Steve Earle A Death In Texas

The way the criminal justice system should handle crimes has always been a debated subject. For over the last forty years, ever since the war on drugs, there are more policies made to be “tough on crime”. From then, correctional systems have grown and as people are doing more crimes, there are plenty of punishments for them. In the mid 1970’s, rehabilitation was the main concern for the criminal justice system. It was common that when someone was convicted of a crime, they would be sentenced to prison but there would also be diagnosed treatments to help them as well. Most likely, they would have committed a crime due to psychological problems. When they receive treatment in prison, they can be healed and would not go back to their wrong lifestyle they had lived before. As years have gone by, people thought that it was better to take a more punitive stance in the criminal justice system. As a result of the turnaround of this more punitive criminal justice system, the United States now has more than 2 million people in prisons or jails--the equivalent of one in every 142 U.S. residents--and another four to five million people on probation or parole. The U.S. has a higher percentage of the

Incapacitation involves imprisonment for offenders who commit crimes to prevent the possibilities of future offenses. (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2009, pg# 74) Incapacitation has reduced the crime rate considerably. Some offenders get out on bail or bond, serve the minimum of the sentence and out on parole or probation. Offenders realize that is getting more and more expensive to cover up their crime. Therefore, they are expecting to be caught. Rehabilitation or reformation is another form of sentencing. Rehabilitation is a process of treatment for offenders to get them back on track. It gets to the core of why the offender acted this way. Restoration is a process that makes the victim, offender and society go back to their original conditions. Victims will be

Keeping a prisoner in jail for life will be very expensive considering that it costs $80,000 a year; and the bad news is that the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket. Thousands of people will attack the death penalty. They will give emotional speeches about the one innocent man who might be executed. However, all of these people are forgetting one crucial element. They are forgetting the thousands of victims who die every year. This may sound awkward, but the death penalty saves lives. It saves lives because it stops those who murder from ever murdering again (Bryant). These opinions represent some of the strongest and most influential views that proponents hold. However, if our prison system could rehabilitate more effectively, perhaps those who murdered once, could change.

Analyzing the episode Aftershock from the well renowned television series Law and Order from a restorative perspective was really intriguing. The episode begins with a man, who had been convicted of raping and murdering a 26-year-old woman, being executed by lethal injection. Capital punishment is a undoubtedly a more extreme measure than any prison sentence, but ultimately, both actions portray the same message to the offender and to society; the justice system and the surrounding community have given up on this person, lost all empathy, and determined that this person doesn’t deserve restoration and healing. Watching just one episode of Law and Order made me that much more doubtful on the state of our criminal justice system.

I agree that rehabilitation should be the primary goal in sentencing. Rehabilitation teaches a criminal how to interact with the community after being away for a set amount of time. Days in prison and jail can hinder the positive thoughts in one’s mind. Anger and depression can build up, and make the criminals want to act out again. The rehabilitation process can even mend burnt bridges with family and friends.

A very popular debate goes on between people on whether or not capital punishment should exist or not. “A Death in Texas” was wrote by Steve Earle, and the main subject is capital punishment. The death penalty should not be allowed, and should not even exist, because it’s murder itself, people can change, and we don’t have the right to take another human beings life.

Was Jonathan Wayne Nobles rehabilitated? We will never know. Steve Earle wrote “A Death in Texas”. Earle was a country musician who also spent time in prison; he was incarcerated for drug charges. Earle was rehabilitated and released to join society again. Earle exchanged letters with convicted murderer Jonathan Wayne Nobles for ten years. He finally met Nobles for the first time just a month before Nobles was put to death by lethal injection. Jonathan Wayne Nobles was a power-seeking, manipulating narcissist, who broke into a home and stabbed to death two young ladies and attempting to kill a young man, stabbing him 19 times. The prosecutors had an easy conviction; Nobles confessed to the murders.

Society has attempted to rehabilitate criminals with the question being how do you know if they are successfully rehabilitated. I questioned if Jon Wayne Nobles was truly rehabilitated during his time in prison. In my opinion, he had been rehabilitated even though he was on death row with no future to look forward to. I believe that John Wayne Nobles was rehabilitated through the changes he exhibited in his behavior, his acceptance in religion, and his show of remorse towards his victims and their families.

Johnathan Wayne Nobles I believe was not truly rehabilitated. Although he did find a change in himself by becoming involved in Catholicism and attended Mass.(pg.75) Yes, this can cause somebody to change and become a better person, Johnathan only did this to seek righteousness, attention, and forgiveness for the crime he permitted and to be saved and able to go home the lord when his execution day came. In the book Steve explains that, when Johnathan arrived at Ellis he quickly alienated all the guards and most of the inmates. he once broke away from guards and climbed an exposed pipe and bars in the cell block, kicking down

The most common belief about criminals is that they will become repeat offenders, because they have no conscience. Looking through this narrow scope, criminals are just criminals, not human. One might assume that it is true, how could someone who committed a cold hard crime, especially murder, have any soul? However, in this essay, I will argue that through proper counseling criminals obtain the proper assistance their resocialization journey.

While incarcerated the individual may have the opportunity to receive rehabilitation. Does it mean that the individual will be rehabilitated? One can only imagine. This is a debatable issue. Is punishment or rehabilitation more effective in combating crime?

Criminals should be rehabilitated not punished. Punishment doesn’t help the prisoner at all, it only teaches them that they shouldn’t get caught next time. This forces them to get more creative at the crime they commit. Whereas, rehabilitation is about preparing a person for a productive life after prison. Prisoners get the option to further their education, learn a trade, and even seek help for an addiction they might have. Rehabilitation is more cost effective, and better at lowering the rate of reincarceration in comparison with punishment. When comparing the two it’s not hard to see why prisoners should avoid being punished, and instead be focused on being rehabilitated.

Throughout the years, many processes have been created to form the rehabilitation process of criminal justice. This process has reached out to many offenders and their families by allowing them to return to the community as changed individuals. Rehabilitation has many different process, but most, if not all have been proven successful in returning offenders to the community as changed individuals.

In theory, rehabilitation works, unfortunately as there are objectors to punishment of the corporal kind as there are objectors to the practice of rehabilitation. Most would side on the idea of rehabilitating prisoners, as there is no denying its success in the past, however the question of abandoning or greatly reducing corporal punishment or long term incarceration stands as a highly heated debate. With prison overcrowding and solutions being sought after, rehabilitation does offer a way to braid the inmates back into a successful life inside our communities, but just as corporal punishment does not have a 100% success rate, its friend rehabilitation lacks it as well. As a society we have to find ways to lower the costs of prisons on our fellow man and to be able to have inmates return to society in a productive manner. Rehabilitation seems to be the most modern weapon of choice for our modern and more

Obviously, the execution of a murderer deems him/her incapable of murdering again. However, those who support the concept of rehabilitation say that imprisonment is effective in preventing murderers from killing again. Murderers have the lowest rate of re-committing a homicide than people who have served time for other offenses (Johnson, 1990).