Rhetorical Analysis Of Wilbert Rideau's Why Prisons DonT Work

Some parts of the book highlight the social issue with incarceration while the other part there are political discussions of possible solutions to try and fix such a corrupted society.

Warning! A runaway robber has just been caught in the middle of the highway. Policemen are investigating the case and considering if they should punish the criminal or let him go. How will prison affect the person? Will he benefit from time in prison or will it only make him worse? The theme of justice and punishment is explored in real life and books. Life in prison may have some positive influences, but to a large extent it is not successful in changing someone’s mindset. In the book “In Cold Blood”, Truman Capote uses syntax,diction, and a variety of details to support the theme that justice and punishment is not effective.

People that have lived their whole lives in the bad neighborhoods of the lower class, do not know how to provide for the new generation of kids that now will iherts the misfortunes of the adults. In many cases this kids that are force to live in neighborhoods filled with violence and drugs have a hard time developing normal social skill that would help them in the future. When the parents fail in helping the kids get a better future, the only thing a kid can do is look for guidance somewhere else and that is how kids fall into the wrong path in life. Much like Edwin Debrow a 12 year old kid who had to rely on the streets to get some guidance, but now he is in prison paying for the mistake he did. The article “The Prisoner” tells the story of the 12 year old killer who now faces many years in prison. The author if the article uses the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos and logos to make the argument that kids that commit a crime should be helped with the way they are acting and get placed in a better care, then to keep pushing them to fight authority.

According to Wilbert Rideau's opinion, prisons do not work, and there are various reasons why this happens. As indicated in the last paragraph essay, one of the major problems of prisons circulates in the fact that politicians take the easy way to make the people think they are doing something to combat crime. They invest in police and prisons that do nothing but keep us in a repetitive circle without giving us any solution. Although prisons do have a role in society safety, they do not provide people total security. Actually there are big criminals that are not in prison and the ones who are in prison are not getting rehab.

For a man being sentenced to prison in a court of law, one may think it hard to endeavor and construct legitimacy, yet he pulls it off and displays Ethos every through howdy speech by his insubordinate sentiments. He gives a first individual record of his life to permeate ethos into his composed work, giving the group all the more appreciation of his reasoning and perspective. He says: "Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class. I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison… “In a way he is using his generosity, or staying with the unprivileged as Ethos. He similarly uses the advancement he is joined with to issue himself with trustworthiness: "There are today upwards of sixty millions of Socialists, loyal, devoted adherents to this cause, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color, or sex. They are all making common cause. They are spreading with tireless energy the propaganda of the new social

In, “The Caging of America”, by Adam Gopnik explains the problems in the in the American criminal justice system focusing more on the prison system. Some of the struggles that Gopnik states in his article are mass incarceration, crime rate, and judges giving long inappropriate sentencings to those with minor crimes. He demonstrates that inmates are getting treated poorly than helping them learn from their actions. Using facts and statistics, Gopnik makes his audience realize that there is an urgent need of change in the American prison system. The main idea of Gopnik’s article is that the prison system needs to improve its sentencing laws because prisons are getting over crowed. Gopnik’s argument is valid because there is a problem in the sentencing laws that has caused a malfunction in the prison system as a whole.

Since so much of jail life happens far from the public’s view, changes in implications and policy of long assumed truisms are infrequently observed by those that are not openly affected by penal system.

In the sharp contrast, the European system of treating the deviants is vastly different in the beliefs and methods. In Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, (Doleschal, 1977) they believe that the treatment is better than the prison or death. For example, the Netherlands has “ 18 persons per 100,000 population, 1/12 of the U.S. rate of 215 per 100,000”(Doleschal, p.52) which is amazing if it did happen in America. The reason for abolishing prisons’ conditions is that the environment of the isolation and deprivation did harm than good to the prisoners and created the cycles of violence. In Denmark and Sweden, Doleschal illustrated the humane conditions that Europe preferred in the prisons,

The general Statement made by author Pascal Emmanuel-Gobry exemplify reasons that prisons should be abolished. More specifically, Emmanuel-Gobry propose that prisons increase crime, while creating more risks for prisoners. Such as rape and increased gang activity. He writes “ Can there be anything more abject than a society whose police-procedural Tv shows include prison rape jokes and nobody is outraged?”. In this passage Emmanuel-Gobry is proving that prisons should be used for stronger reasons. For example prisons are remorseless of an individual decision that made them get there.

Within this paper, you will find a comprehensive review of the United States prison system, and why it needs to analyzed to better support and reform the people of this country. I plan to persuade the other side (politicians and society) into seeing that the way the prison system is now, is not ethical nor economical and it must change. We have one of the world’s largest prison population, but also a very high rate of recidivism. Recidivism is when the prisoners continuously return to prison without being reformed. They return for the same things that they were doing before. So, this leads us to ask what exactly are we doing wrong? When this happens, we as a nation must continuously pay to house and feed these inmates. The purpose of a prison needs to be examined so we can decide if we really are reforming our inmates, or just continuing a vicious cycle. What is the true purpose of prison besides just holding them in a cell? There must be more we can do for these hopeless members of society.

Prison is an important place, because it takes away the power from individuals. This means that the criminal is no longer acting upon his will, but that of the officers, judge, guards, etc. “They are the foundation of society, and an element in its equilibrium.” (215) All the techniques, when created, they “attained a level at which formation of knowledge and the increase of power regularly reinforce the other.” (216)

However, Jeff Jacoby says something true, the criminal justice system has a problem, but violence is not the solution. As a result, Jacoby made a great use of logos on paragraph 6 where he points out the consequences of incarceration, “…the price of keeping criminals in cages is appalling – a common estimate is $30,000 per inmate per year,” also, he supports that statement on paragraph 12, “The Globe reported in 1994 that more than two hundred thousand prison inmates are raped each year…” he says, on that same fact, Jacoby is using ethos suggesting that the information reported by The Globe, the newspaper for which he works, is truthful. With these two statements he almost got the reader, but again he contradicts himself saying that is not the inmates fault, “…usually to the indifference of the guards,” he adds. So, why should prisoners be punished if it is not their fault?

A prisoner’s life consists of twenty-three hours per day in a tiny, empty concrete cell, with one hour of daily exercise in a small concrete swimming pool; they have no access to other inmates, and only rare contact with guards, who say nothing to them; they can see nothing of the outside world except a tiny sliver of sky. The death penalty as punishment is an unnecessary threat compared to the dullness of what prison life is like.

Prisons hide prisoners from society. “If an inmate population is shut in, the free community is shut out, and the vision of men held in custody is, in part, prevented from arising to prick the conscience of those who abide by the social rules” (Sykes, 1958, 8). The prison is an instrument of the state. However, the prison reacts and acts based on other groups in the free community. Some believe imprisonment

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.