This video was very intriguing to me in the way that I got to take a hard look into the United States’ Correction system. The speaker, Dr. Mathews, who was a correctional officer, told us how he perceived the way the current correctional systems was going at the times he was in and the current time and then he explained what he thought of the entire thing. He told of the “revolving door” with is that of the 95 percent of “correctional clients” released about 67 percent of them would return within three years of the release on another charge of some sort. He told us about how this is because the US correctional system is concentrated more on housing than it is on rehabilitation. Personal, this is a hard one for me. I am very conservative and I often believe that those how break the law should be punished, however, being more right leaning, I also think that those who can be successfully rehabilitated could and should be. The economic cost on the average taxpayer and the state/government is staggering and should be fixed in any way possible. I believe that a rehabilitated “client” could help the community and the economy. Should that member of the correctional system be correctly rehabilitated, he would be able to work and would not cost the government or state all that money to house and feed him as a prisoner of the correctional system. I also share his belief that something is wrong with our correctional system but I would have personally used a different world other than broken. I would have used words like misused, mismanaged, or another word that would describe that not using a thing the right way. I do believe that It can be fixed and that it should. I do not believe something like this will be fixed overnight and I personally believe it will take a while for it to work. If it does work, I also think it may take time for the outcome to be visible to the public or on paper/statistics. As a student, I am currently learning more about the correctional system and how it work and is operated but if we start to fix or even attempt to try to fix the correction system, it will help people all of the United States and people on both spectrums of the political scale and ideologies. –TheMarshall789
I am only worried that I don’t know how much worse the correction system will get in the future. Sounds like were not doing anything about helping people, and just putting them in prisons. Some of these people don’t belong in prison for obvious dumb mistakes and others who do want the help. But apparently, the main goal is to punish more and rehabilitate very little. What’s the point? It only them because they get money for keeping so called ‘prisoners’ in jails. I feel like they know that the correction system doesn’t work, but don’t want to say anything because it makes [correctional system] look bad. - LILPUMP789
I also agree they focus more on housing people than they do on helping them. I think these people should be help if they can be successfully rehabilitated. This way it would take money off the cost of housing them and making people pay taxes for the enormous amounts of people incarcerated that really should be. Dr. Mathews mentioned that 53% of these people are nonviolent. That means they would possibly have a chance to be rehabilitated and be a working and functional member of society, like you mentioned. I agree that the problem with the criminal justice system could be fixed. This would most likely take quite some time, but it needs to change in some way to better it. - ST789
The way Dr. Matthews talked about the corrections system made me believe that our system can adopt this plan. I’m kind of in the same boat as you, in some cases I believe that if you do the crime, you do the time, however, I believe that we should definitely take the time and rehabilitate this that can and should be rehabilitated. if we were able to rehabilitate a high percentage of those 53 percent of non-violent offenders it would have a big effect on the functioning our society and the economy. paww789
The rehabilitation programs can all start if the prisons start focusing on rehab. They can all do it but they people who run the prisons don't want to spend it because they know they wouldn't get as many repeat offenders to make up the profit they're making currently. I personally don't believe that they justice system has any morals for this. They need to improve everything. They should take pride in seeing the people better themselves instead of keeping them behind bars as if they were caged animals because we all know that they aren’t. For all we know, they just need someone to be there for them to teach them direction. -Chewbacca789
I think that people should be punished for what they have done wrong, but I also believe that forgiveness is a very important virtue. To reduce the number of people coming back into the correctional system I think that we should start having prisoners have the option to take up a vocation in government projects in a similar way that we did for the poor when we built the Hoover Dam. It gives something for people to do, it would allow them to save money for when they left, and it would leave them with a talent and something to put on a resume for when they try to get a new job. -DMPeschy
Brandon W. Mathews was great! I agree. I am not surprise the fact that our correctional system is doesn’t work. The U.S. has the most incarcerations than any other country. Some of the people who are going to prisons or jails should be able to rehabilitate. I believe that half of the people, who are in prison or jail right now, are for drugs or some dumb mistake. There are people in those cells that do want to rehabilitate for their own good, to start over, to get a job, to start fresh. Half of those get out of prison go back with 3 years or so, says Brandon Mathews. I think that’s crazy! Because these people when they get out, they pretty much don’t have nothing. You’re either punishing them or helping them. It cost money to rehabilitate a person, and this is why prisons or jails have them stay longer because they get money. I preferably believe that we should have more rehabilitation, but instead we have more prisons and jails. They took them all off! He clearly states, “the practices of punishment are to interconnected with our to rehabilitation”. He also mentions how there is basically a routine, once your register in the correction system, they judge you on your behavior and then pray that whatever prison you go to better have something to treat you, because all prisons or jails are built differently and offer something differently. Not to mention, the main goal is to use punishment with very little rehabilitation. That is wrong to a certain extent because, it sounds like we are just putting people in jails for no apparent reason. There should be two systems of correctional and again there is people who do need to be in jail or prison, and others that don’t need to be in there. This is also why our jails are so packed, and have to build so many jails. Something or someone has to do something to fix it, because it makes us look bad and if we don’t end up fixing our correction system than it could improve or could fail. But, it never hurts to try. If we try to separate and have more rehab center for so call ‘prisoners’ than do it soon and not later. Time is being wasted and who knows how much worse it can only get further down the road. – LILPUMP789
I agree with your idea that our correctional system doesn't work but it does have functions that are necessary as well. For individuals who commit major crimes because they enjoy inflicting pain on others for those individuals punishment is necessary as their individuals who wouldn't care who is effected by the overall circumstance that is at hand. It is normal that individuals want to go back in time to fix mistakes that were so minor in terms of how they had an impact on others and their own personal life with how being locked away effected those things. The private prison industry profits off these people use but some of the money is also channeled to fund other organizations that do more damage then favors coming from the private industry as well very sad truth. eagle789
I also agree. Our criminal justice system has a problem that need to be fix as soon as humanly possible or we risk throwing hundreds if not thousands into a never ending loop of misery in the Unites States’ correctional system. The rehabilitation of those we deem nonviolent offenders of laws that we do not all agree on should be a priority on the correctional system as it will help not only the system itself but also those who are affected by it such as choice criminals and the families of the criminals. It will also help the general public by relieving the taxpayers of an economic burden that has been on them since they were old enough to pay taxes in their states and to the federal government. –TheMarshall789
Dr. Mathews, the speaker in this video made a really good point. He mentioned that the corrections system is to intermingled with punishment and rehabilitation. What he said was that the corrections systems soul purpose was to punish and rehabilitation was an afterthought that was lightly put in. To me this is not something that I would want for the corrections system. It is making things worse for these people and not helping them for what they need help for. I agree that you can not really rehabilitate someone who murdered a person, but as for people with small non violent crimes, I don’t see why we wouldn’t focus mostly on helping them. The speaker mention the revolving door of the criminal justice system. The statistics were that 67% of the the people released were back within 3 years for a different crime. Now to me this just kind of proves that we are not doing enough to help these people become better members of society. We are just throwing them in a jail cell with people who are there for harder crimes and then act like it will somehow make them into a better person. The example he used of a doctor who’s surgeries would have to be redone 67% of the time within 3 years really settle in for me. I would never go to a doctor that was known for having to redo his surgeries over half the time and I do not believe that the doctor would be keeping his license to perform surgeries for very long. Yet even with these results, we still put up with it in the criminal justice system. The speakers main point was that he believes we should have a 2 track system, one for punishment and one for rehabilitation. I’m not exactly sure how this would work to be honest. He mentioned that it would be hard to help people when you are still punishing them at the core. When he got to the part about rehabilitation track, he said imes served would be based on when they felt they had treated the problem. This I do not fully agree on and am kind of skeptical about. If you do it this way, the people could possibly just be acting or faking it just to get out early and just go back to what they were doing. Overall, I would be very interested to see how this type of corrections system would work. - ST789
I agree that people who have petty crimes should be able to get some kind of assistance for what there going through as most of these individuals are mentally ill or made mistakes they most likely would repent for if given the chance after spending years away from their loved ones. I agree with the rovaling door theory as people who go in for petty crimes, go into these systems spend years behind bars and get shaped into being harden criminals by others serving sentences for life who have nothing to lose but have much anger and jealously.
I agree with you when you say how we are not doing enough to help these people become better members of society. The only thing our corrections system really focuses on currently is punishment. Punishment is the foundation of our corrections system with rehab behind it in the distance. Rehab should be a major part of these prisoners' lives, because without it, they will just be released from prison and go back into society the same way they got put into it. If we could form rehab centers and programs separate from prisons, these prisoners will receive the help they desperately need and be allowed back into society as good, healthy, fixed individuals ready to start new lives. -Fozz789
I agree it doesn’t seem like were doing enough or maybe were not allowing much to be done because of the mentalities of the past that carry on today. In that I mean we seem to continue to use the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, except it seems that we took that a step further and take all the teeth and both eyes from someone who commits a crime. I really liked his idea for a two track system. The fact that one would actually focus on rehabilitation would give people a far better chance. I am also curious on how they would judge when it was appropriate amount of time served for someone to be treated as they saw fit.
As stated in the video we are building an endless system where we are opening the door to letting people to get into prison but as they enter prison we are locking the door shut. With having our system so focused on punishment we lack the ability to fix the reason for these individual’s ending up in the prison system. Our foundation must be on rehibition as many of these offenders will one day walk back into their respected communities or family households without any changes what results can be expected in terms of positive trends for these people no wonder 95 percent of the people who go into the correctional system end up, a percent of 65% committing another crime after three years once they are out. I believe that having both cynical staff and correctional officers on staff in prisons and jails is an effective system as this would allow for correctional staff to deal with serious offenders and for the cynical to deal with those who are non-violet and don’t seek to cause harm to others by any means. What was an eye-opening fact pointed out by this video when looking at the country of Norway for their offenders they sit at a 20% of the people who go through their system for reoffending showing the massive difference in the impact of punishment vs. Rehabilitation. Our idea for the severity of the punishment all is included at the court case of the individual’s trail and the belief that they will behave a way that warrants either minimum or max security prison than the punishment begins after that phase. Also stated there are two individuals who work for the correctional system those who are their because they want to enforce the laws and those who want to rehabilitate those who commit offenses. As mentioned by Dr. Matthews our system at its current state needs a divorce as we are in a system that is punishing people without relizeing that they will one day have to live in the world with others and try to function with others in society as it currently stands. As it stands the data shows that our logic and demand for punishment is not working offenders are not learning how to behave as normal members of society. So if Norway is having much success in their ideas for rehabilitation why not try to mere theirs and have our offenders as productive not re victimizing individual’s. eagle789
I love how you mentioned that people are going to prison and then they are locking the door on those people. It seem today people on focus on punishment and they tend to not care about helping the person they just want to throw them under the jail, which is sad. I agree if they don't do no rehabilitation they are basically asking for that person to go back to jail to offend again. Jail should be for punishment and change. People will never go back into the real world with a positive if the prisons don't do their part. I believe we def should try Norway way of policy since like you said they are having much success and we can not say the same thing on our end. -Jolly Rancher
Dr. Matthew speaaks in this video collectly and he states the points of collection system and rehabilitation. i do agree what he said about the purpose of correction system soul was to punish and rehabilitate. drug related crimes has been on the rise,resulting in jail and prisons becoming overpopulated. if you have committed a non-violent drug related crime and facing charges, there maybe a possibility of court agreeing to drug rehabilitation instead of facing jail or prison. For me punishing is not the only remedy for someone to change, like doctor mathew said 67 percent of prisoners are released and within 3 years they are back. like you see if they were offered more help and taken to rehab maybe they could have had more chances to change their behaviors. to my pony of view alcohol and drug addiction are now classified as a disease and legal system is more appropriate to choose rehabilitation rather than incarcerating; since prisons in united states is now overcrowded locking this people for years is wasting of reasorses and life of this people. the society understand that they did wrong but at the end of the day we need to figure it out how to change this people to a better citizens.establishing rehabilitation facilities in prison will be better idea. incarcerating a person for non-violent related crime is a temporary action to keep them from committing crime for their sentence. but what is that person doing in jail while they serve? some people develop even worse criminal habit than he had before going to prison . in this situation rehabilitation kicks in better. gusii789
I found this video to be very interesting. One thing that really caught my eye was the fact that currently, prisoners are sent to prisons based on the anticipation of their behavior behind bars. This thought process of automatically assuming that a prisoner will misbehave in prison is not necessarily a bad one. However, prisoners only have hope when they are sent to a certain prison. I say this because it is either hit or miss when being sent to a prison with a rehab center, program, etc. If someone was arrested because of a certain illegal drug and they have become addicted to it, they have a fifty-fifty chance of actually being able to receive treatment and help to get them over their addiction. Let's say this person was sent to a prison without a rehab center/program. The only thing that will happen to them during their time behind bars is they will receive punishment and get no or close to no help with their addiction. This would lead to a likely outcome of this same person doing their time, being released from prison, and then going back to doing illegal drugs again because they were addicted when they were caught, addicted in prison and didn't get any help, and were released addicted. Another idea that I found intriguing was the idea of separating the prisons and the rehab programs/centers. This would help the prisons in the manner that they could focus all of their attention solely on punishing the prisoners for their wrongdoings and not have to focus on anything else. After serving their punishments, prisoners would then be sent to rehab centers, be able to get help, and conquer any of the problems they are facing such as addiction, mental illness, etc. One statistic that really stood out to me was that 67% of prisoners will return to prison for committing a new crime within 3 years of their release. This stat is a perfect example of how prisoners are not being helped in prison due to the fact that punishment is the main focus and rehab is a small afterthought. Another interesting stat was 53% of the entire prison inmate population is considered "non-violent". This tells us that just over half of the entire U.S. prison population is being punished for crimes like drug possession and most likely are facing some obstacles like addiction that are not receiving treatment. If punishment and rehab were separate, these victimless offenders would be taking up less space in a prison and receiving the help they need. -Fozz789
Agreed. With the crime rate in the United States, we really need to focus more on our community and bettering our prisons. That statistic also stood out to me! It’s ridiculous how highly likely it is for someone to commit a crime again even after just serving their time in prison. It’s really disappointing and disheartening. However, what exactly are we doing to fix this? To make our country and people better? To reduce this risk? Like Mathews said, it will be difficult, but it’s not impossible. And I really think that we can change things for the better! And yes, I also think separating the two, punishment and rehabilitation, will make a great difference and have a stronger impact. Environment can have a significant effect on mood and motivation, and also social influences. If you’re surrounded by people who have done wrong and are potentially still in that mindset, it’ll be harder to focus on rehabilitation and getting better. Whereas when you’re in rehabilitation solely in a separate facility and surrounded with people who are in the same boat as you for the better, it can make it so much easier.
