The Effects Of Incarceration On Children 's Life

It is thought that punishment prevents an individual from committing a future crime, or reoffending. Despite this belief, research examining the effects of incarceration and prison conditions has demonstrated

There is a great debate throughout our country, and in individual states, over how long criminals should be incarcerated for various crimes. The relationship between the length of prison terms and recidivism is one of the central points of the debate in sentencing and corrections policy. Many people assert that longer prison terms are more effective at deterring future crimes because they set higher price for criminal behavior and because they hold offenders until they are more likely to “age out” of a criminal life style. However, others argue just the opposite and that is more time behind bars increases the chances that inmates will reoffend later because it breaks their supportive bonds in the community and hardens their associations with other criminals. According to Oliver (2011), both of these arguments are accurate because the strongest research finds that these two theories cancel each other out. Several studies, looking at different populations and using varied methodologies, have attempted to find a relationship between the length of prison terms and recidivism but have failed to find a consistent impact, either positive or negative. There is one thing for sure and that is incarceration and recidivism is a very active cycle which affects the lives of many

Since the late 1900’s incarceration rates have been rising constantly. Incarceration impacts other individuals that aren’t behind bars locked up in a cell. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1.5 million minors deal with parental incarceration every year (Harrison & Beck, 2006).This project will investigate/ observe the effects of parental incarceration on male juveniles. Young juveniles of prisoners appear to suffer from the difficult living environments due to lack of guardianship leading them to commit crimes and violent offenses. The main focus of this project is to validate and observe the behavior of juveniles whose parents are incarcerated. There would be two control groups to be evaluated; Juveniles that haven’t had their parents incarcerated, and those who have been incarcerated throughout their lifetimes. This study will use data from the analysis conducted from the office of state courts administrator juvenile office risk. These children would be observed to analyze if any anti-social behavior is depicted. It is reasonable to predict that juveniles, whose parents have been incarcerated throughout their lifetime, will demonstrate acts of violence and illegal behaviors towards society. Prisoners’ children are more accessible to violence since no parental supervision is acquired when the parents are locked up.

According to Welch “Race has emerged as a powerful predictor of arrest, incarceration, and release among minority youths” (271). Statistics at the community and national level show the cumulative impact of racial disparities through each decision point in the juvenile justice system. The impact of incarceration on the blacks’ youth has a wide-ranging effects of the race to incarcerate on African American communities in particular is a phenomenon that is only beginning to be investigate. What does that mean to a community, for example, to know that four out of ten boys growing up will spend time in prison? The images and values are communicated to young people who see the prisoner as the most prominent pervasive role model in the community;

These types’ of sentences are considered a more severe punishment as they require the offenders to loose their liberty of freedom as they serve jail or prison time. The desired outcome of these sentences are that the offender will spend the duration of the sentence participation in correctional programs with the anticipation that upon release they have become law abiding citizens who can be a functioning member of society. The loss of liberty due to imprisonment impacts offenders and proves to them that unlawful actions have severe consequences. However, this is not always the case as there are many repeat offenders. In these cases, incarceration is benefits society by thwarting repeat offenders from committing additional crimes while serving ether a determinate and indeterminate

The United States justice system can be described as a cycle, where people enter the prison system, are released, and upon failure to integrate into society soon find themselves back behind bars. Although the means in which the cycle is perpetuated can be argued, the rate of re-offenders is constantly trying to be reduced. One term used to define this type of convict is recidivism, which is the repeat criminal action of a convicted inmate. Recidivism is fastly becoming a issue in the United States as it has been shown that 70% of convicted offenders have been reconvicted within three years of release (Esperian, 2010, p. 322). As crime of any background can be detrimental to society, this high rate of reentry into the justice system has stimulated

Incarceration, a topic of controversy, has received much attention in both academic and political arenas. Policy changes in recent years have influenced incarceration rates and, in turn, affected families and children in the U.S. (Hagan & Coleman, 2001; Visher & Travis, 2003; “Pew Charitable Trusts”, 2010; Arditti, Lamburt-Shute, & Joest, 2003). Policies, such as “tough on crime” and “war on drugs”, have contributed to not only a steady rise in incarceration rates and over crowding of correctional facilities, but also endorsed the disproportionate number of detainees from underrepresented ethnic populations (Hagan & Coleman, 2001; “Pew Charitable Trusts”, 2010). Hence, the vast majority of children who are affected by having an incarcerated parent are of underrepresented ethnic groups (“Bureau of Justice”, 2010).

