Life In Prison
What is it like to be one of nearly 2.5 million people inside the United States prisons.
The first step of being sentenced to prison. First of all you have to obviously get arrested, when being arrested the jails don’t do an extreme search on you like they do in prisons the reason is, because there are people in there who are there for being arrested for petty crimes nothing to serious although every crime is a crime and is bad but there are some crimes much worse then a D.U.I. Now for the men an women who have committed a more serious crime like man slaughter you are still to be placed in jail but that is just one stop. The second and final stop is prison.
There are many aspects of prison life that determine what exactly your quality of life in prison will be like. First, what exactly your crime was plays a big part in what will come next for you. For example, a misdemeanor such as petty theft that requires jail time will not require the same security as a violent criminal with assault charges. There are three security levels in the U.S. Prison system. The first level, minimum security, is basically like a guarded community in a sense. It is similar to college dorms in housing and many prisoners are free to roam around the yard. These types of prisons are often times program oriented for example, many of the prisoners participate in community service and or work-camps. These types of prison are full of opportunity for the prisoners with many ways to
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.
Last, in most prisons they have disciplinary credits. This is a system originally created as an incentive for good behavior. It gives inmates the opportunity to take educational classes, such as GED instruction, literacy education, and substance abuse treatment. There are also vocational programs that inmates can take to learn a trade or skill. Each class or program that is completed the inmate receives points or credits. Points can be used to shorted the inmates time spent behind bars. A lot of these degrees have nothing to do with future behavior, it 's just a way for the inmate to get out early. Inmates will pile up class after class, which when many are completed can take years off a long sentence. Inmates have been
In the United States of America there are currently two prison systems in place; the Federal prison system, and the State prison system. Every state in the U.S. has its own Department of Corrections, which is tasked with handling crimes committed at the state level (Allen, 2017). The state where the crime occurred has jurisdiction over the individual that committed the crime. An individual, whom has committed a crime within a state’s jurisdiction that results in a long sentence, is sent to the state prison system in that particular state (Allen, 2017). A long sentence encompasses a period of time which exceeds a year, and a day; which is the length of time given to an individual convicted of a felony crime. An individual convicted of a misdemeanor crime which is accompanied by a sentencing length of less than a year, will serve their respective sentence in a jail. Once the individual has received their sentence, they will go through an initial classification process (Allen, Latessa, and Ponder, 2013). The purpose of the initial classification process is to identify the individual’s custody level, work assignment, and treatment. The initial classification process will differentiate between those individuals that present different security risks, and supervision concerns. Factors such as the individual’s current offense, escape potential and prior criminal history are factored in during the initial classification. Also, an individual’s background attributes, such as mental
There are approximately 2.2 million people that are currently incarcerated in the United States and roughly 65 million people have a current criminal record. 2.2 million individuals are detained due to past passive or violent offenses and some are wrongfully accused while capitalist companies are making a profit off of those incarcerated. The prison system is where violent and nonviolent inmates spend days or years in a cell and are usually working in the prison. During the early 1980s is when the inmate population began to grow in numbers fights would begin to be a daily occurrence and would ultimately result in murder. An example of these grotesque incidents would be considered a normal day at the Folsom State Prison in Sacramento,
What is prison really like in America? Prison is not just
Prison populations have been on the raise since the early 1970s. Today we incarcerate over 2 million men, women and juveniles in the various correctional facilities around the country. These facilities can range from local jails or detention facilities to the new so called "Supermax" prisons. Conditions can also vary across the spectrum for these different correctional institutions. Each type of inmate has his or her own challenges when faced with incarceration. Many factors play into determining "the experience" they have. Age and sex are one of the things that determine what type of institution you are committed to. Adult male prisoners are committed to adult male prisons.
* Prisons aare broken down into 4 types which are Super Maximum Security Prison (Supermax) which is a level 5, Maximum Security prisons which is a level 4, Medium Security prisons which is a level 3, Minimum Security which is a level 2, and finally County Jails which is a level 1.
They are required to have more security. A double fence, security patrolling are also required in this level. Inmates are allowed to be housed in a room or a cell. The level of security is medium with the males having 12-15 points and the females having 16-30 points. It is based on out and in.
Male and female prisons differ in some ways, but one thing that is the same is that the inmates suffer from depression, stress, and anxiety each day for the rest of their lives. It is hard to imagine what they face through everyday incarcerated or not. When prisoners are in jail, they have to deal with drama believe it or not. They might form groups determined by race and talk negative things about each other or think one race is better than another. Women prisons do this more often than men prisons. An example from the show Orange is the New Black of prison drama is when a prisoner stole a hand mirror from another prisoner. It is stupid things like that. They have to deal with the crappy food, crappy roommates if they can have one, and not being able to have the freedom. They have strict rules on when they can have visitors and when they can take a phone call. If you committed a crime that is super bad, then you do not get these privileges. When there time is up, they have to worry about where to go, finding a job, family, and more. Some of them come out of there and have no family to help them seek shelter and help them financially. Some just have to live on the streets for a bit until they have some money. It is very difficult to find a stable job with committing a crime on your record. They probably could get hired on at a fast food restaurant or at a factory, but they won’t make much to be
The first level an inmate can be taken to is the minimum prison. The first level is minimum security institutions (Federal Prison Camps). Minimum security institutions have dormitory housing, low staff to inmate ratio, and limited or no fencing at all. In a minimum level prison you will not meet any rapist, murder, or child molesters, but the sort of people you will encounter there would be pathological liars, con-artist, or sociopaths.
First and far most what is considered proper living conditions for a criminal. Yes, I believe they should have a sanitary establishment where they could sleep, eat, and shower, that is least we could provide for anyone. I do not think taking away privileges from any confinement facility will promote less repeat offenders. Instead of taking away we should be trying to help the individuals who can be rehabilitated, with programs that can teach them how stay on the right track, help them get a job, and provide for themselves. I know that everyone is not able to recover but if we gave those men and women who are willing to learn these tools then we would see less repeat offenders. Prison should not just be a place of confinement, it's where these
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.
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.
With this experience and adding to my original knowledge of prisoners being bad people I thought that I knew exactly the type of person that was in prison and I had a very good understanding of the type of people that made up the prison system. When it comes to the prison itself my original knowledge came from my one interaction in Belize and a television show. Growing up I had little interaction with the prison system at all. The only memories of prison was in a television show I watched and that was called, Psych. During this show they would make little humorous remarks about prison being not as bad as people say. For example the main characters in this show would say, “We are talking about the Santa Barbara jail not San Quinton, people compare it to a mid-range sandals resort.” This show made it seem as if jail really wasn’t that bad of a place to be. Unfortunately I took this to heart and had the opinion that prisons in America must not be that bad. With this being my only exposure to the prison system I knew that I did not have a good understanding of the system but thought it wasn’t as bad as people made it out to
In prisons today, rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution are all elements that provide a justice to society. Prisons effectively do their part in seeing that one if not more of these elements are met and successfully done. If it were not for these elements, than what would a prison be good for? It is highly debated upon whether or not these elements are done properly. It is a fact that these are and a fact that throughout the remainder of time these will be a successful part of prison life.