The Role Of Punishment In Prisons

Discuss: The tension between rehabilitation and punishment in an incarceration setting. What happens when one is emphasized over the other? Is it possible to strike a balance?

The concept of punishment has been debated throughout history by politicians, philosophers, and everyday citizens. One such philosopher, Jeremy Bentham argued that all unwarranted acts done upon another person is evil, which would classify punishment as an evil (Pollock, 2017). Over the years, punishment has become sterilized by the courts that were established when the criminal justice system became more organized. The judicial system now has the responsibility of punishment in the form of a sentence, which is the penalty imposed on a convicted offender during the sentencing in a criminal trial (Schmalleger, & Smykla, 2017). However, the roles of sentencing have been interchanged and argued overtime between the ideas of either to punish or to reform the offender (Schmalleger, & Smykla, 2017).

In the world we live in today there is, has been, and always will be an infinite amount of controversies throughout society. Perhaps one of the most important, being that it could jeopardize our existence, is the debate of how to deal with what most everyone would consider unwanted. The members of the prison population can range from petty thieves to cold hearted serial killers; so the conflict arises on how they can all be dealt with the most efficient way. The sides can result in a wide range of opinions such as simply thinking a slap on the wrist is sufficient; to even thinking that death is the only way such a lesson can be learned. While many believe it is ok to punish and torture prisoners, others feel that cruel treatment of prison

Barbara, I like your analysis and it is a true that this is a broken system and the system is not offering any reform programs to rectify this issue. If the prisons are so overpopulated, the majorities are African American males who are incarcerated, and the laws become stricter after the fact, what type of precedent does this set? We have over forty percent African American males who are incarcerated, and instead of lobbying for a petition to create and implement reform programs, the media and the government continue to promote African Americans as being a threat and a cancer to society (Stanford Report, 2014).

The history of punishment in America has had multiple changes in order for the rules and regulations to adapt to societies changing ways. The most common punishment is jail time or imprisonment, however in this date and age time punishment is not the only option to punish a criminal of the society, probation, parole, house arrest and even being put in solitary confinement, or worse the death penalty are options. With this in mind we must as a society and criminal justice system be able to apply fair living standards and punishment by recognizing what punishment is best suited for an inmate and to also be able to come back into society fully understanding the moral codes and regulations placed to be a successful member of society.

The general points of view of this article emphasize the cruelty of the reprimands by the use of excessive violence that has been executed by correctional guards against inmates in the prisons in United States and England. According to the article, correctional guards have perpetrated punishments that have injured inmates at all levels, including “everything from black eyes, contusions, lacerations, lost teeth, fractured noses and ribs, broken arms and jaws, as well as head trauma” (Gross, 2008) in both, state prisons and county jails in several states of the United States and England.

In this critical review, I will start by identifying the area of punishment within criminal justice, looking at different methods of punishment from a historical view and contemporary view. I will be looking at the changes of punishment in society and will be evaluating how these changes relate to contemporary practices. When assessing these changes, social and historical aspects that are relevant will be considered when researching and analysing information. I will look at sources such as book chapters, journals, and articles to support my arguments and to help me gain knowledge on the history of punishment which will allow me to review the changes of punishment in society. I will also draw some attention to the continuities of punishment throughout history and how this is similar in society today.

“Bad people deserve punishment.” This is an almost universal tendency within society: to punish those who threaten society at large by either separation or harming them. People are sent to prison to face the consequences for breaking the law and to prevent them from committing crime again as well as to deter others from breaking the law. Prevention, rehabilitation and punishment form the three pillars of the prison system. Prevention is an essential part of the prison system because it averts the general public from committing any crime by creating a “price to pay,” or cost to their personal freedom. Prevention involves not only protecting society from dangerous criminals but also protecting the criminals from themselves. This provides the means for the second pillar, which is rehabilitation. There is a tendency to think of prisoners as something very external to society since after all there are large, concrete walls and sharp razor wires between them and communities. Yet, millions of prisoners are released each year. Today’s prisoners are tomorrow’s neighbors, so rehabilitation should be the most important piece of the justice system but, unfortunately, it is not in the United States.

Penal harm is defined as harsher form of depriving one of liberty. This notion is that individuals, mainly in prison or reformatory, during their custodial sentence should endure additional pain and suffering in addition to their basic rights being stripped away. In the United States, 25 billion dollars a year is allocated to the penal harm bureaucracy (Clear, ). With so much money going to a social program that punishes adults, does prisons provide a sufficient and rational sanctioned harm imposed on individuals that it would be deemed justifiable.

It has to be imposed and administered by someone of authority from a legal system against the particular crime committed.

In Chapter 10 “Corrections”, it went over the history, different kinds of punishments, how it affected the inmates, and how the corrections system is now and how different it has changed since the first penitentiary. Being in prison has always been an act of punishment and gives time to the inmate to reflect their actions. Prison isn’t a place to relax and enjoy oneself, an inmate needs to do work or will suffer the consequences. We will look more into the different kinds of systems and how we got to where our system is at today.

When considering unintended consequences of punishment in the correctional system I choose the following four examples:

This meant a prisoner would spend 23 hours a day in a cell all by themselves. This led to insanity and sometimes suicide. I feel that while a murderer is awaiting trial to decide his sentencing, they should be put in permanent lockdown. They shouldn’t get to enjoy life while they took other lives. If this type of containment sends them to suicide or insanity, then that would be another form of acceptable punishment.

As much as I would like to agree with harsh punishment, these inmates will land a spot back into our communities once their sentence is up. Knowing that these criminals are reentering our communities with a more rage and violence, because of the psychological damage, is terrifying for our communities. Reducing violence should be the primary goal of our prison system. Our personal justice should not be so wrapped around our current victims that we choose to ignore the victims that we create in the future. Sending someone to prison will never undo the crime that has been previously committed. Instead of creating some subconscious feeling that justice will be served behind bars we should take precedence over preventing a much bigger epidemic within our

Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison is perhaps Michel Foucault’s most well known and most acclaimed book. Initially published in 1975 under the title Surveiller et Punir: Naissance de la prison, the book is one of many philosophical histories of social issues by Foucault; other titles include Histories of Madness and Medicine, The Order of Things, and, From Archaeology to Genealogy, all of which were published before Discipline and Punish, and History of Modern Sexuality, and Sex in the Ancient World, which were published after.