CRJ Seminar

PRISONS AND CORRECTION

Prisons and correction centers have continued to encounter many problems in their line of operations. The prison and correction centre administer jurisdiction’s prisons and community based programs and are large part of the criminal justice system. They run by programs and policies that pertain the practices involving corrections which include management and personnel training with inclusion of experiences pertaining the community at large. The institutions have a problem of overcrowding and violence in the institutions and health conditions that prove to deter the main operations. This paper seeks expound on the problems experienced in the institutions in the line of operations.

According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, United States has the highest number of incarceration in the world including adults as well as juvenile. The political and economical factors have given rise to the imprisonment boon in the various states. The prisons which are built not to accommodate large number of prisoners have faced large numbers of incoming inmates than the outgoing ones. The fears of unrest and crime, the backlash which is against civil rights and their movements, the economic inequality, and political hysteria on drugs have been the contributing factors towards the overcrowding of the prisons in the United States. Racial factors have also been contributors as more black people are arrested compared to the white people as indicated by the institution.

The policies of the government that fail to allocate funds to the criminal justice system in order to improve the prisons in the United States has also contributed to the problem of overcrowding the health services provided in the prisons continues to deteriorate with a steep speed and is below the constitutional requirements and this poses a major problem (Cook, 2001). This is all cause by overcrowding. The American people thus view and believe that just as offenders’ crimes do carry a cost to the society, the same case does apply for their social supports and rehabilitative services. The crime-control strategy that works on a plan of locking more people for long is not working.

Solving the problem will change the notion that the prisons are for the unwanted in the society and will be at a high level in according the required corrections measures that the institutions are supposed to provide. The problem of overcrowding of the prisons will also reduce the problem of violence in the prisons and correctional centers. This will improve the health services provided per inmate and it will encourage proper success in changing the individual rather than changing the crime committed (America's Prison System Is A Disaster, 2014). The government is revising the policy response in the various states and includes severe sentencing and parole systems, less reliance on probation, new criminal penalties, and prison building industry in order to solve the problem. The problems affects the society at large as it is politicized at the helm of every level in the society as the institutions rate of success in changing the individuals criminal behavior is very low. Also on external base, the government is affected much as it has to spend more funds in running the prisons and is being criticized by the correctional centers for its lame approach on the institutions. The inmates are affected internally as they are not fully protected from disease outbreaks. Also it may result to violence among inmates.

The problem is not yet solved as we are yet to see the political interference being dealt with. The government also is not allocating enough funds to the institutions which lead to their mismanagements (The Growing Problems of the Prison System, 2014). The Correctional Corporations have also amassed large political influence with government ties, thus lobbying power and the campaign contributions; in an effort to convert the discourse of justice to languages of the marketplace thus the problem is not yet solved.

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