Prison As A Last Resort

Whenever you imagine prison, you think up ideas and violent images that you have seen in the movies or on TV.   Outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water are only a small fraction of the number of horrible, yet “just” occurrences which are stereotypical of everyday life in prison.   Perhaps it could be a combination of your upbringing, horrific ideas about the punishment which our nation inflicts on those who violate its’ more serious laws that keeps people frightened just enough to lead a law-abiding life. Despite it’s success in keeping dangerous offenders off the streets, the American prison system fails in fulfilling its original design of restoring criminals to being productive members of society, it is also extremely expensive and wastes our precious tax dollars.

Studies suggest that there is a divide between the government and public response to juvenile incarceration. Bullis & Yovas (2005) state that support is given to correctional facilities to house juvenile offenders as a form of punishment (as cited in Shannon, 2013, p. 17). Individuals who support this perspective are often more likely to support the construction of more prisons and stern penalties on crime based upon the presumptions that youthful offenders are aware of the consequences of their actions (Drakeford, 2002 as cited in Shannon, 2013, p. 17). On the other hand, opponents of this perspective believe that incarceration creates an opportunity to rehabilitate the offenders (Huffine, 2006 as cited in Shannon, 2013, p. 18). This perspective supports the purpose of juvenile detention centers as “preparatory in nature – that is, offering services focused on the development of skills needed to return successfully to mainstream

“Lock them up and throw away the key” – that is usually the headline when in regards to offenders going to prison. However, billions of dollars are going into maintaining prisons, yet the rate of recidivism is around 44% (Pearsons, 2011), so it is clear that prisons are no longer effective. The main argument of this paper is that because prisons are inefficient, they should be abolished so other forms of punishment can be found and acted upon. Firstly, this paper will discuss the function of prisons in regards to penal abolition. Also, it will identify what penal abolition is and explain three alternatives to prison – housing alternatives, restorative models, and

Within this paper, you will find a comprehensive review of the United States prison system, and why it needs to analyzed to better support and reform the people of this country. I plan to persuade the other side (politicians and society) into seeing that the way the prison system is now, is not ethical nor economical and it must change. We have one of the world’s largest prison population, but also a very high rate of recidivism. Recidivism is when the prisoners continuously return to prison without being reformed. They return for the same things that they were doing before. So, this leads us to ask what exactly are we doing wrong? When this happens, we as a nation must continuously pay to house and feed these inmates. The purpose of a prison needs to be examined so we can decide if we really are reforming our inmates, or just continuing a vicious cycle. What is the true purpose of prison besides just holding them in a cell? There must be more we can do for these hopeless members of society.

Many people have many different opinions when it comes to the consequences a given person who commited a crime must face. Some individuals specifically go on to commit crimes within the facilities they are imprisoned within, hence extending their punishment by being placed into, “The Box” as inmates call it, which totally separates the aggressor from the general population. Despite the fact that these are safety precautions, the deplorable conditions in which that given person must endure, regardless of how awful the crime that was committed”, remains in a controversial state in which that it may be making the inmate more unstable mentally.

     The deterrence and rehabilitation of prisons is clearly a purpose that is not being fulfilled. The actions of Earl Shriner and Reginald Muldrew are examples that show this. Claiming prisons as being effective, one might say that these are just isolated cases. In 1993, fifty-three percent of prisoners released were reconvicted within two years (Reducing).

The theme of the session will focus on young offenders and the use of CBT interventions to help with rehabilitation while in prison. The structure of the session will inform the class about the rates of young offenders, and the constant cycle of incarceration and the issues these young offenders deal with. Thus, the session will focus on how strategies such as CBT can be used to help provide intervention for these youth, in order to move in a positive direction upon release. This particular article was chosen as it analyzes three different types of interventions and subsequently shows that CBT had the biggest impact on the inmates. This article also sheds light on ‘group’ CBT interventions, and how to use CBT in a group versus an individualized

This is any punishment given to an offender not necessarily confined in custody or prison. These forms of punishments place certain demands on offenders and seriously involve intensive supervision from the court and the community. This approach of punishment may seem to be soft, but that is not the case as others may think. They were introduced due to the increase in the number of prisoners and it has proved to be of great benefit not only to the prisons but also to the entire community. This includes the reduction in the jail and prison costs that tend to reduce more crimes in the future and the community; it has helped to rehabilitate the offenders related to drug addiction.

