Super maximum security (supermax) prisons, where solitary confinement is standard procedure, were built with the idea that criminals could be rehabilitated by isolating them from society and from each other. These ideas came around in the early 19th century, and criticism came along with it. Among the ones who disagreed with the idea, was well-known author Charles Dickens, who went to visit one of the early prisons and stated that the slow decay of the mind that these prisoners were experiencing…
Every day, assaults, riots, rapes and murders are a fact of life in our nation’s prisons. In my opinion, sometimes our correctional system seems to cause more problems than assistance to the society. The system is very expensive, overcrowded, and inefficient in certain aspects. One of the problems The United States Correctional System faces today is prison violence. Violence is not random or mindless but steamed from identifiable conflicts between inmates that had escalated due to the lack of…
There are two different concerns that must be addressed when examining the effects of enforced isolation on prison inmates. The first concern is the effect it has on mentally sound, healthy inmates and the second concern is the effect it has on inmates already dealing with some form of mental or physical illness. The manifestation of adverse reactions to isolation for a healthy inmate depend on factors such as the length of confinement, the individual, and the conditions of their confinement.…
Correctional systems absolutely need more ethical standards. Prisons in America today are overly populated with either nonviolent offenders, simple misdemeanors with consequences that could have been resolved without incarceration, or drug offenses, which are almost harmless. The honesty of an inmate vs the honesty of those in authority, whether judge, police, lawyer, or even a guard will hold the potential of ethics at a standstill. Commonly, these listed will know a way to get around obeying…
Mental Illness Crises Mental illness is a very serious situation considering that many jails have more ill people that any hospital. Prisons aren’t set up for ill people. But they pick the mental ill people form the streets do to the fact they can’t support them self. The main goal for this institution is to help out the mentally ill. Some inmate’s target the weak, and the inmates that need help would become easy prey. If an inmate even looks at an ill person it is a summon that he is…
faces to the first time a young adult walks through the door of a barren college classroom full of blank faces, there are hundreds of experiences that define who a person is. The one experience that defines people who break the law is going to Prison. Prison is a place many people go who break the law as punishment, but…
There are different ideas on how to rehabilitate juveniles; however, the effectiveness of some of their ideas like boot camps create controversies on whether or not they are beneficial or harmful. People who oppose boot camps for juveniles argue the point that they do more harm than good. They believe that they are poorly regulated, violent, physically and psychologically abuse juveniles (“Boot” 2). They argue that the military style is too rough for juveniles who are already going through a…
Prison and jail’s are ill equipped to deal with the ever growing number of mentally ill prisoners that society has shunned. Living in a 4X8 room day after day, week after week, and month after month takes a toll on even the healthiest of inmates. Stopping this form of torture is not up to the jails, police and courts, their hands are tied. These inmates need compassion and a way to deal with their demons that only first hand medical services can provide. Adam Gopnik a writer for the New Yorker…
Inside of correctional facilities across the world are individuals who continuously break the rules, who cannot seem to conform to societies norms or laws. Unfortunately, some of those same individuals continue to break rules while incarcerated, and what more punishment could there be than losing one’s freedom? Well for some, minor punishments can be administered in the form of being locked in their cell for a specific time, missing some of their recreation periods, or not being allowed visits.…
locked up a tremendous amount of the population in state and federal prisons, and even local jails. The U.S currently locks over 2.2 million human beings in cages, and many are for nonviolent offenses. What is this issue about? Mass incarceration rates continue to rise. There are spaces in the prisons and jails where there are situations such as no beds available. So what do we do with the individuals going to jail, or prison? The United States is not only tripling beds in the different pods,…