The Prison System And The Jail System

Whenever you imagine prison, you think up ideas and violent images that you have seen in the movies or on TV.   Outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water are only a small fraction of the number of horrible, yet “just” occurrences which are stereotypical of everyday life in prison.   Perhaps it could be a combination of your upbringing, horrific ideas about the punishment which our nation inflicts on those who violate its’ more serious laws that keeps people frightened just enough to lead a law-abiding life. Despite it’s success in keeping dangerous offenders off the streets, the American prison system fails in fulfilling its original design of restoring criminals to being productive members of society, it is also extremely expensive and wastes our precious tax dollars.

prisons. One you are arrested, jail is usually the first place that law enforcement officers

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 incarceration system is a structural foundation of punishment in which is formed by robust authoritarian power. The United States criminal justice system is not an institution to be underestimated, as it represents the highest incarceration rate of all world nations at a staggering 700 inmates per 100 thousand citizens (Krisberg, 7). Based on the social and political structure of democracy in the United States, it is argued that incarceration systems should follow the same roots of equality and freedom; however, the current format demonstrates otherwise. Currently, the United States criminal justice system faces issues of inhumane treatment due to the sheer overcrowding, which restrict inmates from just treatment within penitentiaries. This lack of equality standards was argued in the 2011 court case, Brown v. Plata, which California prison systems were forced to decrease prisons overcapacity rate from 175% to 137.5% due to the overwhelming amount of inmate mistreatment (Koehler, 3). In the decision of Brown v. Plata (2011), supreme court justice Anthony Kennedy argued dignity should be an organizing principle in the United States justice system and demonstrated in all correctional facilities. Anthony Kennedy, along with guest lecturer, Jonathan Simon characterize dignity as a fundamental piece to the incarceration system, and without it, inmates are victimized to cruel and inhumane treatment. Dignity does not consist of domination and unequal treatment of

Question: Discuss the history of the prison system in the United States. Be sure to identify the various stages that the American prison system has gone through. Also identify what problems were present with each stage as you see them.

All aspects of the prison system have increased exponentially since the 1970s: “population size, budget, staffing, and number of facilities” (Owen & Mobley, 2012, p. 46). Not only does California have one of the highest incarceration rates nationally and internationally, it also has one of the highest rates of recidivism. Prior to 2011, two-thirds of those released were re-incarcerated within 3 years, most often for technical parole violations – not new convictions (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [CDCR], 2013); the majority of rearrests in California occurred within one year (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder, 2014). In Brown v. Plata, the Supreme Court ruled that California prisons violated the 8th Amendment on the grounds

Gregg Barak (2007) pointed how American’s failing mental health care system has attributed the overrepresentation of the mentally ill in U.S jails “Because of the large-scale denationalization of mental health facilities in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of people struggling with mental illness on their own has risen over the past three decades, and social institutions have been less than responsive to their needs.” (Barak, 2007: 587) Steven Raphael and Michael Stoll (2013) drew attention to the overrepresentation of mentally ill offenders in U.S jails and prisons. “Approximately half of state and federal prison inmates and over 60 percent of jail inmates report having mental health problems or symptoms indicative of mental illness. The

Our incarceration system once pursued two firm yet opposing goals: retribution and rehabilitation. The Age of Enlightenment spurred an influx of imprisonment ideologies that soon congealed into a justifiable approach towards criminals. Jails, workhouses, and prisons aimed to reintegrate lawbreakers back into society but not before they were punished. The precarious balance between such contradictory motives unfortunately proved impossible. When did this system, once considered virtuous and just, become the hallmark of inequality? On September 27th, 2015, Pope Francis reflected upon this fact during a visit to a Philadelphia jail, “It is painful when we see prison systems, which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities.” This moving sentiment resonated with the American population, the majority failing to realize that one third of the world 's female prison population is incarcerated in the United States. If the magnitude of that figure does not astound you, maybe the fact that every 1 in 15 American prisoners are black, while only 1 in 106 prisoners are white, will. These statistics, reported by Harper’s Index, quantify the blatant corruption of the American incarceration system and the institutionalized racism America has sustained throughout it’s short life in places where we may not have suspected.

