Prison System in America, Essay Example

Introduction

Every day from the news programs or crime alerts we hear about various criminal activities going on in the community. The overall crime rates remain high over the last couple of years with a significant number of criminals being put behind the bars almost every day. It is evident that the National Justice System is in need of serious reforms, which will improve the existing situation and bring safety and comfort to the law obedient citizens. However, for that to happen, the current situation should be assessed and closely looked at. The aim of this research paper is to analyze the current conditions of the US prisons, rehabilitative programs used in the prisons as correctional facilities, recidivism programs, and the reentry of prisoners in the community. The paper will further examine how the safety of the public is assured upon release from detention facilities.

The purpose of Prisons in US Justice System

According to the U.S. Justice department, at least one out of every 32 adult Americans is in jail. Ryan King, a policy analyst at The Sentencing Project explains that “We send more people to prison, for more different offences, for longer periods of time than anybody else”. America constitutes only five percent of the world’s populations, yet more crimes are committed in the US than in any other country in the world. One the one hand, high crime rates in the United States can be attributed to the citizens’ cultural backgrounds that are characterized by various social behaviors, which are difficult to be addressed into one cultural background like Japanese or any European nation. Consequently, with such form of cultural diversity, people commit crimes of different nature. As a result, criminals are being imprisoned with the expectations of them getting reformed through rigorous rehabilitation program as well as safeguarding the general population from possible criminal threats (Brown & Pratt, 2000).

On the other hand, however, another possible reason for the high numbers of imprisoned criminals is the mandatory sentencing laws which are responsible for sending offenders to prison. These laws apply even to non-violent drug offenders resulting in all of them being put behind the bars.

Moreover, some kind of capitalistic aspect arises in regards to the high numbers of imprisoned people in the US. This phenomenon can be referred to as a form of mandatory labor enrollment, which is characterized by the existence of so-called tycoons who have invested heavily in prisons with the purpose of foreseen prisoners’ working perspectives. This factor of internal business in US prisons propagates the US justice system to send many people to jail. Therefore, internal collaboration of prison officials exempts these tycoons from paying unemployment insurance and salaries, from receiving labor complaints at the same time they enjoy have full-time workers in their business industries (Lieb, 1994).

The Current conditions in US prisons

It is believed that the prisons serve as a social control system that is required to reform prisoners to become law obedient. Yet this is not true for the US. The current conditions in the American prisons are quite inhumane. It has been propagated by high degree of racism encounters in various police departments throughout the country. Bryams & Jones (2001) notes that any resistance from a prisoner results in isolation from the other members since it is believed that they are segregated because of what they are. Therefore, the state prisons use some kind of control unit, which is being referred to as the sensory deprivation, which was experimented originally as a behavioral modification system. The prisoners are locked up in cages with the number of walking hours depending on the number of years each prisoner is sentenced for. The phone calls are limited to only five minutes every six months and communications in terms of mail are strictly censored as well, which basically means that the routine is highly monitored. Prisoners are always stripped in the process of searching that extends to the genital parts. Such kind of conditions might lead to psychological brutality as well as psychological torture of the brain with prisons being humiliated and embarrassed by the search methods used and one’s privacy being distorted. These conditions are adversely used in US prisons, which, therefore, prompts the Human Rights Watch Groups, Amnesty International to be concerned among other Human right lobby groups (Bryams & Jones, 2001).

Another aspect of the alarming prison conditions is the existence of internal classism. The poor prisoners are being exploited by the rich prisoners in terms of resources, status and individual wellbeing. The poorer one is, the higher chances of suffering and being exploited are as compared to the conditions of the rich prisoners.

All in all, there is a sufficient need to reduce prison abuse in the American prisons. The above described prison conditions need to get the attention of the State Justice System with the high purpose of making prisons habitable for human beings (socialistworker.org).

Programs which seek to reduce recidivism in modern prisons

Recidivism refers to the process through which a prisoner commits a crime after being released and, as a result, gets rearrested. There are high rates of recidivism in many prisons in the US. It is also notable to mention that the crime committed is not always the same as the one the person has already served the prison sentence for. However, the criminals, being rearrested for committing the same offence, are mostly the property dealers, sex offenders and car hackers (Petersilia, 2000). So it has not yet been established if spending more time in prison contributes to recidivism or not.  Although, it is still evident that prisoners, who have been released, are more prone to committing crime then the rest of the population. Therefore, these calls for the establishment of the better developed and precisely established recidivism reduction programs.

Many recidivism programs have been devised in the last years. “Juvenile awareness Project” in New Jersey, or what is known as the “Scare Straight”, is a good example of one of them. Such programs open up a perspective to the teenagers of what they might encounter in prison if being convicted, potentially falling into victims of racism, sodomy, homosexuals, terrible and horrifying violence. Such kinds of programs admonish people from committing crimes repeatedly, resulting in reduced recidivism rates (Martinson, 1974).

