The Incarceration Of The Correctional Institution

According to statistical data found in the Bureau for Justice Records, there are a number of problems that most prisons in the country face. The records indicate that the number of adult federal and state inmates increased from `139% in `1980 to 260% (Walker, 1999). As a natural default, the United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. This in itself brings about one of the major problems that are faced in modern incarceration which is overcrowding in most prison facilities. The number of offenders in the country has increased rapidly over time while the country prison system has not really been able to cope with this rapid increase. Prisons intended for one or two inmates are now crowded with more than fifty individuals. Because of this most prisons are overcrowded and most of the facilities available are unable to cater for the needs of all the prisoners (Siegel, 2009).

The “get tough approach” to crime control has been prevalent since the 1960s. This approach takes the stance to a more firm and no tolerance policy against crime, hence the term “tough” in the actual title. “"Tough" crime control normally denotes more emphasis on police resources, faster apprehension of criminals, quick trials, and more severe sentences for guilty offenders” (Skoler 1971:29). The “get tough approach” emphasizes the need to arrest and punish criminals over rehabilitation and addressing the social factors that underlie criminal behavior (Barkan and Bryjak 2011). Deterrence of other criminals through severe punishments is the primary focus. The “get tough approach” of criminal justice institutions has been under scrutiny due to the outcomes that we will discuss further on. The purpose of this paper is to simply present the pros and cons that have resulted from the “get tough approach” on crime. The paper will try and remain completely unbiased to the “get tough approach” and solely focus on results that have come from said approach. We will begin by discussing the background and history of the “get tough approach” and what led to its development. We will then discuss things such as incarceration rates (US Department of Justice), crime rates (Dilulio 1995) juveniles in prison (Hinton 2015), policies that have been implemented (Shephard 2002), correctional costs, and destabilized urban neighborhoods (Barkan & Bryjak 2011; Black 2007; Mauer 2006) that result

The United States of America is phrased by many, as being “the land of the free.” Yet, the Unites States currently has the highest per capita prison population than any other country. The United States makes up only 5% of the world’s population and of that 5%, 25% of our overall nation’s population is currently incarcerated. A few factors that attribute to our high rates of incarceration include, sentencing laws: such as mandatory- minimum sentencing, lack of initial deterrence from crime, the war on drugs and the presence of recidivism. With our ever growing incarceration rates and the cost of housing individual offenders averaging $22,000 a criminal justice agenda. Recidivism refers to a person 's relapse into criminal behavior resulting in rearrests, reconviction or return to prison with or without a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner 's release (National Institute of Justice.) Many programs have been implemented in our prison system to help reduce the recidivism rates. Programs such as educational/ vocational programming, reentry programs, substance abuse programs and subsidized employment are among many programs in which have been proven effective. Yet, due to costs deficits, the clock is ticking to find evidence based programs to invest in. So, the question currently being sought after is, which method is most effective in reducing recidivism rates?

Law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. This confinement, whether before or after a criminal conviction, is called incarceration.

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. The ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system is caused by mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism.

When the term corrections is mentioned, the thought of incarceration is the first to come to mind. This is the case for as of the end of 2013, there were 1,574,700 people serving time in state and federal penitentiaries (Carson, 2014, p.1). This alarming number gives reason for the need of alternatives to incarceration. Avoiding imprisonment does not translate to a lenient punitive sentence for the alternatives can just as easily repair harms to the victims, provide benefits to the community, treat the drug addicted, and rehabilitate offenders (FAMM, 2013, p.1). The use of programs that offer an alternative to incarceration can reduce the amount of people in the prison system that is living on taxpayers’ dollars.

