Preview

Failure Of The Correctional System

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
125 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Failure Of The Correctional System
It is apparent that the present corrections systems in the United States are geared for the punishment of offenders as opposed to rehabilitation. Measures such as tough on crime policies only highlight the primary objective of the criminal system. Nonetheless, despite the increasing severity of punishment of crimes the current statistics indicate that the corrections systems do not rehabilitate prisoners. Over two-thirds of the prisoners reoffended within three years of being released; this effectively means that the system has failed abysmally in rehabilitation. This is further exacerbated by the fact that 90% of the convicts within prisons are released within a few years, only for a significant portion of them to commit further crimes. As

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The corrections system in the United States is an ongoing struggle to house and rehabilitate individuals who violate the law. The resources put towards the United States correctional system is substantial but not sufficient. The United States continues to have a rising number of inmates incarcerated and in turn often times face overcrowding issues and shortage of funds to provide other rehabilitation focused classes and programs. The corrections system in the United States has proven to show trends throughout the years since the corrections system was established. In order for the corrections system to improve, it must be analyzed and changed…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    One objective in the criminal justice system is to rehabilitate offenders. In this paper, I will describe what rehabilitation is in prison, as well as provide the origin of rehabilitation. Next I will give a definition of parole and how it is different from mandatory release. I will also be giving a definition of probation and how probation compares to other forms of sentencing. This paper will also provide a definition as well as the options of community corrections. Lastly, I will critique the current rehabilitation and give my opinion on a better solution to the current parole process, the current probation system, and the current community corrections options.…

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the book, A place to Stand, by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Baca writes about prison and how being incarcerated can have impact on a person and their family. With the most beautiful, strong and poetic language, Baca tells us the story of all the people who faces difficult times in order to find their place in the world. Baca always felt like he had no place to stand in society because, all of his life he was put down by his family and friends. From the age of five Baca experienced his dad and uncles going in and out of jail from being addicted to alcohol. Baca knew he would eventually end up in jail sooner or later because that’s what he had experienced all of his life. Baca writes, “Whether I was approaching it or seeking escape from it, jail always defined in some way the measure of my life” (3). Baca felt that his life would always head in the wrong direction because of his family issues. Baca shows being in prison can cause a lot of emotional impact on a person’s life, as well as affect the community.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Given current trends in society today, the next era of corrections will be a hybrid model between the rehabilitation and punitive model. Thousands of studies show the positive and negative components of each of these models. The rehabilitation model was not properly measured years prior due to the lack of technology and society was critiquing the process because they were not able to see the benefits of the program first hand. The punitive model on the other had has had plenty of evidence on its success in increasing incarceration rates and creating issues with overcrowding and lack of funding. Nevertheless, each model has something positive they can bring to the table.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The US correctional system punishes offenders in different ways, because each offense is on a different level some can be felonies and some can be charged as misdemeanors. In our correctional system they punishes offenders, by putting them in jail/prison. But in its early years prison punishments for offenders were cruel. In the early year of the correctional system offenders punishments were very different from their punishments now in this day and age.…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since it’s establishment in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the United States Correctional System has evolved from its initial intent to house offenders before their trial/ public punishment, to housing offenders as a form of punishment to rehabilitating them while withholding them in state’s custody. However, at least over the last two decades United State’s federal and local officials have implanted laws and utilized systems that considerably impede the success of an ex-offender’s reentry into society. This essay will analyze the broad range of roadblocks faced by ex-offenders, the legislative origin of these issues, and prospective solutions that can cease the increasing percentage of recidivism nationally.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    I have chosen to research the correctional system of the United States for many reasons. The first reason is that I believe this component of the legal system has the most problems facing it. Another reason is that this topic interests me and I would like to learn more about it.…

    • 1784 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There are many functions of prisons these are: to punish offenders, to rehabilitate them and put them in a position to be modal citizens. First and foremost a prisons aim should be to prevent and deter those who enter the gates from returning. Recidivism is the term used to describe those who re-offend after coming under some sort of corrective action such as corrective action such as sentencing, fines, programs, or community service; repeat a crime within three years. However, since 1996 the recidivism rate in the United States has risen steadily and now figures show that in 2011 “70 per cent of prisoners who were released from prison were re-arrested within three years” Those who commit continuous crimes are labelled as “habitual offenders” they add to the recidivism rate when they continue to commit crimes after under-going corrective action. What’s more alarming is the high rate at which serious crimes are being repeated; “studies found that 73.8 per cent of property offenders re-offend, 66.7 per cent of drug offenders re-offend, and 62.2 per cent of public order offenders re-offend” With recidivism rates now at an all-time high t is very common for a past offender to re-enter into the court system on new and often identical charges. These statistics are forcing many questions to be asked about the ability of prisons to deter criminals “33 states that provided data for both periods, 15 reported recidivism rates had increased by as much as 30% by 2007”. The lack of former offenders reintegrating into the society begs the question “Are prisons doing enough to prepare inmates for the world they are set to return to?” The answer is proving more and more to be no, with not only recidivism rates rising. 80 per cent of all…