I also agree that correctional facilities should be separate from prisons, but I think that most people should either go to one or the other instead of both. Punishing those who commit crimes because of mental illnesses and substance dependencies does not accomplish anything and is a further waste of time and resources. I think that these people should be rehabilitated as soon as possible and reintegrated into society after being rehabilitated. I do however believe that punishment facilities should be set up for people who choose crime in the absence of mitigating circumstances. People like Bernie Madoff and Jordan Belfort are not violent criminals or beyond controlling their actions. These people selfishly choose to hurt other people financially in order to better themselves. If these people were only sentenced to a correctional facility, there would not exist a proper incentive not to engage in criminal behavior. In short criminals should either be punished or treated not punished then treated. Rudedogg789
I agree with you in the sense that it makes logical sense that we want to keep the “troublemakers” all together. I also agree that that really could be either hit or miss on the rehabilitation side of that prison. That just does not seem like it is a good idea to select the prisons based upon the likelihood that they will miss behave. I also very much like your example about the drug addict who needs to have specific rehabilitation and not just face punishment. I also thought the fact that 67% of prisoners will return to prison for committing a new crime with in three years of their lease was a set to stick that truly showed that there is a flaw in our criminal justice system. -RHB789
I have to also agree, they need to focus more on rehabilitation than punishing. They should try adding rehab or programs etc... I also agree with the point of separating them on what they got imprisoned for. Most of them come back as you said because they only have a fifty, fifty chance of the prison having a program or go to rehab because they don’t have it in their prison which does not really have the correction system of rehabilitation which means they are not actually helping people they are just punishing them and I do agree if they divide the two they won’t take as much room. -Justice789
I loved Brandon W. Mathews, he was great, and he spoke some real facts about real life problems. I wish more correctional officers was like him because some correctional officers don’t care if inmates are beating up each other. I loved how his main goal was to help people and how he wasn’t after it for the money he was dedicated to helping people get out the system. Finding people like that is hard because now a day’s people are after a check. I feel like that’s crazy people can go to prison and they don’t get the treatment they need. If the judge is going to punish you like that they should also try to help that person, so they can change their ways, so they will not do the same thing over and over. Its crazy that the revolving door theory is even a theory because there should be people to help people, so they don’t do the same crime over and over. I feel like people with authority should change how things are so prisons can be beneficial instead of punishing people instead of punishing and helping people. I feel like if the prison policy would change like how Brandon want it everything would be smooth, and a lot of people would not go back to jail because they would have reduced their rates to do those crimes again. I feel like Norway prison policy is how ours should be simply because it apparent that their policy is working so I feel like our system should investigate making a change. I love how he use the term divorce and I love how he explained his self very clear and made it obvious that it should be different. I like how he also mentioned how we can change it and he told us what structural change consist of. -Jolly Ranchers
This video had a lot of valuable information to me. I never sat and thought of how our corrections system isn't getting their views and how they want the corrections system across. Dr. Matthews was a correction officer, so it’s very good to hear this information from a man who seen all of this first hand. The corrections system always emphasizes “rehabilitation” but it is never that way. We see this “revolving door” in the corrections system were about 67% of inmates will return to prison for committing another crime about 3 years after they have been released from prison. However, there are inmates and offenders who do deserve to be punished and either don't have the right to be rehabilitated, or aren't mentally able to be rehabilitated. In some ways the saying “you do the crime, you do the time” should be taken into affect, but most of the time it shouldn’t. As Dr. Mathews said, 53 percent of offenders are considered non-violent. So why are they being thrown in prison and being punished, only to possibly be turned into a violent offender, or be back in prison for the same crime a few years after they have been released? As Dr. Matthews pointed out, we should have 2 stages of the correction system, a stage one which would be for punishment, and a stage two which would be used for rehabilitation, and that is where the majority of the 53 percent of non-violent offenders should be. I agree with this approach because it will give offenders the appropriate care and steps needed to better themselves and be productive in society. Like drug addicts can go through counseling and different types of therapy to get them off of the drugs and hope that they can get better and never have the risk of getting back into drugs. This plan could easily work. But as I said above, there are quite a number of offenders who don't deserve to be rehabilitated and they should only be punished. If our corrections system could adopt this plan i believe it would make out country a much better place, and it would make our corrections system much better as well. paww789
This video has a lot of points with which I strongly agree. In the United States, we spend too much time focusing on the punishment of criminals, when that only breeds more crime in the long run due to the revolving door that was explained in the video. It’s important to realize that punishment does not bring forth any positive outcomes. While punishment may feel and even be warranted it is not how we solve the existing crime problem present in the United States. As a society, the American people need to decide if whether they want to better the world or barbarically inflict pain and suffering on those who have wronged others. There is no doubt that punishing those who have wronged others is instantly gratifying, but we have to realize there are in most cases underlying causes for the way criminals behave. If there is any way to prevent further crime it is the moral responsibility of the people in the community to see to said prevention. Before any of this can be accomplished the average person needs to understand, and ultimately accept that, in order to truly effect positive change, criminals should be viewed as misguided human beings not irreparably broken monsters. In most cases people are not born criminals; they grew up in environments where they did not have the necessary resources to grow, and become productive members of society. However, this is not an excuse for their behavior because one must deal with the circumstances with which he or she is born; unfortunate beginnings do not have to define the way in which an individual lives his or her life. Much of that which is being corrected in a person who is now a convicted criminal could have been addressed during his or her childhood; if spotted early on, at-risk youth could get the help they need before they start committing criminal offenses that would negatively affect his or her life permanently. The idea of having two tracts that Mathews speaks of is an especially good idea because, as the speaker says, while there are many people who are very limited in their ability to live a wholesome life in accordance with the law, there certainly are individuals who know better than to behave criminally and do so regardless. I believe that these people should be reprimanded for their behavior because they need to learn right from wrong, and clearly even with a good upbringing they chose knowing better to act criminally. It is important that there are consequences for wrongdoing otherwise US law exists only as a suggestion. -Rudedogg789
I agree we do spend far too much time on punishment of criminals. It was interesting that in the video he explained this as the main point of focus for our corrections system as we know it. It’s sad that we didn’t grow with the times instead of focusing on the past mentalities that have led to this mass incarceration problem. I liked what you stated about finding underlying causes for criminals behavior. It makes sense and in many cases I believe that it’s due to the revolving door effect we have created. I believe everyone messes up and in some cases continue to do so because that’s the only way of life they believe they have available. Pj789
This video was so rich in information; I really loved how he focused on prison inmates and the government’s take on their treatment. I’d always had a degree of interest in criminal justice and such, but this really helped expand my mind! I thought his plan and different view and perspective on this was intriguing, and, if successful, will be very beneficial to not only the inmates, but the community as well. I’d never heard of the corrections system before, so that was also new for me. I now understand how there’s more “help than hurt” in prisons today, and I also hadn’t taken the time to contemplate how different countries have different takes on how they treat and attempt to rehabilitate their prisoners. That being said, not all countries have the same devotion and dedication to helping improve the lives of community members and prison inmates, which is disheartening. Yet, Norway’s success rate in doing so is very inspiring, and, as Brandon Mathews said, hopefully someday we can reach that same rating or better! I truly believe focusing more so on rehabilitation rather than punishment will prove a better bang for your buck instead of focusing more on punishment than rehabilitation, or solely punishment. I know the United States has the potential to be as great as, or better than, Norway in this perspective! Like Mathews said, it will be difficult, but it’s not impossible. :)
I really enjoyed this video because it gave a great insight into the United States’ correction system. Speaker was the reason this video was so informative, he started out as a corrections officer and in this talk he discussed through his own eyes what was happening and his views on that side of the corrections system. He also later worked in the corrections system more towards the rehabilitation of offenders. I thought that the insight of the fact that the corrections system interviews the incoming inmates to see if they are going to cause problems in their prisons was very interesting. He uses the example of someone that is going to prison on drug charges and is addicted to drugs they to get interviewed and he says that better hope the prison they send you to actually has a decent drug and addiction recovery treatment system in place. So basically people are being put in specific prisons based on what the probability of them acting up is. He is saying in the video it should be based upon the crimes they committed and if that person has the ability to rehabilitate them for those specific crimes and or addictions. Personally I couldn't agree more and more, I did not even know that some presence might not have the correct systems in place to help almost everybody get at least some form of rehabilitation. At the beginning of this video I was very confused when he was talking about the divorce between practices of punishment from rehabilitation. However now that he elaborated on that I completely get what he is saying. I even think that what he is saying could possibly be a solution to the problem that we have of such a high recidivism rate. There are some offenses that may not need such hard punishment however they do need a great deal of rehabilitation. And example of this would be a repeated drug offender, if you just keep throwing him or her in prison there’s a better chance that their problems won’t doorway in fact they could get a lot worse. Many times people like that go to prisons and they come out more “hardened criminals” and if we just gave them mandatory rehabilitation it would cut back on cases like this. Obviously I agree that some people just need to be punished and that’s fine also. I really did enjoy this video from the standpoint that it was a ex corrections officer who even he thinks the system could definitely be improved. -RHB789
This video is very eye opening and at the same time disturbing. It shows how our mentality about punishment through imprisonment hasn’t changed through the years. The speaker, Dr. Mathews, was a corrections officer and knows how the system works which for me the fact that he has seen the inside of a prison and knows how everything works showed his credibility on the subject matter. I agreed with his views because I believe we should be looking for rehabilitation rather than punishment through incarceration. He stated that 67 percent of prisoners released will reoffend within the first 3 year. That’s an astonishing number and one that doesn’t make sense because the idea of prison is to punish and rehabilitate. It seems that only one of those is being done, punishment. He talked about how prisoners are put into either a high or low security prison based on an assessment done during an interview. From there they are placed in one or the other and they can only hope that the treatment that helps them be rehabilitated is available or there out of luck. This just goes to show that the priority is punishment and that keeps the revolving door of the system going. The two track system that he speaks of seems to make sense in my opinion. If we have a priority to rehabilitate it could massively help actual behavior change. What we are doing now doesn’t seem to be working. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world and that is a problem. I’m very impressed with Dr. Mathew’s ideas and hope they are put in place. Norway’s way of treating corrections seems far superior. My favorite thing he said was the quote from a warden in Norway. He stated what is the point of punishment except for leaning toward the primitive side of humanity, this just reminded me of what I learned in psychology class that punishment without a lesson being taught teaches fear and does not instill a behavioral change in that person. Dr. Mathews also spoke about how 53 percent of people in prison are put there for nonviolent offenses. And if the problem they have is a drug addiction it seems very plausible that a rehabilitation center is far more beneficial and I believe in the long run far more cost effective. I do believe violent offenders should be sent to prison and out of society. I believe some form of rehabilitation for violent offenders, at least for educational purposes to learn what caused the offense and if there is treatable method to prevent future crimes, should be used. Pj789
