Part of the criminal justice system has become privatized and many investors hope to profit (Kraska, 2004). On the one hand, the investors create many jobs. For example, workers are needed to build prisons, supply prison food, supply prison clothes, and provide medical care. On the other hand, the investors need customers (i.e., inmates); hence, there is an incentive to confine people in prison. By locking people up in prison, the state effectively manages the surplus labor force, which is naturally generated in a capitalistic society (Kraska, 2004). Thus, politicians appear to be effectively serving the public. After all, jobs are created and there are fewer unemployed people in the…
In “Caging of America,” written by Adam Gopnik is an outline of everything that is wrong with the mass incarceration problem in America. We have come so reliant on methods that do not work that we have become blind to the effects it has on prisoners. We believe have set up a successful model to handle mass incarceration, in addition to our miss guided belief that we have fixed a problem.…
Who knew that an uprising that occurred in the fall of 1971 at a New York correctional facility would help change the American penal system forever? It was the culmination of a storm that had been brewing for months. There was a tension between the guards and inmates that had not gone unnoticed. With little to no attention given to the circumstances of the inmates, they had had enough.…
Although criminals should pay the consequence for their behavior, it should not mean that they should live in overcrowded prisons. An example of an overcrowded prison is shown in Angola, where the max occupancy was for 800 prisoners, yet they had 1,750 prisoners (Stern, 2006). When this happens, the lack of resources, space, and training from needed officers increases. Therefore, conditions become hazardous and prisoners and officers are at higher risk for diseases such as HIV and Tuberculosis (Stern, 2006). Although society feels safe with criminals locked up, they have to realize that a main purpose for prisons is to help reduce crime by showing prisoners that breaking the law will cause them the loss of freedom. Ultimately, leading those criminals who are able to get out, to come out with a sense of a change behavior. However, the system that puts these women, men, and young people in overcrowded prisons are not even worried about the criminal. Instead, they keep increasing the definition of “crime”, which increase the number of criminals in an ineffective prison…
Back then conditions in jail were appalling, especially the Wall Street Jail. Men and women, adults and children, thieves and murderers were all jailed in the same nasty disease-ridden pens. Rape and robbery occurred often. Jailors hardly cared at all for their prisoners or their well being. They would sell their prisoners alcohol, up to almost twenty gallons of it in one day’s time. Food, heat, and/or clothing could only be bought at a price. Quite often prisoners would die from cold or starvation. A group of apprehensive citizens, who called themselves the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, decided that this could not go on anymore. Their proposition would change the future for the way prisons were ran…
Privately owned prisons began to emerge in the mid-1980s. These prisons emerged because of the ideological imperatives of the free market, the huge increase in the number of prisoners, and the substantial increase in imprisonment costs. (1) Proponents of privatized prisons put forward a simple case: The private sector can do it cheaper and more efficiently. Corporations such as Correction Corporation of America and Wackenhut promised design and management innovations without reducing costs or sacrificing quality of service. (1) Many interest groups comprised of correctional officers, labor works, and a few citizen groups strongly oppose the privatization of the prison system. I will identify four of these groups that oppose private prisons,…
Any individual that breaks the law is punished, a criminal penalty can be ranked from a small fine or community service to the death penalty, there’s no general agreement on how the courts should punish if the individual is guilty. Perhaps they’re five different types of philosophical principles that guides the sentencing in the United States: deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution, incapacitation, and restoration. These can differ in very important ways, some feel tension that punishment should fit the crime committed, but others believe that the punishment should fit the criminal. These points can influence the time about sentencing. Some people accept that they are consequences for having a criminal conduct. Finally, some of the consequences…
My opponents may argue that to imprison these criminals are too costly, that they are too privileged, and are living a luxurious life in prison. But do they realize that prison have changed many of these criminals? That when they are released they are reformed more educated and even more disciplined than when they went in? Aren’t they relieved when these criminals are taken out of our society and we the citizens are…
