Essay on The Mission of the Correctional System

The criminal justice system has been proven to play a very important role in society. The criminal justice system is used to keep the citizens in check and to make sure that the laws that are made are being followed. It also is there to penalize anyone who disobeys the laws. In the criminal justice system, there are 3 main parts, law enforcement, adjudication, and corrections. Law enforcement is self-explainable. It consists of the law enforcers such as police officers and sheriffs. Adjudication is made up of people in the court house such as judges and lawyers. Corrections is made up of jailhouse matters such as prison officials. In these many components of the criminal justice system, there are all put in place to help correct people to do the right thing. There are punitive efforts and rehabilitative efforts. At time, the system may lean towards one category or more, which can be dangerous in terms of disciplinary action. The criminal justice system is more punitive than rehabilitative which makes the system ineffective.

Implementing a therapeutic prison system as a strategy to decrease crime and save the tax payers money is instrumental. There is a saying, "you have to spend money in efforts to save money", author unknown. This is true, spending the necessary money to provide prisoners with the therapeutic services they need in efforts for the person not to return to prison. According to Brown, "It is also my belief that one of the first questions to be asked would be “What difference to the reconviction rate will it make?” If sending people to prison is meant to stop them reoffending, then what effect will going to a TC have? Tax-payers are entitled to ask whether their money is being spent well, and in the case of prison that means less crime by those who are released from prison. The effect of the TC on reconviction had to be in the research contract. There are real problems with the concept of reconviction as an outcome measure for TCs in prison. There is the argument that reconviction is a crude all-or-nothing measure and takes little or no account of the severity of any new convictions. Nor can it take into account crimes committed that are not detected."(2014) If tax payers are properly informed in knowing how their money is used in the process of creating a therapeutic prison, money would be less of an

Serving time is not a waste of time. While an inmate is incarcerated, he or she has every opportunity to better themselves and prepare for their impending re-entry into society. Jails and prisons alike offer rehabilitative programs. These programs allow every inmate an equal opportunity to return to the outside world as a better and more productive member of society. Educational, vocational training, work release, drug-abuse, self-help, health care, religious, and finally recreational programs are just a few of the hundreds of correctional programs that inmates can participate in. Due to these programs, positive changes within an inmates life, as well as drastic changes in our society, are entirely within reach.

Inmates are released with few if any resources and usually end up returning to the institution after failing to reestablish productive lives in the community. This alarming reality is both a fiscal and social problem: state budget deficits bring enormous prison expenditures to light as social injustices in the system persist. Reforming the system to end the cycle of incarceration will have positive effects on the bottom line while reducing crime and thereby increasing public safety. Clearly, the deterrence effects of harsh prison sentences have not been effective. It may be time to once again embrace and expand the rehabilitative capacity of the criminal justice system.

In the article in The New York Times called Punishment Fails and Rehabilitation Works by James Gilligan he said, that at least two third of the prisoners will reoffend s crime within three years of leaving prison. Often they will do a more serious and violent offense than the one they did before. He also stated that 90% of the prisoners will return back to their community because if they do not go back then the prisons will be overcrowded. The author main goal is to figure out a way to find another way rather than punishment toward the criminals, but more of rehabilitation instead. He stated if prisons were to be demolish and replace to become more of an anti-prison and give a sense of community among the inmates then we might see some

The American prisons system is a failed system. It needs tremendous change so that it can truly serve its role in the American society. For instance, the high rate of recidivism is sufficient evidence that the system has serious deficiencies. Emphasis ought to be made on the basic mission of these correctional facilities because inmates must be educated, rehabilitated, and ensured of

The prison system has been in the US for decades now and leads the race with the most incarcerated people. Over time our correctional system changed immaculately and with so many changes, issues continue to rise. The issues included in our system vary from state and federal levels but they’re all are very similar in many ways such as the budget crises, overcrowding, the controversy of parole, who we should incarcerate and why or why not our correctional system has been effective. Is prison being seen as a common ground now for many is slowly starting to lose its purpose, and is parole really helping the government solve its budget crisis when it comes to the correctional system? These are a few of the question brought up by many and have the attention of the public.

Another goal of criminal sentencing is to rehabilitate. “Rehabilitation is a programmed effort to alter the attitudes and behaviors of inmates and improve their likelihood of becoming law-abiding citizens” (Seiter, 2008, p. 32). Rehabilitation assumes that criminals have underlying problems that are the cause of their criminality and that if these causes are treated, the offender can return to society and possibly provide some type of restitution for the victims of their crimes.

The biggest issue with prisons right now is that they are extremely overcrowded. This problem is attributed to the rising crime rate. Currently the crime rate is fairly high, “Nationwide, law enforcement made an estimated 11,302,102 arrests in 2013” (FBI). Not all of these arrests were sentenced prison time, nonetheless thousands were. 631,200 people were incarcerated in prisons last year (Carson). Several people argue that the crime rate is lower than it has been, however the best crime rate is 0. Prisons aid in lowering the crime rate because criminals cannot commit crimes while they are locked up and currently there are around 2 million criminals not committing crimes (Prisoners), nevertheless once those prisoners are released they return to a life of crime. Statistics show, “two-thirds of prisoners will reoffend” (Criminal Justice). One of the main roles of prison is to rehabilitate prisoners so that they will not commit other crimes; however, it obviously is not working. To alleviate this problem, prisons should counsel prisoners and educate them on why crime is

I do believe that we should continue to rehabilitate. Although there are some offenders who are not exceptive to the programs, there are many who need as well as appreciate the many programs that helps them to get back on track in a positive way. I have learned through my readings, research, movies watched, class trips and through personal connections to some offenders, that offender’s who do not commit to the rehabilitation programs offered, are prone to become repeat offenders. However, I have also learned through those same examples set forth, that many offenders do change their lives for the better once they have went through those rehabilitation

     The idea of sentencing a criminal for a period of time in a prison isn't working, so prisons should focus more on changing their rehabilitation programs. Life in prison should be like the outside world as much as possible, given the fact of imprisonment. Prisoners would be less prepared if the prison environment is artificial and abnormal compared to the outside world they will have to encounter later on. A prisoner also needs to keep family ties. Research in

To conclude, The Department of Corrections serves a purpose that is intended for incarcerating criminals. They are also responsible for protecting the safety of citizens in the communities is a major mission of Corrections. It is proven that corrections would not be able to succeed without its superiors and it's rehabilitation

The corrections system is effective in rehabilitating offenders with the program that are at their dispense. There are programs such as pro-social life skills, life without a crutch, adult basic education to name a few to prepare them when released from prison. However, this just cover the surface of some of the issue that needs some major overhaul. In my counselor years, many offenders are not ready for the free world due to inadequately work skills. Instead of giving offender behavioral credit to reduce their sentence, give them credit for attaining their GED or completing a work skill job. Provide the offender with a skill that will give them a salary within the prison that is durable. After all the purpose of being in prison is to be rehabilitated

Rehabilitation is more of a therapeutic method to help the criminal ditch crime and become a constructive member in society. “Rehabilitation involves teaching inmates silks and trades that will, hopefully, give them a chance to become law-abiding citizens once they are released from prison” (Long). This method is looked at as more of a treatment than a punishment, to guide the criminal to make better choices and live a better life.

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