The American Prison System

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Numerous studies have been conducted on all aspects of the American prison system, including the prisons’ capability of accomplishing the main functions and roles which are deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. During the 1980s, the American legislature decided to get “tough on crime” meaning more serving time and fewer opportunities. As a consequence, according to the Sentencing Project (2017), for the last 40 years, the incarceration rate has increased by approximately 500%.Also, referring to that source again,“ There are 2.2 million people the nation’s prisons and jails”. In fact, we have built a huge unbreakable wall between the society and the entire nation behind the bars. Therefore, many types of research demonstrate …show more content…
It seems that there should be no doubt that imprisonment has incapacitative effect; nevertheless, it is a great misconception. The problems that Golash (2005) comments are that the inmates learn new skills, and there are inner-prison crimes (p.29). Prisons are considered schools of crime where inmates can share their experiences and skills. A thief can teach a murderer how to steal a car. A drug dealer can teach a thief about the drug market and so on. Furthermore, crime does not stop in prison; for instance, as Zawn Villines (2013) states, “The DOJ reports that 70,000 prisoners are sexually abused every year, and assaults, fights, and other acts of violence are common in a prison setting”. Some people could argue that it is a part of a punishment, but is it? The purpose of punishment is supposed to be preventing future crimes, but implanting the hatred and violence in inmates’ brains will not help. When a young man enters a prison and becomes an inmate, he cannot be shy and act kindly. To survive the prison many inmates forcibly become more violent in order to protect themselves. Now, do inmates have a chance to have a better future? Unfortunately, the punishment never ends, and former inmates will face obstacles out of the prison life which will be hard to overcome. For example, according to Fornoff (2017), one struggle that some people will have is education due to the fact that 70% of colleges will probably refuse the application. It seems to be a really good idea for someone who committed a crime to invest his or her time in education, but the government and the public do not think so. It is the hardship of finding a place to live in, a job and an education to get which leads to the conviction of new crimes. For instance, if you cannot get money, legally, the chance that you will get it illegally is high especially if you know how it is done. As people know, a cognition comes from a comparison, so let’s
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