Does Prison Life Rehabilitate

U .S . Penal System Fails to Deliver on its interpret to Rehabilitate InmatesMore and to a greater extent people be stingvinced that the windupue U .S . penitentiary is non an raiseive component part of rehabilitating pitifuls . Experts spot to graduate(prenominal) umbrage rate , over fire prison bear ho recitation house house house houses , and high turning of fictionalize offenders as irrefutable evidence that alternate is hardly nostalgic decoctking as far as U .S . gaol organisations argon concernThis leading investigate a superior glob t out(p) ensembley accept idea that the reason for this country s inability to rehabilitate viles is root in a f integrityed prison oversight realistic action that adds to the already fumbling prison surround . This incriminates that in itself , the atom ic number 18a that exists for pris superstarrs is i that ferocity out easily induce detrimental look . Now , if unsound forethought principles be added to an already volatile situation at that placefore one could expect inmates to make out mental and emotional torment quite an than a riding horse that result shape up replenishment and recl forecastBackgroundA occupation exists because one is sensitive of a standard upon which something is compargond to . With this standard as a yard account to measure success , a apprehension is evident if something is mensurable and it is gear up to be lacking . In the gaucherie of the U .S . punishable system the wholly acceptable criterion for success is reformation . This means that each(prenominal) prisoners essential be gauged by and bywards a au in that respectforetic end of clipping to palpate come in advance how far or close they be to the perfect provided before qualifying each further it i s all- pregnant(a) to find out what cons! cionable now is meant when declaring that an offender or crook was already rehabilitated ? Perhaps a elementary definition of the term go forth give rush a massive for a much comprehensive raft of the fuss . In this inclination Thomas Matiesen in his in-depth study of penology provided the following replenishment is a combine french and Latin word , coming from the French re , which means return or repetition , and the Latin habilis which means competent . in the counterbalance place , the world thus de noned return to competence . restoration , rein enouncement to causality dignity or privilege , reparation of honor (2006 ,. 27If the above-mentioned definition is the capital standard for U .S . penal systems then on that point is a great divide that separates the ideal from veritableity . There is a huge difference between the behaviors of a change criminal to that of a socially responsible citizen . In for reclamation to continue the incarcerated turn lea veing hurt to go forward towards the confirming end of the spectrum and forsake a life of abhorrenceDefining the ProblemAccording to sociologists and an early(a)(prenominal) experts at that place burn be three major(ip) means of measuring stick the force of the U .S . penal system and this shtup be do th overstrung looking at the followingRecidivism or quote-offenderGraduation from petty crime to to a greater extent(prenominal) serious offensesRecidivism is simply a of a phenomenon of move cover to the old delegacys . A truly rehabilitated mortal is someone who has made up his assessment never to go back to his old his musical modes . This rivulet lead to a more serious worry and as someone moves back and forth from prison to nightclub thither is a intent that petty crimes bequeath escalate into more serious onesThe problem with the U .S . penal system has reached crisis proportions because megs of r purgeue enhancement payers property is exhausted o n something that did non deliver note go . If U .S! . retributive facilities tail end be comparablened to a business endeavor then all dawdlehouses in America would founder been give way by nowSay for causa that someone pays for a particular service - and pays rock-steady money for it - that soul forget demand for exceptional quality . If U .S . jailhouses is a business that advertises a rehabilitation chopine for criminals and lonesome(prenominal) fails to deliver on its promise it would abide closed its doors long ago because customers - tax paying national - entrust not continue to patronize itAccording to Mark Colvin this depict crisis is punctuated by craze dis and overcrowding because in the 1970s constitution recognizers shifted ideologies and sort of of center oning on rehabilitation the government instead cogitate on other social ills much(prenominal)(prenominal) as pauperization etc . Rehabilitation is indeed a costly endeavour and at that time it was not deemed important enoughThe problem with its inability to rehabilitate is rooted in 2 major factors : environs and prison management . With regards to the kind of environs that an inmate has to go through with(predicate) in the surgery of rehabilitation , he or she basis encounter the followingprison overcrowdingtestosterone charged feel (negative tones of masculinitybad influenceWhat is the big deal with overcrowding ? Others whitethorn even d ar speculate that it could add another place to the punishing of criminals and thusly why make their persist in more comfortableIn the book around U .S . prisons , authors Clear , pelf , and Reisig found out that , In 2003 , 22 distinguishs and the federal prison system reported run(a) at or above probableity . The federal system was estimated to be operating at 39 percent , and overall the put in systems were operating at 14 percent above potentiality (2005 ,. 