Prisons and Prison Culture - Assignment Example

Last Four Digits of UO ID Full Prisons
and
Prison
Culture—Final
Exam Section 1.How has the privatization of prisons impacted the lives of American inmates? The privatization of prisons in proving to be a very controversial issue. As we discussed the privatization of American prisons or “for-profit” prisons encourage longer incarceration and benefit from the number of prisoners in residence. This would interfere in the attainment of real “justice.” Once money becomes the most important factor then ethics will be diminished in how we conduct our legal system. There would be a loss of transparency in the inner workings and ethical treatment of inmates. Also, while privatization might seem cost effective presently when there are national financial issues, but if the United States government becomes too dependent on private prisons to house prisoners these private prisons could take advantage of that need; easily making what once seemed cost effective into something entirely too costly and effectively unproductive. 2.Discuss how “prisonization” impacts the psychology of inmates. There are all sorts of prisoners within American prisons for all sorts of crimes. From the most petty of thieves to the most dangerous of mass murderers and serial killers, all will spend varying sentences within that prison system. Some will serve one short sentence for a minor infraction and never return again, others will commit multiple tiny crimes continually ending them back up and prison, and finally others will and should serve lifelong sentences. For this reason prisons have developed their own environment with rules and social controls and requirements. Many inmates may find it necessary to change their whole world and societal view based on the prison environment; this is called an Indigenous Model. However, some inmates, according to the Importation Model, bring ideologies and cultural values with them into the prison system. It becomes necessary for them to conform to these new social norm and expectations, as failure to do so could leave you in a dangerous and violent situation with other inmates. 3.How are inmates prepared for release? According to class lectures 650,000 prison inmates are released ever year. That is 650,000 people returned to the public who may have spent a few weeks to a few decades within the prisons system. That said many ex-inmates to not fare well once released. Many face a lack of support, inability to find stable work, and are forced to carry a “convict” stigma. This can turn many released inmates into return inmates. For this reason many prisons are offering a number of pre-release programs and options that will help to prepare “soon-to-be-released” prisoners for their return to the free world. Some institutions offer college course, job training, vocational programs, counseling, and on occasion half-way houses and job placement. All are intended to make the transition for the inmate back into society an easier and more successful one. Unfortunately, these programs vary in quantity and quality. Therefore they do not always have high success rates. 4.What are two explanations for the rapid increase of the prison population in the 1980s? The 1980s brought a lot of changes throughout the whole of America. However, it had a huge impact on the nature of our countries prisons. The 1980s saw some of the highest number of prison sentences and highest prison population than had ever been seen before. There are a number of reasons that contributed to this increase; however there are two that stand out the most. The first is the passage of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which allowed for more severe and longer sentencing requirements for certain crimes and resulted in a larger number of convictions and incarceration of both women and juveniles than ever before. The second huge contributor was the 1980s “War on Drugs.” This initiative increased the charges, sentences, and sentence lengths for all people brought to court on drug charges. The idea at the time being that if we make the punishment so severe that it will automatically deter the American people from buying, selling, and smuggling illegal drugs into the United States. This resulted in a huge number of drug-users serving prison sentences, however it had little effect on the drug-trafficking industry. 5.Discuss the special needs of female inmates As mentioned earlier in the previous question the 1980s saw more and more women were sentenced to prisoner terms for many differing crimes. However statistics dictate that the majority of women in prison are there because of drug related charges more than any other offense. Female prisoners do require a few considerations that are not relevant to male inmates. Feminine health considerations include the issues of prison pregnancy; there are an extremely high number of inmate miscarriages. Female correctional institutions often have less to offer the female inmates; there are very few educational opportunities within the prisons system in comparison to their male counterparts. There should also be an acknowledgement that because of the female relationship with children that loss while incarcerated can lead to much higher mental health issues, including severe depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This is much more prevalent among female prisoners than the men. Section
2 1.Based
an
on
the
article,
“Suspended
Identity:
Identity
Transformation
at
a
Maximum
Security
Prison,”
by
Schmid
and
Jones
(1991),discuss how
inmates
manage
a
“dualistic
identity”
while
incarcerated.