Even though privatizing prisons is considered morally wrong by many people, these prisons are supervised by the state, have the government’s permission to operate, and they exist because public jails cannot handle the number of prisoners. The main reason I support prison privatization is because they reduce taxes. First, since they are not part of the government’s property citizens don’t have to pay for them to operate and more money could be used to build other things such as schools and hospitals. Secondly, these prisons also usually operate as efficiently as the state’s jails and have lower costs per prisoner. Thirdly, they create competition and motivate public prisons to also lower their costs. I am going to explain all of my reasons in the order that I named them.…
alter the belief of prisoners that the only way they can gain the public’s attention and…
America’s prisons have a major importance in modern society. They are a huge contributing factor to the safety of our country and allow for proper and humane punishment for those who commit crimes. While America’s streets continue to be plagued by crime and dangerous people, prisons help significantly in decreasing the crime rate and removing those people from society in order to create a safer place for people to live. Although there are many pros that come with prisons, a handful of cons come with them as well, which allow for arguments to rise about whether prisons should be allowed in America or not. Prisons are a necessity in modern society that punishes and rehabilitates those who commit crimes with the purpose of protecting…
People are beginning the process of caring and acknowledging the injustices that plague these people’s lives. However, that is not enough, our superiors need to swallow their pride for this system and admit that there are in fact faults that happen. We as citizens can all chip in to make sure that the ones that do not deserve to be incarcerated, are not. We have to address the general public that is probably not aware of the extent of injustice that happens behind those wooden courtroom doors. We all need to listen instead of rushing to judge a person in a case. If we bring awareness and if we bring leadership, reform will…
This was aimed at reducing the amount of money spent to cater for this by the federal government (David, 2013; John, 2012). This has resulted to mass recruitments of criminals into jail through the collaboration of the judicial system and the private business people to ensure the prisons are full. In return, the private partners are reaping a huge profit from this. The corrupt deals are resulting into two different corruption opportunities created by the American Government; once in prison, the prisoner’s rights are not considered by these private prisons. This is ensured through congesting the prisoners in small holdings ensuring such housing are the cheapest, and having as many numbers of prisoners as possible (David, 2013; John, 2012). For instance, a cooperation by the name Corrections Corps of America (CCA) and GEO group had proposed to the government to manage all prisons in 48 states of US at a much reduced cost. On the other side, and this is the genesis of the corruption, this company was to run a prison of 1000 bed capacity and government was to ensure that 90% of this capacity is maintained. The government agreed to these terms by ensuring that there are more tough laws for ensuring maximum prosecution. It also ensured that the minimum imprisonment will be 25 years even for minor cases like smoking marijuana. On the other hand, to ensure maximum profit, some few prisons like the newly build Karnes County in Texas has the prisoners life improved (David, 2013; John, 2012). In here, prisoners are not congested and they are free to walk around the prison confinement and even play descent game. To ensure this is maintained the government has to impose more taxes to its citizens. This is a two way deal; the government makes more money and the profit for the private partners…
Prison privatization uses the prison system as a means of profit and presents contradictions with public values of safety, justice, rehabilitation, and legitimacy. Economic incentives of this system advocate cutting costs to maximize profits: “Private prisons that cut costs in the hopes of profit present a threat to the safety of prisoners, prison staff, and the public at large” (Gov. CCE). A threat to justice is displayed by the attempt of the industry, “To extend the amount of time that convicts will remain in prison” (Gov. CCE). Inmates up for parole are rarely given the opportunity to receive help for their plea: “Gaining parole was often less of a…
criminals deserve to be punished. Most of the people would not hesitate to claim that those who break the law should be punished ans]d put into prison as long as possible in case they continue to endager our lives and property. Also, if criminals are not given any punishment they may commit crimes again and again.Crime in general is the worst thing a person can do because it violates the law and it is a violation against the victims.Therefore, to protect the security of the society they should be punished according to the severity of the crime. So, regardless of what sort of crime someone is commiting they have to pay for their crime.…