This video really shined a light on how people view the subject of mass incarceration and the perceptions that come with it. A lot of good point were pulled up by everyone in attendance to the debate and/or discussion. There were several points that I liked and some I did not really agree with. I did agree with a statement saying that while minimum mandatory sentencing may be a good thing if it is done away with, it may also release some serious criminals along with it. I also agree the statement made that we must keep some of the core things and values that has already been implemented by the United States’ correctional system and how it is run. The problem of recidivism must also be addressed if we are to start to fix the broken system. The culture of violence by correctional officers is also addressed in the explanation of beatings and use of long term isolated confinement. Personally, I have seen some videos of beatings and use of confinement and I agree that long term confinement may cause problems in the future, I do not, however, see a lot of beatings of prisoners on news and need to do more research on the subject to see if beatings really are going on intentionally and for no reason. These are all problems that are present in the correctional system today and they need to be addressed as soon as possible if we are to start fixing the problem at hand. This will create a better and more efficient correctional system in the future and will help the US as a whole. –TheMarshall789
I do see your point on how the long terms of confinement can cause many psychological issues for individuals but also their are people who need these issues as they will cause more problems for other individuals if they are not address promptly and properly. Not everyone going through a correctional facility is their for non violet crimes that where waters must be carefully navigated. I believe the correctional system should have more respect for these individuals as they are nothing to other propositions and than nothing important to staff and also to their family can cause issues of feeling alone which can cause many mental problems as well for these people. eagle789
I agree that we don’t really hear about the beating that happen in the prisons. Whether they are from inmates attacking and beating inmates, or even the CO’s beating and treating inmates wrongfully. The only time I have really heard about violence in the prisons is when there is a large enough fight or when a CO gets attacked. We have to think that the media is going to keep a lot of things from the people whether it’s the truth or not. I as well want to do my research to see how often these violent actions happen in the prisons. This whole justice system needs to be redone to fix the problem or at least get a start on finding the problems and fixing them. -Chewbacca789
One fact pointed out by the video is that 50% less likelihood of people committing a crime when they are working with individuals to make sure that they are accountable for their actions once they are released from incarnation. This goes to show that the best approach for recovery is having people who will help lift people up when they fall and get them back to doing what’s normal and, beneficial for themselves and society. The reason our system has stood as a open door to let people but closed for them as they try to leave is people fail to realizes that we fail to address these people for rehabilitation as they first enter into the system in order for them to try to better their lives. As people are put in for tech violated of the terms and agreement of their release now they have additional chargers on top of the rest of their existing sentencing but this doesn’t take into account factors such as traffic, maybe the person feel asleep or any number of cases that could have had an effect with how the events took place.29,000 of these cases are individuals who were just convicted for having drugs on their person that only were their for personal use this causes much rift between what society wants and how we treat people as this people never existed to be a threat to society and for other people. As the video had stated for people who are going into prison only for the ones receiving punishment should be the ones who are going out of their way to hurt other people as their existing to cause problems and will use good services to falsely deceive others. As for the people who are struggling with coping as they are trying to get over their addiction of a drug we need to address this as a health problem as they are not doing this for the intent of hurting others. eagle789
This is so true. I like your comment about how it is an open door for people coming in, but closed when they try to leave.This statement is so beyond true. The corrections system has failed these people in hard times when what they really need is help from others. I’m sure these people would be better off with just some extra help with their problems. I think it's dumb that people are getting arrested for having personal drugs on them and they are not even a threat to society, yet they are being incarcerated for years just because of that. - ST789
