The Effectiveness Of American Prisons Essay, Research Paper

The prisons in America seem to do more jobs than aid in today & # 8217 ; s society. The state & # 8217 ; s penal system is overcrowded, expensive, and some argue that is uneffective every bit good as inefficient. The costs to staff and support these installations increase dramatically every twelvemonth. Prisons, which are supposed to be correctional installations, are presently filled with force and ill will. These establishments are created to command offense by disincentive, disabling felons, which protects society from potentially unsafe felons, but it is difficult to state if this is being accomplished.

The first job that is invariably blighting the penal system is the fiscal load attached to the edifice, maintaining, and staffing of prisons. In the late 1960 & # 8217 ; s, New York reinforced prisons at a monetary value of $ 2 million each. Since so, monetary values have risen dramatically. In 1990, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that each captive requires $ 15,496 to back up. A prison incorporating 2,000 inmates costs over $ 31 million to run on an one-year footing. A new prison theoretical account, scheduled to be completed in the summer of 1996, was introduced in Niagara County. The new installation would be less, be more lasting than current prisons and more flexible to the fluctuating rates of captives. The highly low cost to raise this new edifice would be $ 24.6 million. The province of the art installation would keep 224 inmates but merely require five officers to oversee the full installation, which would salvage about $ 164,000 compared to other standard prisons.

Violence is a really large job within the prison walls that is besides a 1 sided job. In 1992, federal and province prisons reported 66 slayings and 10,181 inmate-inmate onslaughts harmonizing to Angela S. Maitland and Richard D. Sluder. The changeless fright of onslaught can take a captive to hold serious mental jobs. Inmates can endure from dyspepsia, irregularity, and concerns as some of the psychophisological effects. Other effects include feelings of weakness, depression, and low self-image. Terry A. Kupers, M.D. , noted in 1996 that 16-25 % of the entire California inmates had psychological jobs that required a head-shrinker. The changeless psychological emphasis can impair the single physically. These people can endure high blood pressure, asthma, ulcers, and inflammatory bowel disease. The bulk of the victims of these violent offenses are normally the immature, little, weak, and new captives. Many of the victims have been convicted of non-violent offenses harmonizing to a survey done by Angela S. Maitland and Richard D. Sluder. Harmonizing to Maitland and Sluder, 54.7 % of inmates in 1991 were 29 old ages old or younger who qualify as possible victims. Kupers noted that & # 8220 ; Violence is ubiquitous in prison. & # 8221 ; ( 1996, p. 190 ) Whether there is problem between two or more inmates, or between one or more inmates and the prison staff, one of the chief beginnings of this changeless force is packs.

Prison packs have been around since the 1970 & # 8217 ; s. Salvador Buentello included in his study that in 1992, there were 1,555 incidents ( i.e. stabbings, battles, etc. ) affecting inmates, 5,598 assaults on staff members, and 52 inmate homicides. Buentello besides noted that over 80 % of the assaults and over 92 % of the homicides were gang related. There were more homicides that occurred between 1984-1985 than occurred in the 15 old ages old to this survey harmonizing to Buentello. Prison packs are & # 8220 ; sole and furtive groups of riotous inmates who aim to command their environment by prosecuting in intimidating and endangering behaviors. & # 8221 ; ( Harold W. Clarke, 1992, p.8 ) Clarke & # 8217 ; s study stated that these packs, like the street packs are normally formed along racial and cultural lines and they normally have a geographic demand to fall in. This last point is because many of these prison packs survive out of prison. Some illustrations of packs that matriculated from the prison to the streets are the Mexican Mafia, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Black Guerilla Family, the Texas Syndicate, and La Nuestra Familia. While in prison, the packs & # 8220 ; prosecute in extortion and drug trafficking, intimidate weaker inmates and trip violent altercations. & # 8221 ; ( Clarke, 1992, p. 12 ) The digest of packs in prison was catalyzed by two major tribunal instances as noted in Buentello & # 8217 ; s study. The first was Lamar v. Coffield. This determination allowed inmates to incorporate, which increased racial tenseness. To protect themselves, people of the same cultural groups formed packs to protect themselves. The 2nd instance, Ruiz v. Estelle eliminated the usage of edifice stamps or inmate guards. The disposal became more reactive, leting packs to organize.

Rehabilitation, as cut downing & # 8220 ; condemnable activities by altering an wrongdoer & # 8217 ; s attitude and behavior. & # 8221 ; ( Shichor, 1992, p. 19 ) This is one of the most of import maps of the prisons. Unfortunately, the figure of rehabilitated felons has decreased dramatically over the past few old ages. The Bureau of Justice Statistics, in a 1991 study, concluded that 81 % of all inmates have served clip prior to their current sentence. Traveling to prison can hold two different effects on a individual. One, the captive can develop a tougher personality as they live with felons, or two, they can be intimidated and ne’er desire to travel back. Paul Gendreau has done research on this subject and has noted that the best plans for rehabilitation are those that are speedy, merely enduring a few months, and house. Inmates traveling thro

ugh these successful plans are given wagess for things that they do good. Another large portion of this procedure is the private audience with a healer. Those plans that did non work, harmonizing to Gendreau, resembled boot cantonments, in the regard that they were rough and there was an unfastened hate and misgiving of the felons. These ailing tally and uneffective plans planted more hatred than it removed. These plans did non assist the felons to rehabilitate and added to the increasing Numberss of repetition wrongdoers. Terry A. Kupers, M.D. noted that these plans have besides made captives feel like they won’t be able to work good when they are released. These captives deal with this emphasis in two ways harmonizing to Kupers, they either isolate themselves, or they thrash out and acquire themselves into even more problem. W. Wesley Johnson, Katherine Bennett, and Timothy J. Flanagan have shown that felons are non afraid of traveling to prison. In a study constructed by Steven Levitt in 1996, he stated that by imprisoning one extra captive, the Numberss of offenses are reduced by about 15 every twelvemonth. The deficiency of fright has attributed to Shichor’s beliefs that this job consequences in low rehabilitation rates, and hence should non be the end of the prisons. The tougher the prison, the disincentive would be greater once the fright is instilled. Some other suggested possibilities as noted by Marylee N. Reynolds, Ph.D. in 1996, would be to revoke privileges such as exercising equipment, phone and telecasting privileges, and music and art categories. An even harsher method of disincentive that has been addressed would be bear downing inmates to assist society wage for their clip in prison. Harmonizing to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, over one half the inmates in province prisons in 1995 were employed full clip, and over two tierces were employed portion clip, this would let this proposition to be earnestly considered.

Another job with prisons are the awful conditions and hapless medical supervising that is provided. Health attention has been a job for many old ages. It got so out of control, that in 1972, a Health Advisory Committee was set up to rede the affairs impacting the wellness of captives. This commission was broken up into sub-committees and gave advice on many different factors that could better the state of affairs. Alan Berkman, MD said in his 1995 study that 362 out of every 100,000 captives get AIDS one time they enter the prison. This prison rate is 20 times the current national rate. Particularly in today & # 8217 ; s society, this is a large job. Berkman noted from his ain personal experience that there is a deficiency of sufficient wellness attention in prisons. He said in his 1995 study, & # 8220 ; During my clip in prison, I twice developed Hodgkin & # 8217 ; s Disease and became closely familiar with the wellness attention available to prisons. & # 8221 ; ( Berkman, 1995, p. 1617 ) Unfortunately, AIDS is a large job in today & # 8217 ; s society every bit good as today & # 8217 ; s prisons. In the early 1980 & # 8217 ; s, prison doctors were unable to make anything with their deficiency of information on the new pestilence. Wardens were loath to allow captives out after they had acquired the AIDS virus because the functionaries believed that captives would be unsafe to society. Prisoners who were known to be infected with the virus would non be isolated, but guards would have on baseball mitts when they had to inspect the captives or their cells. Showing the small attention for the captives as the guards protected themselves. In the 1960 & # 8217 ; s and 1970 & # 8217 ; s after many jurisprudence suits about wellness attention, prison rebellions took topographic point, one of the highest demands were better wellness attention. Berkman stated that the ill calls were done by ill trained by wellness attention workers. He besides notes that the instruction of medical attention has been about wholly shut down because governments see it as disruptive to the prison society.

Presently, every one out of 55 Americans will pass clip in prison. In 1996, Arthur Wallenstein reported that between 1995 and1996 the prison population had a 4.2 % addition from 486,474 to 507,044. Overpopulation in prisons has caused many jobs for the authorities since the 1700 & # 8217 ; s. The full prison system in 12 provinces is under tribunal orders refering the overcrowding of their penal system. The imprisonment rates his three to four times greater than some European states. In 1994 entirely, Kupers reports that there were over one million captives in America. Some prisons have dealt with this job by turning gyms and recreational suites into make shift residence halls. Problems with this include the awful noise that echoed through the suites, the inability to sufficiently clean the deficiency of privateness and the loss of installations used to suit the inordinate captives. In a New York prison had a population of 7,921, transcending the bound by 88 % harmonizing to Barbara A. Nadel & # 8217 ; s study done in 1996. In 1997, Johnson, Bennett, and Flanagan have reported that the prison rate in America has more than quadrupled since 1970.

America & # 8217 ; s prisons have many jobs that are seen by the populace. Overcrowding, inordinate force, packs, and inordinate fundss are large jobs that can non be resolved easy. But with the proper research, all of these jobs can be resolved. If the prisons were more efficient, so the penal system would be more effectual. The jobs confronting rehabilitation demand to be studied and it must be fixed. Without the effectual prisons, the offense population will be harder to command and the offense rate will go on to increase.