...Running head: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS TO INCARCERATION Alternative Solutions to Incarceration Meral Daniel Southern New Hampshire University Alternative Solutions to Incarceration Incarceration is the result after a crime is committed by an individual and has a number of objectives. Primarily, it is intended to keep persons who have committed a crime under secure control and to punish them by depriving them of their liberty. Imprisonment keeps them from committing further crimes while they are incarcerated “and, in theory, allows them to be rehabilitated during their period of imprisonment. The goal of rehabilitation is to address the underlying factors that led to criminal behavior and by so doing, reducing the likelihood of re-offending. However, it is precisely this objective that is generally not being met by imprisonment. On the contrary, evidence shows that prisons not only rarely rehabilitate, but they tend to further criminalize individuals, leading to re-offending and a cycle of release and imprisonment, which does nothing to reduce overcrowding in prisons or to build safer communities.” (United Nations, 2006) One effective alternative to incarceration is the use of GPS monitoring and it is becoming an increasingly important topic of consideration by state rehabilitation and correction agencies. Location tracking systems, such as GPS, have customarily been used solely to track higher-risk offenders. However...
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...Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," reports there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War. Statistics reported in 2006, by the U.S .Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics support this claim, which show that Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation’s 2 million prison and jail inmates, while Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent. The disproportionate ratio of blacks to whites who are incarcerated is especially great in Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota – greater than 10-to-1 (USJB, 2006). Why this structural inequality towards African Americans is happening, why it matters, and suggestions to rectify this, are issues that are discussed in this paper. Why is this happening? Since 1970, the U.S. has experienced a large and rapid increase in the rate at which people, regardless of race, are housed in federal and state correctional facilities (Snyder, 2011). This rapid growth in the prison population has been attributed in a large part to the rate at which individuals are incarcerated for drug offenses, especially minorities (Snyder, 2011). Between1995 and 2003, the number of people in state and federal prisons incarcerated for drug offenses increased by 21 percent, from 280,182 to 337...
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...number of incarcerations increases. With this, the number of families torn apart by imprisonment increases. In the U.S. alone, there are approximately 1.7 million children with an incarcerated parent, and roughly one in eight children will experience having a parent imprisoned at some point in their childhood (Reckman and Rothstein). With numbers like this, it obvious that the amount of children being left without a parent is a problem in the U.S. The effects that parental incarceration have on a child can last a lifetime or cause consequences for the child that are difficult to escape. As children are the future of the U.S., studying the effects of the parental incarceration on children is extremely necessary. Having to adapt...
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...Unfair Incarceration: Minorities’ Plight in the U.S. Judicial System DeVry University Cultural Diversity in the Professions SOCS 350N Spring 2013 Abstract The United States is well known as the Land of Opportunity, but if you’re a minority that opportunity maybe a greater chance of being incarcerated in the state and federal penal systems. Civil rights battles have raged for the greater part of the last century in this country. With milestone victories in the early and mid 1960’s equality under the law seemed to be a foregone conclusion. There are numerous laws, policies and even a Constitutional Amendment that address the matter that race should never be a factor. With this is all in play and in mind, you would think that statistics of the U.S. penal systems racial analysis has to be completed with a huge margin in error because it is not near equality. In a cursory search of this topic one can find a deluge of graphs, tables, and statistical analysis. The one thing you cannot find is a quantitative or qualitative consensus of why this has occurred or why it is still occurring. A preponderance of the evidence is anecdotal and offers suggestions of policies and attitudes that have led to this epidemic in contemporary American society. In this review, an endeavor to gather the gist of the issue and attempt to answer why or how this came about and the numerical extent. Followed by the consequences to the affected groups and the whole of society. Finally...
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...Silent Battle: The Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children and Families By: Jessica Stamper The loss of a parent has an overwhelming impact on a child. When a parent dies or there is a divorce, there are endless opportunities to discuss the loss, but what happens when the absence is due to incarceration? Incarceration is not met with the same understanding and sympathy death and divorce are, making it harder to cope, creating additional and often more severe emotional and psychological effects on children. The topic is often considered taboo and this inability to communicate creates more anxiety for the child. They often feel alone, leaving them to suffer in silence. The loss of parents to prison can cause depression and trauma to a child. It compounds the existing environmental stress, such as the violent neighborhoods, poverty and a poor school system. The trend for the incarcerated differs with race, age, gender and economic status. In the same way, the effects on children range from emotional, behavioral and economic aspects. When a parent goes to prison, leaving behind their children, it creates devastating and often lasting effects on the family, as a whole. Equally affected, are the parent or guardian left to care for the children. It is a growing epidemic and with the constant rise of prison population, so does the numbers of families left to suffer the consequences. This paper investigates the effect of incarceration of a parent can have on a family and...
