...When correction officials talk about solitary confinement, they describe it as a prison within a prison, and for a good reason. Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment which isolates an inmate from any human contact. It is often used as a form of punishment for a violation of prison regulations. However, as Dana Liebelson depicts in her article, solitary confinement is detrimental to juvenile inmates. In the article, “This is What Happens When We Lock Children in Solitary Confinement”, by Dana Liebelson, she describes the horrific psychological damage solitary confinement has on youth in correctional facilities. “This is What Happens When We Lock Children in Solitary Confinement” brings to light the negative effects solitary confinement has on youth in juvenile correctional facilities. Liebelson writes about individual cases of children who have experienced isolation in correctional facilities. In each case, juveniles claimed isolation changed them for the worse. They emphasized not only the short term effects it had on their health, mind, and behavior, but also the long term effects that isolation caused as well. In one case, a seventeen year old boy named Kenny...
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...We are presented to the topic of torture of hostages in foreign countries over several years. Gawande introduces us to the story of the journalist, Terry Anderson, who was held hostage in solitary confinement in Lebanon. But the narratives of these hostages aren’t limited to Anderson, however. We are introduced to the stories of Reed, and even United States Senator John McCain. Each narrative presents informative information to explain the consequences of solitary confinement, and allows first hand experience to describe what exactly goes on during this scenario. This grouping of narrative and informative works about hostages quickly brings readers’ reasoning to wondering about other places where solitary confinement is, thus expanding on the greater...
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...Pennsylvania System Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Pennsylvania System Prisons are places were reform is supposed to take place. The means by which prisons initialize reform varies from rehabilitation programs to solitary confinement. This paper examines the Pennsylvania System and how its principles were extrapolated for the modern prison system. The next section provides an overview of the Pennsylvania System. The Pennsylvania System In the 1800s the Quakers were a religious order. Like most religious orders they followed the path of God and thus new that sin was part of their lives. With that being said that also knew that repenting of their sins would lead them back to God’s path. Individuals who were committing a crime were obviously sinner and were in need of repentance. The laws of the land stated that criminals would go to jail but that was not the only solution. While in jail the prisoners needed to know that their actions would not be tolerated by God or by man. The formation of the Pennsylvania system was based on the idea that solitary confinement would bring about change in the prisoners. This change was anticipated in the form of penitence and reformation. At the time the founders of this grand endeavor were the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2013). The predominant members were Quakers and drove the decisions and actions of this committee. The implementation of...
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...for the attack, killing over 168 people. Though people have different views on whether or not the death penalty should be legalized in all states, it is not. The death penalty is only legal in 32 states. There are many reasons to why such as justice being served especially to the families of someone who suffered, it costs the government less, and life in solitary confinement. There is many pros as to why the death penalty should be legal. We really may never know if the death penalty will stop a person from committing murder, but it is something that can be put to look at it. It is wrong to let someone sit in prison for life and still get the...
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...The British criminal code, which was emulated until the Revolution, depended greatly on capital punishment. Although less severe crimes, which did not sanction the death penalty, were punished with fines or “sanguinary” punishments. Non-capital punishments in the early days of criminal justice were designed to terrorize and subject offenders to derision in hope that they would change their behavior. Jails existed but they were mainly used to hold criminals during pretrial proceedings. The realization that cruel vengeance did little to limit or prevent criminal activity in the 1700s further promoted the invention of the prison. The first penitentiary, Walnut Street prison, was converted from a jail in 1790. It was designed with 16 solitary cells for the serious offenders and large rooms where less hardened criminals would sleep together. This became the prototype for prisons over the next 30 years. Walnut Street Prison operated on the concept that silence among the inmates would force the prisoners to think about their crimes and they...
