...to a prison is driving down Route 53 in my home town and seeing Statesville maximum security prison for men. I have never been past the barbed wire; I have only seen the stark grey cement walls from afar. However, regardless of never knowing a single one, my opinions and beliefs of the people who live inside are abundant. However, by deciding to visit Mission Creek I decided to face my stereotypes head on, and see where they stood after I got a look for myself. My “observations” of the incarcerated began when I was about eight years old and was granted permission to use the TV remote. For some reason prison shows always interested me, of course not factual ones, just dramas. My personal favorite being Shawshank Redemption. Granted, from time to time I have watched “real” stories on the incarcerated, such as “Pregnant in Prison”, “Women Behind Bars” and various shows about serial killers in prison. I especially took the latter shows to heart, and these were “reality” so I believed this is how prison was. Stark grey walls, people in some color, most often orange, jumpsuits, walking around hand cuffed, steel bars everywhere. Prisoners sit in their cells all day every day, doing nothing but check books out of libraries so they can cut the pages out to smuggle contraband. While they are not doing this they are beating each other up, giving one another tattoos and trying to escape. I carried these ideas with me for years. However at this point, my opinion on the people behind bars...
Words: 1416 - Pages: 6
...The history of prisons in 1800 Harold Flower CHS/230 December 8, 2011 Vashell Anderson The history of prisons in 1800 Prisons before the 1800’s did not have women prisons. In those days the prison were mixed with men, children and women all in the same prison. The prisons in the 1800’s that held women prisoners were treated just like the men in those prison the women also had to do hard labor which consisted of sewing, laundry, cleaning and cooking. All the women were to act like lady’s but also had to be treated like men in those prisons the women talked about how they were over worked and that they wasn’t fed enough in the prisons of the 1800’s. After the 1800’s the prisons started to change this was depending where and what prison you was in at that time there was no toilets in most cases the toilet was a bucket and it might not have been emptied too often. There were prisoners that didn’t do much at all but sat around and waited to die also at that time the cafeterias were not established so the food was forced through the cell bars and you had to eat what they fed you and it wasn’t much and it tasted really bad. You was lucky to be fed every day in today’s prison you do get three meals a day, schooling, and do jobs that are inside the prison also there are some prisoners allowed to work outside the prison walls, there is clean running water with bathrooms and showers, and the best part is that the prisoners have bunks instead of laying on the ground. In the 1800’s...
Words: 508 - Pages: 3
...Running head: WOMEN IN PRISON Women in Prison James Graziadei TESST College – Towson Criminal Justice CJ242 11/17/2014 Felicea R. Thomas, M.S. Abstract Discussing who is responsible for a child when the main caregiver is the sole guardian and incarcerated. The generational gap that can cause issues in the development of a child. Who and how money can be an issue and cause problems. Is it okay to have a pregnant woman be put behind bars for the crime she committed? And is it okay for mothers to keep their babies imprisoned with them, while serving time. Women in Prison Approximately 7 in 10 women under correctional sanction have minor children, more than 1,300.000 children (Leonard A. Sipes, 2012). Imprisonment rate are skyrocketing for females in today’s world. There has been nearly a 600% increase in female offenders in the past 30 years. Black females had an imprisonment rate nearly three times that of white females (Leonard A, 2012).With this in thought many women obtain sub-standard care while pregnant in prison. According to a 2006 report by the Department of Justice, only 44% percent of pregnant women received a medical examination upon arrival and, of those women, only 35% received any type of pregnancy care including child care, prenatal exercise instructions, special diets, medications or special testing. Many women are also forced to give birth while wearing shackles, due to them being a flight risk. With women being the primary caretaker of their...