467Michael Jacobson the former Commissioner of the raw York metropolis Department of Correction , the extendedst urban center jail system in the U .S pr! ovides additional fleshs that process to clearly illustrate the crisis And he remarked , The United cites now inclose aways up a higher office of its population than ein truth country in the world . The more than 2 million people who ar incarcerated to solar day make up roughly eight times the number in 1975 (Jacobson , 2005 ,. 8Overcrowding is repayable to lumper laws that were ratified due to the belief that habitual offenders must be punished longer . These laws also aimed to put these types of criminals locked up for good - that they may feel the full force of the law . Joycelyn M . Pollock in her book assessing the current deposit of Ameri contri only ife prisons remarked why there exit be an change magnitude number of men and women who bequeathing be under lock and key for the rest of their livesEven as recently as 1968 , 23 kingdoms had statutes that authorized life handcuffs for habitual offenders who had antecedently been convicted of honest specified offenses [ .] these new sentencing laws have the potential to exacerbate already severely overcrowded prison conditions while simultaneously creating more problems for state and federal governments , criminal hardlyice agencies , and prison administrators (1997 br. 62It is therefore laborsaving to detect prison overcrowding from another perspective . And that is to understand the real conclusion of poundage . Mark Colvin in his study of the infamous untried Mexico prison riot of 1980 asserted that squeezing more and more inmates like sardines into a tin potful was the consequence of a change in philosophyIt is therefore easy to beseech that riots can be expected in prisons where the selects of inmates argon not met or when the prisoners feel that basic human rights ar not consider due to the lack of resources . It is also not hard to count on the stress levels companionshipd by shorthanded ply . When riots ensue , the safety of the prisoners and at the alike t ime the module responsible in managing utter facili! ty will be in extreme jeopardyFreeman elaborates on this issue when he wrote that , It is rocky to principal(prenominal)tain a close trace on `problem inmates when overcrowding exists This problem is especially acute when those problem inmates argon wedded to violence (1999 . If this is the case then overcrowded prisons is not the place to exert criminals . It may sound absurd provided placing criminals inside crowded facilities will not only mean non-rehabilitation but it will also result in a more change criminal forced to require tough in to rifle in a harsh environment . These facilities will do more harm than goodWith regards to the second charge , there is just too more than testosterone present in male punitive facilities . A casual observation on how boys behave in a natural setting will convince anyone that boys interacting with boys will yield a higher luck of conflict , rough play , and other risky behavior . There are prison systems in America that are de signed to be operated like a upsurge encampment ground . The means of rehabilitation is through a excoriation routine that foretastes to irrupt pot the will of the inmate in the same way as military boot camps process green recruits . But studies have shown that this set-up does not guarantee reformBenda and Pallone con run for that , .hyper masculine prison environment tat exists in most prisons , and especially boot camp prisons , creates a surround that has a tendency to mitigate the potential for creating long-term positive change in male offenders (2005 ,. one hundred thirty-five . The previous statement is not hard to understand . In a military a exercising sergeant may be harsh and disrespectful to new recruits but his actions are honed by long time of military raising and lengthened experience Furthermore , even if the drill sergeant dispatch ups mad or utilisation cruelty all of these ends afterwards a in truth short time and all of the animosity disappear as the drill sergeant celebrates with the recruits a! fter graduationIn the case of the penitentiary that simulates the boot camp experience , the drill sergeant - in this case the prison guards - are operating not from a computer program of respect and anticipating approaching camaraderie but acting with current disdain for criminals that in their minds had done dastardly deeds . If this happens then one can expect excessive force to be applied and what is worsenedned is that there is no graduation day to look forward to in the near future . The training becomes torture and it is goes on for a long period of timeWith regards to the trinity point it does not require a rocket scientist to figure out what archetypical time offenders will face when fixed in a crowd of drug dealers , violent tintinnabulation leaders , receiver , rapists etc . A first time felon that is in immutable seize with these types of character will find it hard to reject associating with them at least for the sake of choice . Friendships are organise and covenants are made inside prison walls and when they get out they have already upgraded their network . So when they came in , first time offenders may well be petty thieves but when they come out they become a part of create crimeOverhauling the ProgramThe preceding pages provided a lengthy word on the aspect of prison environment and why it is a contributing factor to worsening track record of U .S . prisons in wrong of providing rehabilitation for its occupants . The following pages on the other hand will seek to clarify the role of prison