Working With Prisoners In Prison Life And Human Worth

After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests.

Hassine begins his narrative as he is entering prison but this time as an inmate. Prior to his incarceration, Hassine was an attorney (Hassine, 2011). Even then as an attorney, the high walls of prison intimated Hassine (Hassine, 2011). As Hassine was being processed into the system, he expressed how he systematically became hopeless from the very prison structure itself as well as because of the intimidation he felt by uniforms. Prisons of the past actually had a goal to aid individuals through rehabilitation by instilling new values in order to correct the wrongs that one may have committed during their lifetime but today this is no longer true. . Hassine draws colorful depictions of how dim and unfamiliar a prison can be in which instills fear in an individual soon as he or she

In my experience of reading the text, Behind a Convicts Eyes, I have learned many things about prison life. It has in fact changed my perception of what I thought prison life was like. Prison is in fact a fight for survival, and the weaker inmates will be used and abused by the stronger population. To clarify what I mean, many of the weaker prisoners are sometimes expected to pay for protection from other inmates, or they join prison gangs to be safe. According to the text, it would appear that the inmates actually have more control over their existence than I would have thought that they do. When I use this term, I mean it in the sense that the inmates use the system to their advantage, or at

Being placed into prison negatively and sometimes positively changes lives. Jimmy Santiago Baca writes in his memoir A Place to Stand his experiences involving the negative and positive attributes. Within prison his whole life changes as he puts in the effort to transform his life through writing. In his book he writes, “I became a different man, not because prison was good for me, but in spite of its destructive forces. In prison I learned to believe in myself and to dream for a better life” (Baca 4). His poems, “I am Offering This Poem”, “Who Understands Me but Me”, and “Immigrants in Our Own Land” convey multiple messages of character transformation that the author depicts within his prison memoir A Place to Stand.

Can words change person’s thoughts from desperation, violence, to peace and normality within a dehumanizing prison? Some prisoners spending short to long term sentenced, sometimes lose themselves in a world of violence and become worse off when coming into the prison system, than how they used to be before prison life. Trying to hold on to any bit of sanity or respect for humanity becomes an everyday struggle. Sometimes the smallest thing can help prevent the feeling, of going over that edge of no return from a dreadfulness act of death.

An overwhelming majority of the American prisoner population are male. Most prison inmates are under the age of forty. A majority of the prisoners are African American. However, African Americans outnumber white Americans in the general population, therefore the number of African American prisoners are higher.

The United States is the world leader in both positive and negative arenas. As a nation, we are leading the world in the number of incarcerated individuals. While the ethnic composition of each state will vary, documentation shows that “African Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate that is 5.1 % the imprisonment of whites.” (Nellis, 1) Consequently, most sentences are issued at the state level and not the federal level. In our attempt to be tough on crime and rid our nation of her drug problem and criminal action, we have created a new more pressing issue, an unethical system of law and society.

The ethical treatment of prisoners is a surprisingly contentious topic, considering how much is known about the conditions and contexts in which human beings function optimally, both physically and mentally. However, ethical discussions frequently have very little to do with what best allows human beings to thrive and function, but instead concern themselves with formulating rules and standards of acceptable behavior, usually out of the mistaken belief that these rules or standards represent some kind of objective, universal ethics. A problem arises when dealing with prisoners, because in many people's minds, the crime or offense of which a prisoner is accused warrants the denial of a certain subset of their rights, but there is not universal acceptance of which rights may be denied and to what extent, due to a disconnect between different modes of ethical thought. Believing in objective, universal ethical standards actually means that anything is justifiable; because these imagined objective standards do not actually exist, people are free to imagine them however they see fit. More utilitarian ethics rooted in conceptions of the social contract are far more useful for determining social policy, because they do not purport to represent objective ethical standards; rather, they acknowledge that ethics and morality are socially constructed, and as such they seek to rationally determine the best practices for achieving any particular goal. By examining two especially

Gresham M. Sykes describes the society of captives from the inmates’ point of view. Sykes acknowledges the fact that his observations are generalizations but he feels that most inmates can agree on feelings of deprivation and frustration. As he sketches the development of physical punishment towards psychological punishment, Sykes follows that both have an enormous effect on the inmate and do not differ greatly in their cruelty.

You are there 23 hours a day, day in and day out, year in and year out. When leaving your cage, you are subjected to a dehumanizing strip search which includes a genital and anal probe, and then handcuffed. You are completely under the control of prison guards who carry pepper gas and long, black batons.” Jim Bencivenga, author of the article, “Inside looking Out”, published by the Christian Science Monitor, can concur with this inmate’s experience by stating, “What the public gets for its money is a mean, ugly place that controls, limits, and dehumanizes.” Taken from the perspective of an author and an inmate, it is apparent that the prison system can be a nasty place to be, which can have a psychological toll on an inmate, and creates a greater reason for a prisoner to seek a sort of escape from it all when they may have nothing; such as art. Most of the inmates claim that the art they create is just a way of expressing themselves and they are not worried about the profit, like James Allridge from Axtman’s article for example. Allridge says, “My art allows me to give back something

The treatment of the prison population in the United States and around the world has reached a significant amount of salience in the press. Part of the reason that prisons and the treatment of prisoners has gain so much attention is there are extreme cases available in which governments have gone so far as to torture inmates in hopes of gaining intelligence information generally in regards to terrorism activities; more specifically, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has received substantial amounts of press and has been a central political issue. However, beyond torture and the ethical issues inherent in the practice, there are countless of issues that are present in the treatment of a wider population of prisoners who are incarcerated for things other than national security.

The ethical theory of utilitarianism and the perspective on relativism, of prison labor along with the relativism on criminal behavior of individuals incarcerated are two issues that need to be addressed. Does the utilitarianism of prisoner’s right laws actually protect them? Or are the unethical actions of the international and states right laws exploiting the prison labor? Unethical procedures that impact incarcerated individuals and correctional staff, the relativism of respect as people and not just prisoner’s; the safety of all inmates and correctional staff, are all issues worth continuous reflection.

After reviewing these surveys, I feel much more aware of what is happening in California and the power I could have as a citizen. I feel it is very essential to be aware of propositions that will be/have been passed, even if I cannot vote yet. It is also important to know the effects the propositions can have on others and myself. Although most propositions have not affected me, I still have opinions on them.

When an individual is introduced to the prison life, after violating rules and laws, he or she must come to terms about the journey he or she are about to take behind bars in prison. No one can save them, or do their time for them, and a majority of their freedom has been stripped from them either temporarily or permanently. Prison life deals with all walks of life and is not discriminative toward any race. In this paper I will discuss my perspective on prison life, policies I would enforce an inmate’s need for respect, changes on correctional policy, and why people commit crimes.

Our society tends to jump to conclusions and make assumptions of prisoners. Despite what they have committed and how severe it may be they are still human. We look at them as if they are inhumane because they are in prison. They still deserve some of the rights that they had before being convicted. I’m not saying that I am okay with the crimes they have committed but I am okay with them having a little more of their basic rights.