The Prison System
byDecember 5th, 2007 at 6:32 PM
Filed under: Other Discursive Dialogue, Politics
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The United States has many fine institutions in this country going on everyday; unfortunately The Prison System is not one of these. Some might argue that the current way that it is operating at is perfectly fine. I on the other hand feel that there are plenty of improvements that need to be done to get this program in working order. The overcrowding is an obvious and visible sign when you see these facilities. However, there are deeper problems such as: the amount of nonviolent prisoners, the amount of money we spend every year to keep prisoners living, and the one I feel is the biggest factor is the rehabilitation process or lack there of. The United States has the highest ratio of population to incarceration rate, and I believe this weakens this country as a whole. When listening to politicians you never hear them say anything about The Prison System. This is either because they feel it is in working order, or they simply do not listen to convicts that cannot do anything to help themselves. Everyone has messed up in their life once or twice. However, some unfortunate people have messed up quite a few times and in a big way. Everyone of these people, citizen or not are tried in a United States courtroom. Depending on if it was a state or federal crime you receive a penalty that is supposed to be suited for your actions. Most felony conviction requires a jail sentence to go along with it. If convicted you are then transported and made to do your time in a county jail, a state prison or federal prison. For those who have too serve more then a year or two likely go to a state penitentiary. State prisons are where most offenders go if they are convicted of a normal state crime. This is where many murders, rapists, and violent felons serve their time. This brings me to my first point, which is violent and non violent offenders need be housed in two different facilities. Most of the time these non violent offenders are in their for drug related charges. According to a study there are now 2.2 million inmates behind bars. An astounding 1.3 million of those inmates are there for non violent crimes. Now I am not one to say that the only bad crimes are violent, but to keep these inmates with other violent inmates make no sense. These non violent inmates are either going to turn into a victim of violence or going to pick up a violent nature living with these types of prisoners. Another type of prisoner that often times gets overlooked and treated like everyone else is a drug addict. These people need special help and that does not mean just sticking them in a cell. There is no point to throwing a drug addict with serious problems into a jail with no rehab or process for them to go through. Many prisoners die everyday from serious drug withdraws. This to me is unexplainable, and should be addressed immediately. Some may say that it costs too much money to rehab all of these inmates with drug addictions. The truth is that The United States pays 60 billion dollars every year for corrections, the most out of any other country. A lot of this money is being spent for building more and more facilities, which are just going to fill up and be overcrowded soon anyways. A lot of the overcrowding is due to the large amount of immigrants in these facilities. According to the Bureau of Justice, there are 270,000 immigrant prisoners currently incarcerated in American prisons. That is a very large amount (21%), especially when you think about the amount of space and money that would be relieved if they would go back to their country of birth. Almost every prisoner will be placed back into our society one day. An amazing 67.5% of prisoners that serve one or more years of time were arrested again, and about 50% of them were still incarcerated 3 years after being arrested. I could not believe those numbers, but when you think about it, it doesn’t seem that far fetched. One reason why prison seems like a revolving door is the fact that when inmates are release it is extremely hard if not impossible to function as a normal human being. Besides being caged up like an animal for a long period of time, and then finally being released. Inmates who are released on parole, mostly convicted felons are expected to get a job within the first three months of there release. This may seem easy enough, but for someone who has little or no working skills before they go in and then are left behind due to years passing them by, it is very difficult. This is another reason why a rehab process would be beneficial. If you get these inmates doing something productive and give them a specialty in the work field, they could find jobs a lot easier and can contribute to society. Besides that rule of parole, there is the rule that you must be released in the same district as where you committed the act of crime. This to me sounds like the worst rule of all, because you’re being put back in that same environment, and it brings back old memories that got you in trouble in the first place. The inmates already come into prison with a good understanding of crime, but when they leave they have the knowledge of 3or 4 criminals put together. Prisons act as criminal convention, everyone comes there with there own stories, and schemes. They then share their stories and compare with each other. All this is doing is extending criminal behavior and improving the knowledge along with the chance that these inmates will be inmates once again. There has got to be a rehabilitation process put into place for all prisoners. I think the only exception for the rehabilitation process should be inmates with life sentence without the chance of parole. There is a reason why these people are in this position and they need to think about what they have done for the rest of their living days. Some living conditions for these inmates are worse than third world countries. There is no secret that these prisons are overcrowded, but some say it is violation of cruel and unusual punishment amendment. Imagine living in a place where there is no running water, and the toilets do not flush. The smell in the air is so foul that you can gauge just by smelling it, but imagine living with it for 10 or 20 years. Sure you probably get used to it, but just think about what that does to your body over that amount of time, and your long-term health during your sentence. Another study showed 40 to 60% of prisoners are contracting hepatitis c from another inmate. This may be from sexual acts that spread the disease, but it can also be due to the fact that sanitation levels are not where they should be. As pointed out The United States Prison System has many loopholes. I pointed out that there should be a rehabilitation process that should be given to every prisoner that has to serve a year or more. I think of if as if I was put in this position and was made to serve time for a non violent crime. Let’s say I had to serve one year, which is a very long time when you have nothing to do or keep you occupied. I could see being put into a situation that could make the original problem a lot worse. I may be approached by a gang and be forced to join unwillingly; I may contract a sexual disease from more then one source, or I can be made a bigger criminal and become a real debt in society. These are all reasonable outcomes of what can happen to you when you become incarcerated. As I said before everyone has made a bad decision in their life, and some are reprimanded different ways. I just hope they get the prison system fixed to where you can go in there due your time, and leave being a regular contributing citizen in society. |
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ROBERT on October 28th, 2008 at 5:27 PM
I am glad they are off the streets.I have lerned a lot from them (inmates).They think a lot dif from the normal people.Thre rules do not apply to most inmates there for they do what they want on the streets.
ROBERT on October 28th, 2008 at 5:24 PM
GOOD ARTICAL. The prisons are not helping.I have worked in two dif ones in florida. The people in there lern how to use the system. When they get out they think there smarter and end up right back in. I have been seeing this for the past 15 years.
Desert_Rebel on December 11th, 2007 at 7:33 PM
Said it before and I'll say it again: If you break the law, you go to jail. Prison isn't supposed to be fun. People who act like animals need to be locked up in cages. It's not my responsibility as a taxpayer to pay for a "rehab program". We need to stop giving scum like this special treatment. This guy has the right idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio
I have to agree with Desert Rebel. I have running water and my toilets flush because I am a law abiding citizen and have a good job. If your in jail, you obviously did something you weren't supposed to. I do not think you should be on death row for stealing, but you sure as hell should'nt be walking the streets after a few days and I definetly do not want to pay for you to be on a "rehab program". I don't really want to go into politics with this critique, but I have always said that we should get the prisioners out working the crops in place of the Hispanics. That way it will keep our prisioners busy, free work for us taxpayers, and it will take care of our immigration problem!