Assignment

Prisons

The United States incarcerates more people, in both absolute numbers and per capita, than any other nation in the world. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people has increased sevenfold to 2.3 million in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime.

In the United States, approximately half a million correctional officers are responsible for supervising more than two million inmates. Correctional officers are exposed to unique workplace hazards within a controlled prison environment.

During your reading this term, you read some chapters from the textbook and reviewed some resources about mass incarceration and the death penalty. You reviewed those chapters again this week. For this assignment, you will be using the template, Prisons Assignment Template [DOCX]. For the assignment, you will address the following:

1. Explain when prison overcrowding became a problem in the United States and what was the main issue that caused the overcrowding.
2. Explain how various alternatives to incarceration work.
3. List the pros and cons for various alternatives to incarceration.
4. Describe the effectiveness of various alternatives to incarceration.
5. List death penalty related statistics for a state in the United States.
6. Describe your opinion of whether the death penalty is effective in deterring crime and should remain in place.

For this assignment, fill out the template and submit it.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course.

The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

• Examine issues related to prisons, prisoners, and correctional officers