I really agree with what you said. I also thought that it was just outrageous that 67 percent of prisoners released will be arrested within the first three years again. That is a crazy number that has to change starting with the correctional side of things. Most people who usually are arrested again are sometimes just trying to get cash or items to sell so they can get whatever they are addicted to. With the right corrections, they will be able to kick whatever addictions they have and become better people LarryFitzgerald789
This video really did intrigue me even right at the beginning. I like how he does state what is going on with the way prisons are selected for the person that is being sentenced. That they base it on how much trouble you can possibly be and not base it off on the reason you are sent in the first place. I like how he stated that prisons focus on punishment and really don’t worry about rehabilitation and treatment. It is sad that they would rather focus on punishing a person rather than help them better themselves. It is sad that prisons have an opportunity on being able to help a person with treatment and rehabilitation. This is a huge problem in the criminal justice system that needs to be fixed. There are a lot of people like drug abusers, theft, and property crimes shouldn’t be punished to an extent. If someone breaks a window, has drugs on them, or steals something, those are the people that should be rehabilitated. What would be the point of sending the nonviolent offenders to prison? In my opinion, all that would have negative effects on the nonviolent offenders. All it would do would make them violent more than likely. There are a lot of things that could make them violent like fights, gangs, and just protecting themselves and their property. This also saddens me because this goes back to the money. Even though money isn’t mentioned in the TED talk, we all should know that it all goes back to the money. The prisons lose money to set up the programs to help rehabilitate the people that get sentenced to. We learned that in the previous videos that we have seen for other blogs. It is disgusting to think that they would rather profit on prisoners, then to see the ones that need help, get the help they need to go back to society. To me money doesn’t really matter. It can buy so much in this world and can also hurt people at the same time. I think the money that the prisons make should go to rehabilitation programs that all the prisons should have. That’s the way I would do it. I think the morals of the justice system are all wrong. They shouldn’t be happy about the money they are making. They should be disappointed with themselves. I feel that it would give them a moral boost and make them feel good that the people they helped rehabilitate, have changed for the better. -Chewbacca789
I agree with that it is really sad on how they rather focus on punishing and not rehabilitate there inmates. I mean that's what I prisons for, I want them to help these people to get back on track with society. Also agree with that certain people that do “petty” crimes such as drugs should not even enter the prison and rather focus on being rehabilitated. It's really crazy to think how our correctional system works today because to me it's one big mess. I also agree on how its really messed up that they rather profit from each prisoner then help them out and get back to society. They are humans to that made a mistake and most just want to get out and get better. Hollywood789
This video was very intriguing and got you thinking about how our correctional system really worked. Dr. Matthews made some really good points about how our correctional system mingles with punishment and rehabilitation. He said the soul purpose of a corrections system is to punish not to rehabilitate. They say they have rehabilitation but it's really just a way to get money for their correctional system. They are more focused on housing inmates so they get more and more money for each head. Rehabilitation doesn't get them as much money so why would they waste their time on having those programs? Dr. Matthews made a good point on saying we should “divorce” the two and create two different systems. The main inmates that would be in the rehabilitation system would be the nonviolent ones because they have more of a chance entering society again. I also thinks its so crazy that he was comparing it to Norway on how they only believe in rehabilitation because they want ALL of their inmates to enter society again someday. I believe that we should have more rehabilitation systems in our correctional facilities because that is more than likely to help these repeat offenders because without half of them will come back in the next 3 years or so for something else that they commited. It also brings back the point of how people are being sent to jail for nonviolent crimes when in reality should just be rehabilitated to get them back into society as fast as they can. They are still people and could still potentially help there community quite a bit. By separating these two systems it would create a even more organized system because you wouldn't have to focus on two seperate systems as the same time. It would make things much more efficient for the correctional system. Another big problem that I really paid attention to in this video was about the correction officers. It would help a lot to separate them because in all reality all correctional officers react in different ways. For example, if you have a correctional officer that mainly deals with very violent inmates then one day they have to maybe work in the rehabilitation center and two nonviolent inmates get into it the correctional officer might react in a way that could be a little to harsh because that is all they are used to. So in reality it's when separating this two it makes the area safer for both officer and inmate. It is just hard to know that this problem might just get worse down the road. Hollywood789
The speaker has gave me information that I never know or even thought of. He has opened my eyes about the United States correction system. I agree when the speaker Dr. Matthew has mentioned about what the correction system is for. It is about the two different ways to treat prisoners by punishing them and rehabilitate them. Not many prisons have certain rehab or programs that will help other people that went in for illegal drugs or alcoholism use they might not have help with the problem it all depends on rehabilitation. Many people go into prison and come out to be the same person and change in a bad way. Others, been in prison for many years that they have been sentence for and stay longer than they need to learn their lesson in fact they don’t learn from what they have done because there’s no one to seek to for help or to change as a human being. They get punished by being in prison for longer than most of them need to be, some of them become depressed, stressed, and emotional, which leads them to give up on their lives. The correction system needs to know the difference between the prisoners that need help and the ones that need to be punished but to be real here when you get punished it’s for a mistake you have done and you need to learn from those mistakes. Probably the reason you are put in prison for a long time is so you can change as a better person well put in there, but sometimes you commit to a crime because of your lifestyle that you have lived in. If you have a rough life mostly you do somethings that you regret but you need to learn from those bad habits. Prisons need to Help a person change to become better you need to open their eyes let them see better in who they can become so they can change for good. For example of how the speaker was saying about that 67 Percent of prisoners will get out and act on new crime within 3 years of their release, which does not surprises me with the how the correction system is dealing with the prisoners. If the correction system does not improve it’s only going to get worse on the path that they are taking. They should try adding rehab or programs etc... They should try focusing more on rehabilitation than punishment. -Justice789
I really agree with what he had to say in the Ted Talk. I think that are prisons now are solely based on the idea of punishment and that there is not enough treatment involved. Also how people are picked which prison they are sent to. When he was describing in the video about how people are picked to be sent to, either a high, medium, or low prison, it really showed that the picking method should be changed as well. Although I do agree with the part that people should be sent to prisons according to their behavior and however violent they are, they also must put into consideration while picking, which prison will give the man/women the best means of treatment as well. If they go and send someone who is addicted to heroin to a higher prison level, he will probably not get the treatment that he or she so desperately needs. What really blew my mind in the video was when it talked about how 67 percent of the people released will be back in prison for a different crime within three years. I thought that that stat was mind blowing and outrageous. That shows that there needs to be something fixed in the criminal justice system and how the prisoners are being handled. There needs to be a lot more rehabilitation put into the criminal justice system then there is now. That is one of the reasons that prisons are so packed and overcrowded. I do however disagree with one thing he said and that was how he wanted to get away from the punishment side of things. Although I do believe that prisons need a lot more rehabilitation added into them, I still think that people cannot forget about the punishment side. The people going to prison still broke the law in some way and that needs to be dealt with. With that being said they still deserve treatment and help. With the right rehabilitation course, the person might be able to get away from whatever problem they were facing and become a new and better member of society. LarryFitzgerald789
This video was very intriguing to me in the way that I got to take a hard look into the United States’ Correction system. The speaker, Dr. Mathews, who was a correctional officer, told us how he perceived the way the current correctional systems was going at the times he was in and the current time and then he explained what he thought of the entire thing. He told of the “revolving door” with is that of the 95 percent of “correctional clients” released about 67 percent of them would return within three years of the release on another charge of some sort. He told us about how this is because the US correctional system is concentrated more on housing than it is on rehabilitation. Personal, this is a hard one for me. I am very conservative and I often believe that those how break the law should be punished, however, being more right leaning, I also think that those who can be successfully rehabilitated could and should be. The economic cost on the average taxpayer and the state/government is staggering and should be fixed in any way possible. I believe that a rehabilitated “client” could help the community and the economy. Should that member of the correctional system be correctly rehabilitated, he would be able to work and would not cost the government or state all that money to house and feed him as a prisoner of the correctional system. I also share his belief that something is wrong with our correctional system but I would have personally used a different world other than broken. I would have used words like misused, mismanaged, or another word that would describe that not using a thing the right way. I do believe that It can be fixed and that it should. I do not believe something like this will be fixed overnight and I personally believe it will take a while for it to work. If it does work, I also think it may take time for the outcome to be visible to the public or on paper/statistics. As a student, I am currently learning more about the correctional system and how it work and is operated but if we start to fix or even attempt to try to fix the correction system, it will help people all of the United States and people on both spectrums of the political scale and ideologies. –TheMarshall789
ReplyDeleteI am only worried that I don’t know how much worse the correction system will get in the future. Sounds like were not doing anything about helping people, and just putting them in prisons. Some of these people don’t belong in prison for obvious dumb mistakes and others who do want the help. But apparently, the main goal is to punish more and rehabilitate very little. What’s the point? It only them because they get money for keeping so called ‘prisoners’ in jails. I feel like they know that the correction system doesn’t work, but don’t want to say anything because it makes [correctional system] look bad. - LILPUMP789
DeleteI also agree they focus more on housing people than they do on helping them. I think these people should be help if they can be successfully rehabilitated. This way it would take money off the cost of housing them and making people pay taxes for the enormous amounts of people incarcerated that really should be. Dr. Mathews mentioned that 53% of these people are nonviolent. That means they would possibly have a chance to be rehabilitated and be a working and functional member of society, like you mentioned. I agree that the problem with the criminal justice system could be fixed. This would most likely take quite some time, but it needs to change in some way to better it.