There are so many things that I agree with in this video, and then are some things im kind of skeptical about. One of things mentioned in the video that i thought was that we are failing to address the recidivism rate that is going on. They mentioned that there are tons of people going in and once they get out they come back in for another offence, which is usually just a violation of their parole or probation. He said that they usually come back because of the prisons and jails not providing enough help when in custody. A good point that was made was that some states have been ending sentencing for minor violations of probation or parole. This has caused a decrease in overcrowding and now they can send that money that would have been spent to house them again, on rehabilitation for inmates. I think this is awesome for places to be doing. It is probably helping so many people and decreasing the recidivism rate by a lot. One of the gentlemen mention that Hawaii has a really cool new program. This new program is called the Hope Program. In this if someone violates the law by doing something minor, instead of putting them away for several years, they make them serve 48 hours in prison. Afterwards they have a chance to get out into society again and even do rehabilitation programs to help themselves and better them. I personally think this would be a great program. I think it would be cool to focus more on the rehabilitation instead of the punishment for small crimes. Now one thing that one of the guys mentioned is that he thinks the reform would go to far and let violent people loose. Now obviously if you have a chronic offender and they become violent, they would need to be put away and get some time. But the vast majority will not be doing this. I think there is good content in this and some new ideas that could help people. - ST789
I agree. I thought video made some good points! Our correctional system is so bad that were really sending people to prisons for a dime of weed. Like we spoke in class, that weed is a natural plant that grows in the ground. But, booking someone for weed is to far because they can be sentence for who knows for how many years. Seems like Hawaii knows what their doing and maybe the U.S. can integrate a similar program some day down the future. We need to focus on helping prisoners to get them back into society and prevent them from coming into the correctional system. - LILPUMP789
I feel like the HOPE problem is not as good as some think it is. I could be wrong and it could work better than I expect, but I disagree with it for the following reason: 48 hour sentences should not be handed because the crime either should not warrant a sentence or it is not sufficient for the crime committed.
I am completely in favor of rehabilitation instead of punishment, but 48 hours is not sufficient time to rehabilitate someone who is very inclined to commit crime. People who are sentenced 48 hours for possession crimes should not be in prison for the first time if they are not doing anything that endangers anyone else. If they are endangering other people, I am not convinced that a 48 hour sentence would cause a person to sufficiently rethink their decisions - RudeDogg789
In this video most of the thing are thoughtful and some of them we have to think about it. They would need to begin by recognizing the difference between punishment and restrain when people are dangerous to themselves or others we restrain them. But that is altogether different from gratuitously inficting pain on them for the sake of revenge or to teach them a lesson. So the only rational purpose for prison is to restrain those who are violent from inflicting harm on others while they help them change their behavior. Policy makers and criminal justice practices need to get outside the box that defines punishment and rehabilitation as an either or proposition. Sanctions alone will either reduce recidivism nor result in positive behavioral change. On the other hand treatment alone may not provide the punishment or behavioral controls that are appropriate or necessary. Every offender ought to be fairly punished and held fully accountable for his or her criminal behavior . As I see to my point of view, we need smarter and more individualized sentencing and correction policies that allow judges, prosecutors, correction officers to more carefully target those individual who should be imprisoned and those who are most appropriate candidates for effective treatment, intermediate sanction or community correction programs. The reliance on incarceration and abandonment of effort to change the behavior of criminal offender results in historically high rates of recidivism among felony offenders. And as I see this recidivism among felony offenders fuels up the overcrowding of prisons and jail while at the same time reducing safety and subjecting the publicity to further harm. Gusii 789
I completely agree that we as america need to start being smarter on how we punish people and what type sentencing we give them because that is a big problem in todays country. We dont know how to sentence someone anymore, we lost that knowledge somewhere and we need to get it back somehow. But when it comes to rehabilitation I believe that everyone that is capable of getting out of jail should have a chance to rehabilitate. I dont believe there needs to be a certain type of person that is allowed to get rehabilitation because everyone in that prison that needs it, it also depends on how bad they need because some need more then others. Hollywood789