Words: 1041 - Pages: 5
...Plan to Improve Correctional Facilities Patricia Saylor Dexter Levin Corrections November 10, 2013 In general, rehabilitation programs have been effective in reducing recidivism among prison convicts since they are mostly focused on treating the criminal causing behavior of prisoners by eliminating completely the factors or circumstances that drive them to commit criminal acts. Criminologists such as Martinson who conducted research on the effectiveness of rehabilitative programs such as educational, community based and transcendental programs noted that rehabilitative programs had a higher efficacy when they were oriented towards providing treatment to prison convicts so as to reduce recidivism. Martinson noted that both the educational and transcendental rehabilitative programs were designed to provide prisoners with life skills that they could use to manage their criminal causing behavior as well as equip them with technical skills that would improve the quality of their lives (Prison conditions, 2013). Rehabilitative programs that are focused on the principles of effective intervention are able to target the known factors of recidivism thereby necessitating change and also enabling the incorporation of cognitive or behavioral treatments to reinforce the behavior of the criminal offender by eliminating criminal thinking patterns. Principles of effective intervention ensure that rehabilitative programs are able to take into account the various characteristics of offenders...
Words: 1738 - Pages: 7
...Attending a writer’s retreat in Colorado this year, Cyndi Silvas began and finished her first book, “Shaking Prison Doors.” Taking only two days to come up with the 21 day devotional, Silvas questioned if 21 days was enough to help her audience make it through the awaiting, challenging days ahead. Writing for many years, Silvas felt compelled to reach the men and women who suffers as they endured life in prison and those who anticipate their return home. As a minister, Silvas said the Lord instructed her to just do 21 days. “You know, it takes 21 days to change a habit,” Silvas asked. “I asked him, shouldn’t I do 30 days or a year, but he said no.” Known as the founder of Joel 2:25 Ministries, an outreach ministry of God’s restorative power to hurting women and children, as well as the Editor of “The Diamond,” a newsletter she designed as an outreach to the masses of incarcerated women, Silvas’ reassuring words has healed so many wounds of those who were once loss and broken....
Words: 1398 - Pages: 6
...Name Instructors Name Course 1 December 2009 Breaking the Cycle: Calming the Cries through Alternatives An emergency is at hand. The lights are flashing red and blue, the cries ring out, and women are ripped from their homes at alarming rates, leaving children motherless. The statistics are staggering; the Institute on Women & Criminal Justice reports that the past three decades has seen an explosion in female incarceration rates, growing 832% from 1977 to 2007 with an astounding 4% of women in state prisons and 3% of women in federal prisons pregnant at the time of admittance (Women’s Prison Association 4). Lives are at stake. Every court decision, every judgment cast, effects more than just the individual involved. The future is dependent on how society treats the present. In order to combat the crisis, it is vital to understand its origins and its impact; from this understanding, alternatives that consider the health and well being of all involved can be formulated and delivered. The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, but boasts the overwhelming figure of almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners (Liptak 1). With nearly 2.3 million bars, one in 100 American adults is locked up. “Criminologists and legal experts here and abroad point to a tangle of factors to explain America's extraordinary incarceration rate: higher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the...
Words: 2202 - Pages: 9
...Federal prison comparison Christopher Gault CJA/234 December 19, 2011 Rollin Cook Federal prison comparison In this paper describe the prisons that certain individuals were sent to. I will make sure I compare and contrast the similarities and differences between these individuals. The individuals I will be discussing are Martha Stewart, Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Manuel Noriega, Timothy McVeigh, and Terry Nichols. All of these individuals were convicted of Federal crimes and sent to a Federal prison to serve their time. Martha Stewart was assigned to the minimum security women's prison in Alderson, W. Va., known as "Camp Cupcake." It is called that because it is a very low security prison and your time spent there should be easy. The West Virginia federal correctional facility is located in the hills of the Allegheny Mountains; this prison is more than 400 miles south of Stewart's Westport home. Martha Stewart wanted to go to a prison closer to her home so she could be close to her elderly mother. The low security facility was opened in 1927 as the first federal prison for women, Martha wasn’t the first big name to spend time at the facility. The prison once housed Billie Holiday, as well as Lynette Fromme and Sara Jane Moore. Both of these women tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford. The prison has no perimeter fence, and inmates can spend their free time playing volleyball and tennis or even doing aerobics. So that explains why they call it “Camp Cupcake”...
