Rehabilitation Vs Incarceration

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?

As the imprisoned population in the United States grows and American culture changes, rehabilitation is becoming popular among these alternatives to a standard prison system. Rehabilitation when referring to criminal justice are programs and methods used to assist prisoners in reforming themselves in order to avoid the habits that placed them in prison in the first place. These programs are becoming more popular due to the high cost of imprisonment and a change in American culture. Each prisoner costs forty thousand dollars each year to keep in prison(Weissmueller). This is money that is coming out of the taxes paid by United States citizens who aren’t even in the prison system. Alongside this, American culture is changing to be supporting of rehabilitation efforts as Americans see the effectiveness of criminal justice systems that include it. This was seen on a trip to Europe by U.S. prison officials; once they had seen the effectiveness of German and Dutch prison rehabilitation, they wanted to bring similar programs to their prisons (“People, not prisoners”). A rehabilitation based criminal justice system in the United States is gaining popularity, and as it does so it is earning the attention it needs and deserves.

Corrections have existed throughout society for many years and continued to change and evolve in the United States reflecting society’s values and ideals throughout the centuries. In the criminal justice system, corrections exist in more than one form. Not only do corrections refer to jails and prison systems but they also pertain to community-based programs, such as probation, parole, halfway houses, and treatment facilities. Past, present, and future trends in regard to the development and operation of institutional and community-based corrections vary between states but corrections have grown immensely since the early 1800s and have continued to expand

The U.S. corrections system, a subdivision of the criminal justice system, continues to undergo change. From its beginnings as laws written in stone, the corrections system has sought to punish offenders. The origin of the corrections system dates back several thousand years and has witnessed various perspectives and goals. The best method of administering punishment to these prisoners has remained an issue of dispute for many years. Events through history, such

Both jail and prison offer some type of early released programs, in this case probation and parole will briefly be discussed. Probation is a prison sentence that is suspended on the condition that the offender follow certain prescribed rules and commit no further crime (Seiter, 2008). Parole is similar to probation except that it is after a period of incarceration, which involved determinate and indeterminate sentencing (Seiter, 2008). The other types of prison sentencing include mandatory minimums, three-strike laws, and truth-in-sentencing (Wilson, 2001). The only difference is that a parole board allows convicts to serve the remainder of their term in society under supervision and strict limitations (Wilson, 2001). In summary both jails and prisons should strive to provide as much educational, health, and counseling opportunities as possible to reduce the likelihood of recidivism. Second, funding for the jail and prison systems will be briefly discussed.

Corrections as a term in criminology involve the treatment, incapacitation, and punishment of criminal wrongdoers who have admitted to the court. The criminal court convicts and condemns those perpetrators who are found guilty of crimes. Upon sentencing, the corrections component of the criminal justice system begins to function. In the United States there are several correctional agencies including; residential facilities, juvenile and adult probation and parole agencies, and so much more. These agencies are established to correct, treat and control post-adjudicatory care to

Impact of Rehabilitation Programs and Incarceration for Juvenile Offenders Discussing the Importance of Rehabilitation Program

Lee Tergeson, actor from the television show OZ said, “I know what it is like to be ignored, and I think that is the big problem about the prison system: These people are being thrown away. There is no sense of rehabilitation. In some places, they are trying to do things. But, in most cases, it is a holding cell.” (Tergeson, 2002) He speaks the truth.

One major concern is the quality of rehabilitation the inmates receive while they are incarcerated. The question to ask is “Are our prisoners being properly rehabilitated?”

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)].

never implemented as intended. Although the contours of the correctional system changed—the juvenile court, indeterminate sentencing, probation, parole, and discretion became integral features of this system—the resources and knowledge needed to provide effective treatment to offenders were in short supply. Cullen and Gendreau (2000).

The punishment of going to prison is to remove people that could be a danger to society. Since of correction facilities focus on punishment rather than rehabilitation. They face issues preparing for their reentry, the impact their it causes their family, and the issue of the restoration of their rights.

The United States corrections system is a complicated system with many different ways of handling certain situations. There is not just one set criminal justice system that covers nationwide, each state is different but all follow the same set of laws and rules set forth by the United States Constitution. (Bureau Justice of Statistics, 2013). The state goes through many different sets of obligations before convicting a suspect.

The Unites States has the largest prison population in the world, and it is still growing. Calculated in both raw numbers and by percentage of the population, the United States has the most prisoners of any developed country in the world (Flatow, 2014). It is said that more than 1.57 million inmates sat behind bars in federal, state, and country prisons and jails around the country as of December 31, 2013. It did not start out this way. Up until the 1950’s the functions, components, and actions of carrying out criminal sanctions regularly used the term penal, and penal institutions (prisons) and penal systems (organizations to carry out punishment) emphasized the principal function of implementing punishment in the handling of criminal

There is a considerable degree of mismatch in the legal institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom insofar as criminal procedure is concerned. While both systems seek to maintain law and order through the use of criminal law courts, they adopt different methodologies to accomplish the same. Despite these differences, the criminal procedure codes of the United States and United Kingdom are integral to the sustenance of notions of justice in each respective polity (Langbein, 1995). The criminal procedure code of the United States heavily borrows from the common law doctrines established in the United Kingdom and passed down to the United States as received law during the colonial era. Criminal cases in the United Kingdom are mostly commenced in Magistrates’ court. The trial procedure is the same in trials held at the Magistrates’ court level and other higher courts, including in cases of summary offenses as well as those against the Crown.