- Topic:
In the 19th century, prisons were built in hoping to incarcerate criminals that deserved long-term punishment for inhumane acts and violating the norms of society. Further, the establishment of prisons manifested in the idea that their function would be an effective deterrent to crime. Prominent criminologists and philosophers worked to unearth the psychology and central reasons behind committing crime, in addition to tactics that alter the crime-motivated mind from functioning the way it does. As a result, prisons were created to threaten motivated offenders by punishment, hoping to discourage their criminal tendencies. In fact, Cesare Beccaria, one of the most influential thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment, believed that the certainty of punishment was more effective than the severity of punishment– with an effectively working criminal justice system, criminals would be less motivated to commit acts of crime.
Today, modern criminologists have concluded that prisons are not an effective deterrent to crime; criminals are actually more likely to reoffend after serving their prison sentence. Not only is this problem extremely significant as it counteracts the fundamental functioning of prisons, but overcrowding of prisons increases the likelihood of reoffending and mental illness due to extremely poor conditions. The number of prisons exceeding prison capacity is occurring in a least 115 countries and only continues to grow without reform. This issue results in lack of privacy, poor healthcare, and food, thus resulting in an increase in violence, mental illness, and suicide. Although prisons fail to provide luxuries to prisoners as many commit heinous crimes, however, overcrowding also presents the issue of cruel and unusual punishment and it affects less horrendous offenders to the same degree.
Due to the issue being that of the criminal justice system rather than the nature of crime increasing, there are policies that can be implemented to incite changes to the system. For instance, lowering prison sentences for drug offenders, giving judges more discretion during trial, assess misdemeanors or well-behaved inmates for chance of reoffending and establish programs that can help them return to society without threat.
- Hook:
Because prisons have already failed to be an effective deterrent to reoffending, today’s issue of prison overcrowding not only increases the likelihood of reoffending, but it makes offenders more violent to others and themselves.
- Working thesis:
Although the establishment of prisons isolate violent criminals from society, prohibiting their threat to society, it is essential for policy alterations in the criminal justice system to keep less violent offenders doing the same time as threatening ones, implementation of new laws to ensure that sentencing is fair, and the abolishing of current laws including truth in sentencing which establishes a minimum and maximum sentence and requires a substantial part of it to be fulfilled before possibility of parole.
- Policy:
- Criminal justice policy makers at local and state levels of government
- Congress
- United states department of justice
- National institute of corrections