Words: 1181 - Pages: 5
...Kendall CJ522: Comparative Correctional Systems Dr. Lowery April 21, 2015 When you are imprisoned in an Africa prison the sectors can be over-crowded and dirty. The budget in this country is pretty non-existing resulting inadequate food for everyone, personal hygiene for example, little or no clothing. These prisons did not have access to soap, shampoo or any comforts they were used to prior to going to school. Throughout the continent you will find it’s not consistent, there are different opinions people may have when it comes to bringing up the subject of “Human Rights”. Critics from the country believe “they did the crime so they must do the time” why should we care about the treatment in the facility. The political side probably influences how the state handles the attention about this subject and relies on the public’s opinions knowing the people are afraid to speak. Ignoring prison conditions has enraged outside countries because Africa neglecting the obvious abuse in their prisons. This only solidifies why an investigation is needed and how their issues can affect then continent’s penal system. Before you can start to help these prisons it is important to understand the history behind them. The human rights issue may not just be the prisons problem however, the whole country has this issue. Human rights, especially when it comes to women they have no rights and under constant fear from being raped or murdered. The male status has more privileges most of...
Words: 1350 - Pages: 6
...pleading guilty Piper receives her sentence of fifteen months in Danbury Federal Prison. In 2004 Piper finally goes to jail, she is stripped and searched and given a khaki jumpsuit. In the months that follow her time at Danbury is relatively uneventful. She quickly learns that the prison system can be brutal and humiliating. However she also befriends many of her fellow inmates and forms strong relationships with these women. Piper celebrates her birthday in prison and receives cards and cake from her new friends. Unfortunately during her time in prison Piper’s grandmother passes away and she is unable to get furlough to attend the funeral. Piper’s release date approaches and many of her friends are released however Piper is called as a witness in Chicago. In Chicago she testifies against one of Nora’s drug rivals, Jonathan Bibby. Coincidentally Nora is placed in the same cell as Piper and the form an uneasy friendship. After the trial Piper is released and goes home with Larry to go back into her normal...
Words: 1485 - Pages: 6
...of that mind. The story line is deceptively simple. The narrator, a writer, finds herself increasingly depressed and indefinably ill. Her husband John (a physician), her brother, and her doctor all concur that she needs complete rest and a cessation of her work if she is to "recover," by which they mean "appear as a normal female in a world created by and for men." Gilman is not speaking in any militant feminist terms; she merely shows how her narrator needs to work in order to feel at ease with herself and the self's potential. Instead, she is hustled off to the country into a life of enforced idleness of body and mind. Although she would have preferred a room opening on the garden, her husband consigns her to the upstairs room, a former nursery, whose major features are ancient yellow wallpaper, bars on the windows, and a huge bedstead nailed to the floor. The fact that the narrator's prison-room is a nursery indicates her status in society. The woman is legally a child; socially, economically, and philosophically she must be led by an adult--her husband; and therefore the nursery is an appropriate place to house her. The narrator's work threatens to destroy her status as a mere child by gaining her recognition in the adult world; this is reason enough for her husband to forbid her to work. Her work is, as he suggests, dangerous; but its danger is for him, not her, because it removes her from his control. The nursery, then, is an...
Words: 1294 - Pages: 6
...Overcrowding in prisons American Intercontinental University English Composition ENGL107 Abstract Overcrowding in prisons throughout the United States has become an issue that needs to be more of a concern to our justice system. If we focused on more of the solution then the problem we may be able to eliminate some of the overcrowding issues. We need to be asking ourselves how we can fix the overcrowding issues within the United States prison system. Overcrowding in our prisons Drugs are a major issue along with the strict laws on first time nonviolent drug offenders. We are leaving these people in prison for way to long. Instead of overcrowding our prisons with first time drug and nonviolent offenders, we should be sentencing these men and women to rehabilitation centers and counseling. This should be the first option for the justice system to be considering instead of just locking these men and women up for two to five years and overcrowding the prisons. These first timers need more help to improve their life, and throwing them behind bars is just giving them more criminal activity to learn then they did on the outside. The justice system should be taking severe nonviolent criminals with mental illness more seriously. Instead of just locking them up and throwing away the key, there should be a lot more intense evaluations going on with mental illness with in these men and women. This could solve a lot of the overcrowding if we could just...
