In Clinton Correctional Facility (a maximum security prison) in New York, two inmates escaped. On June 6th of 2015, inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat were reported to have escaped the prison. After twenty three days Sweat was captured and in the custody of FBI, his other fellow inmate Matt was shot and killed by authorities. The investigation of the escapees showed underlying problems and corrections in the facilities itself. Corruption such as; heroin dealing from inmates to inmates, relationships between inmates and the guards, and lastly the reason for such a security lapse allowing for the convicts to escape.…
In the correctional system in the United States, inmates are assigned to prisons based on a classifications systems that examines the inmate’s likelihood of attempting to escape, assaults on other inmates or correctional staff, and the likelihood of committing other infractions, such as possessing contraband. Typically, most inmates are placed in general population with minimal security measures. However, there is a population of inmates that are very dangerous that must be assigned to a special control unit informally as a maximum security, the hole, and the administrative segregation known as the “supermax.” Historically, the supermax prisons were created in response to prison systems that were viewed as unmanageable due to the amount of…
It is also a state of mind” (Schlosser,1998). “The lure of big money is corrupting the nation's criminal-justice system, replacing notions of public service with a drive for higher profits. “The eagerness of elected officials to pass "tough-on-crime" legislation combined with their unwillingness to disclose the true costs of these laws has encouraged all sorts of financial improprieties” (Schlosser,1998). “The inner workings of the prison-industrial complex can be observed in the state of New York, where the prison boom started, transforming the economy of an entire region; in Texas and Tennessee, where private prison companies have thrived; and in California, where the correctional trends of the past two decades have converged and reached extremes(Schlosser,1998).” The obsession with locking people up in the United States does not come cheap.…
Private prisons lobby for harsh criminal laws to increase profit at the cost of inmates’ wellbeing. In 1998 election cycle, private prisons contributed $540,000 to 361 politicians (Anderson, 2009). Bribes were also used as method to encourage private prisons. In 2009, two Pennsylvania judges received $2.6 million to oppose alternative and lenient sentences for juveniles (Anderson, 2009) Incarceration negatively affects recidivism rates (Anderson, 2009).…
The “worst of the worst” inmates are kept in solitary confinement, which is, granting the prison staff the authority to have complete “control” over an individual, in other words restricting their access to freedoms of basic life (Mears and Watson, 2006, p.232-270) This particular system of confinement is achieved and operated to its full potential in what’s known as a supermax prison. A little over twenty years ago supermax prisons were uncommon and unheard of in America. A system that specifically catered to the “worst of the worst” inmates did not start to become commonly used until the mid 1980’s. “Today, over two-thirds of states have supermax facilities that collectively house over 20,000 inmates”.…
Due to the crowded prisons, more money is distributed to food, water, clothing, and other essential needs. The excessive innovations of more cell building leads to unnecessary spending. If prisons had a set number of inmates less money would be spent…
The Goal of Private Prisons: A Scheme for Profit The operations of private prison show that their success is dependent upon housing the maximum number of inmates. In order to fill beds at private facilities the private corporations lobby for stronger drug and immigration laws along with longer sentences to accompany these laws. These new laws result in the United States having five percent of the world population but housing twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. (Liptak, 2008)…
There is 34% more rearrests than those kept in the youth justice system. Adult prisons don’t help deter teens from committing crimes again. It provides less rehabilitation. It’s not the place for juveniles to grow maturely. These juveniles don’t have a strong mind to overcome the hardships in adult prisons.…
2.2 million men, women, and youth are incarcerated in the United States right now (The Sentencing Project). The U.S. accounts for 5% of the world’s population, yet 22% of the world’s imprisoned population (Mass Incarceration). Mass incarceration has reached an increase of over 500% within the last 40 years (The Sentencing Project). Not only are more people being carelessly thrown into jails and prisons, but the number of people that are being released is less and not nearly equal to the number of inmates coming in because people are also being sentenced to longer terms. The $12.5 billion given to states with the 1994 Crime Bill “required inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences” which is in part why sentences are longer served in the justice system (Brooke Eisen, Chettiar).…
State prisons are sustained and looked after by the national authorities. The majority of the criminals who are sent into state prisons comprise of rapists, murderers and other criminals guilty of gun related offenses. However, it is likely to see similar kinds of criminals in state and federal prisons, federal prisons are used more for white collar criminals and political offenders than state prisons. The State prisons that contain violent criminals are considered to be unsafe by many people, and the level of safety in state prisons is also considered worse than in federal prisons.…
The practice of mass incarceration in the state prison system is an epidemic that stretches far beyond the stringent sentencing guides that are imposed by the state legislatures. This crisis is one that is attributed throughout all levels of the government. As a result, America has suffered both economically and socially because of mass incarceration. The United States prison population has more than quadrupled due to harsher penalties for non-violent offenses (Mass Incarceration in the USA). The data shows that one out of every four human beings are locked up in the “land of the free”.…
These are average amounts meaning that some prisoners might cost more to house than others. Even so, this is an outrageous amount of money and with the amount of people we have incarcerated the amount of money this country spends on the incarceration of these individuals is crazy. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, in 2014 there were about 2.2 million people incarcerated. In addition, the adult correction systems supervised almost 7 million people (Glaze, Kaeble, & Minton, 2015). There are 2.2 million people in prisons that tax payers have to pay for.…
The prison system was created to keep our people safe, to help victims return back to their normal lives, and to help the inmates come out of the “criminal” world and to live a normal life ahead. Today, our prison system is not up to par and we cannot afford. If the correctional supervision in American was counted as a city of their own, they would be the biggest city in the United States right behind New York. Among African Americans, the numbers are even bigger.…
To save the lives of countless people things must change. To create a better prison system and in turn a better society, the United States must reform its laws, fund rehabilitation…
The Downfall of Private Prisons The privatization of jails and prisons in the United States are becoming more and more popular with 122 adult prisons and 252 juvenile facilities, capable of holding more than 160,000 inmates for the past 8 years. These facilities have pros and cons however, 32 states contract with private sector prisons and almost 17 percent of adult inmates are held in private prisons. (Allen, Latessa, and Ponder)…