Prisons and Jails, Essay Example

Introduction

Sometimes it looks difficult to define the term jail and prison. Some of us may say that they are all houses of prisoners. The definition of each depends on the number and level of crime done by the criminals. The minimum securities are mostly white collar crimes, thereby the do get themselves in minimum security facilities. The minimum security facilities are always less expensive to construct and operate. Hence you can get that old military bases, schools and hospitals are being used to serve this purpose. On the other hand, medium security consists of burglaries and felonies. The capital crimes, repeat offenders and murder are regarded as maximum security (Hoffer, 2002).  Another term that defines the prison is the number of beds. The amount which arte always used to put up these facilities is always expensive. The number of population of the criminals can also be used to differentiate the term prison and jail. A prison may consist of a main gate or entrance, a religious facility which consists of houses and offices. The houses and offices are mostly used for counseling of individuals or groups. It will also have education facilities which include the library which provides education for the inmates and other continuing education opportunities. It must have an exercise yard for the prisoners, a hospital or health care facilities, a death row a staff accommodation and visit area where prisoners may be allowed to have restricted contact with relatives, friends or lawyers. The service point for serving the prisoners with food, recreational area consisting of a television and an agricultural area operated wit a convict labor. You will get that the prisons are mostly surrounded with the electric fences and the security is always tight everywhere including the watch towers.

The prisons are used for rehabilitating the prisoners. They are mostly given the chance to explain themselves. After that, the rehabilitation committee comes together with the solution of how to help each prisoner. By doing this, statistics indicates that it reduces the likelihood of re-offense and recidivism even after being set free. It also performs the function of resocialization. This is the act of maintaining a person to operate in any environment other than the one that he or she is costumed to. This can be done by completely changing the whole person. Resocialization when a prisoner has been recruited into the military to operate as a soldier. The prisons also tend to act like schools. After a prisoner has completed his term, ha or she comes out educated (Hoffer, 2002). A prisoner can be holding a masters or degree in a certain field. This field comes as an advantage to his life after the prisons and it reduces the rates of getting back into crimes. Of the world today, the number of prisoners is much higher. It has been estimated that at least 8.98 million people are currently imprisoned worldwide. The number is believed to go much higher in the coming years.

The work opportunity associated with the prison and jails

The work opportunity associated with the prison and jails is to be a prison warden. This allows the person to look after the prisoners and to take care of them. The person ensures that the right of a prisoner has been fully implemented according to the law.

The challenges faced by prisons and jails

One of the challenges is capital. The prisons require more capital from the government to install all of its facilities required for it to qualify as a prison. The prisons also require more mental-health services that are abundant and of high significant. This is required by the officers concerned to support them do a collaboration with others. The prisons and the jails face the challenge of transgender patients (Begg, 2003). The terms transgender and transsexual have approximately the same definitions, but transsexual is a medical term while transgender does not mean anything about sexual orientation but it is all about gender identity.

References

Begg, C. (2003). Primary purposes for prisons and populations are served by prisons. (3rd Ed.).Delhi: Pearson education Limited.

Hoffer, J. (2002). The basic differences between jails and prisons. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.