Words: 485 - Pages: 2
...This essay argues that prison does not deter crime, and that non-violent offenders should receive punishment other than prison sentences. I Introduction American jails are overcrowded; in fact, America has a disproportionate number of its citizens behind bars. And the prison population keeps growing. Does prison deter crime, or merely teach young people how to be better criminals? Supporters of harsh jail sentences often cite several arguments as the basis for their belief. These include the idea that jail terms serve as a deterrent to crime; that wrongdoing must be punished, and that a decent society has the right to ensure the safety of its members by incarcerating those who break its laws. This paper supports the following argument: Nonviolent criminals should receive punishments other than jail sentences, and in doing so refutes the beliefs stated above. (The conclusions in the paper are based on life experience and reasoning, not formal references.) II Supporting Points Considering the condition of American jails and whether they function as they should, the following points come to mind. First, the jails are overcrowded, and that in itself leads to problems for inmates and correction officials. Tempers fray, violence erupts, and there is no way in which lesser offenders can stay away from more hardened types. Second, there is no evidence to show that jail sentence deter crime. Third, I believe the recidivism rate is high. Fourth, I think there is truth to...
Words: 971 - Pages: 4
...you selected? Lastly, in your opinion, why are these issues more "important" that others that we covered this semester? The 1970s War on Drugs is one of the most important ethical issues that we face in today’s justice system. The War on Drugs is more important than others because it has many negative trickling effects from the shift to punitive policies. The War on Drugs has made America the leader in incarceration rates (Banks 2005:114). These high incarceration rates within America have also led to overcrowding, racial bias, increase in women in prison, and many other negative effects. The public does need to be educated on the negative effects from the War on Drugs in order to push for change in our punitive policies for non-violent drug offenders. In order to change these negative effects, America needs to get rid of mandatory minimums and the three strikes laws. These laws are placing many non-violent drug offenders in prison. These offenders are in need of substance abuse treatment in order to stop the vicious recidivism cycle. Wrongful conviction is another very important ethical issue that we are facing in today’s justice system. Wrongful convictions are very important when it comes to ethical issues because innocent people are being put on death row by our government. There are organizations with insightful information about this issue on their websites such as the Innocent Project. Wrongful convictions are becoming more prevalent due to the technology of DNA...
Words: 564 - Pages: 3
...In this paper I will be discussing the women behind bars and their relationships with their children. When these women go to jail or prison what happens to the children? Often the children end up in foster care, with family, or a relative. This type of separation can be damaging to a woman’s family. According to a Department of Justice study, almost 1.5 million minors had a parent in prison during the study year 1999 and it says that today the number is likely even higher, some researchers believe that it’s close to 2 million. Statistics show that many of these children will be incarcerated as juvenile offenders, developing a long cycle of hopelessness and crime. The people who are responsible for the children according to the Department of Justice statistics, are 28 percent fathers, half are grandparents and the last of them are with other relatives and in foster homes. Placing the children with these individuals can be good or bad. For example, a 13 year old boy may be placed with his dad who has never been in his life prior to the mother being incarcerated. They can both bond and make up for lost time or, they cannot have any connection at all and end up hating each other which is never a good environment for a child or minor. Different adult personalities and what a child is used to can definitely impact children’s development and their living situation. I believe that all of those aspects should be assessed before placing a child in another person’s care, so that at least...
Words: 594 - Pages: 3
...endorsement, hospitals, prisons, and morgues continue to fill up with overdosing victims and people who get sentenced to jail because of a mandatory minimum drug offences. America’s criminal justice system needs to stop focusing on punishing and criminalizing drug abusers, and instead give drug abusers the help they need. Which in turn will lower the demand for illegal drugs. “In 2013, 1.5 million U.S. citizens...
Words: 1439 - Pages: 6