    • 3072 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Not only has mass incarceration contributed to the depletion of economic resources, but it has also not been proven as an effective means of lowering crime rates. Our current prison system is designed to spend massive amounts of money on warehousing and punishing criminal to then just place them back into society without any of the tools needed to become a constructive member of society, thus resulting in criminal behavior to reoccur. Multiple studies conducted have manifested that “rehabilitation programs, education, therapy, and vocational training have a profound effect on not only bettering the inmate as an overall individual, but on society as well” (….) because these offenders can now become productive citizens that can add to the community.…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One issue that has created controversy and influenced correctional policy over the past twenty-five years is correctional treatment programs. Although the public supports the concept of rehabilitation and treatment programs, there is an expectation that such programs reduce recidivism. In New York City, the recidivism rate in the jail system is as high as 65%. Out of 340,000 males, 200,000 black males are arrested yearly by the NYPD out of a population of 1,200,000 black males. Rehabilitation is a programmed effort to alter the attitudes and behaviors of inmates and improve their likelihood of becoming law-abiding citizens. It focus is on preventing future crimes and return someone to a prior state. An offender who completes their criminal…

    • 1635 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s easy to forget that America has a mass incarceration problem. We keep prisoners behind bars, walls, and barbed wire, far from the rest of us. In their own little world, a world closely monitored by armed guards. Physical and social walls isolate them from the rest of us, all two million of them. You read that right! Roughly two million people are imprisoned in some way across America. Despite them having more incarcerated people than any other nation, the system is deeply flawed and in desperate need of changes. These issues is affecting 1 in 100 Americans daily, so it’s time they are addressed.…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States has the largest prison population in the world (see Figure 1). “The United States contains less than five percent of the world’s population, but twenty-five percent of all those behind bars… one in every nine American prisoners is serving a sentence of life with little chance of parole.” (Blinder, 2015, p.3). On top of having the highest prison population, we also have to highest recidivism rates in the world. Recidivism refers to an offender recommitting a crime after they are released from prison. Our country has a criminal justice system that is more worried about punishing offenders instead of rehabilitating them.. According to the National Institute of Justice, “Within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent)…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The USA has a higher percentage of its citizens behind bars than any other nation. Our crime rate is higher than that of any other advanced nation. Among the leading industrialized nations our murder rate is 3-1/2 times higher than the second place nation, Italy. The majority of persons released from prison in the US- estimates run as high as 70%- are convicted of new crimes within five years. These are statistics that are very real. My purpose is to research and determine if a convicted criminal can be rehabilitated. We will take this opportunity to further delve into the controversial world of rehabilitation for the “outcast dredges” of our society. You will read many ideas ranging from scholarly to just plain nutty, as to why the greatest nation on earth can have such a great crime problem. Unfortunately throughout my research I found that too few of these ideas are actually based on research, fact, or implementation. Too many are based on human emotions. Many of our decision-makers seem to believe that learning from the policies and experiences of other nations is somehow beneath us. All too often youth offenders are arrested and released too many times. Our sentencing polices are inconsistent, often too lenient for violent crimes and too harsh for non-violent crimes. Our public safety planning is too shortsighted. It would be better to spend more on intensive probation and scientifically based rehabilitation programs now, and less on more and bigger prisons tomorrow. We make “convicted felons” an untouchable class, locking them out of normal society and worthwhile employment, making continued crime all the more attractive. Instead of facilitating prisoner re-entry, we strain to make it difficult and almost impossible for some. More often than not no real intervention until criminality is firmly established and has become a pervasive lifestyle. Too many…

    • 2451 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For the last few decades the criminal incarceration rate has risen as well as the prison inmate population. Many prisoners have very few privileges in these prisons and have very awful experiences during their incarcerations. Unfortunately, many prisoners in the United States are receiving excessive prison sentences for nonviolent crimes due to our current justice system. Laws are indeed laws and should never be broken by any individual. However the primary goal of our criminal justice system should not be to punish but to rehabilitate the individual.…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Criminal Recidivism

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Prisons today are overcrowded and are a growing problem in today’s society. “In 2008, the Pew Center on the States reported that incarceration levels had risen to a point where one in 100 American adults was behind bars. A second Pew study, the following year, added another disturbing dimension to the picture, revealing that one in 31 adults in the United States was either incarcerated or on probation or parole” (Pew Center on the States, 2011). It is very costly for the states to maintain the prisoners behind bars. It has been estimated that the cost of state spending on corrections is 52 billion dollars. Recidivism is a term used by law enforcement agencies that describes the tendency to relapse into criminal behavior. It involves a person being re-incarcerated or re-offending. “Inmates returning to state prisons within three years of release has remained steady for more than a decade; this is a strong indicator that prison systems are failing to deter criminals from re-offending. Using data from 41 states for prisoners released, “a study done by the Pew Center on the States found that slightly more than 4 in 10 offenders return to prison within three years” (Johnson, 2011). What has caused this rise in recidivism can be due to more studies being done, tracking recidivism more closely, and failure of prison systems/probation programs to rehabilitate inmates.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays