In her award-winning article, “Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History,” author Heather Ann Thompson writes that “historians have largely ignored the mass incarceration of the late twentieth century and have not yet begun to sort out its impact on the social, economic, and political evolution of the postwar period.” Historian Elizabeth Hinton’s book, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime, is one response to Thompson’s article in that Hinton traces the birth of the War on Poverty as a culmination of government policies. As her central thesis, Hinton posits that “the expansion of the carceral state should be understood as the federal government’s response to the demographic…
The “Paws for Life” is a programs that matches rescue dogs to prison inmates that train them to increase the dog’s chance of adoption. Prison inmates train rescue dogs how to be well behaved in order for a family can adopt them, therefore the dogs will learn how to sit, stay, lay, etc., in order to find a loving home. California State Prison Los Angeles County in Lancaster is the “first to have this program at a high security prison in California with inmates serving life sentences”, which means the prison community is willing to take in these dogs who are in danger going back to shelter and awaiting their death in a small cage (Patricia Fitzgerald). In the Huffington Post blog, Who Rescued Whom? Shelter Dogs and Prison Inmates Give Each Other a New ‘Leash’ on Life, PhD. Patricia Fitzgerald , a Wellness Editor and Animal Advocate, addresses that many of the inmates in California State Prison Los Angeles County signed up for this program showing that the inmates were enthusiastic to volunteer to get these shelter dog to find their “forever homes”.…
A lot of people who become physically and mentally dependent on drugs commit statutory, inchoate, property or even personal crimes in order to obtain drugs. The article “Lindsay Lohan Biography” states, “On May 26, 2007, Lohan was arrested after crashing her Mercedes-Benz into a tree in Beverly Hills. She was arrested again July 24 in Santa Monica after she allegedly engaged in a car chase with the mother of her former personal assistant. In both cases, Lohan was found in possession of small amounts of cocaine.” In other words, this article is expressing how drug abusers commit more crimes than just the standard possession and sale of drugs.…
While many criminal acts are symptomatic of psychopathology, some may not be. There are "normal" people who commit crimes, but research has shown that most crimes are commited by a majority with some disorder and abnormal. When it comes to dealing with criminals, I think it's important to treat the case on an individual basis. In some cases, some criminals deserve punishment to deter them from repeating the offense such as murder or rape, others would do better with treatment such as chronic marijuana users. Also, I believe labeling of particular offenders "criminal" is not a good idea for the interest of society and for the interest of the offender such as a young man who is sent to prison for smoking marijuana.…
Jail populations and prison populations differ by the type of crime or crimes that the offender is convicted of. Someone that is sentenced to jail will only serve up to a year or is awaiting their trial date (Danahy, 2017). A person that is sentenced to jail has been convicted of misdemeanor charges. Misdemeanor charges are charges that are minor offenses of the law and usually are non-violent in nature. Some examples of offenses that people get sentenced to jail are check fraud, disorderly conduct, breaking and entering, and filing a false police report (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015).…
People often think about first in prison. Some believe that it does not matter but i believe that it does. Because if you see someone just being not nice at all i'll remember that every time i see them. Thou some people don't see it that away.…
In her article Why Mass Incarceration Matters; Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History, Heather Thompson discusses how mass incarceration lead to the decline of poor African American’s economic and social standing, in some cases took jobs from white rural areas, raised profits of businesses in the prison industry, and increased the amount of prisoners performing full time labor. She argues that the greater increase of disparity between African Americans and Whites arose during the New Deal era, which eliminated most of the unfavorable assumptions based on Whites’ social standing. This further divergence eventually allowed greater prejudice to be more narrowly focused on poor African Americans rather than the…
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 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.…
The use of incarceration stayed pretty constant from the mid 1920’s through the mid 1970’s. Then, from the mid 1970’s up to 2008, the incarceration rate increased every year. The biggest incarceration trend was from 1980 to 2009 when the state and federal rates increased fourfold (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The biggest characteristic of the incarceration population is that 9 out of 10 inmates in prison are males.…
Days without end Doing time in prison is difficult for any individual. It’s the hardest thing they face mentally. Separated from their families, friends, and loved ones, these individuals face problems such as violence, assault and the possibility of serving life without parole. Records of close to 160,000 in 2012 are serving life behind bars and 49,000 are serving life without the possibility of parole.…
A crime is something you can get incarcerated it for. Taking endlessly a man's freedom is the thing that isolates criminal behavior from illicit behavior. Furthermore, when the likelihood of going to prison is included, you have various sacred rights that you don't have when you're caught for a petty criminal offense, including the accompanying: The privilege to a lawyer. The privilege to a jury, which can convict you just if the proof is past a sensible uncertainty.…
Should people be caged in, or set free? This is a question that many philosophers, researchers, or anyone, take sides to over the years. Is the human species naturally good or evil? The answer lies in the beliefs of the individual. Does anyone believe in the goodness of us?…
It is more difficult to treat, manage and rehabilitate prisoners, even the most violent ones (Glass, 2014). The focus diverts from rehabilitation and programs to managing the growth in numbers (Glass, 2014). The appropriate resources aren’t available to deliver services (Glass, 2014). Sykes Pains of Imprisonment argue that incarceration is detrimental to the psychological wellbeing of those incarcerated.…
Throughout the world many individual commit crimes for a multitude of reasons. Within today’s society it is easier for people to commit crime’s lack of job opportunity, peer pressure, high unemployment, family issues, and environment the person grown up in effect the decision that they make. But they are some people who commit crime just for their own benefits with no regard for other life some offenders just did not think of the consequences some people commit crimes to make fast money They get involved in selling drugs and robbery rather than work a nine to five and they have the opportunity and are not facing unemployment peer pressure family issues or a product of their environment. But still refuse to take it just to try to do things the easier way. Also the ways the prison system is set up the people that get arrested…