Recidivism is barely ever mentioned when people talk about mass incarceration and liked how that was mentioned a lot in this article. Something unbelievable that Bryan Stevenson said in the video was that there were 300,000 people incarcerated in the 1970’s and in current time there is 2.4 million people incarcerated. The overcrowding of people is usually caused by offenders that did not do something right while they were on parole or probation. They are very small things that people really should not be sent back for. Something that made me kind of laugh at because it was so true was what Pat Nolan said. He stated that we are incarcerating people that we are not afraid of but we are incarcerating people that we are just mad at. Which to me is so unbelievable true that I relate it to highschool drama. Based on that is because we do not have good rehabilitation systems for offenders. So when they go back out on the streets they don't know how to keep up a job or anything else so they usually turn to illegal acts to get money for themselves which in turn causes them to go back to prison. In the video a program really stood out to that they talked about and that was the Hope program in Hawaii. The program is they will keep you for 48 hours and give you a chance to think about what you did and how to fix it and then you go out and have a chance to get rehabilitated and back to normal life. I believe this is a very cool program that could be very useful in other states because most of these petty crimes do not need to be locked up for 6 years. I probably only takes a day to think about what you did not 6 years and by having this program it would really benefit people to become active citizens and have a chance at a new life without spending a bunch of time in a jail cell. Hollywood789
I agree with you when you say that the overcrowding of people is mainly due to offenders violating their probation or parole. A majority of these people breaking the rules of their probation or parole are getting caught doing drugs. These people who keep being put back into prison for drug offenses need to receive help, not more prison time. If these people got help for their problems instead of being put back into prison, two birds could be killed with one stone. The problem of overcrowding would become less of a problem and there would not be as many drug offenders going back to jail because they got over their problems with the help of rehab. -Fozz789
This video explained very well what is happening within our prisons today and some problems also being found as well. For example, it was mentioned that prisons are excessively beating prisoners and putting them into solitary confinement for extended periods of time. I think the overuse of solitary confinement is a way for the prisons to try and get around the overcrowding that is going on inside of them. Also, some of the prisoners do not pose a physical threat to anyone in the jail or in society, as they have been incarcerated for nonviolent things like drug offenses, etc. Yet, they are still being physically beaten for unknown reasons. Another idea stated in the video that I agree with is that the biggest problem within our prisons is incarceration. People are being incarcerated for all kinds of different crimes. This is a big reason why many prisons are facing the problem of overcrowding. Some states are attempting to deal with overcrowding by establishing programs. In Hawaii, a program exists called the HOPE Program. These programs like HOPE give people the chance to rethink what they did. They have forty-eight hours to do this and then explain to a judge how they will not do it again and make sure that they have truly changed for the better. By enrolling in programs like this, people get the opportunity to avoid going to prison by explaining themselves and how they know it was wrong of them to do and nothing like what they did will happen again. One statistic that blew my mind was the fact that 2900 people are in prison for drug possession charges. If drug offenses were treated as Health Care problems, two positive things would happen: 1) Overcrowding would become less of a problem. 2) People could go get help for their drug problems. -Fozz789
I do agree with some of the things that were said in the video. The fact that we know that some of the people are in for the wrongs reasons or for something not to serious is unbelievable. Like being sent to prison for drug possession shouldn’t be reason enough to get booked for. I do agree that there are bad people out there that need to be separated from the rest of the public to keep the public safe and unharmed. There are other alternatives for people that get arrested for minor infractions. Yes, they can be sent to jail and maybe that would give them some time to think about what they did and how it can affect them in the long run. But along with that time, while sitting in jail, they should have counseling depending on what they were sent to jail for. It may sound non-effective to some people, but you would be surprised how just talking to someone and giving them advice about a situation would go for some people in the world. This is where money comes in for the people that run the prisons. They have no morals and would rather have a lot of money coming in. The money they make is based on their income of inmates. They don’t want to rehabilitate the inmates because they know that a good percent of them are eventually going to come back. There are even problems within the prisons. The correction officers aren’t always good just like there aren’t just good police officers in this world. I have personally seen what some CO’s do to the inmates and how they treat them. Those are the ones that don’t deserve to work and actually should be locked away in one of the cells that they walk by everyday they go to work. I know there isn’t a way to stop this but it really hits that nerve because it just takes that one bad apple to spoil the bunch. -Chewbacca789
