Penology

In “The Caging of America,” Adam Gopnik explains the nature of “the current mess [America] is in.” Gopnik discusses the ins and outs of any and all, perceived and undeniable issues with both the incarceration policies and America’s judicial system. Reworking the incarceration policies in each of the 50 states is a major aspect of the reform needed to improve America’s prison system. Over half of all inmates suffer from some form of mental health issues, while also being susceptible to…

Death Penalty Of 900 people on death row in California since 1978, only 13 of them were executed. These executions still served a purpose because the death penalty deters crime. Even so, these are very lengthy delays, which is why the death penalty should not be gone, but it needs to be changed to be more efficient. Although some people believe the death penalty may cause innocent people to be executed, the death penalty should remain in place because it deters crime, it costs less than life…

How desperate can bad fortune make a human? If you are Jeffery Locker, desperate enough to pay someone to kill you. Jeffery Locker was a motivational speaker who suddenly found himself in substantial debt. He decided the only way out was to commit suicide so that his family could receive $14 million dollars in insurance money. Locker proceeded to convince a random passerby to hold a knife, which he repeatedly plunged his body into. If that isn’t horrifying enough, his family was not only aware…

Imagine a rectangular room composed of walls that were flexible, but unbreakable; if trapped, a person could push and shove on the walls with all their strength and would do nothing but flex them in and out thus trapping the person in the room. Figuratively speaking, society has placed us all in a “room” similar to the scene described and the walls are becoming less and less flexible as time goes by. In his essay titled “Innovation Starvation,” Neal Stephenson discusses how society as a whole is…

Summary Just Mercy is a book written by Bryan Stevenson. The book tells stories of justice and redemption in America. People are often wrongly-convicted; some spend years in jail while others get put on death row for crimes they did not commit. People on death row usually are given lawyers that do not care about proving them innocent. The American justice system’s unfairness has affected many people, especially those whom are part of the African-American society as well as high poverty areas. 5…

The Death Defender The death penalty, the ultimate consequence for serious crimes, such as murder and rape. A punishment given out for centuries. The gateway to death for the evil. One of the most controversial things in society. And the appropriate punishment for the people of horrible sins. The death penalty started in the Eighteenth Century B.C. It was a part of the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon and of the Fourteenth Century B.C ‘s Hittite Code. Death penalties in the past were carried…

Through the years, America and its people have relied on lethal injection, the electric chair, and hanging to teach criminals a lesson. The governmental process of putting criminals on death row and having them sit and wait until the day they die just does not sound right. The death penalty is not effective in any way because it does not teach people anything. In my opinion, the government makes itself seem like the bad guy because if one were to kill another and then get put on death row, it is…

False Imprisonment can be defined as an action of any person that causes unlawful confinement of some other person. To constitute the tort of false imprisonment, certain factors such as apparent cause for imprisonment, information of the plaintiff for the tort, intention of the defendant during the time of causing imprisonment and time of confinement matters. False Imprisonment can be defined as an action of any person that causes unlawful confinement of some other person. To constitute the tort…

Haney 2006, found that overcrowding results in correctional administrators implementing policies and procedures that may enable instead of relieving problems that may occur within a prison environment. Unfortunately this trend is evident between mentally ill offenders, because they often face the difficult task of adjusting and conforming to correctional policies. Furthermore, when a prison is also facing overcrowding it can intensify these problems. Thus, considering that mentally disabled…

Crime, a deviant behavior that breaks norms and laws, is a problem unanimously experiences in all cultures. Despite this, there are a variety of common approaches including deterrence, restitution, incarceration, and rehabilitation used to deal with this universal challenge. However, in the case of many nations, ethics come into question involving incarceration as a method to reduce crime. Besides criticism of the use of solitary confinement due to its deteriorating psychological effect,…