugh, & Warner, 2013, p. 142; Muller, 2012) As the growth of the U.S prison and jail population rapidly increased, so did the growth of the three major contributors to that population – African Americans, Hispanics, and whites – with African American and

Society has often struggled with how to help prisoners once they are released back into civilization. The number of prisoners in the American prison population has grown considerably in the last couple of decades. For many prisoners the process of arrest, incarceration and release is a continuous cycle, there is very little hope of them living in civilization for a long period of time. There is also a high a retention rate of the returning offenders. A large portion of these prisoners are minorities of African Americans and Hispanics face more time in jail or prison is extremely high. The success rate of offenders is measured by how long one can avoid being incarcerated and not by being reintegrated into civilization. These issues have become a national crisis in Joan Petersilia book titled “When Prisoners come home: Parole and prisoner reentry,” she address these issues head on. The main purpose of this book focuses on how to help prisoners once they have been released out of prison. Petersilia gives efforts for future reform to alter the in prison experience, change prison release, revocation practices, revise post prison services and supervision as well as a working with the community to enhance informal social control. These are efforts that represent a better policy towards reform of prisoners and re-entry in the system. The book goes into great detail about the suggestions Petersilia makes and why it is necessary for change.

The growing number of individuals exiting prison each year has prompted renewed interest among academics and policymakers in the challenges of reintegrating former prisoners into society (Visher & Travis, 2003). The challenges of reentry appears to be daunting, as the prospects for successful reentry are often dim. More than 40 percent of those released return to prison within three years, a phenomenon known as the “revolving door” (Pew Center on the States, 2011). This “revolving door” is a

Considering the cost of new programs, budget shortfalls and cutbacks the state of Hawaii is experiencing at this time, we ask? What benefits would the state incur by immediately implementing an incarcerated offender reentry plan? Additionally, we ask? How would the immediate implementation of an incarcerated offender reentry plan affect a community’s economy and security? Perhaps, to effectively consider the impact of these questions I will need to determine why there is a need to immediately implement an incarcerated offender reentry plan. To do that, I will consider some statistical data: the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2008) tells us it has been estimated nationally 95% of all incarcerated people are eventually released into the

Policing and punishment in America is hardly colorblind. It is not a coincidence that minorities serve longer sentences, have higher arrest and conviction rates, face higher bail amounts, and are more often the victims of police use of deadly force than white citizens. When it comes to criminals, many people have a preconception of what a criminal is. Usually when people think of a criminal they picture a Black or Latino face. The thought of an Asian criminal is often related to Asian gangs. Interestingly enough, White people as a group are rarely associated with the thought of crime, even though they account for 70% of arrests and 40% of the prison population each year (Russel xiv). This seems to be

After similar crimes are committed, in terms of severity, more serious life-long sentences are given to blacks than to privileged whites. “A July 2009 report by the Sentencing Project found that 2/3rds of people in the United States with life sentences are non-white” (Huffington). In some areas, such as New York and other major cities nationwide, the percentage is even higher. If the same crimes are being committed in similar circumstances, yet the only difference between the two is the physical appearance or the criminal, the punishments should be of equal intensity. Striking racial disparities exist at nearly every level of the Criminal Justice System-from arrest rates, to bail amounts, to sentence lengths, to probation hearing outcomes. Black Americans are also three times more likely to have their cars searched as well as more likely to be pulled over for no reason. It is no secret that African Americans and other racial minorities are often times deprived of basic human liberties or even constitutional rights solely due to the color or their

Restorative justice ways are a very controversial topic with some people thinking it is the best way for crime to be handled and others not being a fan of it. Some people don’t believe in restorative justice because it is giving offenders a second chance. Restorative prisons are a part of restorative justice that can positively impact many people including any individual who was involved in the crime in some way. Restorative prisons are more useful for the community as well as the offender because they have that opportunity to help many people. Restorative prisons are a perfect example that could have saved a 19 year old kid who was sentenced to 47 years in prison.

Prisons serve a purpose to retribute and then rehabilitate. But when it comes to true rehabilitation of the prisoners, there is no denying that it is not being done correctly. In the last decade, the unfair incarceration has increased, showing that many people wrongfully accused in to be proven innocent based on the conclusion that the evidence found indeed the felon’s fault. (Mitchell) When these times come men and women to be proved innocent they are surely at lost for words knowing that all this time they were innocent of the crime committed. But even after all this happens, it seems that people are not gaining any type of benefit for going through rehabilitation. Because of the increase in incarceration has occurred, the increase in poverty

Research frequently attributes some portion of recent disparities to changes in the prosecution and punishment of drug-related and other non-violent offenses and the host of sentencing laws enacted during the early 1980s (Beckett and Sasson 2000). As we look at the type of punishment we must also look at the fairness of treatment. A long line of research shows that African American and Hispanic criminal defendants are treated more harshly than their White counterparts by the police (Chambliss 1994), by judges (Hagan and Peterson 1995; Steffensmeier, Ulmer, and Kramer 1998; Spohn and Holleran 2000) and by parole and release boards (Myers 1993). This research states that not only does the type of punishment received affect the individuals and their outcome but how that punishment is carried out. A study from the political research association found that blacks are more likely to be sentenced to prison for the same crime than Whites. One third of people of color sentenced to prison would have received a shorter or non-incarcerative sentence if they had been treated in court the same way as White defendants facing similar charges (Civil Rights Org 2002).

The United States of America ranks number one of the most populated prison country, with nearly sum million in some cases. This certainly explains an abysmal issue that the country is facing currently. Moreover, “Ex-felons” those served full sentence face discrimination and punishments known as “collateral consequences” that eventually follows for a long period of time upon their punishment ends. This article speculates the phenomenon of such an issue faced by an ex convicts throughout the country, and argues that collateral consequences should not be applied for every ex-felons, depending on their circumstances.