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...Epicurus' Death Argument Epicurus' view that death is not to be feared has had an enormous impact on Western thought for over two thousand years, regardless of the strength of his other views. He argued that man should rid himself of the irrational fear of death. Epicurus began his argument with his conclusion, "that death is nothing to us." His basic argument is laid out as follows: 1. Death involves neither pleasure nor pain. 2. The only thing that is bad for us is pain. Thus, death is not bad for us. His basic argument as laid out is a valid one. The conclusion does follow if we accept the premises as true. We must accept the first premise based on Epicurus' metaphysics of atomism and physicalism. If one intends to support or attack Epicurus' argument it must be through the second premise. There are a few arguments that one could use to try and refute the conclusion, but I believe that these are groundless if one takes the time to delineate what Epicurus meant by "death." I will list these and then refute each one individually. First, one might ask why it is that we take precautions against death, such as, wearing seat belts or not walking alone in dark alleyways at night. Second, one might ask why it is then that we have laws against murder. Finally, if I were to tell you that I had given you a poison pill with your morning juice that would cause you to die painlessly in the next four hours you would be understandably upset. ...
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...to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (Honeyman & Ogloff, 1996). Their reason for this decision was that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced (Honeyman & Ogloff, 1996). The Gallup pole lists public opinion of the life without parole as compared to the death penalty 48% versus 47% (Stop killing, 2007). Capital punishment is a difficult issue and there are as many different opinions as there are people. There are many murders each year. Does the death penalty create a deterrent for these criminals? There is a need for the death penalty. There are always two sides to every argument. Both sides may be valid. Those in favor of the death penalty proclaim that it is not used enough (Murry, 2003). According to Murry (2003) there are several points people consider. First is the simple fact that there are way too many murders a year. Next, many people believe the murder rate can and will...
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...The idea of a “sin” is that it goes against what you are told to do. In christianity, a sin is when you disobey what god calls you to do or what the bible says to do. In the american culture, a sin is going against our constitution or our stated laws. The sin of theft is an all encompassing sin that could be used to describe any sin. If you kill a man, you steal his life; If you lie to him, you steal his right to the truth (Hosseini). All three of the stories don’t portray what you think of when you envision theft, but they envision the hosseini definition from the kite runner. In one they portray the theft of life, in another they show the theft of security. The theft of sin was a major theme in all of these stories either through the classic form of theft or the hosseini definition and each one shows how theft is the only true sin. The story “The Bet” shows theft in more than one way. In the form of tangibly stealing something that someone else owns, and also in the more subtle way of...
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...Anthony Reid, convicted in 1989 for two seperate murders, recently organized a class action lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania. To elaborate, five death row inmates organized a class action lawsuit against the state declaring that “solitary policy violates constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment” (Scolforo). To understand the scope of their argument it is imperative to know their living conditions. In solitary confinement, the prisoner is kept in his cell for 22-23 hours and is allowed 1 hour of free time with a ball in a small monitored space (Scolforo). Furthermore, the cell, which is roughly the size of a parking spot is always illuminated. Of course, the prisoner will remain in that condition for the rest of his or her life until their execution date. To live in such a confined and solitary manner for that long just to end up being executed may cause serious social or emotional stress to inmates such as Anthony...
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...Among many widespread concerns about torture, one is what exactly defines it, and what specific acts are included. While Bagaric does not mention this in his argument, it is a main concern to Johnson throughout his article. Johnson describes torture as “a form of terrorism…The object of all such physical and mental torment is singularly clear: to terrify prisoners so they will yield information.” (26) Later in his article, Johnson quotes the definition of torture as defined by the U.S. Justice Department, and reads as follows: “‘Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.’” (27) An article in the February...
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...Hamzah Saleh We all know of the effects torture has on our physical bodies. We can see the bruises and wounds left by torture. That pain is instantaneous and even a person looking at the wounds on some one else will cringe as he tries to imagine the pain that was felt. But can torture do more than just damaging our physical bodies? Can torture also impact our minds and damage our well being psychologically? Many are surprised to find that the real pain of torture is what remains in the mind, somewhat forever. Definition of torture: First off, torture can be separated into two different categories. Physical torture, and Psychological torture. Physical torture is defined as the Infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion. Psychological torture is defined as the intentional infliction of suffering without resorting to direct physical violence. There have been many debates on which is worse physical? or Psychological? I’m here to say that torture is torture. It is wrong whether it is done with physical force or without. Either way it leaves a horrifying impact on the victims. Since we already know how torture can harm a person physically, I will focus on the psychological harm of torture in general. Research proves that the psychological affects of torture are greater than the physical affects. Torture has been shown to have “destructive health consequences on detainees.” Studies done on the Guantanamo Bay prisoners prove that the pain doesn’t...