programs in rehabilitationThe major problem when it comes to American type of prison management was brilliantly discussed by Colvin . He was able to point out that the crisis was a result of a change of priorities . And he was right to affirm that there are more important things to consider in times of economic depression and of course policy makers shifted focus from providing quality correctional facilities sensitive to the requireme nts of rehabilitation and reform to more important na! tional matters . As a result twenty-first century America inherited a faulty program that needs to be rectifiedIn a grand case of ex-convict cancelled penology researcher and prison management expert veronica Compton provides an inside look at a Woman s correctional facility in Washington . This prison for women is the place that Compton referred to as her home for many years . And in her lengthy stay she realized that the U .S . penal systems tend to focus on the punitive aspect of incarceration rather than restoration and reform Compton was an eyewitness for the brutal consequence of such(prenominal) a medieval prison management theory and she wrote , The results I ve witnessed hastened or perhaps even pushed some women to commit self-destruction , or to self-mutilate , and emotionally break down , becoming fragments of who they previously had been (2003 ,. 10There is perhaps no bust example of the negative effect of current prison management program than what one will find i n super-maximum security department prisons . An example of which can be found in Boscobel Wisconsin where , both inmate live alone in a 7-ft . by 14-ft . cell that resembles nothing much as a large , concrete closet , equipt with a sink , a toilet , a desk and a molded stool and a sleep platform cover by a thin mattress (Kluger , 2007 , section 1The spartan comforts will surely arrive any sane mortal mad . But what happens when an already imbalanced person gets unaffectionate in a fit out box No one knows the exact mental problem that results from this type of incarceration . But Kluger asserts that there is need to esteem programs especially in places where inmates have a high chance of release because if extreme measure are being apply to punish convicts then society will have to generate the full brunt of their rage . And so Kluger warns , Demolish their psyches while they re in prison , and nobody s sager when they get out (2007 , section 3SolutionsBefore passing into any kind of driving force to change U .S . pen! ology there is a need to fully dissect American prisons and find out exactly what is going on . In short there is a need to evaluate current programs aimed to rehabilitate inmates . Yet , an blameless assessment of U .S . penitentiary is almost im contingent . This is because the beaver way of acquiring unbiased and reliable data is to become one of the prisonersThere may be some extreme researchers out there who will go the extra mile just so they can get the best teaching but it is improbable that they will force themselves to stay behind bar for a very long time . And being incarcerated for years - within claustrophobic prison walls - changes a person in a way that is only understandable to a convictMoreover , interviews and questionnaires can only investigating so much shepherds crooks behind forbid are like highly attuned animals that are on endurance mode . They view everyone with suspicion and there is a general distrust for domineering figures . Ob serving prisoner s from the vantage point of researchers can be an exercise in futility . Researchers can obtain information up to a certain degree but prison life can take on a diametric color when lights are out and when visiting is overThe inability of policy makers and sociologists to penetrate the frontal of prison life is probably the main reason why U .S .

penology is still an approximate science . As a result there is no comprehensive and clear-cut program that can assure the populace and prisoners that rehabilitation will occur after a certain time of incarcerationIt seems that over one turns there is very smallish th at will toss some form of encouragement that there i! s still hope for inmates . So the question remains if there is still a positive force operating in U .S jailhouses that will facilitate rehabilitation . According to DeRosia who fatigued signficant heart of time interviewing inmates there are some prisoners who are still approbative that affirmative change . One interviewee s comment made an concept when he remarked , Is there really prison rehabilitation ? Yes .if you urgency to rehabilitate yourself . There s no way to really force a guy to learn (as cited in DeRosia , 1998 alternates to IncarcerationCriminals must help oneself time . arbitrator demands for that . But sometimes there are offenders who do not need to return another day in prison . This pertains to those guilty of non-heinous crimes , to which impounding in overcrowded prison will only turn them into hardened criminals . Policy makers and other experts can see the solution in using railway locomotive room to notice an eye on those who are serving time bu t doing it outside the penal village . For this to possible the United States government is turning to high technology and a product popularly known as ankle correlative banglesIt is a documented fact that oftentimes than not imprisonment will make a person much worse instead of rehabilitating him . But an substitute(a) to prison time means putting a system in place where organization can keep a watchful eye on a convicted felon s movements even if the referee department had laying claim them a more lenient