When it comes to the topic of the criminal justice, most of us readily agree that it is a controversial conflict. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is the question of whether crime rates will rise if more people are kept out of prison or vice versa. Whereas some are convinced that the justice system does nothing to better criminals from committing more crimes, others maintain more crimes will be committed without the strict justice system that is in progress currently. Many say that the current justice system has no effect to criminals whether they are sent to jail or not. The people who agree with this side of the conflict believe that the alternatives are needed when felons can be sentenced life in prison for the “less harmless
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Nevertheless jail is supposed to be strict, non appealing, fearful, and a place citizens would want to stay out of. Now when people get sent to prison for long periods of time they tend to go crazy and discard everything they know as from what are the right things to do and what doing something wrong is. Jail does not teach these criminals right from wrong and that is the complete opposite of what the alternatives do. Alternatives were created for felons to get help and to teach them why the crime they committed was wrong. This way they will not get released from the institutions and commit more crimes and hopefully decrease the crime rate. In Heather Mac Donald’s article from the New York Times, Prison Alternatives Have Been Tried and Found Wanting, Mac Donald states “Prisons are assumed to be filled with harmless sad sacks who smoked a few joints and got caught.” An alternative for these criminals would be probation, meaning they are subjected to a period of good behavior under supervision before getting released. Mc Donald further explains that only three percent of violent victimizations and property crime the offenders end up in prison. She later goes on about how drug enforcement is not the driving force in the prison but violent crimes are the issue. While I agree that the felons who commit violent crimes …show more content…
Leaving out robbery, assault, and larceny. Also in Rushford’s statistics he only included the first six months of 2011 and 2012 instead of the whole year. Glen E. Martin showed statisitcs himself in his article Safety and Justice Complement Each Other. First he started off by saying “Three Percent of people who enrolled in treatment were rearrested for violent crime compared to the six percent of the other group.” Less amount of people were rearrested by being put into institutions rather than going to jail. Martin then follows his argument by stating “Programs to divert defendants from jail reduce crime by getting people into treatment rather than prison.” Although I agree the justice system is very useful, my own opinion is that prison is not useful for every crime
Nevertheless jail is supposed to be strict, non appealing, fearful, and a place citizens would want to stay out of. Now when people get sent to prison for long periods of time they tend to go crazy and discard everything they know as from what are the right things to do and what doing something wrong is. Jail does not teach these criminals right from wrong and that is the complete opposite of what the alternatives do. Alternatives were created for felons to get help and to teach them why the crime they committed was wrong. This way they will not get released from the institutions and commit more crimes and hopefully decrease the crime rate. In Heather Mac Donald’s article from the New York Times, Prison Alternatives Have Been Tried and Found Wanting, Mac Donald states “Prisons are assumed to be filled with harmless sad sacks who smoked a few joints and got caught.” An alternative for these criminals would be probation, meaning they are subjected to a period of good behavior under supervision before getting released. Mc Donald further explains that only three percent of violent victimizations and property crime the offenders end up in prison. She later goes on about how drug enforcement is not the driving force in the prison but violent crimes are the issue. While I agree that the felons who commit violent crimes …show more content…
Leaving out robbery, assault, and larceny. Also in Rushford’s statistics he only included the first six months of 2011 and 2012 instead of the whole year. Glen E. Martin showed statisitcs himself in his article Safety and Justice Complement Each Other. First he started off by saying “Three Percent of people who enrolled in treatment were rearrested for violent crime compared to the six percent of the other group.” Less amount of people were rearrested by being put into institutions rather than going to jail. Martin then follows his argument by stating “Programs to divert defendants from jail reduce crime by getting people into treatment rather than prison.” Although I agree the justice system is very useful, my own opinion is that prison is not useful for every crime