There is also a need for the community efforts to reduce recidivism. This can be carried out by community supervision, which can provide programs and services that encourage criminals to be law obedient and self-supporting citizens. Such programs and activities should be expanded towards the ex-prisoners and the restoration of the community.

Another program is the “Boot camp” in US military. The methods that are being used there are drill patterns, physical training, discipline and encouragement of hard work. These camps rehabilitate people to be focused on skillful programs and concentrate on educative aspect of life (MacKenzieet al. 1995).

These programs should, therefore, put into consideration the set of the offenders’ needs, in this way addressing those needs into the best way possible. Such programs make the released prisoner better equipped in terms of skills and education, giving them an opportunity of making necessary choices in life (Martinson, 1974).

Rehabilitative programs in prisons

There should be a seismic shift in rehabilitative programs in the US prison systems. For instance, one of the steps toward such shift was California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other legislative leaders’ 2007 reform to remove prisons from remote locations that breed crime to smaller and better improved for rehabilitation facilities, which are designed to enhance safety of the public.

Another form of rehabilitation programs includes religion. It was best applied in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The current generation uses the religion as a form of altering the behaviors of offenders. These programs are basically meant to reduce recidivism. Earlier in the eighteenth century, the inmate was seen as the sinner.  Physical form of punishment was applied to those who defied rules. Most staff who was assigned the duty of attending to the prisoners was the clergymen to save the souls of prisoners. After the civil war, secular methods came up such as the scientific techniques, which were thought to save the social problems that could in turn reduce recidivism. Therefore, religion facilitates the provision of spiritual and economic resources especially for former offenders (Andrews, Zinger, Hoge, Bonta, Gendreau, & Cullen, 1990)

In Texas’s prisons, treatment programs have been introduced that facilitate the reduction of prisoners gradually with time. Such programs seek to reduce the rate at which prisoners consume drugs and alcohol after serving the sentence. The transition treatment centers facilitate the convicts to reduce the intake of drugs once they get out of prison, meanwhile preventing them from committing probable drug related crimes, hence reducing recidivism. Other programs that help rehabilitate prisoners include the practice and use of specialized counseling programs that nurture the convicts from criminal life. However, such forms of rehabilitative centers are quiet expensive. For instance, Texas’s spend a total of $227 million in establishing the program.

Probation reforms also facilitate rehabilitative efforts for convicts as their behavioral character is being observed for a certain period of time before being approved to be rehabilitated. Only after such kind of observation the convicts are then being released to the community. This has facilitated the decongestion of prisons in the U.S.

Re-introduction to society programs

Re-introduction of prisoners to the society refers to programs that help convicts return to their respective communities after a period of incarceration from a detention centre in a process of rehabilitation. It is very critical for the current system of the US government to introduce and accept programs that allow prisoners to re-introduce themselves to the society. The US justice department is making numerous efforts in ensuring that inmates are ushered into to the society in a stage that is referred to as “Transition from Prison Project”, which consists of http://www.nicic.gov/Images/image_tpcimodel.png mobilizing interdisciplinary, collaborative leadership teams, engaging in a rational planning process, integrating stages of offenders’ processing through the justice/corrections system, involving non-correctional stakeholders, assuring that transitioning offenders are provided basic survival resources such as identification documents, implementing valid offender assessments, targeting effective interventions, expanding the traditional roles of correctional staff beyond custody as well as developing the capacity to measure change (Transition from Prison to Community). The correctional centers have seen the importance of such project that facilitates the convicts with a continuum of opportunities that helps them adopt and succeed upon their release from the prisons. It ensures that the convicts are far better off than when they were in prison on admission (Petersilia, 2000)

For the program to succeed, it incorporates the supervision of the community to ensure that the ex-convicts adhere to the law, and live a crime-free lifestyle. This process acts as a safety net for the offender and the general population of the community. What has derailed this program is the unprecedented number of increased inmates released from detention facilities, which, in this case, requires full supervision by both the community and the police force. Such form of re-introduction programs, coupled with limited resources, will render the programs, weakening the rehabilitation process for the convicts to the society. For a successful reentry to the society, there should be changes in the sentencing structures that ensure the definite release of inmates is followed (Andrews, Zinger, Hoge, Bonta, Gendreau & Cullen, 1990). It cannot be doubted that under close supervision and various supportive activities, former inmates will be able to start a new life, obeying the law and becoming the well accepted members of the community.