sentence by move them home rather than hauling them to the slammerThe only possible lead guidebook is to use high-technology wherein law enforcement ships officers rely on train thingmabobs to keep intense vigilance of those found capable of doing punishable acts and yet allowed to serve time under house besot . It is a good thing that there is a macrocosm toilet such as the perpetual Watch , a gadget that points to the future of crime prevention .and a new way of safekeeping an eye on a few troublemakersAn e! xample such a device is called The Constant Watch , a righteous steel wristwatch or bracelet affix and locked to a parolee s ankle , to which Christie pointed out as havingA world-wide arrangement System chip . [that ] will track the respective(prenominal) s changing location . If a parolee moves out of the plus emancipation area or removes the Constant Watch bracelet , the Constant Watch computer system will direct dapper police officers who can take corrective action to nail the offender (Christie , 2000 ,. 126An eye for an eyeImho Bae in his study on the possible alternative use of restitution in the State of manganese arrived at the following conclusion , The results show the public s lovesome support for restitution as an alternative punishment for incarceration for property offenders Considerable ignorance or misunderstanding by criminal justice officials of the public s support for restitution as an alternative sentencing has been found (p . 291 , 1992The only wa y that the judge and the probation officer can hit two birds with one stone is through the use of reviving justice . The reason why restorative justice can be very effective in consequence the twin dilemma of overcrowded prisons and the need to rehabilitate Joe will be discussed by Siegel and Senna who wroteAccording to the concept of restorative justice , the align purpose of the criminal justice system is to promote a unruffled and just society the justice system should aim for peacemaking , not punishment [ .] Advocates of restorative justice view the efforts of the state t o punish and control as encouraging crime rather than discouraging it (p .1 , 2003ConclusionIncarceration should not be seen simply as a form of punishment for those who have committed criminal acts . There is much to gain seeing jail houses as a tool for rehabilitation . Society in general will benefit from an ex-convict becoming once once more a responsible member of society . Unfortunately the U .S . penal system is an antiquated system that focuses on! the punitive aspect rather than on its capability to initiate rehabilitation among inmatesThere has been a clamor for change in the way correctional facilities are run . Still , there is a monumental amount of evidence that the environment that exists within prison walls is something that would encourage repeat offenders , a hardening of the criminal and a crack-up of the person . Instead of restoration the person gets deeper and deeper into trouble . then in the discussion on possible solutions , it was suggested pointed out that there must be an awareness of alternative dispute resolution that will insure that justice is served but at the same full-grown emphasis on the fact that once a first time offender gets thrown to the slammer there is a great possibility of being negatively influenced by more seasoned criminalsAside from providing conflict resolution another alternative for incarceration is the use of present technology to make house arrest a viable option . The use of electronic equipment would make it very hard for an offender to disappear . apply these alternatives will prevent juveniles and first time offenders to be in contact with more hardened criminalsReferencesBae , I (1992 . A critique on Public Acceptance of Restitution as an Alternative to Incarcerationfor dimension offenders in Hennepin County , Minnesota , U .S .A In recuperative judge on essay . by H . Messner H . Otto (Eds . unfermented York SpringerBenda , B Pallone , N (2005 . Rehabilitation Issues , Problems , and Prospects in spate CampNew York : Haworth PressChristie , N (2000 . execration Control as Industry : Towards Gulags , westerly hyphen . New YorkRoutledgeCarlson ,Garrett , J (2006 . prison house and toss away Administration behave and Theory . MA : Jonesand Bartlett PublishersClear , T , G . Cole Reisig , M (2005 . American Corrections . Belmont CA : Thomson HigherEducationColvin , M (1992 . The penitential in Crisis : From Accomodation to Riot in New Mexico . NewYork : State University of New York Press! Compton , V (2003 . Eating the Ashes : Seeking Rehabilitation Within US Penal System . NewYork : Algora PublishingDeRosia , V (1998 . subsisting Inside Prison Walls : Adjustment Behavior Westport ,CT : PraegerPublishersJacobson , M (2005 . lay off Prisons : How to Reduce Crime and End Mass IncarcerationNew York : New York University PressJohnstone , G (2002 . Restorative Justice : Ideas , Values , Debates operating room : Willan PublishingJones , A Kovavich , G (2006 . High-Technology Crime research worker s Handbook .BurlingtonMA : ElsevierKluger , J (26 January 2007 ) Are Prisons Driving Prisoners Mad ? sequence Magazine ArchiveRetrieved October 25 , 2007 , from http /www .time .com /time / pickup /article /0 ,9171 ,1582304 ,00 .htmlMathiesen , T (2006 . Prison On Trial . London : Waterside PressPavlich , G (2005 . organization Paradoxes of Restorative Justice . Oregon Cavendish PublishingSiegel , L Senna , J (2003 . Essentials of Criminal Justice . CA Thomson WadsworthPAGE 12 ...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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