...in the number of people incarcerated in correctional institutions. An issue that continues to arise is related to low levels of education and skills prior to and upon release from prison. “Ninety-five percent of American prisoners will eventually be released back into society and will either continue their past criminal behaviors or adopt new, socially acceptable lifestyles. (Scott 148) Gaining an education has been associated as a major factor in tackling the social and psychological needs of prisoners. One of the main objectives is to change the inmates’ attitudes regarding work and responsibility; and also prepare inmates for the competitive job market they will face upon release. In the end, with education programs we should be able to reduce the recidivism rate. 2. Key Issue Discussion In general education, specifically college education, is required in today’s labor market....
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...Just within the years 2003 and 2015, the incarceration rates for the mentally ill have tremendously increased, that within a survey done on inmates it was found that “more than three times more seriously mentally ill persons in jails and prisons than in hospitals”,(Carroll). The percentage rate has enormously increased, yet the mental health treatments in prison have not changed in the last two decades, (Carroll). There is a need for change in such situations, as a result that out of all the inmates with a mental illnesses, 83% were denied access to proper treatment, (Jailing People With Mental Illnesses). With millions of people being incarcerated each year and as society becomes more exposed to mental illnesses, there should be more programs...
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...Corrections releases prisoners on a daily bases. The time that these prisoners spend within the four walls of a prison cell varies by years. Once released a large percentage of them end up back in prison because they lack the skills needed to function successfully in society. The other problem that they encounter is being able to find a job. Many job applications today ask if the applicant has ever been convicted of a felony, those that must answer yes are given less job opportunities than those that have not. Also, if they have been convicted of a felony it becomes part of their permanent record and when a place of employment completes a background check this individuals felony shows up. Released prisoners going back to...
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...Prisons have seen an increase in population largely due to the War on drugs (Austin, et al., 2001). The highest majority have been males, however the female population has increased as well. Nearly 1.5 million children have a least one parent incarcerate ( Austin, et al. ,2001). Incarceration rates have risen steadily since the 1980's. Many of the reasons stated are income equality, low levels of trust and legitimacy, weak welfare states, politicized criminal justice system and conflict in the criminal culture. ( Bohm and Haley, 2011). The number of inmates has been increasing steadily in prisons from 329,821 inmates at the end of 1980 to over 126% increase in the early 1990's. Also in local community jails the number of inmates increased 89% from 1982 to June 2009 ( Bohm and Haley, 2011)....
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...What are the best practices for services and programming available for prisoners? Introduction There are about 2.3 million people currently in the nation’s prisons and jails. (that would be 1 in 10 Americans). The US leads the world in mass incarceration. The US has more people in jail than China and Russia combined. (Stern, 2014). The majority of people would relate punishment with prison. And they are not far from the truth as prisons are facilities that give retribution to people for their bad choices, and deter them from committing new crimes. However, the majority of prisons also offer social services to prisoners so when they leave, they have the needed instruments to reintegrate into society. Most prisons offer numerous programs...
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...Prison labor is a form of legal slavery or involuntary servitude among prisoners in state penitentiaries. Prison labor is explicitly permitted by the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution that serves as a punishment for the action of committing a crime (U.S. Const. amend. XIII). Prison labor is the re-enslavement of Americans, that has largely discriminated against African Americans and other minorities. There is legislation associated with the increase of prison populations that has mainly targeted African Americans, including but not limited to mass incarceration through the War on Drugs and the use mandatory minimums. The War on Drugs, implemented by Richard Nixon’s administration, expedited the disproportionate mass incarceration of African Americans and Latinos for mandatory minimums relating to drug-related crimes (drugpolicy.com)....
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...A person with a mental disability can act uncontrollably at times, causing them to commit a crime. In the United States, people with mental illnesses have been confined in jails and prisons between 1770 and 1820. Incarcerating such people was considered inhumane, so mentally ill people were placed into hospitals instead of jails up until 1970. Ever since the 1970s, people with mental disorders are being imprisoned for their crimes(Torrey). America once considered incarcerating the mentally ill to be inhumane, but then they suddenly changed their mind and have considered it to be legal. Ever since the 1970s, numbers of imprisoned people with mental illnesses has exponentially increased, “In 2012, there were estimated to be 356,268 inmates with severe mental illness in prisons and jails. There were also approximately 35,000 patients with severe mental illness in state psychiatric hospitals”(Torrey). There is approximately ten...
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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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...make up ninety percent of the prison and local jail population, and they have an imprisonment rate fourteen times higher than the rate for women.” (Tsai and Scommegna, 2012). Ernesto isn’t a part of this jaw dropping statistic, but he is a mentor success story. Ernesto is a kid from urban Los Angeles that was having a rough time at home and performing at school. Due to his difficult home life, he was at risk of not graduating, which his teachers recognized and made him aware. He was then admitted into the HBO Mentoring Program in which he began to improve. Shortly thereafter his work ethic began to slip due to home issues as well as other factors. In return all program members provided him “extra support and 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...
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...The War on Drugs: What is America Fighting For? Sandra Gailer COM/172 September 25, 2013 + The War on Drugs: What is America Fighting For? With the number of arrests having more than tripled in the past 25 years, and billions of dollars spent annually to fund the war on drugs, the United States (U.S.) should consider decriminalizing and regulating illegal drugs to reduce the number of people incarcerated and produce tax revenue from distribution. Since it was first declared by President Nixon in 1971 (Drug Policy Alliance, n.d.) the drug war proves to be causing America more harm than good. With no end in sight, the government should not be focusing on drug prevention but rather drug policy reformation. The US has been funding the war on drugs for decades. Although the intentions behind declaring the war are to help Americans, the reality is the war continues to be causing more harm than good. America has spent at least $1 trillion dollars on the war so far (Drug Policy Alliance, n.d.). In 2010 alone, the federal government spent over $15 billion dollars funding the war, that is at a rate of about $500 per second (Drug War Clock, n.d.). With the amount of debt increasing over a billion dollars every day, our government should be directing efforts towards creating revenue instead of continuing to spend money and increasing taxes. One way to accomplish generating revenue would be if some of the drugs that are considered illegal were decriminalized and regulated by the federal...
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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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...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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...Personal Leadership Plan HSM/230 Personal Leadership Plan Throughout life one will encounter many experiences and there is a lesson in each experience. I have embraced the experiences, learned from them and will use them to show others that there is life after drug abuse and incarceration. I currently volunteer with an organization that provides a safe and sober living environment for women in recovery. My goal is to assist women transitioning back into society after incarceration. The United States has become the world leader in incarcerating its people with over 2.3 billion being locked up and then being released back into society without skills needed to become a productive member of society. While ethics are of great importance in any human service field, the need for an ethical leader is crucial in this area. There will be a number of challenges working with this population. The worker will have a commitment to providing the resources that will assist the women rebuild their lives but there is a moral obligation to the community as well. I am a firm believer that we all have to be held responsible for our actions and there are consequences to the choices one makes, however there has to become a time when it can be said that one has paid for his or her choices and be allowed to move forward. It is my belief that all people must be treated with respect and dignity. The stigma placed on those who have a conviction does not allow that and places many barriers...
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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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...Key Issues In Our Prison Population The United States is currently in a recession that is affecting middle and lower class American in many ways. Jobs are being cut down, gas prices are not constant, and the money that America once had is rapidly vanishing. One issue in particular has much to do with our prison 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...
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