Purpose Of Prison Reform In The United States

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“Prison Reform” Introduction For years, depriving criminals of their freedom by locking them in a cell has been the way to pay back their debt to society for crimes they have committed. The sole purpose of this time incarcerated is for inmates to reflect on what they have done, with a desire to get back out into the world and change their ways. However, it can not be expected of these people to suddenly change their behavior while being locked away. Reforming our entire prison system would benefit not only criminals, but their families, friends, and more. A prison reformation would take an attempt to improve conditions inside the prisons, improve the penal system Narration Why is it that our prison system has the sole purpose of punishing rather …show more content…
This isn’t even the case in some prisons, because sometimes an inmate can be in their cell 24 hours a day. The most effective prison system in the world resides in Norway. After 5 years of prisoners being released, only 20% will find themselves back in prison. This rate is 14 compared to the U.S. These lowered rates of reincarceration are not just by chance. The Norwegian prison system's primary focus is the rehabilitation of prisoners. Prisoners get work, education, access to gyms, and drug rehabilitation ( if necessary). Inmates can serve no longer than 30 years and most sentences aren’t even close to being that long. 60% of sentences are less than 3 months and an additional 90% are less than a year. Prisons are also a lot smaller and close to home. I believe that the U.S. should adapt our current system to look more like this and we will see results. Confirmation: So what would improved prison systems do? The improvement of prison systems will help imprisoned individuals live better lives in their community, which will benefit families and communities …show more content…
Our current prison system is flawed so bad people will stay behind bars to live meaningless lives. Refutation A common argument that is against prison reformation is that no matter how much rehabilitation is given to an individual, they will not change. Once out of prison, it is believed that a person will go back to whatever bad thing that they were doing and eventually get themselves back in trouble. However, this is false. It is because of the poor treatment and the lack of attention that is given to the rehabilitation of prisoners that these people commit crimes again and end up back in prison. If we have a universal prison system that is used all around the globe that focuses on the improvement of incarcerated people, then we would see results. If we take another look at Norway and its prison system, they had the same issue as the U.S. Reincarceration rates were as high as 70%. The prison system was identical to the U.S. until Norwegian lawmakers saw that their method of prison did not work. Norway now has the lowest reincarceration rates in the world because of the Reformation of its Prison
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