Multiple Perceptions of Incarceration and Corrections - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The critical economic times have exerted overwhelming pressure forcing governments to allocate more funds for correctional facilities. Hence, they are facing multiple challenges in ensuring the smooth running of activities in these correctional centers. This paper will analyze the impact of hard economic times on the correctional facilities while setting examples from Ohio. Overview of the Issue Studies reveal that correctional facilities have been driven to a breaking point by the current economic hardships. It is critical to understand the structure of correctional activities. Correctional and incarceration facilities have embraced multiple structural changes in a bid to transform offenders. For example, most of the correctional facilities offer vocational training, and have integrated other programs that foster the transformation of offenders to socially responsible individuals. Moreover, many local authorities have opened up juvenile rehabilitation facilities separating the young offenders from the adult offenders. Setting up new facilities for juvenile delinquents stretched the budgets of many local authorities. Similarly, the numerous reforms adopted sought to convert correctional centers into reliable institutions that can the needs of offenders in society while promising security to the community (Rosenfeld, Quinet, and Garcia, 2010). The emergence of hard critical times has threatened to retard the implementation of the reforms. Many of the local authorities face the compulsion of readjusting their budget s, translating to the allocation of limited funds to the maintenance and expansion of correctional centers. Unfortunately, such hard financial times are coupled with increasing numbers of offenders. Worse still, most of the offenders gaining entry into most of the correctional facilities require special programs that can address their specific needs. For example, the high rates of delinquency in the United States translate to an increasing need for local authorities to expand juvenile correctional centers (Kirchoff, 2010). Moreover, the presence of elderly offenders who need special programs as vocational programs are irrelevant to them has been a cause of concern. Other issues such as HIV/AIDS prevalence in prisons translates to the need for more funding to cater for health needs of the offenders. This is the reality in most of the correctional centers. Many local authorities have faced the compulsion of identifying approaches of addressing the issue. One of the approaches proposed by many states has been the reduction of the amount allocated for correctional centers. The tight fiscal condition has compelled states to result to this despite the awareness that limited funds will retard the implementation of recent reforms. Other states have opted to bring to a halt all the expansion plans of correctional facilities. Suspending expansion plans compels the states to rely on the insufficient facilities in existence. In other cases, the insurmountable pressure has compelled some states to close down the operation of some correctional facilities, and transferring the offenders to the remaining facilities. In order to minimize the maintenance expenses, some local governments have opted to exclude some health services and educational programs previously offered to prisoners.  ...Download file to see next pagesRead More