The Pros And Cons Of Prisons

Regardless of what you might see on TV the verdict of “not guilty by the reason of insanity” is an immensely rare plea for anyone. A majority of offenders with a mental illness still end up incarcerated. Even though the United States only makes up 5% of the world's population we account for 25% of the world's prisoners. Which converts to 2.2 million prisoners and about 1.2 million of those people have a mental illness (Fellner). Mental illness within our jails and prisons has become very prevalent within our correctional systems over the last 10 years. The number of men and women who have a mental illness that end up in jail or prison grows day by day. For those who do not go into the prison with a mental illness, will very likely develop some form of mental illness after being released from incarceration. The mentally ill do not belong in prison, the purpose for incarceration is retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation, and though it is originally meant for all of these purposes, it has lost its meaning. Correctional facilities are not built to provide treatment for the mentally ill, and the people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness cannot get the long-term treatment they need inside of a prison cell.

Despite what you may think, private prisons have existed in the United States dating all the way back to 1852, beginning with the San Quentin state prison. Private prisons did not truly become as common as they are today though until President Ronald Reagan led a large-scale effort for increased privatization around the United States during the 1980’s. One result of this effort was a large upswing in the number of private prisons. As a result of private prisons becoming more common place, it has been seen that compared to prisons run by the government, length of sentences have gone up within private prisons, while at the same time the treatment of prisoners has gone down. This topic interests me because I believe that it should never be in the best interests of such a large and powerful group to have as many people as possible in prison for as long as possible. In my opinion, it is not ethically correct on a basic human level to ever have it in people’s best interests to keep other people in prison. I chose this topic because I have always held a strong opinion on this topic but have never had the time to do extensive research on it and either confirm or dispel my current beliefs about it.

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration among the developed countries, with 2.2 million currently in jails and prisons. The number of inmates with mental disorders has been increasing during the past three decades, most likely the result of the deinstitutionalization of the state mental health system. Correctional institutions have become the de facto state mental hospitals. There are more seriously and persistently mentally ill people in prisons than in all state hospitals in the United States. When incarcerated these people face many disadvantages on top of their sickness. They do not receive the psychiatric help they need, nor do they receive proper medication or therapy. In addition, the guards do not know how to properly deal with people with mental disabilities. With so many issues in the criminal justice system there is no room for improvement for these inmates.

Michael Tarver is a 55 year old man who is serving a life sentence for murder in Atlanta, Georgia. Tarver is a diabetic with circulation problems, while in jail he got a cut on his leg. After receiving this cut he went months in confinement without proper care and because of his diabetes he was prone to infection and had to have his leg amputated. In 2012 Tarver filed a lawsuit written in longhand and filed without the consultation of an attorney. Dr. Chiquita Fye is the 65 year old woman who has been the medical director at this prison since 2006. This “lawsuit asserted that Fye was deliberately indifferent to his injury as he languished for months in the prison infirmary. Deliberate indifference to a prison inmate’s medical needs violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” (The Associated Press) Many inmates have filed lawsuits against this doctor all complaining that she neglected them of proper care. And there is so many other cases out there showing that prisons do not give proper care to inmates who need it.

The U.S. prison system is one of many great controversies when compared to other correctional systems. America’s prison population has increased by 700% (2.4 million current inmates) since the start of the war on drugs in 1971. As a result of this “war”, people that fall into the racial minority have suffered as a direct consequence of unjust legislation. Our prison system is known for its overrepresentation of minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics. This unfortunately gives these groups of people a perennial negative stigma as a result. I argue that the U.S. prison industrial-complex emphatically displays signs of prejudice and racism and disproportionately incarcerates people of color at a rate higher than whites. Yes, there are skeptics who think “the left’s prison-complex” is wrong about their theory of mass incarceration but the statistical data and concrete facts in support of my argument are very compelling.

The Prison System does not nurture the rehabilitation of prisoners well. A vindictive prison culture is created that nurtures violence. The United States prison system has the largest rate of people to return to prison (Williams). For many prisoners incarceration makes them more likely to return to prison (ACLU) For others prison leads to traumatic violations of rights such as rape, malnutrition, and systematic disparity.

