Putting Prisoners In Longer Prisons

The issue with American’s jail problem is one that most people overlook today. In order for there to be a solution, people must realize the issue at hand. The best way would be to create better alternatives to jail time. Jail should be reserved for those who commit more violent and serious crimes. In order to be more productive and also contribute more to the environment, more community service hours and less jail time should be offered to those with less serious offenses

To begin with, criminal justice is a system that is designed to maintain social control, which means it is a necessary aspect of every society since “Laws are the conditions under which independent and isolated men united to form a society” (Beccaria, 1764: 16). In order words, crime control deals with the methods that are taken by a society to reduce its crime. As a matter of fact, there are various crime control strategies from community policing to risk assessments. In addition to the different tactics for controlling crime, there are several theories that not only attempt to explain the causes of crime, but also outline different ways to handle offenders; for example, deterrence, rehabilitation, and even retribution.

Since jails can take on much more offenders that may have taken up space in prisons, this frees up space for more dangerous criminals. This reduces the issue of overcrowding for prisons, which will lead them to reducing the amount of inmates they send to be held in jails. The second pro I would see with holding offenders in jails for long term is producing more jobs. Because there will be a need for more staff to work within jails because of more offenders and longer sentences, this produces more jobs within the county. The third pro would be instead of sending non-dangerous criminals to prison; like drug offenders, non-violent offenders, etc.; they can now be given a longer sentence to a jail facility instead of a sentence to a prison.

The “get tough approach” to crime control has been prevalent since the 1960s. This approach takes the stance to a more firm and no tolerance policy against crime, hence the term “tough” in the actual title. “"Tough" crime control normally denotes more emphasis on police resources, faster apprehension of criminals, quick trials, and more severe sentences for guilty offenders” (Skoler 1971:29). The “get tough approach” emphasizes the need to arrest and punish criminals over rehabilitation and addressing the social factors that underlie criminal behavior (Barkan and Bryjak 2011). Deterrence of other criminals through severe punishments is the primary focus. The “get tough approach” of criminal justice institutions has been under scrutiny due to the outcomes that we will discuss further on. The purpose of this paper is to simply present the pros and cons that have resulted from the “get tough approach” on crime. The paper will try and remain completely unbiased to the “get tough approach” and solely focus on results that have come from said approach. We will begin by discussing the background and history of the “get tough approach” and what led to its development. We will then discuss things such as incarceration rates (US Department of Justice), crime rates (Dilulio 1995) juveniles in prison (Hinton 2015), policies that have been implemented (Shephard 2002), correctional costs, and destabilized urban neighborhoods (Barkan & Bryjak 2011; Black 2007; Mauer 2006) that result

While there are many arguments from supporters for why long term confinement is expectable punishment for the inmates in prison, most popular reason is that it allows prisoner to reflect back on their crime and their victim, which in turn is supposed to aid in the rehabilitation process. But multiple studies and long term data collected across the country have proven that it’s simply not true. Based on information collected by the state of Connecticut (Tsui. 2), inmates who spend time in solitary confinement during their prison sentence were 92% more likely to be rearrested within three years compared to 66% of inmate who were not subjected to such treatment, while information from Texas shows that inmates who were housed in isolation units

In any penal system, controlling the misbehavior of prisoners is challenging and costly. Early release can save states a great amount of money. Prisoners leave the prison system through parole or by completing their sentences. In my opinion I think prison inmates should be released early from prison because of good behavior.

The surge in incarceration rates can be related to punitive get tough on crime policies in the fight against the soaring crime rates and rapid changes among the people in society. For this reason, there are some modifications in policies across all divisions within the nation’s state and federal governments. Drop in crime may be due to the rise in incarceration. However, the degree of decline is unknown, and outcomes of the majority of scientific studies indicate it is not significant.

Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Imprisonment has historically been the popular solution. However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. Prison as a punishment has its pros and cons; although it may be necessary for some, it can be harmful for those who would be better suited for alternative means

However, there are many factors that contribute to the crime rate and not just the level of imprisonment. Imprisonment as the main line of defence against crime is a very expensive form of criminal control. The impact of imprisonment is not only economic costs (federal and states government) but also has social costs for individuals, families and communities. As the prison population increases so do the cost of infrastructure that leads to an unsustainable judicial system and rising economic costs. A parliamentary committee examining the reinvestment of justice in Australia has produced the latest statistics on our prison system. It costs more than $300 a day to keep an offender in jail and more than $600 a day to keep a juvenile in detention. Society already suffers at the hands of criminals and then suffers again to finance the offender in jail – a double hit to law abiding citizens. The effectiveness of imposing imprisonment need to be examined further by academic research to obtain some alternative

Throughout our nation’s history it has taken numerous approaches to dealing with crime, but during the past several years the premise of incarceration has taken precedent. Subsequently, with the premise of incarceration as the answer to reducing crime, the imprisonment rate increased exponentially, but the crime rate showed no significant decrease. In fact, the overall impact of the mass incarceration is an increase in the amount of funding required to deal with the overflow of inmates. Hence, the important question is, does incarceration work, and what are its important factors?

Ever since the first prison opened in the United States in 1790, incarceration has been the center of the nations criminal justice system. Over this 200 year period many creative alternatives to incarceration have been tried, and many at a much lower cost than imprisonment. It wasn’t until the late 1980’s when our criminal justice systems across the country began experiencing a problem with overcrowding of facilities. This problem forced lawmakers to develop new options for sentencing criminal offenders.

In the United States, Imprisonment is one of the main forms of punishment for offenders who commit a felony offense. The United States has the highest number of offenders incarcerated in prion than any other country in the world. Both the federal and state prisons both have the same mission and that is to protect society by confining offenders in a controlled environment that are safe human, secure, cost efficient, and provide rehabilitation to offenders in self-improvement and educational opportunities and helping them become better law-abiding citizens. Prisons are operated at the Federal and State level and are operated at various different levels of security based on the offender’s crimes which can range from minimum security prisons to supermax facilities (De Maille, 2015)

The concept of incapacitation indicates that individuals behind bars cannot commit a crime outside the perimeter of incarceration. The prevention strategy came due to efficacy issues with the rehabilitation model that resulted in increased crime rate and fear among the neighborhoods. These reasons justify the reason why people face imprisonment (Cullen & Gilbert, 1982). The majority accepts that lengthy incarceration acts as retribution for serious offenders and possesses the serious threat to the public if released. Is incapacitation a cost-saving crime prevention strategy? The deterrence and incapacitation should create space for the repeat and most dangerous offenders. The strategies would then lead to imprisonment of

Not everyone is model citizens within a society. Individuals cheat people out of money, murder, rob, and rape others within society. When people commit crime against others and not stay within the law they must be punished. This research paper will discuss the purposes for prisons, and analyze conditions of prison. There are programs in prison and out of prison to try to reduce an individual from returning to prison. The ultimate goal is to teach an individual right from wrong and rehabilitate an offender back into society, another goal of prison is to incapacitate the individual so they cannot hurt anyone.

In prisons today, rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution are all elements that provide a justice to society. Prisons effectively do their part in seeing that one if not more of these elements are met and successfully done. If it were not for these elements, than what would a prison be good for? It is highly debated upon whether or not these elements are done properly. It is a fact that these are and a fact that throughout the remainder of time these will be a successful part of prison life.