Being Incarcerated Does Not Rehabilitate - Research Paper Example

Being incarcerated does not rehabilitate Nobody has provided a satisfactory answer that explains why people become criminals. The reason might range from poverty, peer influence, unemployment, drug abuse and family history among many other explanations. However, criminal behaviors begin with being born into environments that promote crime and violent behaviors. Crime is associated with violent behavior. They have a cause and effect relationship. In his book, Inside the Criminal Mind, Samenow Stanton powerfully breaks down the notion that criminals only come from poor families (Gideon and Sung 74). He states that crime exists in the mind of an individual. They are manipulative; enjoy the control they get out of the crime experience and view law-abiding citizens differently. Incarceration was introduced as a mode of behavior correction. The idea behind it was that when a criminal is incarcerated, he gets time to reflect on his behavior while at the same time undergoing counseling that might lead to admirable and desirable change in behavior. However, incarceration has been found to be insufficient and of less value in rehabilitating criminals or juveniles. Prisons are expected to act as deterrents to criminal activity. This notion is based on the ideology that prison is unpleasant. Therefore, potential offenders are expected to be conscious of this fact and avoid engaging in criminal activity so that they avoid imprisonment. However, this idea does not work because criminals tend to increase in number both in the society and in prisons. The number of prisoners has been increasing as years pass (Scaros 287). This means that prisons have failed to perform the function for which they were created or established. The criminal mind does not work in the same way as that of a law abiding citizen. A law abiding citizen will think of prison as an unpleasant place that he or she should never be in. Therefore, he will do everything to ensure that he is not found guilty of any crime, thereby abiding by the law and keeping out of prison. However, criminals think differently with a less foresight and consciousness. They enjoy the excitement that comes with the criminal activity, the risks and the outcome. This means that they focus on their target and do not anticipate capture in any way. For them, capture is accidental and is something that should not happen if they plan their crime properly (Scaros 286). Estimations indicate that only 1.2 percent of burglars go to prison because of their criminal activity. For instance, if a person wants to join burglary and by chance comes by this estimation, he will certainly be sure that the chances of his capture are minimal (O'Connor and Pallone 40). This shows the inefficiency in the prison as a way o reducing criminal activity. In fact, a low risk of punishment serves to increase criminal activity. Burglars who succeed in activities of burglary are always celebratory of their accomplishments. This means that they can still engage in the same criminal activity one they deem fit to do that. Relevant and efficient deterrents are certain, swift and up to the task. Prisons are not certain. It is not certain whether once may be imprisoned on put on probation once they participate in criminal activity. Some criminal activities even go unprosecuted. Many people perceive prison as not a severe mode of punishment. This is because of the uncertainty of the amount of sentence one might accrue because of engaging in a criminal activity. Not all prisoners are put on hard labor. In fact, most of them are let to sleep or sit in their prisons doing nothing (O'Connor and Pallone 40). Prison facilities often function as a reunion for most offenders. They meet their acquaintances and friends who engaged in criminal activities together with them. For example, when mike Tyson went to juvenile detention, he met many of his friends there. This acts as a form of comfort. Friends provide comfort and other needs such as, protection from attack by other inmates. In this case, prisoners view the prison more of a home than a correctional facility (Bartol and Bartol 338). Criminals do not always think of the number of years they can spend in prison facilities. When prison is out of sight then it is out of mind. When incarcerated, prisoners think that they were set up, that they had planned wrongly or the deal just went bad among other thoughts. However, they do not see it as a consequence of their actions and a chance to correct their ill behaviors. For them, the prison marks as a determinant of their accomplishment. Therefore, they perceive it as an indicator of bad planning and as an encouragement of better future criminal plans (Millon and Birket-Smith 118). Prisons act as revolving places for recidivists (Gideon and Sung 6). Those released each year make up almost the number of those who get in to the facilities. For example, released convicts who make up almost seven hundred thousand go back to their old habits terrorizing innocent civilians. In addition, they carry with them communicable diseases, such as gonorrhea, AIDS and tuberculosis among other diseases. They spread these diseases to the community. In addition, fitting back to the community is always a problem for the ex-convicts because of the kind of lifestyle, torture and harassment they underwent while in prison. If prisons cannot make inmates comfortable to fit back to the society where they came from, then it has failed in it duties (Gideon and Sung 21). Every society has formulated rules that govern its members against committing forms of crime. These rules spell out forms of punishment for the members of society who cannot uphold civility and the rules of the society. The history of criminal justice has existed in societies where most of them practice incarceration as the most