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...Site Visit to the Travis County Adult Probation SMART Program Tony Lee Merriwether HSCS/311 June 23, 2014 Sheri Meyer Site Visit to the Travis County Adult Probation SMART Program This paper is an overview of adult probation program designed to provide an alternative to incarceration. The Texas Criminal Justice Program designed the program as a diversionary mechanism to provide comprehensive treatment to offenders that require treatment for substance abuse and chemical dependency. The offenders must meet certain criteria to gain entrance into the program. The program is resident in nature to assist the offenders with re-socialization process. The counseling and intervention sessions are conducted by Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselors, (LCDC) which use cognitive behavioral therapies as a treatment tool. The SMART program is very structured in regard to the structure, its mission, and goals. There are strict eligibility requirements that offenders must meet to attend the 20-week program. The program is not gender specific and is available for male and female offenders. There are three levels of treatment provided at the treatment facility. Therapy is provided in the form of individual and group sessions. The writer visited the site while accompanied by LCDC Ms. Vicki Clark Merriwether; Ms. Merriwether gained her experience working with active duty Soldiers as an Alcohol and Drug counselor at several military locations in the United States and Europe. Ms. Merriwether...
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...Isis Lee English 101 Livingston 3/4/13 Juvenile Reentry System "I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act", Bill Gates. Recidivism is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as the tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior. It is a term that is predominantly used when referring to criminal behavior. According to a study done by the Connecticut Department of Corrections in 2012, Out of 14,398 male inmates released from prison in 2005, 79% were re-arrested. These numbers begin to describe the continuing issue that the United States faces in regards to repeat offenders. In the article "Stopping The Madness: A New Reentry System For Juvenile Corrections." Author's Scott Sells, Irene Sullivan and Donald DeVore focus on some of the reasons that contribute to youth recidivism and programs that can help minimize this issue. Without first determining the causes of the issue we can not begin to address resolutions. This article focuses on an interview as well as studies and evidence based theories tto combat this issue that we are faced with. The artilce discusses issues that contribute to failing reentry programs which ultimately result in high recidivism in young offenders. Although they provide a strong logical argument, and sufficient evidence the authors do not go into detail the effects of implementing such facilities will have...
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...population in Texas and every other state. As of June 30, 2009 there are 2,297,500 people including women incarcerated in the United States of America (Sabol, 2009). The US is 5 percent of the world's population and shockingly has 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Over the last 30 years, the US criminal justice system experienced the second largest increase in government investment, health care being the first. Last year, as state budget shortfalls emerged, 31 states cut education budgets while increasing money for incarceration (Rooks, 2010). This causes problems for states including Texas at the local, state, and federal. Drugs are an issue in every country in the world, but here in the United States we make it a primary issue, which is why we have so many people incarcerated. Drug offenses, account for two-thirds of the federal inmate population. This is virtually affecting the poor and minorities in our society. Because of this, money for incarceration increases and cuts down education budgets, thus also affecting our students who will be the future of our country. Policy makers in Washington D.C. must address these issues if they want the future of America to be respectable, as it has always been. This problem has been brought into the public’s eye because of the monetary problems the United States has been facing in recent years. Many people around the states including teachers are losing jobs, wages are being cut, and the living expense is not getting any cheaper...
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...Community Corrections or Incarceration Are community corrections a better solution than incarceration? Michelle Brooks ITT Technical Institute Community Corrections or Incarceration Abstract In this research paper will read about different subjects and topics that pertain to incarceration and community corrections. The incarceration rate is going up in the United States while at the same time community corrections is slowly fading away because of limited support from the local communities and government officials within each state. In this research I hope to find out those community corrections has more to offer than incarceration. In conclusion incarceration is not the right way but community corrections will be. Community Corrections or Incarceration Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Background on Community Corrections Background on Incarceration Effectives of Community Corrections Effectives of Incarceration Programs dealing with Community Corrections Programs while Incarcerated Theory Interview with Mr. Sharron Wilson Result Reference Page Community Corrections or Incarceration Introduction Community Corrections is a better solution than incarceration because it offers many different alternative programs for several different types of offenders. Incarceration also offers similar programs...
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...Paternal incarceration creates a temporary single-parenting system, in which the mother acts as sole guardian, but imprisonment tends to produce far worse effects on children than do other causes of parent-child separation (Lowenstein, 1986). Separation due to death or similar causes disrupt the family, yet these happen to provide a “focal concern around which the remaining members can rally and mitigate the impact of their loss”; quite to the contrary, separation due to imprisonment rarely elicits any such response because of the stigma with which it is associated (Fritsch & Burkhead, 1981, p. 84). Typically, a child faced with the social stigma of paternal incarceration will often also encounter embarrassment and shame, which may in turn further inhibit the ability of the child to adequately adjust to the anxieties resulting from the separation through incarceration (Hannon et al., 1984; Lowenstein, 1986). The deleterious effects on child behavior, of course, are that prolonged periods of shame and embarrassment may promote depression or behavior typical of withdrawal, such as an unwillingness to engage in social interactions. Unlike other causes for paternal separation, paternal absence due to imprisonment is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which takes on different meaning depending on the manner in which the particular cause for the incarceration is perceived—either as being “normatively approved” or as “bearing a stigma” (Lowenstein, 1984). While there is a correlation...