As the number of prisoners have constantly been rising at an exceedly fast pace, several governments around the world have embraced the use of private prisons. Private prisons are confinements run by a third party, through an agreement with the government. In the United States, it is estimated that there are over 1.6 million inmates, of that there are 8% that are housed in privately-operated prisons. While the other 92% are housed in the public prison system. Private prisons have existed since the 19th century. Their use increased in the 20th century and continues to rise in some states. When a government makes an agreement with a private prison, it makes payments per prisoner or vacancy in jail on a regular basis for maintenance of the prisoners. Privatization became involved due to the fact that prisons were becoming overpopulated. Public prisons contracted the confinement and care of prisoners with other organizations. Due to the cost-effectiveness of private firms, prisons began to contract out more services, such as medical care, food service, inmate transportation, and vocational training. Over time private firms saw an opportunity for expansion and eventually took over entire prison operations. However, now their security, how they treat the inmates, and their true cost effectiveness has come into question

Incarceration strives to isolate offenders from society but does not provide adequate therapy to change the mental states and behaviors of criminals. The recidivism rate, the rate of known and recorded relapse into criminal behavior after release from jail, proves that offenders need more than just isolation to change their behavior and eliminate their dangers to society. Communities need not only to provide help and pay attention to offenders with short sentences because of their earlier release than others. In California, an increase in parole grants in 2014 has resulted in 2,000 murderers, classified as the “highest Criminal History Category, VI,” returning to society with no therapy or assistance from reentry programs. 80% of offenders in the most serious criminal history category, the criminal group with the highest recidivism rate, relapsed and returned to prison within five years of release, and 60% of offenders returned to prison within three years of release (Prisoners and Prisoner Re-Entry, 2007; Sanchez, 2014; Sipes, 2017; St John, 2014). Overall, police officers arrest ex-offenders up to forty-five times more than they arrest members of the non-criminal population (Przybylski, 2012). Criminals need specialized psychological treatment to change their behaviors and make them safe to return to their communities. As recidivism becomes increasingly more problematic in today's society, criminal psychologists analyze the motives, incarceration experiences, and mental

Our prison systems are outrageous. Dealing with false sentencing, death penalty, rules and regulations, inmates, well-being, and how their being treated in these prisons. Yes, they are criminals, but they are not supposed to be beat and uncared for in these places, they are supposed to be there serving time for the crimes they have committed.

In a valiant attempt to clean the streets of societies, criminals are put away in rehabilitation institutions called prisons. It was a belief that they would learn their mistakes, repent and rejoin societies as better people. On the contrary, what happened was the cultivation of an environment leading to the evolution of prison subculture. In a constant power struggle amongst nations, politicians and people within society, many fail to perceive or notice a battle of another sort. That is the battle of those trying to survive in an environment predominant with racism, hate, violence and gangs. Prison subculture evolved, when doing time wasn't just about doing your time but became an intricate experience of politics, power,

American Prisons poorly represent our criminal justice system; due to not have clearly outlined goals associated for its offenders. Also, look at the cost to lock up and house this country’s offenders, it has increased significantly over the past few decades. With the two above stated issues, we have a huge problem in America. Other countries look at our justice system as though we have got it figured out and, we may have a better idea of Justice than most countries, because, well we are no longer chopping off hands for stealing anymore. While there are some prisons that are too harsh, there are some that make life way too easy. Therefore, we must create a baseline for all prisons in this country. In order to decrease the percentages of repeat offenders and expedite the out-processing of small time criminals, American prisons are in dire need of help, especially

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.

America loves to be number one, but sometimes being number one isn’t good thing. The most problematic chart that America tops is that of incarceration rate. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, 693 out of every 100,000 people in the United States are incarcerated. For perspective, out of all the founding members of NATO, the United Kingdom is in second place behind the US with an incarceration rate of 145 per 100,000 people. The US doesn’t just hold the lead, she’s lapping her peers in Western society. This startling statistic is the result of decades of bad policy throughout all levels of government.

As compelling as all the three theories involved in the incarceration of criminals are, some hold more merit than others due to the persuasive strategies and points they put across. In this respect, I feel that prison as a school of crime deserves the most merit of the three observed. Low-risk inmates who were not career criminals upon conviction seem to be the most vulnerable candidates to the negative effects of incarceration and recidivism. The prison culture found within every prison results in prisonization affecting every inmate. Misconduct in the sense of definition per institution is nearly unavoidable in some cases. It becomes a matter of not getting caught as opposed to zero engagement. Every person in prison is exposed to enhanced