Americas Prison Reform Systems - Essay Example

How Can We Help Rehabilitate People In Jail To Get Them To Take Better Roads In Life! (USCCB, 2000) Introduction Americas prison reform systems arewidely acknowledged to have many flaws. But little is done to improve the system from the public side, as well as the Federal government. Everyone one of us know the US has the most secure prisons in the world. The prison security and setup of the nations highly guarded rehabilitation centres are studied by the nations all over the world to build effective centres to contain criminals. However, many of us do know what happens behind the secure walls. Drug trafficking to gang rape and abuse of power is quite common. A person who enters the prison as a criminal convicted for a situational crime returns mastering several different kinds of crimes fit to be a criminal for the rest of their life. Much has been said and written about prison reforms and rehabilitation of the convicted. But even today, the US government follows the same law which has been drawn before centuries to protect and reform its prisoners. The US prison statistics say they release about 591000 people every year from the prison and admit nearly the same number of people get into the prisons every year. Though the FBI continues to say that the crime rate is dwindling steadily in the nation, the prison statistics continues to show the number of prisoners released and the number of prisoners entering prison or more or less the same, keeping the cells ever occupied. The incarceration rate in the country has come down by 0.3% in 2010. It is considered a great achievement because the incarceration rate has shown a downward trend after many decades. The last time this trend was noticed in the US prison history was in 1972 (Tyjen & Scommegna, 2012). Prison and prisoner rehabilitation is not something concerned with a particular class of the society or the criminals alone. Consider a convict left free to roam in the US streets with little money in his pocket, with no place to live and no work to do. They become an automatic threat to a normal law-abiding citizen walking pass, them as the money in their pocket gets finished. Both you and I can be that person walking past beside him exposing ourselves to the danger of getting robbed, stabbed or anything worse. And the worst part of this is our families by get affected because of our plight and our children might grow into a criminal one day for what is not their fault. Hence every person in the country the public, the policymakers and the authorities should take relevant steps to rehabilitate the criminals for the safety of the society and for the sake of their own secure living. Imperative Measures to be taken Prison rehabilitation does not mean building better prisons, which will increase the operation cost. It should be an overall project targeting both the people in the prison and the people coming out of the prison. The more the law prevents the ex-offenders from recommitting the crimes, the better the society will be. The researcher proposes a fivefold plan to achieve this. We need a strong support system which works along with the charities, NGOs and the religious organisations to support the people coming out of the prison. We should reform the way we deal with juvenile convicts from the core. The US government should concentrate on making the prison cheap through various administrative reforms. The legal system should be equipped to provide faster and relevant justice, keeping in mind the position of the victims rather than the criminals The prison officers should be given better training and different kind of power in dealing with the criminals. Building a Strong Support System Imagine being forced to eat bread and take medications for the rest of your life even after you have recovered from a terminal illness. Wouldnt all your hopes of leading a normal life be shattered? The same thing happens to most of the prisoners coming out of the US prisons. Nobody is ready to give them a job or accept them as a normal citizen. Even the law does not regard them as worthy to vote, gets licence or insurance. These criminals are forced to go back to prison committing some petty crimes, just for the sake of survival. Research done on felony disenfranchisement by various scholars pinpoint how important it is to let them vote considering the mental boost it gives to the prisoners. Though the United States boasts itself for being a civilised society, liberal and equal in every aspect the other side of this liberalism is ugly. The US represents only 5% of the worlds total population but and 25% of the worlds prisoners (Crime Statistics, 2013). The statistics makes us wonder whether the US soil is a reproduction ground for prisoners. Studying the prisons in general, we could see that different type of people serve sentences starting from creating road accidents to writing bad checks. Only 6% of the total prison population accounts to accidental and situational crimes. The rest 92% criminals are related to robbery, committing violent acts like rape or pre-planned murder, dealing in drug trafficking and many other well-known crimes they have committed with their full knowledge. The statistics make us wonder about our moral base and about the unscrupulousness of these people. What gives them the grit to commit such serious crimes knowing full well they will be caught and punished for their life? Surprisingly it is their lack of awareness rather than bravery or ability to cheat the law. One common trend noticed among the prisoners is that they are less educated. Racism is prevalent widely. Bureau of Justice Statistics states about 1.6 million prisoners were incarcerated in 2010. That accounts to around 500 people ending up in prison for every 100000 residents. 