Correctional System V.S Rehabilitation

The correctional system has three main goals: punish, protect the population and rehabilitate the offender. However, it is unclear how well the modern U.S. correctional system achieves these goals and whether the money invested in the correctional system might be better spent. (http://www.ehow.com/about_5087269_role-correctional-system.html) The only goal the correctional system has is to punish those who are incarcerated, so they never commit another crime and have to come back. It is the most common way of punishment besides capital punishment, parole or probation. Its supose to teach them a lesson and be the most affective way, but is it? The correctional system is also supposed to rehabilitate inmates. Rehabilitation, if done well, will make the criminal functional in normal society after release. This may include vocational training, counseling and drug rehabilitation treatment. Rehabilitation is intended to shift the criminal from being a cost to society to being a contributing member of society. (http://www.ehow.com/about_5087269_role-correctional-system.html) For punishment in our correctional systerm prison conditions and the treatment of inmates are regulated at several levels. The highest level is the U.S. Constitution. The Eighth Amendment reads: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Legal precedent is used to determine what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, since the amendment's wording is vague. International law also regulates prisoner treatment through the treaties known as the Geneva Conventions. More than 90 percent of all prisoners are eventually released.(http://people.howstuffworks.com/prison4.htm) Normally before any prisoner is released from incarceration they normally go through a psychological evaluation of some sort to make sure they are fit to go out in the real world, espeacially if they have been in prison for awhile. But when they get out alls