effective way of punishing law breakers and offenders. Under the American system of criminal justice, more than three million people have been incarcerated in federal, state and county prisons. However, it has not offered much help to the united states of American mission to maintain a crime free environment for its citizens even with active law enforces, such as the police department. Juvenile delinquent facilities have also not helped in the fight against crime. Instead of acting as places of rehabilitation, they have acted as places where juvenile offenders learn other forms and ways of committing crime. Juveniles share their experiences that land them in juvenile facilities. As they discuss and enjoy the fun that comes with it, they become experienced in law breakage. Most of them learn new ways of handling crime activities and become competent in it. In fact, it has been found that in adult prisons, there are many people who had been incarcerated earlier as juvenile offenders. A new report published in 2011 called, “No Place for Kids: The Case of Reducing Juvenile Incarceration,” by Anne E. Casey showed that Wyoming state had a higher incarceration rate of youths than any other state in the United States of America. The report, which included a juvenile justice research for over a decade, stated that locking up youths in incarceration facilities does not prevent them from engaging in criminal activities, in the future. In fact, the report indicated that locking up the youth in those facilities does not promote public safety in any way. Instead, these facilities serve as breeding grounds for future criminals who come out prepared and with more skill to engage in criminal activity. For instance, in 2007, Wyoming incarcerated 395 youths out of 100,000. South Dakota had 348 out 100,000. Wyoming was the highest nationally. From 1997, the number had reduced from 462 to 395. This shows that incarceration does not help in lowering crime rate. I took over ten years for the state to record a sixty-seven drop o juvenile crime. The environment is always an essential part of the reformation process. When the environment fails to the conditions that must exist so that reformation can take place, the whole process of reformation becomes useless. Prison life takes the most valuable possessions from prisoners. These include their families, sexual satisfaction and freedom of association among others. Most prisoners are unhappy when in prison. Most evil deeds, for instance, sodomy, rape, torture and fear are reported in prisons. The food given in prisons is of poor quality. Disease is widespread and the overall maintenance of healthy living is deplorable. This means that prisoners suffer while in prison. Instead of reforming they harden because of the hardships that they experience while in prison. Because of this, they get out of prison as hardcore and hardened criminals. They fear entirely nothing and cannot respect other human beings let alone law maintenance bodies, such as the police. This clearly shows the failure of prisons as places that can help prisoners reform. This affirms the fact that incarceration cannot help rehabilitate law offenders. Incarceration facilities are supposed to have counseling and guidance centers that can help criminals realize their mistakes and work towards reformation. However, most incarceration facilities, such as prisons lack this essential aspect. Those that have the guidance and counseling facilities are not well equipped for that purpose. They are either abandoned or lack enough personnel that can respond to the needs of the incarcerated. Therefore, prisoners get out of prison without realizing that they had made mistake. If they had realized their mistake, they get out of prison without proper advice that can help them avoid similar crimes and mistakes. Incarceration can also contribute to the formation of criminals as discussed. In addition, incarceration always captures criminals and innocent people. It is not a new phenomenon where innocent people are incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. Most people take responsibility for crimes they did not commit because of wring and ill-advised investigations and prosecution among other reasons. When this people get to prison they are bitter. The environment shapes them to become criminals motivated by the fact that they did not commit any crime. When this happens, innocent people become notorious criminals (Millon and Birket-Smith 118). In conclusion, incarceration does not always lead to rehabilitation. It is important to give them credit for the few cases that it has helped reform. Some ex-convicts get out of prison reformed and lead improved lives in the society. However, as history and evidence show, incarceration has not helped towards the rehabilitation of criminals. The environment of the facilities, lack of counseling provisions and the issues that take place in incarceration facilities make it impossible for rehabilitation to occur. The inability of ex-convicts to fit in the society is one of the negative results of incarceration. At the end, juveniles mature as criminal adults while adults improve on their criminal skills and techniques. Therefore, being incarcerated does not help rehabilitate. Work cited Bartol, Curt R. and Anne M. Bartol. Introduction to forensic psychology. London: SAGE, 2004. Gideon, Lior and Hung-En Sung. Rethinking Corrections: Rehabilitation, Reentry, and Reintegration. London: SAGE, 2010. Millon, Theodore and Morten Birket-Smith. Psychopathy: antisocial, criminal, and violent behavior. New Jersey: Guilford Press, 2002. O'Connor, Thomas P. and Nathaniel J. Pallone. Religion, the Community, and the Rehabilitation of Criminal Offenders. New York: Routledge, 2003. Scaros, Constantinos E. Understanding the Constitution. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011. Read More