Delete- ST789
The way Dr. Matthews talked about the corrections system made me believe that our system can adopt this plan. I’m kind of in the same boat as you, in some cases I believe that if you do the crime, you do the time, however, I believe that we should definitely take the time and rehabilitate this that can and should be rehabilitated. if we were able to rehabilitate a high percentage of those 53 percent of non-violent offenders it would have a big effect on the functioning our society and the economy. paww789
DeleteThe rehabilitation programs can all start if the prisons start focusing on rehab. They can all do it but they people who run the prisons don't want to spend it because they know they wouldn't get as many repeat offenders to make up the profit they're making currently. I personally don't believe that they justice system has any morals for this. They need to improve everything. They should take pride in seeing the people better themselves instead of keeping them behind bars as if they were caged animals because we all know that they aren’t. For all we know, they just need someone to be there for them to teach them direction.
Delete-Chewbacca789
I think that people should be punished for what they have done wrong, but I also believe that forgiveness is a very important virtue. To reduce the number of people coming back into the correctional system I think that we should start having prisoners have the option to take up a vocation in government projects in a similar way that we did for the poor when we built the Hoover Dam. It gives something for people to do, it would allow them to save money for when they left, and it would leave them with a talent and something to put on a resume for when they try to get a new job.
Delete-DMPeschy
Brandon W. Mathews was great! I agree. I am not surprise the fact that our correctional system is doesn’t work. The U.S. has the most incarcerations than any other country. Some of the people who are going to prisons or jails should be able to rehabilitate. I believe that half of the people, who are in prison or jail right now, are for drugs or some dumb mistake. There are people in those cells that do want to rehabilitate for their own good, to start over, to get a job, to start fresh. Half of those get out of prison go back with 3 years or so, says Brandon Mathews. I think that’s crazy! Because these people when they get out, they pretty much don’t have nothing. You’re either punishing them or helping them. It cost money to rehabilitate a person, and this is why prisons or jails have them stay longer because they get money. I preferably believe that we should have more rehabilitation, but instead we have more prisons and jails. They took them all off! He clearly states, “the practices of punishment are to interconnected with our to rehabilitation”. He also mentions how there is basically a routine, once your register in the correction system, they judge you on your behavior and then pray that whatever prison you go to better have something to treat you, because all prisons or jails are built differently and offer something differently. Not to mention, the main goal is to use punishment with very little rehabilitation. That is wrong to a certain extent because, it sounds like we are just putting people in jails for no apparent reason. There should be two systems of correctional and again there is people who do need to be in jail or prison, and others that don’t need to be in there. This is also why our jails are so packed, and have to build so many jails. Something or someone has to do something to fix it, because it makes us look bad and if we don’t end up fixing our correction system than it could improve or could fail. But, it never hurts to try. If we try to separate and have more rehab center for so call ‘prisoners’ than do it soon and not later. Time is being wasted and who knows how much worse it can only get further down the road. – LILPUMP789
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that our correctional system doesn't work but it does have functions that are necessary as well. For individuals who commit major crimes because they enjoy inflicting pain on others for those individuals punishment is necessary as their individuals who wouldn't care who is effected by the overall circumstance that is at hand. It is normal that individuals want to go back in time to fix mistakes that were so minor in terms of how they had an impact on others and their own personal life with how being locked away effected those things. The private prison industry profits off these people use but some of the money is also channeled to fund other organizations that do more damage then favors coming from the private industry as well very sad truth. eagle789
DeleteI also agree. Our criminal justice system has a problem that need to be fix as soon as humanly possible or we risk throwing hundreds if not thousands into a never ending loop of misery in the Unites States’ correctional system. The rehabilitation of those we deem nonviolent offenders of laws that we do not all agree on should be a priority on the correctional system as it will help not only the system itself but also those who are affected by it such as choice criminals and the families of the criminals. It will also help the general public by relieving the taxpayers of an economic burden that has been on them since they were old enough to pay taxes in their states and to the federal government. –TheMarshall789
DeleteDr. Mathews, the speaker in this video made a really good point. He mentioned that the corrections system is to intermingled with punishment and rehabilitation. What he said was that the corrections systems soul purpose was to punish and rehabilitation was an afterthought that was lightly put in. To me this is not something that I would want for the corrections system. It is making things worse for these people and not helping them for what they need help for. I agree that you can not really rehabilitate someone who murdered a person, but as for people with small non violent crimes, I don’t see why we wouldn’t focus mostly on helping them. The speaker mention the revolving door of the criminal justice system. The statistics were that 67% of the the people released were back within 3 years for a different crime. Now to me this just kind of proves that we are not doing enough to help these people become better members of society. We are just throwing them in a jail cell with people who are there for harder crimes and then act like it will somehow make them into a better person. The example he used of a doctor who’s surgeries would have to be redone 67% of the time within 3 years really settle in for me. I would never go to a doctor that was known for having to redo his surgeries over half the time and I do not believe that the doctor would be keeping his license to perform surgeries for very long. Yet even with these results, we still put up with it in the criminal justice system. The speakers main point was that he believes we should have a 2 track system, one for punishment and one for rehabilitation. I’m not exactly sure how this would work to be honest. He mentioned that it would be hard to help people when you are still punishing them at the core. When he got to the part about rehabilitation track, he said imes served would be based on when they felt they had treated the problem. This I do not fully agree on and am kind of skeptical about. If you do it this way, the people could possibly just be acting or faking it just to get out early and just go back to what they were doing. Overall, I would be very interested to see how this type of corrections system would work.
ReplyDelete- ST789
I agree that people who have petty crimes should be able to get some kind of assistance for what there going through as most of these individuals are mentally ill or made mistakes they most likely would repent for if given the chance after spending years away from their loved ones. I agree with the rovaling door theory as people who go in for petty crimes, go into these systems spend years behind bars and get shaped into being harden criminals by others serving sentences for life who have nothing to lose but have much anger and jealously.