Therefore, in terms of correctional steps, the above mentioned processes must commence immediately though the assessment and classification at the diagnostic stage. There is a strong need for the merging of the institutions and the community to ensure that the re-introduction programs are a success in the society. This means that there should be a coalition between the correctional centers and the community in ensuring that agencies that support the metal health, substance abusers, and sex-offenders are also included. This re-introduction is critical in allowing the ex-convicts to be welcomed back to the society, employed in the society and also continue with their normal way of life. A good example of such a program is the Ohio’s Sex offender Risk Orientation Center (SORRC) that was introduced in the year 1995. It has been praised for its efforts to stress the importance of re-introduction programs of inmates. Such programs are greatly determined by the strong commitment of the participation of the citizens and the community, therefore strengthening the life of inmates immediately upon their release. The help of the USA government through the department of justice system should further expand such programs across the states in America. (Piehl, 1998)

Approaches to protect the public upon a prisoner’s release

The treatments the society gives to the criminals when released from jail is for safeguarding the protection of the society. However, in several instances such treatments are directed to the criminals rather than the crime committed by the criminals. In essence is the prisoner’s moral regeneration (Brown & Pratt, 2000).

When one is discharged from the prison doors, he finds that the world has turned its arms against him, none to trust and give kindness even the opportunity of starting life all over again.

The most important reflection affecting a prisoner’s release into the community is the probable threat they create to the community. The risk assessment should be analyzed in a wider perspective, straddling beyond the criminology fields, including psychological and psychiatric aspects.

In addition, popularized influence and community concern should be considered. Serious misdemeanors constantly bring into play measures of the media coverage enclosing emotive discourse and philosophy of ethical panic. This results to a more media analysis resulting to ill informed and pejoratively constructed ideas. This leads to pressure pilling on the penal policy (Bryams & Jones, 2001).

As a result, the state has a mandate to protect its citizens from the perilous criminals. The penal policy must entail the public opinion up to extend of fulfilling its duty of protecting all the citizens, but not be much implicated in the oratory of moral panic which could put at risk sensible punitive policies (Napo, 2009).

The government has to come up with measures passed into law which will enable all the key players to play their part by shielding the public by improving the ways of dealing with the offenders. In addition, give the state the mandate of commissioning best services providers which is aimed at raising the standards, encouraging partnerships and support innovation, as they will consult widely for more ideas. Strengthening the offences by bringing contraband into prison will go an extra mile in strengthening the offender management, removing inconsistencies between power of staff, the public and private prisons, improving youth justice sector delivery.

Conclusion

Large number of inmates being convicted every year has overwhelmed the prisons justice system in the US. This has led to introduction of various programs that seek to reduce crime rates in the US.  They include the probation facilities, rehabilitative centers, definite sentencing period and the re-introduction into the society after detention among many other programs. The prisons in the US are faced with many challenges right for resources to the wellbeing of the prisoners themselves. They face a myriad of challenges while in prison including racism, classism, horrific violence and even homosexuality. This paper analysis tries to expose some of the circumstances, which the prisoners undergo right from the day of admission into the prisons to release upon detention. Serious measures including workable strategies that reduce recidivism have to be put into place to address issues concerning the prisoners’ sentence as well as their human rights aspects.

References

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Brown, M. & Pratt, J. (2000) Dangerous Offenders: Punishment and Social Order. Routledge: London.

Bryams, S. & Jones, R. (2001) Prisons and The Prison: An Introduction to the work of Her Majesty’s Prison Service. The Stationery Office, London.

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Lieb, R. (1994). “Juvenile Offenders: What Works? A Summary of Research Findings,” Olympia: Washington State Institute for Public Policy

MacKenzie, D. et al. (1995). “Boot camp prisons and recidivism in eight states,” Criminology, 33.3, pp 327-357.

Martinson, R. (1974) “What Works? Questions and answers about prison reform.” The Public Interest, 10, 22-54

Martinson, R. (1979). “New findings, new views: A note of caution regarding sentencing reform, Hofstra Law Review”, 7, 243-258.

Napo, (2009). Proposals helping offenders from disturbing the public when released, Retrieved from www.napo2.org.uk/ (Accessed 26 August 2009).

Petersilia, J. (2000, November). When Prisoners Return to the Community: Political, Economic, and Social Consequences, Research in Brief, Sentencing & Corrections: Issues for the 21^st Century, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

Piehl, A. (1998).  Economic Conditions, Work, and Crime.  In M. Tonry (Ed.) The Handbook of Crime and Punishment.  New York: Oxford University Press.

Socialistworkers.org (2009). Retrieved from www.socialistworkers.org (Accessed 26 August 2009).

Transition from Prison to Community. Retrieved Sept 10, 2009 from http://www.nicic.gov/TPCModel