3 out of 10 African Americans have served in prison for some reason or another. Nearly 70% of the prison inmates are school dropouts who havent even finished their high school and are aged between 20 and 30. They have little experience about life and completely no awareness about how severe a prison record could affect the rest of their life. Most of these young prisoners indulge in robbery to survive or buy what they cannot resist like shoes and beer. They grow up in communities where only criminals live lavishly misinterpreting their constant run from cops as thrill filled life. They commit crimes to establish themselves as heroes in their peer groups without realising their folly. Creating a Difference through Support Groups Creating awareness among the particular groups like the African Americans and the Hispanics known for high crime rates is the only way to prevent these communities from entering and re-entering prisons constantly. NGOs, charities as well as the religious groups should work together to enrich the lives of such poor communities. Britain is a living example of what such actions can do. Organisations like CSJ teamed up with several private and public voluntary organisations to mentor the youngsters from the most deprived backgrounds constantly. They targeted on the school dropouts specifically and motivated them to lead a better life by educating them about the underworld and the mafia. They took the help of the prisoners to talk to the students and make them understand there is nothing heroic in breaking the law. They will list out all the opportunities they will miss in their life if they become convicted at a young age. Decades of dedicated work and persuasion have bought down the crime rate in the UK considerably. A similar program should be introduced in the US too. More voluntary organization should come up to help the prisoners coming out of their incarceration terms. Every state government should have definite statistics regarding the prisoners coming out. The US Department of Justice release this statistics every year giving gender based, age based and race based statistics (Crime Library, 2008). They should engage certain number of prisoners to each charity organization coming forward to help them. Three fold plan to rehabilitate prisoners The first and foremost requirement for every prisoner coming out is a safe place to stay for a few days. Though there are a few such places available now, more organizations should come up with such centres which provide some sort of skill based training to the prisoners like driving, training in data entry jobs etc (Gayling, 2012). The next important requirement is a job which will allow them to work peacefully without being labelled as a criminal. No company is ready to employ an ex-convict no matter he is declared innocent or not. The big shots associated with the charities and NGO’s should come forward to provide jobs to such people in their companies. The third important requirement is a strong support group for their families. The organizations involved should ensure the children of the convicts do not drop out of the school at any cost. They should mentor them in a friendly way, making them realize the follies of their parents and motivate them to live as law abiding citizens. Providing these basic requirements and a mentor like personality who will monitor their actions closely and prevent them from falling back into old habits will make the prisoners rehabilitate with confidence and prevent another frustrated and isolated generation join the long list of family convicts (Prison Rehabilitation, 2012). As stated by USCCB “Our tasks are to restore a sense of civility and responsibility to everyday life, and promote crime prevention and genuine rehabilitation” and every civilian has a small responsibility in these tasks. They should either involve in any of the above mentioned tasks or simply resort to help the convict’s family financially or by giving a job, to prevent another criminal arising from them. Treatment of juvenile Convicts The government has to come up with serious reforms regarding the Juvenile crimes. Survey results indicate nearly 33% of property crimes are related to the juveniles. Most of the youngsters are pulled into such crimes without any knowledge about the crime web spun around them. They take up offers which seem irresistible in firms which lure them into an easy life and trap them for the crimes they commit. (Types of Offenses Committed by Juvenile Offenders, 2000) Juveniles with Troubled Background Nearly 60% of the children who end up in juvenile prisons have one or both parents with a criminal record. They are born and bought up in situation where going to prison is a normal part of life. They are isolated and discriminated against others for being a part of such crime filled families or communities. This naturally makes them become the next generation convicts replacing their parents. Even children who resist the same and grow out to be genuine persons are targeted by the companies for white collar crimes like the property crimes. They are chosen as victims because their family already has a criminal record and there is very little economic support from their families to bring them out. They do not have the means to use the influence of the powerful to come out like the real culprits associated with the crime. The government spend nearly 5 times the amount of sending a child to school to protect and feed a juvenile. And all this taxpayers money is wasted, when the released juvenile return back to the prison as a mature criminal in the later years. Serious steps needed to be taken to reform these children. Juvenile cells should become a place which paves the foundation for their future, not a crime filled one, but a decent one. Juvenile prisons should address the children based on their family background and the crimes they have created. Most of the students in the juvenile background come from troubled backgrounds. But, there is a fair share of youngsters occupying the prison because of their selfish acts too. Three Fold Plan for Juvenile Prisoners Reform Educating the children does not mean teaching them to read and write alone. The children from deprived backgrounds should be given a chance to enjoy the small joys of