Incarceration should not be the only form of punishment in the United States just like it is not in most developed nations. I agree with Dr. Bryant’s week three statements about the word discretion being used as camouflage for discrimination. The stakeholders in the criminal justice system used huge amount of discretion when performing their duties. In this case, the law enforcement officers, prosecutors, defenders, judges etc. The police officer can decide when making an arrest to handcuff the accused, send the accused to the community based service program or gave the accused a ride to his or her parent and warn the accused not to do it again. It all depends on how the officer chooses to use the discretion at his disposal. Indiscriminate

The growth of incarceration in the United States Prison grew over the last four decades. The trend is historically unprecedented and is unique to the world. The majority of those incarcerated come from disadvantaged populations and comprises of main minorities below the age of forty. The communities have the number of people engaging in crime, drug abuse, alcohol addiction, physical and mental illness and lack of employment. The African Americans and Hispanics form the largest prison population compared to the non-Hispanic whites. The high incarceration has the huge impact on the American society since its inception in the 1960s and 1970s. The changed political environment led to policy changes. All levels of the government altered

Few, such as Webb, are courageous enough to describe the United States prison system as “flawed” in its approach for targeting, punishing and releasing individuals identified as criminals. Truthfully, our current prison system unfairly incarcerates people who do not belong in jail and does an inefficient job at protecting its citizens from violent criminals. It is crucial, then, to devise a way in which to tackle the issues of crime such as drug trafficking and nonviolent criminal behavior, while working towards minimizing violent crime and large-scale gang activity in order to fix the current prison system (Webb 1). Currently, the voting public is largely uniformed regarding the criminal justice system. And it is this lack of education

After the “deinstitutionalization” of the mental hospitals in the United States during the 1960s there has been a great increase in the amount of persons with serious mental illness incarcerate in jails and prisons (Torrey et al., 2014, p. 6). The incarceration of a mental ill person is inhumane and should be illegal. This action not only causes a deterioration of the individual that is suffering from the illness but causes problems with other inmates, the jail and prison staff, and the public. The inability to provide the proper treatment to these subjects through the criminal justice system is an emotional and financial burden for all parties involved. Mentally ill persons who have said to committed crimes should

In the contemporary issue of high incarceration rates there are many factors that play a role. One of which is the theories associated with the issue, and how they affect it. With any theory there is an impact that also plays role on society and the criminal justice community. There can be both positive and negative impacts on the issue depending on what strategies are used to assist the issue. As with any issue, there are many things that can be done to help alleviate an issue like high incarceration rates, even with the history over the past forty years that it has.

The United States holds 5% of the world's population. But it has a quarter of the world's prisoners. Incarceration rates have increased by 400% from 1980 - 2009 and 41% of juveniles have been arrested by the time they’re 23. ()This growth is phenomenal compared to the 1960’s. This can only mean that mass incarceration fails to reduce crime. For decades now, the laws have been getting harsher and have caused the jails to become overwhelmed with people; especially in the United States. Up until the 1960’s, the United States has had a pretty stable prison population. In that time, we started to see an increase of drugs and violence in the United States . This resulted in huge increases in drug penalties; a move to mandatory minimum sentences;

Community corrections can be traced back to Europe with judicial reprieve, benefit of clergy, sanctuary, and recognizance. Alternative methods of incarceration have been common in many states. Split sentencing is a common method. This is when an offender serves part of their sentence incarcerated and the rest in the community. This can benefit the offender by helping them be involved in the community, maintaining employment and being with family.

For many years, people with knowledge and statistical results and data, drew to logical conclusion that prison has become a revolving door and the ones who study how prison and prisoners acted that prisons were replacing mental hospitals.

It has been said “bad company corrupts good morals”. Parents sometimes use this phrase in hopes of keeping their children from hanging out with the wrong crowd. The prison system is no different. Locking up people in jail should be a consequence that most want to avoid thus decreasing the crime rate. In 1976, William Nagel found that incarceration did not stop criminals from committing crimes. In fact, if overcrowded prisons are increasing with more people being booked into jail than being released, perhaps the correctional system encourages crime instead of discouraging it (Nagel, 1976). This is the reason we need to consider positive alternatives to our current correctional system.