Paper Topic:

Rehabilitation In Prison Systems

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Rehabilitation in Prison Systems

Over the past few decades , we have seen a massive influx of prisoners into the United States correctional system . This influx happened and continues to happen at all levels , local , state , and federal . An unprecedented growth of our prisons resulted in very serious over-crowding and other issues related to it . Some of the systems are large to the point that they cannot be effectively supervised . It has been determined that crowding in prisons s a major source of

administrative problems and adversely affects inmate health , behavior and morale (Cox , Paulus and McCain 1984 ) This overcrowding caused massive expansions and thus large fiscal strains on state and federal budgets . In this we will examine rehabilitation as a necessity to control overcrowding and the effects of overcrowding on rehabilitation

One among the principle reasons for overcrowding of our prison system is the so-called war on drugs . This is a governmental campaign designed to reduce illegal drug trafficking . There are two parts to this campaign First part is associated with coordinating agencies at all levels of government in to make as many arrests as possible . The ultimate goal is to eliminate as many dealers as possible and confiscate and destroy as many drugs as the government can lay their hands on . This is done domestically as well as internationally with the assistance of several countries . The second part of the law deals with prosecution of the offenders . This second part includes a set of laws that are designed with the purpose of discouraging the production , distribution , and consumption of illegal drugs . These laws are very tough as they define very long prison terms for offenders , even those with relatively minor offenses . His led to a very large number of arrests for minor offenses such as consumption and possession of illegal substance . In 1994 , it was reported that the War on Drugs results in the incarceration of one million Americans each year (Lester 1994 ) Of the related drug arrests , about 225 ,000 are for simple possession of marijuana , the fourth most common cause of arrest in the United States (Federal Buerau of Investigation 1991 ) Even though the charges were minor , the originally preset minimum sentences were very high thus leading to a tremendous increase in priosn populations across the nation

Another eason for overcording were large increases in funding for various police forces across the nation . This funding allowed local government to hire large numbers of police officers which in return resulted inhigher arrest rates . This was a direct result of various political campaigns which promised to get tough ' on crime and ensure that criminals receive their just punishment - often ion form of long prison sentences . Ones leected , these politicans helped pass legislature such as three-stirkes law without thinking of the consequences associated with long-term funding of the prison system . Public trust has given them the necessery tools to increase the sentences for non-violent crimes to the maximum . At...

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