The Prison System - 1048 Words

Final Exam Essay Question #2 Question: Discuss the history of the prison system in the United States. Be sure to identify the various stages that the American prison system has gone through. Also identify what problems were present with each stage as you see them. Response: American prison system incarceration was not officially used as the main form of punishment in United States (U.S.) until around the 1800’s. Before that time criminals were mainly punished by public shaming, which involved punishments such as being whipped, or branded (HL, 2015). In fact, President Lincoln codified the prison incarceration system in the Emancipation Proclamation that indicated no slavery would take place in America unless a person was duly convicted of a crime (paraphrased) (White, 2015). In this era prisons were used more as a place where criminals could be detained until their trial date if afforded such an opportunity. However, one of the main problems with this idea was the fact that the prisons were badly maintained, which resulted in many people contracting fatal diseases. Yet, according to White (2015) unethical and immoral medical experiments were also conducted on inmates’ leading to health failures. Moreover, because everyone was detained i n the same prisons, adolescent offenders would have to share the same living space with adult felons, which became another serious problem in that adolescent were less mature and could not protect themselves in such environmentsShow MoreRelatedThe Prison System And The Prisons System Essay1258 Words   |  6 Pagesrealize how much prison affects someone. In the US the prison system is completely different than the prison system in Denmark. After watching Prison State, I didn’t really know what the pros were of our prison system. I saw more cons than pros. I was completely shocked by the way that Denmark runs their prison system. The video confused me a bit, so I did some research and found an article that I understood a little bit better about Denmark’s prison system. The US prison system is definitely moreRead MorePrison And The Prison System Essay1472 Words   |  6 Pagesdiscouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different wayRead MorePrison System1495 Words   |  6 PagesPrison inmates, are some of the most maladjusted people in society. Most of the inmates have had too little discipline or too much, come from broken homes, and have no self-esteem. They are very insecure and are at war with themselves as well as with society (Szumski 20). Most inmates did not learn moral values or learn to foll ow everyday norms. Also, when most lawbreakers are labeled criminals they enter the phase of secondary deviance. They will admit they are criminals or believe it when theyRead MorePrison Authority And The Prison System947 Words   |  4 Pagesprisoners possess zero authority in the prison system. They have no control over any aspect of their daily lives, but instead they are minded by prison jurisdiction. Prison guards and wardens possess the power to do anything that they please within those brick walls. This is an issue that society has been aware of for many decades; however, there has been little to no effort to change the conditions. Many prisoners have sought to inform society of how these prison authority figures abuse their powerRead MoreThe Judicial System And Prison System1594 Words   |  7 Pagesare corrupt, how the police are corrupt, and how America’s whole legal system is uncontrolled. â€Å"I was innocent but was still jailed†; â€Å"the cops only ta rgeted me because I was black†; and â€Å"How am I to live after ten years of imprisonment†. There’s a need for a reformation or policy changes in how America handles the judicial system and prison system because, currently, it’s chaotic, unfair, and overwhelming. In the judicial system there have been many cases where people have done the same crime, butRead MoreFederal Prisons Systems1009 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Traditionally, state-controlled prisons have been taken to be more dangerous as compared to federal prison system because they always house more dangerous criminals. Some of the states like New York tend to have their inmates spend most of their time during their sentence in maximum security prisons; however, federal prisons apply lower level security prisons for longer duration of incarceration (recently). While state prison systems is meant to house criminal like rapists, murderRead MoreThe Prison System At Parchman1032 Words   |  5 PagesWorse than Slavery is a monograph that discusses Parchman Prison and gives various accounts of men and women who lived within the prison. Overall, Parchman was another way for white men to stay in charge and to keep black men oppressed. During this time, ninety percent of the prison population was African American. Although slavery had ended many years prior to the establishment of Parchman, it had many characteristics of slavery. The prison system at Parchman reflects themes of poverty, racism and reformRead MoreReforming Prisons : Reforming The Prison System Essay2140 Words   |  9 Pages Reforming our Prison System With the population of the United States prisons growing every day we need to evaluate if they are doing any good. Personally, I believe that we need to keep our prison system, but we need to take steps in reforming them rather than abolish them altogether. The United States has the highest number of incarcerated people than any other country in the world. We must sit down and look at other countries and see what they are doing different than the United States. In thisRead MoreThe Death Of The Prison System1142 Words   |  5 PagesThe prison system has seen huge changes from the American Colonel days to now. At first punishment was a way to inflict pain in suffering onto prisoners. By doing this it set an example to detour crime. Punishment throughout time has changed with the building of prison systems and labor being implemented. Today punishment is carried out much different than in the past. Punishment is way to keep order and discipline throughout society. Punishments focu s more now on rehabilitation then it does toRead MoreThe Punishment Of Prison System825 Words   |  4 Pages In principle, prison system plays important role in the society through reforming and punishing offenders sent to prison and preventing potential offenders. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of in prisoners in the US prisons system, because prison is used as the primary correction facility for offenders while ensuring justice to offended (Guerino 20). Prisons comprise of offenders who are above the county jail level. Further, inmates comprise of people from different