The base of the U.S judicial system is founded on justice and truth, yet there are flaws in the legal and prison systems. People go to prison for crimes they commit then released. They often come out angry and likely to repeat a crime again. To avoid a repeated offense, U.S prison system should implement an assimilation program, to ease convicts into society. So that assimilation is even more successful prisons should offer vocational education programs to inmates, to obtain working skills, benefiting them for the future once they are released.

Indeed, once upon a time the incarceration system was set in place with two firm duties: retribution and rehabilitation. When did these institutions, once considered virtuous and just, become the hallmark of inequality? On September 27th, 2015, Pope Francis remarked on a visit to a Philadelphia jail “It is painful when we see prison systems, which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities,” a moving sentiment that would soon resonate with the American population. Unbeknownst to many listening to his gripping words, ⅓ of the world 's female prison population is incarcerated in the United States. And if the magnitude of that figure does not astound you, maybe the fact that every 1 in 15 American prisoners are black, while only 1 in 106 prisoners are white, will. These statistics reported by Harper’s Index embody the blatant corruption of the American incarceration system and the innate institutionalized racism the U.S has sustained throughout history.

The Unites States of America’s prison system is a flawed mess. To open the eyes of our government we must first take a stand against unlawful government decisions, and show support for the greater good of society. What are our own tax-dollars paying for, what are the flaws in the justice/prison system, why is overcrowding in prisons causing tension, and what are ways our society and government can rebuild the system that has been destroyed over the years? Most criminals in prisons are not a danger to our society because they commit crimes just to use jail as a shelter, causing the overcrowding of prisons and wasting away of what we really should be paying for.

The United States is home to five percent of the world population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoner. There must be a change to the current prison system which is doing more harm than good in American society and must be reformed. Reasons for this claim are that American prisons are too overcrowded with inmates, which creates a dangerous and unhuman environment. The cost to run a prison has gotten too expensive for tax payer pockets, and lastly the prison system is more as a punishment instead of rehabilitation with about sixteen percent of inmates most serious offence being drug charges. Prisons fall short of reforming criminals and the government is obligated to completely reform the prison systems in the United States.

With the termination of state psychiatric hospitals and the decline in funding for mental health benefits, many individuals with severe mental illnesses are entangled in the criminal justice system. Moreover, the country's jails and prisons have become hospitals for people with mental illnesses, many of whom also battle with substance abuse. There is a crucial need to repair a defective system. The criminal justice system must address the mass incarceration and impede public expenses that do not generate beneficial results in terms of providing valuable services and keeping extremely mentally ill persons out of the countries prisons and jails. Concentrating on this inadequacy will require the state and county policymakers to join forces; developing

The correctional system in America is an umbrella term referring to a range of mandates that entails the management, supervision, and rehabilitation of convicted offenders. These mandates are often carried out through incarceration, probation, or parole, while prisons are the most popular correctional agency in America. Prisons in America were among some of the first public buildings established in the New World. Early prisons were not considered “houses of punishment,” but were rather referred to as temporary holding cells. The history of U.S. prisons from the late 1700s to the late 1800s was marked by a shift from a penitentiary system primarily concerned with rehabilitation to one concerned more with warehousing prisoners. The failure of reform minded wardens to justify rehabilitation caused state legislatures to set economic profitability as the new goal for prisons.

Prison reform is a significant issue that the United States government should enforce. It would aid in creating a more organized system of incarceration. Prison reform is an attempt to improve, change, or eliminate certain conditions in prisons. It is believed that it should be enforced due to the cases of overcrowding, lack of proper education, and the lack of rehabilitation that could inform prisoners of societal values. Prison reform would increase the self-esteem that was diminished in the prisoner’s personal history. Prison reform is significantly important as it will heighten the amount of self-worth in the prisoner and cause a decrease in the population of prisoners who return to a life of crime. Recidivism, or chance of recommitting a crime, will therefore be reduced. Prisoner who are released will not have all the negative ideals or influence from the prison that is usually spread until their release. Prison reform will help society if the increase in education and decrease in overcrowding is ensued upon the prison system with this policy.