DeleteI agree with you when you say how we are not doing enough to help these people become better members of society. The only thing our corrections system really focuses on currently is punishment. Punishment is the foundation of our corrections system with rehab behind it in the distance. Rehab should be a major part of these prisoners' lives, because without it, they will just be released from prison and go back into society the same way they got put into it. If we could form rehab centers and programs separate from prisons, these prisoners will receive the help they desperately need and be allowed back into society as good, healthy, fixed individuals ready to start new lives.
Delete-Fozz789
I agree it doesn’t seem like were doing enough or maybe were not allowing much to be done because of the mentalities of the past that carry on today. In that I mean we seem to continue to use the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, except it seems that we took that a step further and take all the teeth and both eyes from someone who commits a crime. I really liked his idea for a two track system. The fact that one would actually focus on rehabilitation would give people a far better chance. I am also curious on how they would judge when it was appropriate amount of time served for someone to be treated as they saw fit.
Delete^ Pj789
DeleteAs stated in the video we are building an endless system where we are opening the door to letting people to get into prison but as they enter prison we are locking the door shut. With having our system so focused on punishment we lack the ability to fix the reason for these individual’s ending up in the prison system. Our foundation must be on rehibition as many of these offenders will one day walk back into their respected communities or family households without any changes what results can be expected in terms of positive trends for these people no wonder 95 percent of the people who go into the correctional system end up, a percent of 65% committing another crime after three years once they are out. I believe that having both cynical staff and correctional officers on staff in prisons and jails is an effective system as this would allow for correctional staff to deal with serious offenders and for the cynical to deal with those who are non-violet and don’t seek to cause harm to others by any means. What was an eye-opening fact pointed out by this video when looking at the country of Norway for their offenders they sit at a 20% of the people who go through their system for reoffending showing the massive difference in the impact of punishment vs. Rehabilitation. Our idea for the severity of the punishment all is included at the court case of the individual’s trail and the belief that they will behave a way that warrants either minimum or max security prison than the punishment begins after that phase. Also stated there are two individuals who work for the correctional system those who are their because they want to enforce the laws and those who want to rehabilitate those who commit offenses. As mentioned by Dr. Matthews our system at its current state needs a divorce as we are in a system that is punishing people without relizeing that they will one day have to live in the world with others and try to function with others in society as it currently stands. As it stands the data shows that our logic and demand for punishment is not working offenders are not learning how to behave as normal members of society. So if Norway is having much success in their ideas for rehabilitation why not try to mere theirs and have our offenders as productive not re victimizing individual’s. eagle789
ReplyDeleteI love how you mentioned that people are going to prison and then they are locking the door on those people. It seem today people on focus on punishment and they tend to not care about helping the person they just want to throw them under the jail, which is sad. I agree if they don't do no rehabilitation they are basically asking for that person to go back to jail to offend again. Jail should be for punishment and change. People will never go back into the real world with a positive if the prisons don't do their part. I believe we def should try Norway way of policy since like you said they are having much success and we can not say the same thing on our end. -Jolly Rancher
DeleteDr. Matthew speaaks in this video collectly and he states the points of collection system and rehabilitation. i do agree what he said about the purpose of correction system soul was to punish and rehabilitate. drug related crimes has been on the rise,resulting in jail and prisons becoming overpopulated. if you have committed a non-violent drug related crime and facing charges, there maybe a possibility of court agreeing to drug rehabilitation instead of facing jail or prison. For me punishing is not the only remedy for someone to change, like doctor mathew said 67 percent of prisoners are released and within 3 years they are back. like you see if they were offered more help and taken to rehab maybe they could have had more chances to change their behaviors. to my pony of view alcohol and drug addiction are now classified as a disease and legal system is more appropriate to choose rehabilitation rather than incarcerating; since prisons in united states is now overcrowded locking this people for years is wasting of reasorses and life of this people. the society understand that they did wrong but at the end of the day we need to figure it out how to change this people to a better citizens.establishing rehabilitation facilities in prison will be better idea. incarcerating a person for non-violent related crime is a temporary action to keep them from committing crime for their sentence. but what is that person doing in jail while they serve? some people develop even worse criminal habit than he had before going to prison . in this situation rehabilitation kicks in better. gusii789
ReplyDeleteI found this video to be very interesting. One thing that really caught my eye was the fact that currently, prisoners are sent to prisons based on the anticipation of their behavior behind bars. This thought process of automatically assuming that a prisoner will misbehave in prison is not necessarily a bad one. However, prisoners only have hope when they are sent to a certain prison. I say this because it is either hit or miss when being sent to a prison with a rehab center, program, etc. If someone was arrested because of a certain illegal drug and they have become addicted to it, they have a fifty-fifty chance of actually being able to receive treatment and help to get them over their addiction. Let's say this person was sent to a prison without a rehab center/program. The only thing that will happen to them during their time behind bars is they will receive punishment and get no or close to no help with their addiction. This would lead to a likely outcome of this same person doing their time, being released from prison, and then going back to doing illegal drugs again because they were addicted when they were caught, addicted in prison and didn't get any help, and were released addicted. Another idea that I found intriguing was the idea of separating the prisons and the rehab programs/centers. This would help the prisons in the manner that they could focus all of their attention solely on punishing the prisoners for their wrongdoings and not have to focus on anything else. After serving their punishments, prisoners would then be sent to rehab centers, be able to get help, and conquer any of the problems they are facing such as addiction, mental illness, etc. One statistic that really stood out to me was that 67% of prisoners will return to prison for committing a new crime within 3 years of their release. This stat is a perfect example of how prisoners are not being helped in prison due to the fact that punishment is the main focus and rehab is a small afterthought. Another interesting stat was 53% of the entire prison inmate population is considered "non-violent". This tells us that just over half of the entire U.S. prison population is being punished for crimes like drug possession and most likely are facing some obstacles like addiction that are not receiving treatment. If punishment and rehab were separate, these victimless offenders would be taking up less space in a prison and receiving the help they need.
ReplyDelete-Fozz789
Agreed. With the crime rate in the United States, we really need to focus more on our community and bettering our prisons. That statistic also stood out to me! It’s ridiculous how highly likely it is for someone to commit a crime again even after just serving their time in prison. It’s really disappointing and disheartening. However, what exactly are we doing to fix this? To make our country and people better? To reduce this risk? Like Mathews said, it will be difficult, but it’s not impossible. And I really think that we can change things for the better! And yes, I also think separating the two, punishment and rehabilitation, will make a great difference and have a stronger impact. Environment can have a significant effect on mood and motivation, and also social influences. If you’re surrounded by people who have done wrong and are potentially still in that mindset, it’ll be harder to focus on rehabilitation and getting better. Whereas when you’re in rehabilitation solely in a separate facility and surrounded with people who are in the same boat as you for the better, it can make it so much easier.
DeleteStarlight012
I also agree that correctional facilities should be separate from prisons, but I think that most people should either go to one or the other instead of both. Punishing those who commit crimes because of mental illnesses and substance dependencies does not accomplish anything and is a further waste of time and resources. I think that these people should be rehabilitated as soon as possible and reintegrated into society after being rehabilitated. I do however believe that punishment facilities should be set up for people who choose crime in the absence of mitigating circumstances. People like Bernie Madoff and Jordan Belfort are not violent criminals or beyond controlling their actions. These people selfishly choose to hurt other people financially in order to better themselves. If these people were only sentenced to a correctional facility, there would not exist a proper incentive not to engage in criminal behavior. In short criminals should either be punished or treated not punished then treated. Rudedogg789
DeleteI agree with you in the sense that it makes logical sense that we want to keep the “troublemakers” all together. I also agree that that really could be either hit or miss on the rehabilitation side of that prison. That just does not seem like it is a good idea to select the prisons based upon the likelihood that they will miss behave. I also very much like your example about the drug addict who needs to have specific rehabilitation and not just face punishment. I also thought the fact that 67% of prisoners will return to prison for committing a new crime with in three years of their lease was a set to stick that truly showed that there is a flaw in our criminal justice system.
Delete-RHB789
I have to also agree, they need to focus more on rehabilitation than punishing. They should try adding rehab or programs etc... I also agree with the point of separating them on what they got imprisoned for. Most of them come back as you said because they only have a fifty, fifty chance of the prison having a program or go to rehab because they don’t have it in their prison which does not really have the correction system of rehabilitation which means they are not actually helping people they are just punishing them and I do agree if they divide the two they won’t take as much room.
