Essays on Penal System

It is disheartening to observe two nations that underwent significant changes in the last century failed to capitalize on their reforms for the penal systems. South Africa declared itself of free of apartheid rule and yet finds its indigenous population reeling under the present government. The German model for reforms was on track until the political pressures overtook it (Cavadino, Cavadino, and Dignan, 2005). The cry is for stricter laws against criminals and yet, they are unable to follow the examples of the Netherlands or learn from the mistakes made by the United States. The South African people still ...

Introduction

The number of mentally ill offenders in American jails continues to grow every year. The Bureau of Justice estimates that approximately 16% of incarcerated persons have been diagnosed with active symptoms of severe mental illness, and about 75% of these people have related drugs and alcohol use disorder ("Mental Health and Criminal Justice", 2000). The presence of mentally ill defendants in the criminal justice system has significant costs on the system and harm on these defendants. It is almost impossible to care for these prison populations; thus, the mental health courts system advocates for the removal of mentally ill ...

Introduction

Correctional reforms are an important part of the criminal justice system. The reforms can reduce recidivism or have the opposite effect depending on its implementation based on cultural beliefs. Every region of the world has its unique philosophies. Despite changes in political paradigms, the cultural values find their purpose even in the new laws. Eventually, all penal systems aim to achieve an intolerance for criminal behavior from their respective civilian population. The success of any reformist drive must have the potential to derive a law that will work for the entire community. Although this criterion might seem difficult, it ...

It takes a great deal of effort to trust, and once that is lost then it takes a monumental amount of effort to get it back. The committing of a crime against another is a betrayal not only to an individual but to society in general, as it proves that the perpetrator cannot be trusted to exist in an ordered manner among their fellow citizens. In breaking that trust it is often seen that criminals will be labeled for the rest of their days as convicts, untrustworthy and unable to be seen as anything other than a lawbreaker and ...

In the most unlikely places are literary themes that are eerily similar. Such is the case for “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” In Cold Blood, and “The Crucible,” a poem by Oscar Wilde, a novel by Truman Capote, and a play by Arthur Miller, respectively. Although each of these pieces of literature deal with different time periods and different experiences, each discusses the darkness inside the human soul, the piercing reality of very banal, human evil that burns inside most people. While Capote’s characters chase the ghost of a murderer around a complex, interwoven plot, Miller’s characters fight against a corrupt, hysterical system ...

Oshinsky claimed that the farm penal system is worse than slavery because , the farm system was derived from the plantation model of imprisonment. An overall philosophy of punishment that rooted from racist assumptions regarding the abilities of the black prisoners in the South (Fisher-Giorlando , 2012, p. 1). The farm system is basically a combination of incarceration and working on a plantation as a slave. This system possesses elements of agricultural work, the population of black workers, neglect of rehabilitation, plantation mentality, isolation, the worthlessness of the prisoners and emphasis on the the economy (Forster, 1995 as quoted from Fisher-Giorlando , 2012). The condition ...

There has been an ineffective penal system for punishing criminals. The government should aim at getting tough on criminal activities to ensure that the society becomes safe and comfortable in a criminal free environment. However, there has been conflicting influences in the penal system that has proved to be inefficient in protecting people from crime. Law makers have tried to raise issues to solve the problems within the penal system but with less success because the criminals have always been given less punishments. For a penal system to be effective, it should focus on reasonable principles and should serve the purpose ...

Now it is time to give careful consideration to the nature of corruption that is the case in the USA. Pepys (2) notes that corruption within the system of justice may be defined as the use of management reserves or public authority to one’s own advantage or for personal gains resulting in an inappropriate legal protection of citizens and delivery of judicial services. In a broad context, the system of justice embraces judges, police, prosecutors, public defenders, court personnel, private bar, and a variety of court decision enforcement agencies, such as, for example, penal institutions. Whatever the variety of justice ...

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Rehabilitation of mentally ill in prisons and jails: issues and concerns

The California Department of Corrections (CDC) in 2005 added the term “rehabilitation” as a part of the agency’s official title, becoming the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or the CDCR. However, the change in title did not result in a change of philosophy in the treatment of prisoners in the United States. Though the reintegration of the methodology of rehabilitation officially entered the regime of the CDRC, there is little or no evidence that the methodology has significantly changed (Berkeley- University of California, 2009, p. 277). Berkebile (2010, p.1) reported that by 2009, California’s penal facilities ...

