Does the American way of imprisoning criminals make sense? If you ever have been wronged in life, you know what it feels like to want to hurt the one who hurt you. But is punishment less effective compared to rehabilitation? Psychologically, punishment, especially if prolonged, would create more of a mental and emotional problem,which upon release poses a recidivism risk. I propose that even though I feel like I want to punish criminals, redirection is a better choice. I think a small studio, tv, porn and a six pack and mandatory work in a gated community would prepare a person for release back into society vs. an expensive small concrete and steel jail cell. Does it not make sense to psychologically have them balanced in the way they should live upon return? How is this effective in a cage?
Not at all but the costs of trying to educate them and teach them new skills is to much for the taxpayer to shoulder. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Another problem is that many of the prisoners don't spend to much time behind bars, they are in and out within a few years for the majority of them. There are steps alreay being taken to eliminate "bars" and just have regular strong doors installed instead with only 2 people to a small 6 ft by 10 ft cell. Here's a newer type one person cell, just add a bunk on the top and 2 people can live there. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! A 2002 study survey showed that among nearly 275,000 prisoners released in 1994, 67.5% were rearrested within 3 years, and 51.8% were back in prison. However, the study found no evidence that spending more time in prison raises the recidivism rate, and found that those serving the longest time, 61 months or more, had a significantly lower re-arrest rate (54.2%) than every other category of prisoner. This is most likely explained by the older average age of those released with the longest sentences, and the study shows a strong negative correlation between recidivism and age upon release. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
Did that differentiate by crime? because the types of crimes which have shorter sentences naturally have higher recidivism rates. For instance the rate for petty theft is a LOT higher than the rate for murder which is ALMOST zero even without any intervention by the state
The link I provided will give you greater insight to your questions. I think it was an overall average from all prisons in America during a specfic time.
Not really , they do have records that show what crimes are for certain times in prison and exactly how many return once they are released for any of those types of crimes. As the statement I posted said that the longer, hence the far greater crime, times spent reduced the return rates.
It's much more fundamental than that. There is a strong negative correlation between age and criminal behavior. As the Baby Boom generation became parents and is now reaching retirement age, America's crime rate has plummeted. Put a guy in jail for five years and the one thing you can say about him with 100% certainty is that he is now five years older, heading into a different demographic than the one he started in. To the extent that antisocial behavior has a hormonal component, his hormones have settled down considerably since the day he committed his crime. It's not clear that today's young people are any less likely to commit crimes than the young people of 25 or 50 years ago. There are just fewer of them. Of course this may only apply to violent crime, street crime, crimes of passion, etc., which after all comprise most of the crime statistics. As people get older they may very well commit more white-collar crime, but they also become smarter and more experienced, and more likely to get away with it. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
No the system is not the best it could be. It actually makes some people worse than before they went to prison. One thing they could do better is decide which criminals have the best chance at rehabilitation and keep them in separate facilities from the criminals that have very little chance of ever becoming productive citizens. Some people just need to be removed from the general population for life, and everybody else should be in a program that will allow them to support themselves when they get out. I don't believe anybody in the system should be released until they have the skill to support themselves however long that might take. Also because of the gang problems, it might be better to have separate smaller facilities for the different races.
