The Negative Effects Of Incarceration

Even though prisoners are incarcerated, they still are entitled to certain rights. There is a lot of debate about which rights prisoners should have because they can’t have too much freedom, and they also can’t have too little freedom. If inmates have much freedom, chaos would reign over the facility. No inmate would learn to truly change their ways and fit back into the community successfully. If too little freedom is given, inmates would be neglected and treated like animals. The perfect balance is needed to achieve a functional correctional facility.

The reason for wanting parole to be abolished in the early 1900’s was because society as a whole did not feel that prisons and the parole system did not rehabilitate offenders enough to reduce recidivism (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). Many felt that prisoners that did not deserve to be paroled were being released because of a corrupt and inadequate system. The members of the parole board as well as the parole officers were not trained enough to make the decision to release prisoners early as well as supervise them once they were released. Today, many of the states have abolished discretionary parole for several reasons. The first reason is that indeterminate sentencing and discretionary parole did not accomplish prisoner rehabilitation

One good point of Wisconsin’s reconsideration is recent changes in sympathetic release standards for prisoners in state correctional facilities. This legislation streamlines the procedure and expands the category of those eligible for sentence modification and. Although the law has much to recommend it, issues unaddressed may prove costly—notably the unintended consequences of placing financial burdens on the families or communities to which these prisoners are released in a bleak economic climate.

The graying of the nation’s inmates is also an issue which continues to swell the cost of health care within the prison. According to the Pew Center, “…between 1992 and 2001, the number of state and federal inmates aged 50 or older rose from 41,586 to 113,358.” Older inmates are gradually making up a larger proportion of the overall count. While one may say that aging decreases criminal activity, such as those that result from communicable diseases mentioned from the previous paragraph, there are many more factors that should be considered. One problem is that older inmates are often preyed upon by younger, stronger inmates; therefore, older inmates may require special housing. Hearing and visual

When assessing current problems associated with the prison system, many of the issues arise from the central finding that increases in the United States incarceration rates have led to overcrowding in prison which negatively impact the living conditions for inmates and working conditions for staff. To improve these conditions overall, efforts must focus on decreasing the number of inmates in state and federal facilities. Over the years, prison sentencing reform proposals have targeted revisions to sentencing guideline with a goal of reducing the number of citizens entering the prison system. In a editorial from staff at The Economist, the authors discuss one of the many reforms that could aid in decreasing the number of prisoners entering

The United States judicial system needs to make changes if they expect to control the prison population. One may assume that there is not a problem with the inmate overpopulation at the numerous prisons throughout the country, but one thing most of the prisons have in common is prison overcrowding. Geriatric offenders are the reason for prison overpopulation in the United States due to its inmates living longer, receiving longer prison sentences, and the lack of concern in which the judicial system has towards its elderly prisoners.

Since the 1970’s the American incarceration rate has increased by a factor of 7. The United States holds the majority of the world’s prisoners. “The land of the free” is home to 5% of the world’s population, but contains 25% of its prisoners. People are also being held in jail for longer. Although most crimes are committed by young men, the number of US prisoners over age of 50 has increased by 330% since 1994.

According to a report from the Human Rights Watch in 2010 there was a large population of elder inmates and statistics showed the older inmates suffered with more infirmities than younger inmates. As a result it’s much more costly to take care of an older inmate than it is to take care of a younger inmate (“Dementia Behind Bars”, 2102). Statistics also showed that ten years ago the average cost per inmate to be about 5,500 and about 11,000 for inmates 55 to 59 and 40,000 for those inmates 80 and older (“Dementia Behind Bars”, 2102). It’s a serious issue that has to be

Dementia, a disease characterized with the loss of brain functions; loss of memory, thinking and ability to reason clearly, has been on the rise in the American prisons. Law on the mandatory sentencing of criminals in the 1970s gave rise to the present high population of inmates and the costs associated. This disease associated with the elderly, is evident in the states and federal prisons with the numbers of elderly inmates on the rise, 125 000 by 2010. The budgets amounting from the costs incurred in the furnishing of specialized care to these inmates who cannot even clean or dress themselves are high. The inmates expect their health costs taken by the federal government being a part of state corrections costs still on the rise. The federal government and state agencies have to work on strategies focused at reducing the rising costs of the aging inmate population (NYT, 2012).

There are currently two million Americans who are incarcerated in our country’s prison system at this time. Each year there around roughly 650,000 released (Prisoner Reentry). These individuals are faced with many challenges when reintegrating themselves back into society. This is a very difficult time for them and often times things do not go as everyone planed. This time period is filled with disappointments, whether it be to the parole officers, their families or themselves. Leaving prison to reenter the world can cause a lot of confusion and emotions for the ex-offender. Being free leaves the responsibility up to them to make sure that they succeed in life and do not make the same mistakes twice.

The issue with aging prison members is that our legal system spends a majority of the money on our older inmates than our younger members. The three-strike rule in the United States is a big factor on why we have such a high rate with older inmates in our prisons. We imprison older members for life after they have committed more than three felonies regardless of the crime. That leads to our legal system being stuck with a lot of aging inmates. Our legal system has to pay more money in order to accommodate our older inmates because they require more medical needs. The Criminal justice system is spending a significant amount of money on our elderly sick inmates even though they are unable to commit any more crimes, leading to more problems

[The idea of compassionate release has been in practice in about thirty states in the union for many years. In all but three of the other states there were programs for the early release of terminally ill offenders (O’Meara, 2010). However, the limited budgets felt by many states has encouraged renewed discussion about compassionate and medical release of elderly inmates. In an article by Gregory J. O’Meara the change in policy in Wisconsin was examined. The changes in legislation expands the category of those eligible for sentencing modification and streamlines the procedure.

In the United States, there’s two types of incarcerations: jail vs prison and federal vs state. The key difference between all prison systems is the size, location, and quantity of inmates and the crime rate in each area. Overpopulation has been an issue for a while mainly because for the safety for the inmates, the Three Strike Law, and also, society feeling that rehabilitation isn’t what they want for convicted felons. In the future, the system of corrections should decrease the overpopulation issue, for the budget plan, and safety of inmates.

The solution of mass incarceration simply does not work anymore; it is an outdated concept that will be shown in this brief why it does not work and why it needs to be changed. There are several issues

The average incarceration of prisoners per year is 2,418,352, however more than half of those prisoners are not provided the proper care needed for their survival. (Cooper, Sabol, West 1) Several inmates are put in unjust situations and living conditions through prison systems that majorly effect their everyday lives. Many of these issues pose threats to the prisoners but are preventable through change in the system. Prison systems around the world are flawed and need to be reworked. Inmates are constantly surrounded by an unhealthy environment full of sexual assault, lack of good health, and unfair treatment based upon disability.