childhood like playing games, introduction to music, children books etc. Care should be taken to ensure they continue their studies once they are out of the prison through proper NGO’s. Children convicted for sexual crimes and small thefts from proper backgrounds should be made to realize their mistake by making them exploring the life of less fortunate children living with them. Counsellors capable of handling the children psychologically should be made to interact with them constantly. Examples of successful people who came out of juvenile prison and lead a decent life should be shown to the students. Conducting interactive sessions with them, allowing them to brief the students about the hard path they have crossed will help. Counselling sessions for the families of such students and the public in general should be conducted on how to treat such children with empathy. Organizations like “The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales” suggest various positive measures like behavioural contracts and child curfews with the youngsters and their parents instead of sending the juveniles to the prison directly for their first time offenses. Such measures are taken to give them a second chance (Youth Offending, 2013). The US government can try implementing a similar program too. Reforming the Prisons to bring down Administrative Costs American prisons are hi-fi with very good security. The government spends more on safeguarding the convicts rather than the general public. Though they argue this is to keep the dangerous away from the general public, millions of dollars which can be spend otherwise on productive measures is wasted nurturing the criminals. There is a serious need to make the prisons cheap through administrative reforms. If the one million inmates in the US prison are put to work productively, they can earn for the administration of the prison as well their own maintenance easily. They best way to rehabilitate the prison inmates is to make them hate to come back to prison. Three Fold plan to bring down prison maintenance costs It doesn’t mean the already prevalent sexual and mental tortures should increase. Prison inmates should be made to work hard. They should simply be made to realize their mistakes and much hard working regimes should be introduced for them. They should be made to work and pay for their own living and food. Having too much time is the reason for several assaults and issues occurring in the prisons. The main complaint from the prison officers is that the prisoners are free to do whatever they like, whenever they want. Each prison can act as a self-sufficient one, using the works of its own inmates as they can be trained to do everything from cultivating food to, doing thousand other jobs. And the best part is they would have learned a skill by the time they leave the prison. The average incarceration period of a person in the US prison is about 3 years. Utilizing this time to teach the inmates one particular kill they are interested in and forcibly educating them will help in keeping them busy and bring down the administrative costs for the government. The prisoners with qualification should be allowed to serve the needs of the prison they are in. For example, if there is a lawyer convicted for murder, he should be allowed to help others regarding parole and if there is a doctor he should be allowed to take care of the medical needs of the prison. Likewise employing each member based on their skills for the prison usage will help in these people earning, bringing down the prison cost as well as give them a chance to do what they like. Necessity to Reform the Legal System There are various countries in the world, which would simply cut a toe for a toe. Punishment for crimes and theft in many Islamic countries are cutting a hand or a leg to this date. There are other countries like India where the judicial system is so slow that it takes nearly 10 to 15 for the court to decide the punishment for the victim, who will serve all that period in prison. The US judicial system is neither bad nor good. It is mostly based on the Britain laws. But, the need to reform the legal system is now. Faster and quick justice to benefit the victims instead of the convicts like in China should be incorporated here too. Chinese Judicial Reforms Chinese mobile courts have judges as young as 21 years old. Nearly 46% of China’s cases are handled by these people’s jurors (Judicial Reform in China, 2012). They are given a position equivalent to that of a judge if any law student is able to pass a certain high grade exam. These judges help in clearing the thousands of pending cases on spot. Small charges related to theft, robbery and other petty crimes are dealt by these judges. The punishment is usually money paid to the victim from the convict’s side. The money will be paid by the convict’s family, be taken from the convict’s savings or the convict will be made to work for the money to be paid for the victim’s family instead of occupying the prison. Fast judicial system and less prison days help them save on administrative costs, keep their prison inmates in check and more importantly provide relevant justice to the victims. Three fold measure for judicial reform Bringing up such a reform in the US would not be possible immediately, but similar changes can be implemented over years. Burglars today spend more time in prison for any crime than they did ten years ago, not for punishment, but just because it takes a long time for the judicial formalities to complete. Judicial system should be made faster to reduce the time each person in serving in the prison and thereby bringing down the costs of our prisons. Similarly, the punishments aimed should provide some sort of relief to the victims other than punishing the offenders. A person charged for a bank robbery is made to spend nearly 10 year in jail. His family wealth and savings can be ceased instead. Rules can be implemented to cease a particular part of his earning towards public charity throughout his life. Such