Rhetorical Analysis

Why Prisons Don’t Work, by Wilbert Rideau, editor of the Angolite, the Louisiana State Penitentiary newsmagazine written March of 1994; gives a perspective into the flawed criminal justice programs from the viewpoint of a criminal. The analysis of this paper will examine the credibility of the examples used by the author to stage his claims.

This paper discusses three critical issues in the criminal justice system. It touches on the general issues of punishment philosophies, sentence decision making, and prison overcrowding and focused more specifically on the negative effects of each. Highlighted in this informational paper is the interrelated nature of the issues; each issue affects and is affected by the others. Data and information has been gathered from the FBI Uniform Crime Report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Amnesty International, the NAACP Legal Defense

She presents her logical argument in an organized manner by first sharing how prisoners affect the economy and then how they affect their personal lives as they try to assimilate or integrate into the newer culture of society (Thio and Taylor 61). As a senior researcher at George Mason University, Rugy has the authority to write on imprisonment. Despite this, there was some statistics included in the article that was redundant due to the fact that she goes into depth about it, but tells the readers the information was debunked. Also, the article was published in June of 2011 which makes this article outdated especially considering this topic and its ever-changing statistics. Overall, it was a great informative article that provided evidence, was very organized and was clearly written by someone with the authority to do so; however, some information was unnecessary and the data is over six years

Mass incarceration has been an issue in the United States since the start of the War on Drugs, because of the political agenda attached to the “tough on crime” regimen thousands of people have suffered as a consequence. The solution to this is one that can only be possibly solved by approaching through several angles. The ten steps presented by Michael Tonry, are an innovative and have merit to some extent. However, mass incarceration results from more than unjust sentencing laws, which is his main focus. If ever we are to resolve the issue, society and the criminal justice system must come together to completely reevaluate what we consider to be “tough on crime” and redefine the purpose of prisons, strictly punishment or rehabilitation. The focus has to shift from harsh sentencing, stigma, racial discrimination to a basic form of rehabilitation and reduction of the prison system in general. The criminal justice system has to do what they are actually meant to do and focus on rehabilitation measures, and when possible completely stop interaction with the prison system all together.

Unlike all of the above mentioned problems either caused by or support private prisons, the flaws in the legal system that results in imprisonment of innocent people or the over sentence of small crimes is an issue of it’s own. It has many motivated, social and legal aspects outside the prison industry. Yet it is also supported by and benefits companies that have invested on prisons. “Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of nonviolent crimes.” (Pelaez, 2014). It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent while two-thirds of one million state prisoners have committed nonviolent offenses.

Jacoby uses some terms to set down the prison punishment or to devalue the statement of some rulers. When the author uses the term “cage”, he wants to describe the humiliation a prisoner undergoes. We normally use cages to lock up animals, and our society use the same thing to lock up a human being. The author here implies that we degrade our men and women, and we put them in the same place as animals. Another word is “deluded”; the author here tries to convince his readers that the politicians who talk "about how safe our cities become" is a result of the success of the justice system in the U.S. are misinformed. Therefore, the author here implies that his data are more accurate than what his adversary says.

People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing crimes. Historically, the frequency of imprisonment, its duration, and severity have varied considerably. There has also been much debate about the motives for incarceration, its effectiveness s and fairness, as well as debate regarding the related questions about the nature and etiology of criminals (Freeman, 2008).

"Prisons are closed institutions. They are established and funded by governments to hold people against their will", but why punish (Zyl Smit, 2010)? What is the purpose of prison? This fundamental question stirs up a significant amount of debate. The government, citizens, educators, and even prisoners are divided about the right answers. There is disagreement in the US about the purpose of the prison system. On the one hand, the regulations of the prison system may seek deterrence, incapacitation, or retribution to avoid appearing too soft on criminals (Zyl Smit, 2010; Rossum, 2003). On the other hand, the regulations of the prison system may seek to opportunities to resocialize prisoners or to effect changes in the character, attitudes, or behavior of the convicted offender (Zyl Smit, 2010; Harvard Law Review, 2010). Which approach is the most effective for a society that decides to punish?

This author’s article discusses prison overcrowding and identifies it as a threat to public safety. The author, Jonathan Simon, is a Professor of Law and the faculty director at UC Berkeley. The article tends to slant towards the author’s opinion to reduce mandatory minimum

This being said a correlation between punishment and deterrence can at times defy logic with Eysenck using the example of countrie’s murder rates not being related to whether or not they employ the death penalty (Eysenck, 1964). With the civilization and democratization of modern societies, naturally, more severe punishments such as corporal punishment or labour camps are now being less utilised. A mentality of men coming to prison as a punishment rather than men coming to prison to be punished has now developed (Coyle, 2005). Foucault described this transition from torture to incarceration as born out of sympathy for the tortured bodies of offenders (Kontos, 2010) With the detention in prison now being the punishment itself, issues such as sentence length are now paramount in providing an adequate deterrent.

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

For instance, Latessa and Allen argue that prisons are places where crimes are bred rather than corrected. In their writing, these authors condemn the justice system for putting offenders in jails as a punishment, and failing to assess if the inmates have reformed before being released (Latessa and Allen 42). Rangel, an American politician and justice professional, is also in support of this ideology. In his article titled ‘America the Jail-house' in the Wall Street Journal, he criticizes the prison systems for failing to fully transform offenders. He says they are places where criminals are awarded Ph.D.s to engage in unlawful acts at higher standards (Rangel 11).

Following the backlash of his statement, Howard then went on to link crime rates to imprisonment and mentioned that as the prison population went up by 25%, crime rates for that same period decreased by 8.5% (Burnett, Maruna 2004). However, as much as it seems possible to conclude does prisons do indeed work, it would not be possible to simply agree with the notion that ‘prison works’ based on just that. Yes, the prison system might work to a certain and we must scrutinize the statement using the theories of punishment available to do so.

"Prisons are closed institutions. They are established and funded by governments to hold people against their will", but why punish (Zyl Smit, 2010)? What is the purpose of prison? This fundamental question stirs up a significant amount of debate. The government, citizens, educators, and even prisoners are divided about the right answers. There is disagreement in the US about the purpose of the prison system. On the one hand, the regulations of the prison system may seek deterrence, incapacitation, or retribution to avoid appearing too soft on criminals (Zyl Smit, 2010; Rossum, 2003). On the other hand, the regulations of the prison system may seek to opportunities to resocialize prisoners or to effect changes in the character, attitudes, or behavior of the convicted offender (Zyl Smit, 2010; Harvard Law Review, 2010). Which approach is the most effective for a society that decides to punish?

The chapter discusses the idea of incarceration where we are told it is a relatively new idea unlike the time before 18th century whereby violators of law were sentenced to corporal punishments, fines and deaths. Up to 2012 the data that has been given in the chapter shows that the trend of American incarceration was moving downward. Very appropriate data of the number of prisoners, releases, and individuals who were under supervision in 2012 has been given. Concept of jails can be traced back so many years. However the roles of jails are changing with time. History and roles