The Whole Life In Prison Book Report

On November 5, 2015 at approximately 1000 hours I took a jail tour of the Santa Cruz Correctional facility on Water Street, with Melinda Payne as my tour guide. There were a few things that stood out to me during the jail tour. First, I observed how clean and orderly the jail was. There were no bad odors and the walls, floors, and windows were well kept. Personally, I try to maintain a clean and organized workspace therefore the jail environment fit me well. Second, I noticed the overall size of facility. The jail is relatively small in size and was broken into different sections. Personally, I like this layout because I believe it allows for better communication to inmates and staff, better response to major incidents, and quick ability to

For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families

Proceedings of The National Conference On Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2009 University of Wisconsin La-Crosse La-Crosse, Wisconsin April 16 - 18, 2009

Leonard Peltier is a Native American man currently imprisoned for crimes he did not commit. Peltier is currently serving time in Leavenworth, Kansas, and it is likely that he will live the rest of his life in prison. Examining Peltier’s experiences through several different community systems frameworks will push human service professionals to help not only individuals but whole communities as well. In particular, the ecological systems theory, historical trauma, and the theory of social capital are helpful in making sense of Peltier’s experiences, and seeing them not as random events but as the culmination of years of mistreatment, oppression, and marginalization.

Journalist, Ted Conover expresses an interest in writing a book about the lives of prison guards by proposing to the New York Department of Correctional Services to interview corrections officers, but his access is denied. He then decides to immerse himself into the culture and apply for a correctional officer position. After a brief training, Conover is randomly assigned to Sing Sing as a “newjack” or a rookie, to one of the most infamous maximum security male prisons in the United States. He meets other officers with goals of becoming involved in law enforcement; ex-military looking for a demanding, disciplined and tactical position; and those who just need a steady job with dependable benefits for their families. Some of these individuals are frantic enough to commute hours on end to make a living wage.

The United States prison system struggles eminently with keeping offenders out of prison after being released. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than third of all prisoners who were arrested within five years of released were arrested within six months after release, with more than half arrested by the end of the year (Hughes, Wilson, & Beck, 2001). Among prisoners released in 2005 in 23 states with available data on inmates returned to prison, about half (55 percent) had either a parole or probation violation or an arrest for a new offense within three years that led to imprisonment (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder, 2014). Why are there many ex-offenders going back to prison within the first five years of release? Are there not enough resources to help offenders before or/and after being released from prison.

New Life Prison is a private prison located in an unincorporated area of Brentwood, CA New Life prison is a dormitory setting and a minimum security prison for level one and two male inmate population of 500. New Life Prison is too focused on lowering the recidivism rate in CA. New Life prison is a new private prison and receives funding from grants and donations. New Life mission is to focus on the level one and two inmate’s within the state prison system. New Life mission is to help these individuals move on passed the crime they have committed and began to live their life again. In 2004 Folsom state prison was able to move their level one and two inmates to a minimum security facility (Department of Correction 2015). Most of these inmates

After reading A Woman Doing Life : Notes from a Prison for Women, I learned a lot more than I thought I knew about the life of women in jails or prisons. Erin George , the main character , gives readers an ethnographic insight on the struggles women face in prison. The hardships women face in prison consist of, and are limited to harsh shakedowns, poor medical treatment, and changes within the prison system that intentionally dehumanizes women inmates. Erin George before prison was a middle class women who seem to live a decent life, she is a mother of 3 and had a great support system within her family. She was happily married until she was convicted of murdering her husband which landed her six-hundred-three years in prison.

The United States has the largest population of prisoners of any nation in the world. As of 2013 there were more than 1.57 million inmates in jails and prisons throughout the U.S.(The United States) In the book You Are Going To Prison, by Jim Hogshire, a verbal picture is painted of the life of a prisoner. Published in 1994 by the publishing company Loompanics Unlimited, this book talks about the experience of being incarcerated from the time you are stopped by police and arrested to potentially facing the death penalty.

I remember a time when I was working on the med-surg floor. We had an inmate who was admitted as a patient with cirrhosis of the liver to remain in the hospital for a while when an inmate is admitted they are automatically placed on opt out list which means no one cans know he is in the hospital not even a family. Well on this particular day his son somehow I found out where he was located he attempted to go to the room and the guard would not let him in the room. The sun became very loud and shouted you go to let me in that room or I am calling my boys. It was apparent he was in a game we all was afraid he was going to shoot the place up I happen to be patient I called security which seemed to make him even madder once they got to the floor

This is a very strong piece written and published from the New York university Law school. All three of its authors are college professors. They all are professors of public policy and research at their schools. Again in this article we have the numbers of people release each year from prisons. It explain the difficulties these ex-inmates face when brought back into society. So this article starts with the providing stats of the ex-inmates that actually do find work after being release. It also goes into details about the factors that limit employment and earnings among ex-offenders. It explains how most inmates lack in education and also work experience (depends on the length of their lockup). It also uses number like 70 percent of inmates

  thoroughly enjoyed your discussion post as it detailed many aspects that coincide with this class. I worked in a jail for three months before getting assigned to a different unit and my short-term experience was beneficial within the new unit. The world behind bars is definitely an eye opener as it is a complete diverse world. I appreciate how you noted that people can arrive at a jail in any condition as they do, but they must meet the criteria before they are extradited to a state or federal prison. Good

Prison is an institution for the confinement of persons convicted of criminal offenses. Throughout history, most societies have built places in which to hold persons accused of criminal acts pending some form of trial. The idea of confining persons after a trial as punishment for their crimes is relatively new.

that are stained by the blood of inmates, from the vicious brawls and punch ups. Above the

Prisons have many policies set in place to help aid inmates’ with adjusting to prison life. No matter what policies are set in place to help aid inmates they will always have a hard time especially for first timers. According to Frank Schmalleger and John Ortiz Smykla (2009) new inmates face major problems because of the loss of liberty, lack of material possessions, the depravation of materials and services, the lack of heterosexual relationships, and feeling unsecured. I think that inmates can be helped with the adjustment process by initiating and enforcing a program to deal with such issues. I think I would eliminate policies that are designed to make prison life unpleasant and concentrate more on policies that help inmates progress in their educational and rehabilitation programs. One policy that is very important to inmates is to feel safe in their prison environment. As a result there have been many debates on the rights of the inmates. I think the most important policy I would enforce is educational programs that will