Punishment Contradicts Rehabilitation

Discuss: The tension between rehabilitation and punishment in an incarceration setting. What happens when one is emphasized over the other? Is it possible to strike a balance?

Prisons hide prisoners from society. “If an inmate population is shut in, the free community is shut out, and the vision of men held in custody is, in part, prevented from arising to prick the conscience of those who abide by the social rules” (Sykes, 1958, 8). The prison is an instrument of the state. However, the prison reacts and acts based on other groups in the free community. Some believe imprisonment

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   Outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water are only a small fraction of the number of horrible, yet “just” occurrences which are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.

Greg Dobbs is a journalist, professional public speaker, and ABC News correspondent. Dobbs argues in agreeance of keeping solitary confinements in the prison systems for way of punishment. He first talks about Rick Raemisch’s, Department of Correction boss, experience as he stayed in solitary confinement for twenty hours at the Colorado Prison. Dobbs quoted Raemisch when he said, “I sat with my mind”. Raemisch brought a lot of attention to the evil side of solitary confinement says Dobbs. He then reminds the reader that convicted criminals

Solitary confinement has had a long history in the American prison system. America is the first country to adapt solitary confinement into the prison regiment. Pennsylvania had the first special housing units for inmates or “SHU”. When Europeans came to America to look at the new model for prisons in Pennsylvania they wrote reports describing to the European parliament on how prisoners were treated like caged animals. Many of them quickly realized that this was not what prisons were set out to accomplish. The purpose of a prison is to rehabilitate criminals and bring them back into society as an individual that has the best mental tools and skills to make their respective communities better. Putting inmates in solitary confinement for more than 48 hours can only lead to awful emotional pain and mental problems which can result in self-destructive behavior to regain the self-control that is being deprived through this process of isolation and expulsion.

Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Imprisonment has historically been the popular solution. However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. Prison as a punishment has its pros and cons; although it may be necessary for some, it can be harmful for those who would be better suited for alternative means

The author of Descent into Madness discusses how systems of criminal justice that engage in high levels of disorganization become nothing short of a breeding ground for discontentment among prison inmates. The other main point is that prison staff psychologically are hungry for power. This manifests in the myriad of ways that they treat the inmates in an effort to feel powerful through by retribution through their

After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests.

Over the last couple of decades, prison systems have adopted the use of solitary confinement as a means of punishment and have progressively depended on it to help maintain obedience and discipline inside the prison structure. Solitary confinement is a form of incarceration in which a prisoner is isolated in a cell for multiple hours, days, or weeks with limited to no human contact. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the United States represents only 5% of the world's population yet houses 20% of the world’s prisoners (ACLU). Two of the biggest problems with our modern day criminal justice system is the overwhelming number of people that are incarcerated in the United States and the overwhelming number of convicts who return

In the case of juveniles or young adult offenders, who in prison are vulnerable to attacks and abuse from other inmates, being placed solitary confinement grants the protection and security. Another benefit is that the prison officials can subject more aggressive and violent inmates to solitary confinement to further protect the general population of inmates. Moreover, supermax prisons that subject inmates to solitary confinement decrease the likelihood of gang affiliations and formations, in which the prison officials are able to further control the safety and security of the prison. However, the negatives effects of solitary confinement outweigh the positives. Therefore, solitary confinement needs to be reformed to lessen its negative effects.

Solitary confinement is the most used form of punishment for those who are not stable enough to be housed with general population. With this knowledge, it is best to keep using solitary confinement as a form of punishment in the criminal justice system rather than abolishing it. Solitary confinement is one of the most common debates currently in the system. Many people believe that this form of punishment is harmful and does not rehabilitate offenders. Numerous individuals also believe that this is the best form of punishment for those who cannot be with general population because it is a necessity and provides protection for the inmate and correctional officers. It has not been empirically proven whether this form of punishment is effective, but

Since the early 1800s, the United States has relied on a method of punishment barely known to any other country, solitary confinement (Cole). Despite this method once being thought of as the breakthrough in the prison system, history has proved differently. Solitary confinement was once used in a short period of time to fix a prisoners behavior, but is now used as a long term method that shows to prove absolutely nothing. Spending 22-24 hours a day in a small room containing practically nothing has proved to fix nothing in a person except further insanity. One cannot rid himself of insanity in a room that causes them to go insane. Solitary confinement is a flawed and unnecessary method of punishment that should be prohibited in the prison

As a society, prisoners terrify us. We are scared of the rigid box that we’ve forced them into through their portrayal in television, news, and other sources of media. The answer to this issue may lie in the punitive system of our country, that focuses on revenge instead of rehabilitation, and admits a recidivism rate of 76.6 percent. (Vera Institute of Technology, “The Price of Prisons”). With statistics that frightening, how can we be expected to treat criminals like functioning members of society when statistics prove otherwise? We must change the facts. Through the decrease of the maximum time in Solitary confinement, the

This belief indicated that if offenders could not be rehabilitated then they should be punished and it was time to get tough on crime. Within a relatively short time parole was attacked and the individual approach of indeterminate sentencing, or release by the authority of a parole board was abolished in 16 states (Rhine, Smith, and Jackson, 1991) and some form of determinate sentencing was adopted in all 50 states (Mackenzie, 2000)].

In order to address the issue of injustice in modern American prisons, the definition of “justice” must first be clarified, as it is simply too vague. “First, it shows that justice has to do with how individual people are treated.” (Stanford) This definition is useful in regards to the prison system because it shows that in order to have a sense of justice all individuals must be treated equally first. Another definition that is helpful would be “...the connection between justice and the impartial consistent application of rules…” (Stanford) this expresses the idea that the inmates should all follow the same guidelines or rules, no matter what crimes they may have committed. Regarding the prison system, an amalgam of these philosophical definitions will be best as: treating inmates as equal human beings and when they do wrong, punish them as you would any other individual excluding any biases you may have against them. Inmates in solitary confinement are treated almost as less of human than other inmates, usually when hearing someone is there in the prison your first idea is ‘they must deserve it’. Although solitary confinement is used to utilized to protect the general prison population, it is unjust and cruel for the inmate and there are other areas of the prison money could be put into.