Delete-Justice789
I loved Brandon W. Mathews, he was great, and he spoke some real facts about real life problems. I wish more correctional officers was like him because some correctional officers don’t care if inmates are beating up each other. I loved how his main goal was to help people and how he wasn’t after it for the money he was dedicated to helping people get out the system. Finding people like that is hard because now a day’s people are after a check. I feel like that’s crazy people can go to prison and they don’t get the treatment they need. If the judge is going to punish you like that they should also try to help that person, so they can change their ways, so they will not do the same thing over and over. Its crazy that the revolving door theory is even a theory because there should be people to help people, so they don’t do the same crime over and over. I feel like people with authority should change how things are so prisons can be beneficial instead of punishing people instead of punishing and helping people. I feel like if the prison policy would change like how Brandon want it everything would be smooth, and a lot of people would not go back to jail because they would have reduced their rates to do those crimes again. I feel like Norway prison policy is how ours should be simply because it apparent that their policy is working so I feel like our system should investigate making a change. I love how he use the term divorce and I love how he explained his self very clear and made it obvious that it should be different. I like how he also mentioned how we can change it and he told us what structural change consist of.
ReplyDelete-Jolly Ranchers
This video had a lot of valuable information to me. I never sat and thought of how our corrections system isn't getting their views and how they want the corrections system across. Dr. Matthews was a correction officer, so it’s very good to hear this information from a man who seen all of this first hand. The corrections system always emphasizes “rehabilitation” but it is never that way. We see this “revolving door” in the corrections system were about 67% of inmates will return to prison for committing another crime about 3 years after they have been released from prison. However, there are inmates and offenders who do deserve to be punished and either don't have the right to be rehabilitated, or aren't mentally able to be rehabilitated. In some ways the saying “you do the crime, you do the time” should be taken into affect, but most of the time it shouldn’t. As Dr. Mathews said, 53 percent of offenders are considered non-violent. So why are they being thrown in prison and being punished, only to possibly be turned into a violent offender, or be back in prison for the same crime a few years after they have been released? As Dr. Matthews pointed out, we should have 2 stages of the correction system, a stage one which would be for punishment, and a stage two which would be used for rehabilitation, and that is where the majority of the 53 percent of non-violent offenders should be. I agree with this approach because it will give offenders the appropriate care and steps needed to better themselves and be productive in society. Like drug addicts can go through counseling and different types of therapy to get them off of the drugs and hope that they can get better and never have the risk of getting back into drugs. This plan could easily work. But as I said above, there are quite a number of offenders who don't deserve to be rehabilitated and they should only be punished. If our corrections system could adopt this plan i believe it would make out country a much better place, and it would make our corrections system much better as well. paww789
ReplyDeleteThis video has a lot of points with which I strongly agree. In the United States, we spend too much time focusing on the punishment of criminals, when that only breeds more crime in the long run due to the revolving door that was explained in the video. It’s important to realize that punishment does not bring forth any positive outcomes. While punishment may feel and even be warranted it is not how we solve the existing crime problem present in the United States. As a society, the American people need to decide if whether they want to better the world or barbarically inflict pain and suffering on those who have wronged others. There is no doubt that punishing those who have wronged others is instantly gratifying, but we have to realize there are in most cases underlying causes for the way criminals behave. If there is any way to prevent further crime it is the moral responsibility of the people in the community to see to said prevention. Before any of this can be accomplished the average person needs to understand, and ultimately accept that, in order to truly effect positive change, criminals should be viewed as misguided human beings not irreparably broken monsters. In most cases people are not born criminals; they grew up in environments where they did not have the necessary resources to grow, and become productive members of society. However, this is not an excuse for their behavior because one must deal with the circumstances with which he or she is born; unfortunate beginnings do not have to define the way in which an individual lives his or her life.
ReplyDeleteMuch of that which is being corrected in a person who is now a convicted criminal could have been addressed during his or her childhood; if spotted early on, at-risk youth could get the help they need before they start committing criminal offenses that would negatively affect his or her life permanently.
The idea of having two tracts that Mathews speaks of is an especially good idea because, as the speaker says, while there are many people who are very limited in their ability to live a wholesome life in accordance with the law, there certainly are individuals who know better than to behave criminally and do so regardless. I believe that these people should be reprimanded for their behavior because they need to learn right from wrong, and clearly even with a good upbringing they chose knowing better to act criminally. It is important that there are consequences for wrongdoing otherwise US law exists only as a suggestion. -Rudedogg789
I agree we do spend far too much time on punishment of criminals. It was interesting that in the video he explained this as the main point of focus for our corrections system as we know it. It’s sad that we didn’t grow with the times instead of focusing on the past mentalities that have led to this mass incarceration problem. I liked what you stated about finding underlying causes for criminals behavior. It makes sense and in many cases I believe that it’s due to the revolving door effect we have created. I believe everyone messes up and in some cases continue to do so because that’s the only way of life they believe they have available. Pj789
DeleteThis video was so rich in information; I really loved how he focused on prison inmates and the government’s take on their treatment. I’d always had a degree of interest in criminal justice and such, but this really helped expand my mind! I thought his plan and different view and perspective on this was intriguing, and, if successful, will be very beneficial to not only the inmates, but the community as well. I’d never heard of the corrections system before, so that was also new for me. I now understand how there’s more “help than hurt” in prisons today, and I also hadn’t taken the time to contemplate how different countries have different takes on how they treat and attempt to rehabilitate their prisoners. That being said, not all countries have the same devotion and dedication to helping improve the lives of community members and prison inmates, which is disheartening. Yet, Norway’s success rate in doing so is very inspiring, and, as Brandon Mathews said, hopefully someday we can reach that same rating or better! I truly believe focusing more so on rehabilitation rather than punishment will prove a better bang for your buck instead of focusing more on punishment than rehabilitation, or solely punishment. I know the United States has the potential to be as great as, or better than, Norway in this perspective! Like Mathews said, it will be difficult, but it’s not impossible. :)
ReplyDeleteStarlight012
I really enjoyed this video because it gave a great insight into the United States’ correction system. Speaker was the reason this video was so informative, he started out as a corrections officer and in this talk he discussed through his own eyes what was happening and his views on that side of the corrections system. He also later worked in the corrections system more towards the rehabilitation of offenders. I thought that the insight of the fact that the corrections system interviews the incoming inmates to see if they are going to cause problems in their prisons was very interesting. He uses the example of someone that is going to prison on drug charges and is addicted to drugs they to get interviewed and he says that better hope the prison they send you to actually has a decent drug and addiction recovery treatment system in place. So basically people are being put in specific prisons based on what the probability of them acting up is. He is saying in the video it should be based upon the crimes they committed and if that person has the ability to rehabilitate them for those specific crimes and or addictions. Personally I couldn't agree more and more, I did not even know that some presence might not have the correct systems in place to help almost everybody get at least some form of rehabilitation. At the beginning of this video I was very confused when he was talking about the divorce between practices of punishment from rehabilitation. However now that he elaborated on that I completely get what he is saying. I even think that what he is saying could possibly be a solution to the problem that we have of such a high recidivism rate. There are some offenses that may not need such hard punishment however they do need a great deal of rehabilitation. And example of this would be a repeated drug offender, if you just keep throwing him or her in prison there’s a better chance that their problems won’t doorway in fact they could get a lot worse. Many times people like that go to prisons and they come out more “hardened criminals” and if we just gave them mandatory rehabilitation it would cut back on cases like this. Obviously I agree that some people just need to be punished and that’s fine also. I really did enjoy this video from the standpoint that it was a ex corrections officer who even he thinks the system could definitely be improved.