Rehabilitation versus Incarceration

JUVENILE OFFENDERS 2 Introduction Crime is a prevalent factor in American society, and is committed among all individuals regardless of age, race, gender, or socioeconomic status. The majority of American juveniles, individuals under the age of eighteen, have admitted to committing some type of crime throughout their young life. While the majority of crimes by juveniles are considered petty, non-violent, and overall minor offenses, youths also commit dangerous and heinous acts of crime identical to what we see in the adult penal system. In the last 30 years, Sociologists, Criminologists, and Penologists have witnessed both major and minor ...

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History With the crime rate steadily increasing in the United States, there have been talks of reinstating death penalty or capital punishment. This issue has sparked debate among people from different institutions. Capital punishment, however, is not something new. Historically, capital punishment was already used in ancient Babylonia (which is now called Iraq) as early as the 1700s B.C. and the specifics are written in the Code of Hammurabi, a legal document stating 25 crimes, including adultery but excluding murder, punishable by death (Guernsey ...

INTRODUCTION

A wave of religious revivalism swept over the United States in the 1820s and 1830s which led to increased calls for temperance and other perfection movements like abolition of slavery. By the turn of the century, women played a huge role in the temperance which occurred in 1920s and 1930s. In the temperament, alcohol was seen as destructive force in families and marriages and the source of all evil (Behr, 46, 1979). A new wave which was led by Anti-Saloon League attacked the sale of liquor. The attack was driven by a reaction to urban growth together with the rise of ...

- Introduction This paper aims to explore and explain different issues associated with human rights. The focus of this paper is on the violations of human rights in China. In this paper, different theories of human rights have been discussed including rational choice theory, strain theory, differential association theory, and others. - Discussion - Human Rights: Theoretical Overview 2.1.1. Rational Choice Theory The rational choice theory has made valuable contributions towards the development of international scholarship. The theory has described different aspects of international law within the framework of rational choice (Murdoch 989). The ...

Introduction

Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California is a book that is authored by Ruth Gilmore. The content in the book is as a result of research that was done in California Prisons (Gilmore 34-45). The author takes an ironic reproach to the conservative politicians and self-proclaimed criminologists who argue that prisonisation is the rational process to end crime rates and dispel fear from the streets. She takes a sharp critique at the unprecedented prison expansion in the United States. California is nicknamed ‘the Golden State’ since it houses natural beauty within rectangular borders. The power of the ...

Introduction

Humans are peculiar creatures endowed with ability to think, reason, socialize, and make rational and logical decisions. This aspect differentiates human beings from other animal species living in the universe. Unlike animals, human beings have formulated and enacted laws that guide their daily activities. Nations across the globe have formulated and enacted criminal laws through the act of parliament with the aim of maintaining status quo and social order (Engdahl, 2010). Although criminal laws differ across nations, they remain effective in deterring crime; promote coexistence and unity among the people. Under the provisions of the constitution, members of the ...

The empirical explanation postulates that the crime rate is higher in America and the incarceration rate reflects this. The second explanation is that public opinion in the United States demands the harsher sentencing laws and the incarceration rates simply reflect the demands of the American citizenry. The third factor is the journalistic issue that crime and punishment is one of the divisive issues employed in conservative politics. The fourth explores the extent that politicians can use an emotional issue such as crime to garner broad based support. The fifth explanation postulates that historical trends result in cycles of greater ...

Capital Punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is a legal procedure in which an individual is put to death as punishment for crime. The crimes under capital punishments are capital crimes defined by penal codes of respective countries. Each nation has a defined penal code system normally enshrined in the constitution. The use of death penalty as a mode of punishing the most heinous of crimes dates back to the Roman times. Beheading was common practice for punishing murderers and deserters at war. As several countries settled into the nations we know today, death penalty was reviewed and abolished by ...

Introduction

In the recent years there has been a high growth in the number of people who are getting incarcerated. This has led to a lot of debate on the legitimacy of the penal system. Is it really working to reduce or deter criminal behaviour? Is there anything in the punishment system that needs to be changes? The penal system should be revisited in order to address the high incarceration rates in the country.

The Legitimacy for Penal Punishment

There are theories that have contributed to the penal system. The choice theory in criminology has contributed over the years to justifying and specifying penal punishment. Each man ...