Incarceration Of Offenders In Prison Analysis

My thoughts on corrections is it’s a place that houses convicted criminals. As an Intern I see it as a place that places criminals into facilities depending on their length of sentence or the degree of their charges. Inmates who work wear stripped jumpsuits while walking the facilities. The inmates inside wear green jump suits for adults and beige for adolescents. The environment is not bright but it’s as clean as the inmates keep it.
There are many programs implemented within to assist rehabilitating inmates. In the programs department they offer GED and beginning four-year courses to a college education. The offer food handlers, ASPCA certification, Entrepreneurship programs and prison fellowship. They offer rental assistance, child support
The steepest rise in crime accompanied the greatest rise in imprisonment (You decide, 2017), which suggest that despite the rise in incarcerations crime rates continue increase so putting criminals in prison does not reduce crime. There is no concrete evidence that correlates with the idea that an increase of incarceration aid in the decrease of crime rate. Needless to say there are high risk criminals that need to be housed permanently out of society but non-violent offenders don’t need incarceration but possibly rehabilitation not in a jail setting. Social forces are at play according to the lock em up article as it states “That means it is cheaper in most states to lock street criminals up than to allow them to be free on the street” (You decide, 2017). “Increasing incarceration while ignoring more effective approaches will impose a heavy burden…. while providing a marginal impact on crime” (King&Mauer&Young,
It also say characteristics such as race play a factor in the number of convictions. Blacks are more likely to go to prison at a higher rate than Hispanics and three times the rate as their white counterparts. It also says there is the same amount of people who commit violent crimes and drug offenses that are incarcerated at the same amount. This suggest to me that the American society is likely to convict a black male at a higher rate than anyone else. If prison has a criminogenic effect on inmates, then I expect the relationship between crime rate and incarceration rates continue to rise. When inmates are sentenced into a population and reform does not takes place then prison becomes a network to people. Inmates can learn or make connections to other people they can build from. Inmates can conform from the experiences of prison life then “they reenter society harboring an intensified, if not overpowering, propensity to offend” (Cullen&Jonson&Nagin, 2011).
I learned that putting inmates into a correctional facility does not reduce crime. I feel that is unfortunate because the people who commit these crimes are released and are more likely to commit another crime, increasing the rate of recidivism. Most of these crimes are repeated by repeat