ReplyDelete-RHB789
This video is very eye opening and at the same time disturbing. It shows how our mentality about punishment through imprisonment hasn’t changed through the years. The speaker, Dr. Mathews, was a corrections officer and knows how the system works which for me the fact that he has seen the inside of a prison and knows how everything works showed his credibility on the subject matter. I agreed with his views because I believe we should be looking for rehabilitation rather than punishment through incarceration. He stated that 67 percent of prisoners released will reoffend within the first 3 year. That’s an astonishing number and one that doesn’t make sense because the idea of prison is to punish and rehabilitate. It seems that only one of those is being done, punishment. He talked about how prisoners are put into either a high or low security prison based on an assessment done during an interview. From there they are placed in one or the other and they can only hope that the treatment that helps them be rehabilitated is available or there out of luck. This just goes to show that the priority is punishment and that keeps the revolving door of the system going. The two track system that he speaks of seems to make sense in my opinion. If we have a priority to rehabilitate it could massively help actual behavior change. What we are doing now doesn’t seem to be working. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world and that is a problem. I’m very impressed with Dr. Mathew’s ideas and hope they are put in place. Norway’s way of treating corrections seems far superior. My favorite thing he said was the quote from a warden in Norway. He stated what is the point of punishment except for leaning toward the primitive side of humanity, this just reminded me of what I learned in psychology class that punishment without a lesson being taught teaches fear and does not instill a behavioral change in that person. Dr. Mathews also spoke about how 53 percent of people in prison are put there for nonviolent offenses. And if the problem they have is a drug addiction it seems very plausible that a rehabilitation center is far more beneficial and I believe in the long run far more cost effective. I do believe violent offenders should be sent to prison and out of society. I believe some form of rehabilitation for violent offenders, at least for educational purposes to learn what caused the offense and if there is treatable method to prevent future crimes, should be used. Pj789
ReplyDeleteI really agree with what you said. I also thought that it was just outrageous that 67 percent of prisoners released will be arrested within the first three years again. That is a crazy number that has to change starting with the correctional side of things. Most people who usually are arrested again are sometimes just trying to get cash or items to sell so they can get whatever they are addicted to. With the right corrections, they will be able to kick whatever addictions they have and become better people
DeleteLarryFitzgerald789
This video really did intrigue me even right at the beginning. I like how he does state what is going on with the way prisons are selected for the person that is being sentenced. That they base it on how much trouble you can possibly be and not base it off on the reason you are sent in the first place. I like how he stated that prisons focus on punishment and really don’t worry about rehabilitation and treatment. It is sad that they would rather focus on punishing a person rather than help them better themselves. It is sad that prisons have an opportunity on being able to help a person with treatment and rehabilitation. This is a huge problem in the criminal justice system that needs to be fixed. There are a lot of people like drug abusers, theft, and property crimes shouldn’t be punished to an extent. If someone breaks a window, has drugs on them, or steals something, those are the people that should be rehabilitated. What would be the point of sending the nonviolent offenders to prison? In my opinion, all that would have negative effects on the nonviolent offenders. All it would do would make them violent more than likely. There are a lot of things that could make them violent like fights, gangs, and just protecting themselves and their property. This also saddens me because this goes back to the money. Even though money isn’t mentioned in the TED talk, we all should know that it all goes back to the money. The prisons lose money to set up the programs to help rehabilitate the people that get sentenced to. We learned that in the previous videos that we have seen for other blogs. It is disgusting to think that they would rather profit on prisoners, then to see the ones that need help, get the help they need to go back to society. To me money doesn’t really matter. It can buy so much in this world and can also hurt people at the same time. I think the money that the prisons make should go to rehabilitation programs that all the prisons should have. That’s the way I would do it. I think the morals of the justice system are all wrong. They shouldn’t be happy about the money they are making. They should be disappointed with themselves. I feel that it would give them a moral boost and make them feel good that the people they helped rehabilitate, have changed for the better.
ReplyDelete-Chewbacca789
I agree with that it is really sad on how they rather focus on punishing and not rehabilitate there inmates. I mean that's what I prisons for, I want them to help these people to get back on track with society. Also agree with that certain people that do “petty” crimes such as drugs should not even enter the prison and rather focus on being rehabilitated. It's really crazy to think how our correctional system works today because to me it's one big mess. I also agree on how its really messed up that they rather profit from each prisoner then help them out and get back to society. They are humans to that made a mistake and most just want to get out and get better.
DeleteHollywood789
This video was very intriguing and got you thinking about how our correctional system really worked. Dr. Matthews made some really good points about how our correctional system mingles with punishment and rehabilitation. He said the soul purpose of a corrections system is to punish not to rehabilitate. They say they have rehabilitation but it's really just a way to get money for their correctional system. They are more focused on housing inmates so they get more and more money for each head. Rehabilitation doesn't get them as much money so why would they waste their time on having those programs? Dr. Matthews made a good point on saying we should “divorce” the two and create two different systems. The main inmates that would be in the rehabilitation system would be the nonviolent ones because they have more of a chance entering society again. I also thinks its so crazy that he was comparing it to Norway on how they only believe in rehabilitation because they want ALL of their inmates to enter society again someday. I believe that we should have more rehabilitation systems in our correctional facilities because that is more than likely to help these repeat offenders because without half of them will come back in the next 3 years or so for something else that they commited. It also brings back the point of how people are being sent to jail for nonviolent crimes when in reality should just be rehabilitated to get them back into society as fast as they can. They are still people and could still potentially help there community quite a bit. By separating these two systems it would create a even more organized system because you wouldn't have to focus on two seperate systems as the same time. It would make things much more efficient for the correctional system. Another big problem that I really paid attention to in this video was about the correction officers. It would help a lot to separate them because in all reality all correctional officers react in different ways. For example, if you have a correctional officer that mainly deals with very violent inmates then one day they have to maybe work in the rehabilitation center and two nonviolent inmates get into it the correctional officer might react in a way that could be a little to harsh because that is all they are used to. So in reality it's when separating this two it makes the area safer for both officer and inmate. It is just hard to know that this problem might just get worse down the road. Hollywood789
ReplyDeleteThe speaker has gave me information that I never know or even thought of. He has opened my eyes about the United States correction system. I agree when the speaker Dr. Matthew has mentioned about what the correction system is for. It is about the two different ways to treat prisoners by punishing them and rehabilitate them. Not many prisons have certain rehab or programs that will help other people that went in for illegal drugs or alcoholism use they might not have help with the problem it all depends on rehabilitation. Many people go into prison and come out to be the same person and change in a bad way. Others, been in prison for many years that they have been sentence for and stay longer than they need to learn their lesson in fact they don’t learn from what they have done because there’s no one to seek to for help or to change as a human being. They get punished by being in prison for longer than most of them need to be, some of them become depressed, stressed, and emotional, which leads them to give up on their lives. The correction system needs to know the difference between the prisoners that need help and the ones that need to be punished but to be real here when you get punished it’s for a mistake you have done and you need to learn from those mistakes. Probably the reason you are put in prison for a long time is so you can change as a better person well put in there, but sometimes you commit to a crime because of your lifestyle that you have lived in. If you have a rough life mostly you do somethings that you regret but you need to learn from those bad habits. Prisons need to Help a person change to become better you need to open their eyes let them see better in who they can become so they can change for good. For example of how the speaker was saying about that 67 Percent of prisoners will get out and act on new crime within 3 years of their release, which does not surprises me with the how the correction system is dealing with the prisoners. If the correction system does not improve it’s only going to get worse on the path that they are taking. They should try adding rehab or programs etc... They should try focusing more on rehabilitation than punishment.
ReplyDelete-Justice789
I really agree with what he had to say in the Ted Talk. I think that are prisons now are solely based on the idea of punishment and that there is not enough treatment involved. Also how people are picked which prison they are sent to. When he was describing in the video about how people are picked to be sent to, either a high, medium, or low prison, it really showed that the picking method should be changed as well. Although I do agree with the part that people should be sent to prisons according to their behavior and however violent they are, they also must put into consideration while picking, which prison will give the man/women the best means of treatment as well. If they go and send someone who is addicted to heroin to a higher prison level, he will probably not get the treatment that he or she so desperately needs. What really blew my mind in the video was when it talked about how 67 percent of the people released will be back in prison for a different crime within three years. I thought that that stat was mind blowing and outrageous. That shows that there needs to be something fixed in the criminal justice system and how the prisoners are being handled. There needs to be a lot more rehabilitation put into the criminal justice system then there is now. That is one of the reasons that prisons are so packed and overcrowded. I do however disagree with one thing he said and that was how he wanted to get away from the punishment side of things. Although I do believe that prisons need a lot more rehabilitation added into them, I still think that people cannot forget about the punishment side. The people going to prison still broke the law in some way and that needs to be dealt with. With that being said they still deserve treatment and help. With the right rehabilitation course, the person might be able to get away from whatever problem they were facing and become a new and better member of society.
ReplyDeleteLarryFitzgerald789