 Prisons force a new social concept and paradigm. This necessary adaption is how the inmate will function and survive within his new institutional environment. Some prisoners, particularly, first timers incarcerated for shorter periods, maintain a “dualistic identity.” They maintain their mental and emotional connections with themselves in the outside world and another that they must adopt out of necessity when incarcerated (Schmid, and Jones 147-148). A very good example of this phenomenon can be seen in regard to the racial tensions and intolerances present within the prison systems all over the country. Racism is excessive in prisons environments, cross-ethnic or cultural relationships are hugely discouraged. It is necessary for inmates to ally themselves with members of their respective ethnic groups. This is a necessary behavior in prison. However when you speak to inmates who have been released they admit that despite their racist behaviors and affiliations within prison, they are not racist and did not follow or believe in the racial intolerances that they adhered to in prison. Some prisoners, particularly, those who have spent very long or frequent prison sentences become what some might call “institutionalized.” Even when outside of prison they are they show a poor ability to relate to certain social situations or day-to-day life issues can revert to the aggression, violence, and intimidation used in prison to cope and solve their problems. Prisoners, regardless of their crime, are changed their by their time of incarceration (Schmid, and Jones 150-151).As we have learned all individuals suffer through loss of identity as their incarceration suspends their autonomy, individuality, and, of course, personal freedom, however prison behavior is not functional or acceptable in the outside world. Section
3
 . 1.Discuss
at
least
one
issue
addressed
during
the
workshop
that
has altered
your perspective
on
the
topic.
Why? There are a lot of surprising, shocking, or entirely ridiculous aspects of the past and present of the American prison system. No one, no system, and no country are perfect in its choices and strategies. The United States has always tried and intended to provide a fare and ethical legal system that would allow crimes to have consequences and perpetrators could be punished appropriately due to the nature or severity of their crime. Hence American prisons were constructed, of varying degrees of security to accommodate the differing degrees of crimes committed. People would face a fare trial and be assigned a specific sentence, serve their time, and then be returned to society. This whole concept would be completely destroyed by the implementation of “private prisons. The fairness and service of justice would be thrown out the window in exchange for a money driven prison industry. Sure this would be a feasible and logical idea of the intentions and goals of these “prison owners” could be guaranteed. However, they cannot do that and that is what makes its consideration so shocking. Privatization could be so easily abused that it could, essentially, result in the selling of prisoners into a form of modern day, legalized slavery. Yes, inmates should be punished for their crimes and they should serve a fair sentence. Prisoners lose much when incarcerated. Freedom, autonomy, and personal identity, however, at no time are it acceptable to allow the quantity, nature, and condition of that prisoner’s treatment in the hands of private owners and privately appointed “wardens.” The whole idea could be huge damaging in the end and carries of crossing too many ethical lines and needs to be seriously reconsidered. The second rather shocking aspect of the modern American prison system is that the problems we are having today are direct issues caused by the policies implemented in the 1980s. So many drug-users, with no real criminal past, are being charged and locked up for longer lengths of time than many murders and rapists. That is incredibly disturbing. While drug-users are breaking the law and should face consequences for their actions but shared incarceration with far more dangerous and criminal inmates seems ridiculous. The 1980s “War on Drugs” actually believed that if they jailed harshly drug users it would have an impact on the importation and sales of the drugs within United States borders; that did not prove to be a successful as had been hoped. Today’s economic issues and overcrowding faced by many American prisons can be attributed to the poorly planned and negligently lacking forethought of the government leadership throughout the 1980s. As stated earlier no system is perfect and therefore errors in judgment and mistakes can and will occur; the point is more that we should learn from those mistakes. Today we are seeing more and more prisoners of petty, low grade offenses are now being released or granted more lenient consequences for the petty crimes that are being committed. These are mistakes that we would not have had to correct if there had been greater planning and forethought in the 1980s WORK CITED Schmid, Thomas J., and Richard S, Jones. "Suspended Identity." Newman Reader. (1991): 147-156. Print. Read More