Prison Systems Essay

Supermax Prisons are the most secured prisons in the United States. According to the NPR Report, supermax are stand-alone unit/cell which are part of another facility and is designated for the most violent and/or disruptive inmates. The supermax typically involves lockdown up to 23-hour-per-day, single-cell confinement for an indefinite period of time. Inmates in supermax housing have minimal contact with staff and other inmates. Upon been transferred to a supermax prison, people tend to stay there for several years or indefinitely depending on their sentencing. The administrators of a supermax prison along with the correctional officers have sufficient authority to punish and manage the inmates, without outside review or some prisoner grievance

The second level which is their medium security and makes up most of their inmate population have all the schooling and programming that is available. The third level or minimum security is the lowest level and are allowed to have little supervision and placed in the least restrictive areas there are. American prisons are generally the same as we have the same levels our inmates are categorized with other levels within these levels that will determine what type of perks they are allowed while locked up.

..no fences, no bars on the windows, no detention sash. Guards do not wear uniforms..the buildings look like a motel. Inmates may use telephones to call anyone anytime, they have keys to their own individual rooms, they have their own money, and they wear their own clothes. There are no restrictions on hours of watching television or visiting in the day rooms or

According to Foster (2006), about thirty-five percent of offenders fall into this category. From there, you have the minimum security prisons. Smaller prisons with fewer internal controls and a larger ration to guards and inmates dictate these facilities. Finally, you have what is commonly known as trustees, or open-security facilities. They hardly resemble prisons, and typically don’t even have locked doors or fences to confine the inmates. Other prison types include the infamous super-max unit that holds the most evil and deadly of inmates to the highest custody level possible and special housing units with security conditions similar to super-max farms, but house disciplinary offenders for shorter periods rather then long-term.

One major problem of prison overcrowding is the effect it has on prison organizational stability. The more prisoners and people put in jail have made it harder for prison guards and staff to monitor and control them. The entire prison system must make enormous changes in order to accommodate for the number of inmates versus the number of prison guards (O’Leary). This often results in a misclassification of offenders. Many who come through the system are classified based on the amount of space available instead of on the security level and programs that would be most suitable for them (Howard). “It is not uncommon to find inmates, classified as medium security, incarcerated in maximum security institutions, while other inmates are in medium security who were previously considered candidates for maximum security” (Howard). Misclassifying offenders often leads to “slow progress through the corrections system as well as a slow exit” (Howard). This in turn only prolongs and increases the overcrowding problem (Howard). The corrections programs should be reformed to meet the needs of the inmates rather than the inmates having to adjust to meet the requirements of the system. Offenders need to be on specific rehabilitation programs that are customized to fit their needs, such as alcohol and drug abuse programs and so forth.

In this paper we will discuss some descriptions of jail’s place in corrections and its role throughout history on most of these offenses come with a sentence of a year or less and anyone with over a year sentence is usually sent to a prison facility (Seiter, 2011). On the other hand, prisons have an ample amount of time to work with, rehabilitate, and reform offenders. Prisons do this with the hope that offenders can eventually be placed back into society and limit their recidivism back to crime. “The first jails were created in England and they were called goal” (Seiter, 2011,

Jails depend on three main resources for operation which include the public, the local government, and the sheriff. Within the local power structure jails must compete for scarce resources with schools, hospitals, parks and other more popular facilities (Mays and Thompson, 1991). Prisons are maintained by the states or the federal government. Running a prison can be costly, so the logic behind prison fees is that

The correctional field has many things that it does well, and it probably has just as many that it does not do well. The correctional system is always evolving to help protect the people who need it the most. The correctional field is also tasked with many services that it may need to cut spending on, and may things that is should increase spending on. One of the things I believe that our correctional system does very well, and should continue to fund is super maximum security prisons. These prisons seem to work very well in keeping some of the worse criminals in the correctional system tamed. The first start of a super maximum security prison started in a maximum security prison in 1983 when a prison guard was stabbed to

This paper discusses what supermax prisons are and the philosophy behind them. There are minimum, medium, and maximum-security prisons, so what was the reasoning behind forming a supermax security level? Supermax prisons are an extreme form of solitary confinement used to keep away the worst inmates. Many questions are raised on whether this is a humane form or incapacitation or not. Does this form of extreme solitary confinement work or is it too extreme? Mental heath, costs, and lack of programs make this a form of isolation that wouldn 't be found anywhere else. This paper is designed for the reader to gain a perspective on the arguments for and against supermax prisons, as well as layout how supermaxes were formed and the underlying goals behind them.

prisons are different. The jail system is a short-term facility where inmates are confined until

For this paper I looked into many different Ohio county jails and many different state prisons and was amazed at how little if any information was given about these facility’s from everything from the organizational structure, chain of command to the classifications of inmates, to the fact that there is no mention of any problems inside these facility’s which I find comical considering I’ve done county time and have seen and lived firsthand the day to day problems that accurse at the county level and know a few who have gone to prison and have talked about the problems there. So to fulfill the requirements of this assignment I have to write about two separate facility’s so I choose one county jail and one state prison to write about.

Currently prisons are operating at above capacity because more people are coming in than are getting out. This is a trend that is going to continue to rise. The alternatives are to let people go, lower sentences or to outsource the prisoners. Letting people go on a lesser charge is an option that is being used and outsourcing to private prisons is also in use. Private prisons are better alternative because they can house the inmates of the prisons choice and in most cases do it at a lower cost. Private prisons are also held to the same or higher standards than federal prisons. “Private prisons comply with the standards of the Commission on Accreditation for Corrections and have a much higher accreditation rate than government prisons. (Thomas, 2001)” This ensures that the private facilities are complying with their contract and operating how they are supposed to be. There has only been one private prison shut down since they started popping up. This facility was

People sometimes argue this case stating that the offenses committed by jailers are less serious than by prisoners and that prisons are more hostile because they house the more serious offenders. These people forget that jails hold people before they are

The first federal facility is minimum security institutions, which are Prison Camps. Prison Camps have minimal security and usually have a higher inmate-to-staff ratio. Prison Camps have relatively low amounts of fencing around the facilities, and sometimes don’t have fencing at all. Inmates in these camps sleep inside dorms, and are in a work or study program.

Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted persons are to remain in prison on unlimited time, traditionally for the rest of their life or if possible until paroled. State and Federal governments maintain correctional facilities. Prisons are categorized by levels of security. Minimum security prisons house inmates convicted of non-violent offenses. Minimum security prisons sometimes are surrounded by single fences. Medium security prisons the inmates are housed in their own cells, but they have more opportunities to leave them. Medium security prisons are primarily for inmates do have a history of violence. Medium security prisons have a single fence instead of a triple fence. Medium security prisons are surrounded with fences wrapped at the top with barbwire. Medium security prisons allow for inmates to attend treatment programs. The inmates are locked in their cells each night and a bed check and an inmate count performed to make sure each inmate is accounted for and in their correct cell. The outside of the prison isn't as secure as the maximum; however, it still prevents inmates from escaping easily. Maximum security prisons are the highest security prisons. Inmates are housed in cells and most have a history of violence. Maximum security prisons have either thick walls or multiple reinforced fences. Maximum security prisons also have armed guards in watch towers. Criminals that are incarcerated in maximum security have been