Video makes some good points. These so called ‘prisoners’ are being sent for small violations such as a dime of weed, single joint, or drugs in generally. These prisoners can be rehabilitated, and get help. Yes it will cost money, but many of the prisoners being put into jail are not bad people. They are just people who did bad mistakes. Why book someone for disorderly conduct? I mean now in day, you can book everyone for anything. Yes, sending them to prisons or jails may help them rethink about their mistakes or can come back all over into the correctional system, but our system is so poor and unprofessionally handled. It’s almost like a cycle! I understand that if we help one person, now we have to help the rest of the prisoners because it would only seem fair, but it only cost the same thing as registering them again in the system. It’s been proven that it works, and now was just eliminating rehab centers. It goes with immigrants, and how were locking them up for various years and than sending them back to their country. The only benefits prisons get from keeping prisoners is money, but it’s not the way to handle things. In the video states, that in 1900’s their been less incarcerations compare to present, now that we have more than 1 millions prisoners. This is the cause of overcrowded prisons and the reasons were building three prisons every month. Aren’t police officers suppose to serve and protect, I understand were protecting our people from danger, but a little bit of weed aren’t no threat to the average good civilian out there. Some people in prisons are probably mentally ill, and we as a correctional system don’t see that. What happened to community policing? What happened to building more rehab centers? - LILPUMP789
I agree people who have done nothing but a petty crime like a drug charge should be rehabilitated and not just thrown into the belly of the beast. It seems like this will only make them worse. i also think they should be using that massive amount of money of rehabilitation. the cycle they have created needs to be stopped. Its true, its all about the money. The greed that goes behind some of these policies is sad. It has to stop but you can see in this people are starting to see this as a problem and that is promising. pj789
I believe that this video missed a fundamental problem with our criminal justice system. I think that America’s founding fathers were right to look to the writings of Thomas Hobbes when designing this country’s legal system. Hobbes stated that man intrinsically has natural rights to life, liberty, and property. I think the justice system should only prosecute people who infringe upon other people’s rights to these things Instead of using this criteria, people often argue that sentencing for a non-violent crime should be less than that of a violent crime. This is a bad distinguishment because the categories are far too broad. Usually when people argue that non-violent crimes should not be as punishable, they are referring to illegal substances. I believe that possession of illegal substances should not be punished because it does not infringe upon anyone else’s right to life, liberty, or property. I believe that the abandonment of this principle is a serious problem and things like Hawaii’s Hope Program only treats the symptoms. If possession and use of illegal substances was a serious problem, 48 hours of detainment would not be a proper deterrent for the crime nor would it rehabilitate those who have committed it. Because these things do not violate anyone else’s rights, the any sentencing including the 48 hours of detainment is unethical. One of the people speaking in this video worries that decreases in legal penalties will go to far. I believe that this is an example of the slippery-slope fallacy. As long as the criteria for crime is held to the definition of being the infringement of another’s right to life, liberty, or property, there is no need to worry about a crime not being treated as such. The man who purports this concern specifically references violent criminals. Violence is by definition an infringement on another’s right to liberty, therefore, it is not unclear whether or not a violent aggressor should be convicted. -Rudedogg789
This video is interesting in how it shows some of the different mentalities when it comes to our prison system and what define a serious offense against society. The older mentality of tough on crime laws continues to plague us today. It seems also that there is a shift in the way we are thinking about the prison system. People are starting to see that there is a better and more cost effective way to deal with certain crimes instead of locking someone up and praying they have been rehabilitated by the time there sentences is up. I like how Pat Nolan stated that there is an overuse of a good thing. Prisons should be use for those that pose a serious threat to our society, from murders to rapist. It should not be for those people who have done nothing to hurt another human being. I like the idea of spending money that they have used on prisons, close to 80 billion, to help the individuals that need rehabilitation. It was nice to see that they are thinking beyond just the release of a prisoner and starting to think of following them and setting them up for success. I know if I was released after a good amount of time behind bars I wouldn’t be able to get a good job nor have the sense to keep out of trouble. That sentence stays with people and it is almost a guarantee that employment for most of these individuals will be very difficult to obtain. By using that money on helping to people succeed after prison will be a far more cost effective and smart bet for those in charge not to add for more human.
