Extrajudicial punishment

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson exhibits the theme instead of punishment, society should focus on mercy and empathy; specifically within the criminal justice system. Stevenson is an American lawyer, professor at New York School of Law, social justice activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. Mercy- to have compassion or forgiveness towards someone within terms of punishment or harm. In turn, “Just Mercy” conveys that Stevenson has mercy towards the cases he encounters whether he turns…

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. Prison is technically supposed to be a punishment in itself, but there are in fact other punishments within the prison that men and…

Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory Defined and Broken Down for a Simple and Better Understanding Verenisse Garcia – A00013982 Texas A & M International University Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory Defined and Broken Down for a Simple and Better Understanding Discussion In the 1990’s, Robert Agnew’s came up with the General Strain Theory, also known as, GST. To better understand where the theories derive, we need to understand that criminology is defined as empirical and…

However, as the book illustrates, emerging research and anecdotal evidence indicates that the conditions of supermax confinement have become increasingly punitive, strict and similar to traditional non-civil approaches to punishment. I would argue that punitive sanctions have historically been a widespread feature of the criminal justice system. Then, the question is ‘what is new?” Unfortunately, Kupers’ concentrated on punitiveness detracts our need for the development of…

Restorative Justice recognizes that crime hurts everyone. It is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior. This is done by, bringing the victim, the offender and the community together to discuss the harm caused by the crime and how to come to a resolution. If one party is unwilling or unable to meet there are other avenues that can be met. Many involved in restorative justice walk away from the meetings transformed. Restorative justices process is more…

Prison crowding has become an immense issue over the past years as crimes rates and incarceration rates increase. Meanwhile, all attempts to solve this predicament have been short term or ineffective answers. The article entitled “Coping with Crowding: The Prison Response the Crowding Crisis,” an excerpt from the American Journal of Criminal Justice, Bernard J. McCarthy discuses why the issue arose and demonstrates how the prison system has made attempts to solve the issue using options that do…

Arthur Dimmesdale’s Suffering in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most important pieces of American literature. It is a novel about the struggles of a woman who is expelled from her community and the ways that she copes. Even though the main character of the work is Hester, important elements of the story are often revealed through the other characters of the story. This is the case with the major theme of suffering. The character who exhibits the most…

From the beginning of time torture has been used as a form of punishment and a way to warn others not to disobey authority. In today's society the use of torture is frowned upon; however, in Elizabethan times torture prevailed in society. Torture was used as a form of punishment because of the lack of development in the prison system. Prisons were used to hold criminals before their fate was determined at a trial instead of acting as their sentence. Examples of torture in history has been…

no care in his concerns and punished everyone with more abuse. Prisoner 416 then went on a hunger strike and refused to eat his sausages at meal time, so the guards put him into solitary confinement which was a small dark closet. And for further punishment the guards then made the other prisoners loudly bang on the door while shouting at him. The guards said they would be released him from the tiny closet if all the other prisoners gave up their blankets and slept on their bare mattresses, which…

Since February 1994, Jeff Jacoby has been an op-ed columnist for The Boston Globe, where the essay, “Bring Back Flogging,” was published on February 20, 1997(Jacoby 196). In this essay, Jacoby claims the argument that prison time is so inhumane and he also shows that there are many flaws of imprisonment. Therefore, he wants to persuade his audience that flogging is an effective method of punishing criminals. In order to completely understand Jeff Jacoby’s argument, I will show how he convinces…