Testing on prison in mates spending life in prison. It is both morally and ethically wrong to conduct scientific research on prison in mates spending life in prison. In the following examination I shall underline and point out justifiable evident the will support the stance on this issue, as well as evidents that oppose this issue. Virtue Ethics and Deontology well be used in support of the argument for this issue and consequentialism will be used as the apposed support or this issue.…
In this section of his book “Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison”, Michel Foucault describes the panopticon. This is an architectural design used in many prison systems. There is a central tower surrounding by a ring-shaped building divided into cells. Each cell has two windows, one facing the tower and the other on the outer side.…
The illusion of death row inmates fitting a cookie cutter description is not true. Inmates on death row come from various socio-economic backgrounds and careers. Not all death row inmates are guilty. In 2004, the state of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham for allegedly setting his home on fire, killing his three daughters. However, it was the work of the Innocence Project (Garland, September, 13, 2010) proving the forensic and informant attested in court was invalid and just not true; hence, an innocent man was executed.…
In “A Strong Argument Against Capital Punishment”, Lincoln Caplan expands upon Connecticut's recent choices about capital punishment. Connecticut is one of several states in the United States that brought the issue of capital punishment to the Supreme Court for debate and discussion. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the death penalty is unconstitutional in the state of Connecticut. In this debate, the Democratic legislative side leaned against capital punishment; while the Republican legislative side leaned towards capital punishment. The Democratic side reasons that the death penalty violates the state constitution against excessive punishments.…
For something to qualify as obsolete, it must be out of date or no longer produced. Angela Davis questions in her book Are Prisons Obsolete whether or not the use of prisons is still necessary or if they can be abolished, and become outdated. Davis raises many questions and challenges about the use of prisons in today’s world. A few of the leading concerns when it comes to prisons is the topic of sexual abuse especially towards female inmates, the idea of prison being a racial institution, and the establishment of prisons for profitable purposes. Criminals have full access to what life in jail is like, but many citizens who have not experienced prison are not fully educated on what actually occurs behind closed doors.…
According to the NAACP’s organization website, American prisons have seen quadruple the amount of prisoners in the system now compared to 1980 (Criminal Justice Fact Sheet, 2016). Roughly 2.3 million people are incarcerated causing North America to hold roughly 25% of the world’s prisoners. President Obama and his administration for two terms have tried to address this growing incarceration through the Fair Sentencing Act. In 2015, President Obama commuted the sentences of 46 inmates who were serving time in prison for non-violent drug offenses, according to The Economist (The Economist, 2016). Recently, in 2016, President Obama has shifted his focus to banning solitary confinement in United States prisons.…
The trend of neoliberalist policies in the United States, reducing government regulation while allowing private market interventions to replace these once powers of the government, has shown its effects unevenly to different groups in varying realms of life. Both Wacquant and Molina discuss policy implications with regard to the American prison system and to border control, respectively. Government reducing its effort on certain fronts and yet increasing them on others, seems neutral in theory but in reality, contains consequences, which are examined. A not-previously-seen increase in the rate of incarceration within the American prison system stemmed from a reduction in welfare programs, implemented across the board but disproportionally…
Americans today live in a country overflowing with more prisoners than ever, yet crime has been dropping since the late twentieth century. In fact, from 1980 to 2008, the number of people incarcerated in America quadrupled from about 500,000 to 2.3 million people (Criminal 1). There are several factors contributing to this problem. In recent years, America has taken new approaches to crime, such as the “War On Drugs” and the “Three Strikes” law. These approaches have drastically increased the prison population, to the point that 1 in 31 adults, or 3.2% of the population, will spend some time in prison in their lifetime (ibid).…
The topic in which I have selected is the TED talk given by Philip Zimbardo titled, ‘The Psychology of Evil’. I choose this topic because of my interest in criminal behavior and the psychology behind what makes a person commit crime. Zimbardo started by talking about his theory called the Lucifer effect, which is based around the idea that, “evil is the exercise of power” (Zimbardo, 2008). He then gives examples to explain what he means by this. Zimbardo also talked about Social psychologist’s theory and expands on it with his own knowledge to further backup what he was discussing.…
The sole purpose of prison is to punish criminals for crimes they have committed, protect citizens from crime, and rehabilitate those individuals to be honest, law-abiding citizens once they are released back into the public. Wilbert Rideau, author of “Why Prisons Don’t Work”, was in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and has first-hand experience with how the prison system works. Prison is the punishment, but the punishments within the prison are inhumane and ineffective. High re-offense rates show that the public is not being protected from criminals; nor, are they rehabilitating those individuals to be productive citizens. Prisons are harming the individuals inside of them more than helping, prisons do not work.…
Private Prisons: Political and Practical Concerns The United States is a prison society. We have the second highest incarceration rate in the world (second to only the small island country of Seychelles), have almost as many current prisoners as China and Russia put together, and sentence convicts to longer sentences than most other governments (Walmsley, 2015; Human Rights Watch, 2014). We are the only country in the world that sentences minors to life without parole and, up until 2005, the law allowed for the execution of people for crimes they committed while under 18 years old, with the last of such executions happening in 2003 (Human Rights Watch, 2014; Roper v. Simmons, 2005; Reuters, 2003). Many defendants take plea bargains for crimes…
The death penalty is the most severe form of current legal punishment. The question that is hotly debated is if this form of legal punishment is just and necessary. Hugo Bedau argues that capital punishment is not ethically acceptable. On the other hand, Ernest Van Den Haag argues that this penalty is completely necessary. This paper will summarize both opinions and give two reasons why the death penalty should be abolished, both from a ethical point of view and from a practical perspective.…
Angela Davis’s “Are Prisons Obsolete”? she basically talks about how prison systems were back then and how they relate to now and days. She talks about capital punishment and how in some countries including the United States it hasn’t been abolished. As well as that she compares it to the talk about abolishing the death penalty and how some countries already abolished the death penalty. From reading that what I get out of it is that America is still a somewhat barbaric country that relies on capital punishment and fear to run itself.…
The Locale of a Grieving Mind “Men are all condemned to die with various reprieves” (16). In most novels, the setting serves as an environment that influences the plot of the novel. However, in Victor Hugo’s, The Last Day of a Condemned Man, the setting of the novel is a means of symbolically representing an abstract idea. Hugo utilizes the setting of the novel as an extended metaphor to represent the man’s condemned mind through the stages of grief.…
This experiment went wrong and led to mental problems. These problems became so extreme that the experiment was discontinued after 6 days instead of 2 weeks. The Stanford Prison Experiment called into question the idea of Good vs Evil. The experiment showed how situational journey can cause an individual to “compromise” their beliefs. This change in behavior lead to psychological conflict among the “guards” and “prisoners.”…