Pros And Cons Of Rights For Prisoners

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.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). “One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world” (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the

The rights of a prisoner to read, write, speak, practice their religion, and communicate with the outside world are often cut far outside what is necessary for established security. This also leads to prisoners to stop communicating with the outside world and family.

From 1973 to 2000 the imprisonment rate in the U.S has increased by a multiple of four, while the actual crime rate saw no such increase over that period. (Visher and Travis, 2003, p. 89-90) Historically, the prison system in America had always been marred with inadequacies and failures, specifically in rehabilitating prisoners. The significant increase in incarceration rates have put an even greater burden on the already inefficient prison system. In reality, the prison system does not actually function as a means of rehabilitating prisoners, and real purpose of the institute is to basically keep the “deplorables” of society away from the public eye. It serves as a tool to degrade members of society to the bottom of the social ladder and strip them of their most basic rights. For many prisoners, rehabilitation comes in the form of “corrections” which is largely characterized by the humiliation, abuse, and subjugation of inmates by correction officers. This form of rehabilitation is largely malicious and ineffective in its procedures and outcomes. Often times inmates, leave prison more emotionally and physically damaged that they were upon entrance as a consequence of the dismal conditions they were subjugated to. The current high rates of recidivism have testified to the fact that our prisons have failed as a deterrent. As a result, it must be

At one point the United States Court System paid no attention to inmate complaints and concerns. However, that changed when the Supreme Court took an interest in prisoner litigations. Lawmakers finally began to see inmates as American citizens who still were afforded certain liberties according to the United States Constitution. Once perspectives began to change about the prisoners and their rights, petitions addressing the violations of inmate’s civil liberties started to flood into the courts. The American court system is aware that prisoners do have some rights, but they would naturally be fewer than free citizens (Carlson & Garrett, 2008). The limitation of rights is mandatory to sustain security in prisons or jails. The federal government stepped in and

Although lawful imprisonment deprives prisoners of many rights, certain Constitutional rights are retained. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution shields some of the most ordinary rights that you can hold as Americans. As a student of Texas State University I do not “shed my constitutional rights once I Step foot on campus. Do prison walls form a barrier separating prison inmates from the protections of the Constitution? Granted, a characteristic of lawful imprisonment includes temporary separation of certain rights; however, regulations on the rights of inmates must be overseen rationally. Especially, when the essential rights provided by the First

The dream of a life of freedom in a world that has endless possibilities begins in the United States. Sadly, this is not a privilege for everyone to experience. Although, when speaking of confining and isolating individuals, the realization of this luxury of freedom is not granted to everyone. These few words pierce into the heart of life as a inmate. Nevertheless, the suffering of one is felt by more and more individuals on a daily basis. Yet, those living free on the outside do not see a problem and many refuse to believe or even acknowledge that there is one. However, the United States has paved the way to create a cycle of endless incarceration for many people but especially for those of color. Such as the 1994 Violent Crime Control Act and the lack of substance abuse treatment in prisons. Overwhelmingly, mass incarceration has had a great impact on families, communities and society as a whole. As illuminated through the parable by inmate Joe Martinez, this continued cycling of inmates in and out of prison is devastating to the growth society.

In 2015, America had four times the number of prisoners since 1980, roughly from 500,000 to 2.2 million people. The United States today is five percent of the world population, yet it holds twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. 4.5 million people are on probation or parole in the US. Altogether, there is a total of about 6.8 million people under some form of correctional control. If one were to combine the number of people in prison and jail with those who are under parole or probation supervision, it would amount to one in every thirty-five adults, which is 2.8 percent of the correctional control population.

Prisoners should be granted privileges depending on the type of crime they committed. There’s different types of felonies that determine how long a prisoner is going to stay in prison. Violent crimes such as rape, armed robbery, and murder are most likely to get life sentences . Most prisoners have about the same amount of rights. There’s those prisoners who committed non-violent felonies/crimes but are serving life sentences. Prisoners who committed non-violent felonies; does not involve high levels of damage or serious injury, should have more rights than someone who killed people, betrayed the nation or raped people.

Equalizing the constitutional rights of prisoners and the functions of the jail or prison can create great strain on not only the correctional facilities’ staff but on the inmates as well. The treatment of prisoners is typically left completely to the prudence of prison administrators and other correctional officials. With that being said, this paper will discuss the differences between harmonizing those constitutional rights of prisoners and the functions of the facility. It will also explain the rights that prisoners are required to have, and how these rights are balanced within other aspects of the correctional institution.

Although inmates may not have full Constitutional rights while incarcerated, they are entitled to basic human rights, freedom and dignity. U.S. penal systems have been reformed at the beginning of the 1960’s. The reason for this reformation is to prevent inhumane treatment, provide inmates with religious freedom, and due process (Smith, 2010). The U.S. Supreme Court

It is common knowledge that the American prison system has grown exponentially in the last few decades. The prison population within the last forty years has risen by two million inmates. Multiple factors such as overcrowding and cost cutting have also decreased the quality of life within prisons by an order of magnitude. With this rising statistic, it becomes increasingly urgent to understand the effect of incarceration on our prisoners and whether the reformation process is actually doing more harm than good.

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.

Jails have no such facilities as compared to prisons. The convicts have access to food and water, bathing facilities, there are also socialization places which are restricted and the security is not as tight as that of prisoners, (WiseGeek, 2003).

I think the treatment of prisoners should also be reconsidered. I think that they deserve more time outside of their cells. Inmates only get a certain amount of time outside which I think is entirely unfair. I also think that their visitation rights should be reconsidered. As of right now they are only aloud to talk to their visitors over a telephone. What if they have been in prison for years? I think they should get to physically visit with their visitors and not just talk over a phone. Prisoners do have the constitutional right to enjoy contact visits and I think that this should be reconsidered and changed.