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...state jurisdiction. There was an increase of 509 from 506 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 United States residents from yearend 2007. This was an overall increase of 0.8% from the previous yearend. This was however less than the average increase of 2.4% annually for the years 2000 to 2007. (1) These numbers show the growth of the United States inmate population which leads to problems with overcrowding. Within the next year the Federal Bureau of Prisons will open three federal correctional institutions which can hold an approximate 10,500 federal inmates at maximum capacity. (2) According to a national study in 2003 showed that seven out of ten male prisoners that were released will return to prison. (Viser) The question of how does incarceration effect recidivism seems to be obvious. It doesn’t have an impact on those who serve there sentences in prisons or jails. However there are factors that could influence those who serve time and thereby have an impact on recidivism. The dependant variable of the...
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...and probation is juvenile diversion seeks to avoid the burdensome consequences of formal processing (Clear, Cole, & Reisig, 2013, pg. 447). Probation is when the offender is convicted of an offense, but rather than being incarcerated, the offender is released and subject to supervision. Diversion can be in two forms which is stopping the process of the case or through specific programs. Diversion programs are private and confidential meetings that are not conducted in public. A diversion program allows the offender to go through treatment and other conditions to avoid conviction while still holding the offender accountable for their actions. Diversion programs are usually for first-time offenders who do not need to be rehabilitated by incarceration or strict supervision and can be expunged after completion. Probation is being monitored and reporting/checking-in. Probation is usually for offenders who need to be rehabilitated by strict supervision but do not need to be incarcerated. Probation includes additional programming with conviction ordered by a judge that includes halfway house programs and other transitional programs. In other words, diversion programs avoid imprisonment and conviction while probation is the punishment for a conviction of an offense and can be imprisoned if the offender violates the terms of their probation. A diversion program in Texas is the Youth Offender Diversion Alternative or YODA. The YODA is a new program for juvenile offenders that is aimed at...
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...Incarceration Rates I. INTRODUCTION - I am going to focus on the different incarceration rates between African Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians and what factors play into these rates. I will then switch to my home town (St. Louis) and focus on crime that surrounds me day in and day out. In 2010 St. Louis was named “The most Dangerous City in America”, and I plan to research what labeled them with this title and what they are going to do to try and reverse this title for the future. II. BODY A. African American Incarcerated 1. Factors that contribute to incarceration 2. Judges and Attorneys that play a role in sentencing in African American cases 3. Examples of cases with African Americans as defendants B. Hispanic Incarcerated 1. Factors that contribute to incarceration 2. Judges and Attorneys that play a role in sentencing in Hispanic cases 3. Examples of cases with Hispanic as defendants C. Caucasian Incarcerated 1. Factors that contribute to incarceration 2. Judges and Attorneys that play a role in sentencing in Caucasian cases 3. Examples of cases with Caucasian as defendants D. St. Louis Crime Rate 1. Factors that contribute to incarceration in St. Louis, MO 2. Different types of crimes 3. Example of St. Louis crimes III. CONCLUSION A. Discuss the factors that link the 3 races together B. What we may be able to do to correct the factors that contribute to incarceration Every American comes into this world we all enter life on the...
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...encouragement” along with his mentor being there every step of the way building his confidence. With this support Ernesto began getting great reports from the teacher and he went on to take the GED pre-test receiving a sixty-two in writing and a sixty-one on social studies, which is outstanding. After all the time and effort invested Ernesto graduated. (Lore, 2002). This one success story can speak for many and really paints that picture that many children need support, encouragement and motivation to empower them to want to succeed in the end. Ernesto is just one I speak of but, troubled young men are prevalent in countless communities and many households, which across the U.S. the low performance schools are located in areas with high incarceration rates. (MSNBC, 2015). “Men account for eight out of ten people cautioned by the police, and nearly nine out of ten people found guilty of indictable offences.” (James, 2014).These young men are the futures of America and should be groomed to fulfill the right path and not increase prison overcrowding. In order to decrease the...
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...PRELIMINARY STATEMENT Stephen Richards respectfully submits this Memorandum regarding his re-sentencing. The purpose of this submission is to highlight pertinent developments in the lives of Mr. Richards and his family members in the four years since the Court originally imposed a sentence of 84 months imprisonment. Mr. Richards has been incarcerated for 43 months. He has earned all available “good time” credit, which brings his total time served to 49 months. Certain events since his incarceration were unanticipated at the time of sentencing, and others demonstrate Mr. Richards’ rehabilitation to an extraordinary degree. These events are described below and are fleshed out in greater detail in letters and related documents contained in a separately-bound collection of Sentencing Letters and Supporting Materials. We respectfully ask the Court to weigh these intervening developments when fixing a term of incarceration that is “no greater than necessary” to achieve the factors listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). We respectfully submit that under all the circumstances the statutory purposes of sentencing would be satisfied by a sentence of 60 months. BACKGROUND Beginning in the mid-1980s, the corporate headquarters of Computer Associates International, Inc. (“CA”) instituted a fraudulent practice of premature revenue recognition. The so-called “35-Day Month” involved keeping CA’s books open for several days after a quarterly reporting period...
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