Essay on Prison and Treatment Alternatives - 1737 Words

Prison is a punishment given to someone who has broken the law. Prison term is given to an individual who has broken the law from doing so again and to discourage other people by his example. It has been used as a punishment in many countries for many years. The amount of criminals has never decreased; it has only increased through the years. In United States between 1992 and 1995, a 43 percent rise in marijuana arrests and other crime were accompanied by a considerably high increase in crime (Schlosser 90-102). Prisons does not solve the problem of crime (only in rare cases), instead it has just done the following three things according to criminologist Norval Morris and David Rothman: They provide a dumping ground for unwanted people,†¦show more content†¦The cost of incarceration in Canada is a large portion of 2 billion dollars per year (Griffiths 77). In Mother Jones magazine (July 2001) it says that since 1980, the money spending on prisons has grown six times faster than what has been spent on higher education. That is just two of the many facts about the cost of incarceration, but incarceration is not only about the offenders, it is also about the hiring of the 1000 new correctional officers announced in April 1998. The ratio of officers to prisoners in Canadian prisons has increased by 43 per every 100, making the cost go higher. The annual cost of supervising a convict on parole is 19 755 dollars per year (CSC, 2005). Putting America together, the country spent over 100 million dollars a day to jail individuals with serious drug and alcohol problems, plus 30 billion taxpayer dollars spent on incarcerate. These numbers never decrease, they only increase. In the year of 2000, United States alone used a drug-control budget that reached 18.4 billion dollars (Newsweek 2001 37-43). A new release of Obama Administration’s has requested 15.5 billion dollars for federal drug control (PRWEB April 2011). This was a high amount of money spent on controlling drug problems and incarceration. Instead of using all this money on the idea of imprisonment, they should use it on something that cost less and works more effectively; drug courtsShow MoreRelatedIs Drug Treatment a Viable Alternative to Prison Time? Essay1113 Words   |  5 PagesPrisons and county jails are extremely over populated, so over populated that in some jails inmates are sleeping on the floors. According to Senator Jeanne Shaheen (From Senator Jeanne Shaheen: Prison Overcrowding, 2011), the federal prisons are currently 35 percent over their capacity. The overcrowding is costing the criminal justice system and taxpayers more money to transfer inmates to other facilities and in lawsuits brought by inmates against the prisons. With the prisons and county jailsRead MoreThe Effects Of Incarceration On The Correctional System Essay1629 Words   |  7 PagesPositive Alternatives to Incarceration It has been said â€Å"bad company corrupts good morals†. Parents sometimes use this phrase in hopes of keeping their children from hanging out with the wrong crowd. The prison system is no different. Locking up people in jail should be a consequence that most want to avoid thus decreasing the crime rate. In 1976, William Nagel found that incarceration did not stop criminals from committing crimes. In fact, if overcrowded prisons are increasing with more people beingRead MoreThe Failure Of The American Prison System1302 Words   |  6 PagesThe Failure of the American Prison System The subject of prison evokes fearful and violent images seen in movies or on television; outdated clichà ©s consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water that are intended to repulse people and deter them from committing crimes and ending up in such a position. Unfortunately, the reality of the American prison system is just as troubling as the dated stereotypes surrounding it. Despite its success in keeping dangerous offenders off the streetsRead MoreAmerica Should Not Afford For Nonviolent Criminals Essay1741 Words   |  7 Pagesshelter, medical care, and treatment programs at the taxpayers expense? Community supervision programs that require offenders to work to support themselves and their families make better sense. In addition, offenders should pay supervision fees, restitution to victims and court costs. Further, offenders on community supervision could utilize to addiction treatment programs and mental health services to avoid re-offending. Community supe rvision offers an excellent alternative to the high cost of incarcerationRead MoreAlternative to Incarceration Intermediate Sanctions 1268 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Alternatives to incarceration have been explored in recent years due to the overcrowding in the correctional system. Intermediate sanctions is one of those alternatives. Intermediate sanctions have long way been used in the United States due to the benefits and options that it offers from saving money to reducing overcrowding but it does, however, have its unfortunate faults. There are many programs within intermediate sanctions that work and some that fall behind. IntermediateRead MoreEssay on Alternatives to Prison1677 Words   |  7 PagesAlternatives to Prison Prisons, facilities maintained for confining people convicted of committing crimes, were used to rehabilitate offenders while keeping them isolated from the community. The Quakers built the first prison in 1790 in order to seclude criminal offenders from society to think about their wrongdoing and to seek forgiveness in a kind, and spiritual environment. (Inciardi 497) Currently, there are three types of prisons within the Federal, State, and County governments. TheseRead More Nonviolent Offenders Essay1495 Words   |  6 Pagesnonviolent person into a violent one is to send them to prison,† says Harvard University criminologist James Gilligan. The American prison system takes nonviolent offenders and makes them live side-by-side with hardened killers. The very nature of prison, no matter people view it, produces an environment that is inevitably harmful to its residents. America locks up five times more of its population than any other nation in the world. Due to prison overcrowding, prisoners are currently sleeping on floorsRead MorePunishment Fails, Rehabilitation Works As defined in the dictionary, rehabilitation is the process600 Words   |  3 Pagesor being punished. Some of these alternatives to prisons include a combination of prison and probation, community-based programs, and diversion strategies. Many institutions are more likely to use alternatives because they save more money than the jails cost, they strengthen families and communities, and it has been proven that they have reduced crime. An example of a popular alternative for criminals is a drug court, which provides court-supervised drug treatments to offenders with substance abuseRead MorePrison Overcrowding Is A Serious Problem1448 Words   |  6 PagesPrison overcrowding is a result of the imprisonment of drug users and first time offenders of non-violent crimes. The number of people being incarcerated greatly outweighs the number of prisons across the country. Prison overcrowding is a serious problem because it can be dangerous to both prisoners and correction officers. When prisoners are forced to live in crowded situations, the possibility of violence is greater (Oliver 44). Issues such as assaults and rapes can occur when there is notRead More Community Based Corrections: Viable Alternative to Incarceration 1679 Words   |  7 Pagesdollars a day (Honarvar, 2010). The efficiency by which community corrections reduce cost, prison populations, and decreases this rate judges should disposition to these programs in lieu of incarceration (Honarvar, 2010). The state spends taxpayer money on building correctional facilities and staff to supervise offenders, while the research shows reduced recidivism rates when community service and other alternative methods of rehabilitation are used (Hovarvar, 2010). However, to maintain the balance