The night was calm with a few whistles of wind every now and then. Twelve year old Chris just left his house after finding a gun under the kitchen table. He was walking the streets alone pointing the gun, acting like he was in Call of Duty. Boom! Boom! Man down! Man down! He was having fun pretending. Out of the black mist, a sneaky man came up behind Chris and yelled “What in the hell are you doing!” Chis turned around panicked and accidentally fired the gun, killing the man in one shot. Chris was arrested and charged as an adult with murder. He was sentenced to life-in-prison without parole. His family felt diminished. How could a twelve year old child be left to rot in jail for the rest of his life? Even though he committed a serious crime, he is only a child. Incarcerating children is a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S Constitution, because children in adult jail do not receive proper rehabilitation, food, water, or hygiene.

Adjusting to life after incarceration can be a very long and difficult process to overcome. There are many obstacles people face when returning home for the first time in years. Most people generally come home to nothing and have to try to make a life out of it. As an ex-con you face stigma, lack of opportunities and the constant risk of recidivism. Recidivism is the ongoing cycle of incarceration. You continue to be in and out of prison because you cannot successfully re-transition into society. This topic is worth investigating because recidivism is a current problem in the United States and it usually takes place because the justice system fails to prepare their inmates for what life will be like. Rehabilitation is key and because there is a lack of that there is a lack of success in offenders returning home. Young adults should be aware of recidivism because they can easily be sucked into the system and this can happen to them. They can find themselves in a position where they end up in prison and fall victim to recidivism. Questions that will guide this research include:

There are many effects of incarceration such as deterrence of committing a crime. The main things that impact an individual experience in prison is the length of their sentence, involvement in programs and the psychological consequences (that). The longer the prison sentence the more likely an individual will lose ties to family and friends, it leads to the decrease of job skills thus, an employment obstacle. With programs that are education, job skill, cognitive skill and substance abuse based it lowers recidivism (that). Also, a researcher analyzed 50 states and it shows that with a longer prison sentence it will further increase recidivism (that). The largest impact of the incarceration experience is the psychological consequence. The research

Currently, statistics indicate that 60 percent of criminals have reoffended at some point in their lifetimes. Many argue that prison causes an individual to reoffend, however many oppose this belief and argue that other factors cause a high rate of reoffending. This controversial topic raises multiple questions regarding prison and its role in reoffending, as well as what other factors can cause an individual to reoffend. The question then raised is: “to what extent does prison cause an individual to reoffend?” This question will help to determine the major factors causing individuals to reoffend, as well as give insight into additional statistics related to the topic. Numerous sources have been identified and critically

In the past, there have been many concerns surrounding the issue of juvenile incarceration. As per the history, there have been many cases where the effect of the incarnation of young people has been seen to have very many negative effects. Research that has been conducted in the past has identified the fact that incarceration has many negative effects than it was previously thought. Some of them include the effect it has on the mental health of the inmates as well as the little effect it has in rehabilitating the inmates (Barnert, Perry, & Morris, 2016). All this has led to people being more encouraged to look for alternatives of helping those involved to reform.

Youth who are imprisoned have higher recidivism rates than youth who remain in communities, both due to suspended opportunities for education and a disruption in the process that normally allows many youth to "Age-out" of crime.

Recidivism research, although complicated, shows that a person being released from confinement is more likely to repeat criminal behavior the more that person had prior arrests (Bohm & Haley, 2011). Recent studies showed that recidivism rates are quite steady (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The American Correctional Association revealed that recidivism rates might be declining (Bohm & Haley, 2011). “Regardless, the fact that more than three of every ten inmates are returned to prison within 4 years is nothing to celebrate” (Bohm & Haley, 2011, p. 425). Furthermore, research shows that many criminals prefer to serve prison time rather than receive probation (Bohm & Haley, 2011). Couple this with the fact most prisoners that adapt well to confinement,

First, repeat offenders should in fact be house/separated from first time offenders. Second, prisons should be small enough in size to allow guards/officers the ability to really know their inmates in order to better facilitate better prisoner growth and decrease recidivism. Another finding is the need for more education for the prisoners which will lead to better job placement once released from prison. Forth, prisoners recidivism rates decrease if they are engaged in work, study, or training programs while in prison. Finally, Fonseca (2015) stressed the importance of some kind of rehabilitation program aimed for repeat offenders so they can break the pattern of recidivism. However, Fonseca’s (2015) final conclusion is to prevent the cycle of recidivism by preventing the first incarceration in the first place. He suggests this could be accomplished through engaging high school males in regular school activities before they are ever