Currently to deal with juvenile offenders involved in the youth crime, there are two options available. The first option that prevails to a larger extent is known to us as incarceration while the second option that is slowly gaining trends is known to us as rehabilitation programs. This paper focuses on thorough analysis of both these options and the impact that they have on the offenders as well as the society as a whole. The paper also assesses the viability of these options in order to determine which of these will prove to be more effective and beneficial.

Prison is a painful place to be, a place where those held do not want to be and who could be dangerous. Sykes demonstrates the pains of imprisonment as being characterised by deprivations of liberty, goods and services, heterosexual relationships and loss of autonomy and security (Sykes, 1958). However, it is acknowledged that these pains are felt differently for different types of prisoners, as some may suffer more than others during their imprisonment (Crewe, 2009). These pains may also be felt differently across different prisons of the same security category (Liebling, 2011a). The survivability of prisons is largely influenced by the prison environment, including the prison governance and prison officers, the sense of order and disorder

Therefore rehabilitation works personally with the offender and encourages individual responsibilities. Correspondingly as well as rehabilitating it is also imperative to look beyond the actual punishment itself. Although rehabilitation is a form of control mechanism the prospect of committing future crimes must not be disregarded .Ex- Offenders should be socially integrated and be in a situation to redress and repair themselves to the state their were originally in. However rehabilitating process is testing due to the prison culture and environment. A survey in England and Wales revealed that over a quarter of female remand prisoners stated the thought of possible suicide prior to the interview (Reed, 2003). This demonstrates the inhumane settings of the prison making it virtually impossible to reform offenders. Furthermore by offenders socialising with other prisoners will only expand their criminal way of thinking. By this the Rehabilitation procedure generally argues well for the use of punishment. Nevertheless the effectiveness of such programmes tend to have a temporary influence on a person.

Although this form of punishment is far from ideal, and rarely prevents further violent episodes, I do not believe there is any other viable option for further punishing these people who are already being subjected to punishment. Many of the violent acts that occur in prisons are coordinated by the criminal gangs that control many maximum security

This paper is a report of an analysis of the concept of working with young offenders to prevent them from reoffending. The aim of this paper is to learn about the experiences of individuals who have been released from prison into the community so as to make contributions into developing relevant interventions based on the difficulties/barriers faced by these individuals. To add to this, this paper will explore whether everyone of these offenders experiences are different or similar from another. This paper aims to answer a number of questions questions, among them whether the offenders ever have the thought that by reoffending or breaching their conditions they would go back to prison. Whether they used drugs. Whether they had any children and if they did whether they had contact with them if they see them when they are released or when they last saw them and if they have not seen them the reason why. Where do the offenders consider to get more support; Community or prison.

The failure of imprisonment has been one of the most noticeable features of the current crisis in criminal justice systems. At best, prisons are able to provide a form of crude retribution to those unfortunate to be apprehended. At worst, prisons are brutalizing, cannot be shown to rehabilitate or deter offenders, and are detrimental to the re-entry of offenders into society. If anything, they do little else than confine most prisoners, and as a result lead to the imposition of certain undesirable learning habits and labels. Such habits include the learning of survival patterns of behavior, which do little to help the prisoner to be reintegrated as a useful and productive member of the community.

Prisons are there to keep convicted wrongdoers from the society, with the aim of punishing and correcting them. Johnson (2005) outlines forms of punishment, and identifies imprisonment as one of the most complex form of punishment. Imprisonment affects the prisoner’s material possession because they can do little to earn themselves while under incarceration, and they may end up losing their jobs and livelihood. The prisoner is also affected psychologically as he or she is under the control of the state. The jailing attacks the psyche by attempts at reformation, leading to mental deterioration that occur due to the negative environment of prisons. At the same time, imprisonment may lead into physical harm, as most prisons across the world are known to house quite violent individuals. Given this, there are other more lenient ways of correcting individuals. This is by offering probation to prisoners who are not considered to be serious offenders or who do not have a long history in crime. Additionally, this option is much cheaper and reduces the amount the state spends on keeping the prisoners behind bars.