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...Problems within the Criminal Justice System In the United States Abstract: This research paper explores some problems faced within the criminal system justice in the United States. Larry J. Siegel’s book “Criminology” gives us a history of the criminal justice system, how it operates, and some of the problems we experience with this system. Some of the problems detailed in this paper include the right to equal justice; which he explained the different kind of judgment that people receive based on their race, gender and class, the criminal justice system spends more money on criminals instead of improving technology for the police apprehending them, the criminal justice system lacks of sentencing disparity, reliance on eyewitness and modern technology can lead to conviction of innocent citizen, and finally the rehabilitation model which is set up to educate criminals and eventually let them free because of the belief that they are changed people and have been rehabilitated. According to the definition from the text “Criminology”, the term criminal justice system refers to “the components of government charged with enforcing law, adjudicating criminals, and correcting criminal conduct” (Siegel, 2009, p. 558). According to Siegel, the criminal justice system is essentially “an instrument of social control: society considers some behaviors so dangerous and destructive that it either strictly controls their occurrence...
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...prisoners or prisoners for the purpose of pulling information. Some writers make up fake situations to blow the advantages of torture out of proportion, claiming that it is danger free, low cost and useful for getting fast response. However, after carefully thinking through the arguments used by many torture supporters, one will figure out that the arguments of torture supporters are false. Writers who support torture show less logic, but rather offended anger to evil violence. The use of torture as а form of punishment should be prohibited because contrary to the arguments of torture supporters, it does not serve а purpose, is against international law, and will only perpetuate hatred and retaliation. (Davis) According to, the International Statuette, Torture is any kind of use of force, mental or physical used on a human being to gain third party information or self-confession. No country prefers to use it but is forced to do in order to safeguard the lives of its citizens and smoothen justice. (Greenberg) Most criminal suspects go through some level of torture. Torture may involve Physical methods like starvation, beatings, burning, sodomy as well as psychological methods such as verbal abuse, solitary confinement, and sleep deprivation. Regardless of the damage and destruction that they have done to us, reducing ourselves to that level puts us even below them. Al-Qaeda suspects and illegal fighters act out of religious hatred – fighting back with ignorance by torturing the suspect...
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...farms for mast productions, and animals being mistreated. Should any animal have the right to life? Should they have the right to be pain free? Have right to food? Animals cannot not speak for themselves, so people are having to speak up for them. Animals do have rights that are the same as humans. Whether or not proving if animals should have the right could change how they are treated and the usage of animals. "What we conclude about animal rights will have consequences for the food we eat and the clothes we wear, and it will have direct bearing on the kinds of science we think morally justifiable"(Cohen, 1986). The argument here other than animal rights is that humans think they are in control of their own rights or wrong ideas as long as society or culture goes along with them. When asking the question, “what are our moral obligations to animals,” the argument is that we do not have any obligations toward animals, due to them being species, not taking part of political contract or of determining what right or wrong is. Humans have laws in place that we have created, therefore, non-humans are expose to the rules we created. Being morally good, legal, fitting or proper is defined as having “rights.” As earlier mentioned morals which means rights do not have to be granted to whom are not defined “humans” which that means animals will not be in this category. It is our right for animals to be used because we all understand the bigger picture in life like laws and morals. Pollen...
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...experimentally tried with thoughts from material science and the theory of physical science. The inverse of determinism is some sort of indeterminism (generally called nondeterminism). Determinism is regularly appeared differently in relation to through and through freedom. Determinism regularly is taken to mean causal determinism, which in material science is known as circumstances and end results. It is the idea that occasions inside of a given ideal model are bound by causality in a manner that any state (of an item or occasion) is totally dictated by earlier states. This importance can be recognized from different mixed bags of determinism specified underneath. Different civil arguments frequently concern the extent of decided frameworks, with some keeping up that the whole universe is a solitary determinate framework and others distinguishing other more restricted determinate frameworks (or multiverse). Compatibilism is the conviction that through and through freedom and determinism are perfect thoughts, and that it is conceivable to accept both without being legitimately conflicting. Compatibilists trust opportunity can be available or missing in circumstances for reasons that have nothing to do with transcendentalism. Case in point, courts of law make judgments about whether people are acting under their own choice in specific situations...
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