measures will make anyone think twice about committing such crimes and the family members benefiting from their earnings take a stand against them. There are certain states which punish non-violent offenders through community service instead of making them serve a prison sentence. A part of the money the prisoners earn during their sentence, working can be given to the victim’s family or they might be asked to render certain service for the victim’s family like funding for the education of the victims children or paying a compensation for the medical expenses in addition to jail sentence. Such stricter measures will bring down the rate of conscious crimes. Concern for prison officers Researching about rehabilitation of prisoners, we could notice one main problem they have is the abuse they undergo under the prison officials. Probing deeply, we could see that the prison officers are the most overworked personnel’s next to doctors. Prisons are often the target of cost cutting measures as funds are allotted to other core areas which need attention. This results in the prison personnel receiving minimal wages and benefits in federal sector. They are made to interact and live practically all their life with deadly criminals whom the rest of the society views as monsters. One prison official who has worked in federal prisons for more than 20 years stated as given below. (Neilson, TED, 2012) Every word he says is true. We heard cases from him where the prison officers had to face charges just for eating a pizza without giving a share to the inmate. They constantly fight with the pressure of dealing with the world’s most notorious criminals, long working hours in testing conditions, having to live with low wages and many other issues. Abusing the prisoners is no one’s aim in life. They get used to seeing too much crime, making them fiercely protective, rough and contempt to those who claim themselves innocent. In most cases their experience proves right. The prisoners per guard ratio in most of the jails are much higher than the permissible levels. The guards take up the extra work without any extra pay. Further, they are made to stick to stringent rules even if they know for sure the prisoners are in for something big. Their limited powers often make the prisoners mock them. Both the prison officers as well as their families are target to brutal violence in many cases. Steps to Train Prison Officers If a government wants to educate a generation it has to take care of its teachers first. In the same way prison rehabilitation is not possible without paying proper attention to the prison officers needs. Immediate reforms regarding their powers, appointment of enough staff and special training to them based on handling prisoners psychologically should be arranged. Their working conditions should be improved and pressure releasing practices should be taught for them. They should be given a chance to raise their concerns about any conspiring riots to the higher officials without fear. Only a person treated with respect and dignity will be able to pass on the same to others. If the prison officers are treated well, their treatment of the prisoners will improve automatically. They will start treating the prisoners with respect and empathy only if they are given a chance to feel the same first. Any prison rehabilitation measure will be possible only if the prison officers are allowed to work hand in hand with the counsellors, psychologists and human rights activists together. A positive approach which will soften the officers and make them realize the need to rehabilitate prisoners should be framed. If they understand it is less work for them if the prisoners once send out does not return back, they will co-operate with the authorities in every measure to improve the prison life style. As stated earlier increasing the workload for the prisoners will stop them from mocking and irritating the officers. The officers should be trained to gain the trust of the inmates and brave them to complain about rape, drug trafficking and other atrocities committed inside the prison walls. They can easily create accomplices within the prisoners if they want to. It is up to the policy makers to make best use of them to control tortures within the prison and use them effectively to rehabilitate prisoners. Conclusion Rehabilitation of prisoners is not something which can be done by policy makers and the government alone. Each person should be ready to accept the ex-convicts amongst them and give them a second chance. Of course, they have committed a crime, but every person scrutinizing them should retaliate for a minute whether they are perfect. The government should do its part by allocating sufficient funds for prison and inmates rehabilitation at least once in a while. After all, a crime free society is the base for all round development of the country. References 1. "Crime Library". Crime Museum. 2008. 21 February. 2013. 2. "Crime Statistics: No Prison Sentences for Most Felony Convictions" Crime in America.Net. 7 July. 2011. 21 February. 2013. 3. Gayling, Chris. "Rehabilitation revolution - the next steps" Justice. 20 November. 2012. 21 February. 2013. 4. "Judicial Reform in China". Chinadaily.com. 10 October. 2012. 21 February. 2013. 5. Nielsen, Aaron. "Prison Reform: How can we make them more effective?" TED Ideas Worth Spreading. 4 March. 2012. 21 February. 2013. 6. "Prison Rehabilitation" Politics.co.uk. 2012. 21 February. 2013. 7. Tsai, Tyjen & Scommegna, Paola. "U.S. Has Worlds Highest Incarceration Rate". Population Reference Bureau. August 2012. 21 February. 2013. 8. "Types of Offenses Committed by Juvenile Offenders". Jurisdictional Technical Assistance Package for Juvenile Corrections. December 2000. 21 February. 2013. 9. USCCB. "Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective On Crime And Criminal Justice". USCCB United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 15 November. 2000. 21 February. 2013. 10. "Youth Offending" London Borough of Hounslow. 2013. 21 February. 2013. Read More