The way I think that we should handle the overpopulated prisons is that we could start programs that allow prisoners to work at sanctioned jobs for slightly below minimum wage. This would allow them to save up money for when they leave the prison as well as teach them skills that they could use to find new jobs. In this system, we would have to make them do all of the things that they normally would when applying for a job, or else they would have the skills they need to do a job, but many wouldn't be able to get those jobs. This system would have one big drawback however. With that many more people in the job market, wages for everyone else would drop a bit because the supply of workers would outpace the demand even more than it currently does. I believe that this wage decrease would be worth it because it would give a boost to the economy and reduce a big expense for the american government. Because of this increase to the economies vitality, I personally think that the lowered wages would somewhat quickly return to their original positions, or even increase if given enough time. -DMPeschy
This video really shined a light on how people view the subject of mass incarceration and the perceptions that come with it. A lot of good point were pulled up by everyone in attendance to the debate and/or discussion. There were several points that I liked and some I did not really agree with. I did agree with a statement saying that while minimum mandatory sentencing may be a good thing if it is done away with, it may also release some serious criminals along with it. I also agree the statement made that we must keep some of the core things and values that has already been implemented by the United States’ correctional system and how it is run. The problem of recidivism must also be addressed if we are to start to fix the broken system. The culture of violence by correctional officers is also addressed in the explanation of beatings and use of long term isolated confinement. Personally, I have seen some videos of beatings and use of confinement and I agree that long term confinement may cause problems in the future, I do not, however, see a lot of beatings of prisoners on news and need to do more research on the subject to see if beatings really are going on intentionally and for no reason. These are all problems that are present in the correctional system today and they need to be addressed as soon as possible if we are to start fixing the problem at hand. This will create a better and more efficient correctional system in the future and will help the US as a whole. –TheMarshall789
ReplyDeleteI do see your point on how the long terms of confinement can cause many psychological issues for individuals but also their are people who need these issues as they will cause more problems for other individuals if they are not address promptly and properly. Not everyone going through a correctional facility is their for non violet crimes that where waters must be carefully navigated. I believe the correctional system should have more respect for these individuals as they are nothing to other propositions and than nothing important to staff and also to their family can cause issues of feeling alone which can cause many mental problems as well for these people. eagle789
DeleteI agree that we don’t really hear about the beating that happen in the prisons. Whether they are from inmates attacking and beating inmates, or even the CO’s beating and treating inmates wrongfully. The only time I have really heard about violence in the prisons is when there is a large enough fight or when a CO gets attacked. We have to think that the media is going to keep a lot of things from the people whether it’s the truth or not. I as well want to do my research to see how often these violent actions happen in the prisons. This whole justice system needs to be redone to fix the problem or at least get a start on finding the problems and fixing them.
Delete-Chewbacca789
One fact pointed out by the video is that 50% less likelihood of people committing a crime when they are working with individuals to make sure that they are accountable for their actions once they are released from incarnation. This goes to show that the best approach for recovery is having people who will help lift people up when they fall and get them back to doing what’s normal and, beneficial for themselves and society. The reason our system has stood as a open door to let people but closed for them as they try to leave is people fail to realizes that we fail to address these people for rehabilitation as they first enter into the system in order for them to try to better their lives. As people are put in for tech violated of the terms and agreement of their release now they have additional chargers on top of the rest of their existing sentencing but this doesn’t take into account factors such as traffic, maybe the person feel asleep or any number of cases that could have had an effect with how the events took place.29,000 of these cases are individuals who were just convicted for having drugs on their person that only were their for personal use this causes much rift between what society wants and how we treat people as this people never existed to be a threat to society and for other people. As the video had stated for people who are going into prison only for the ones receiving punishment should be the ones who are going out of their way to hurt other people as their existing to cause problems and will use good services to falsely deceive others. As for the people who are struggling with coping as they are trying to get over their addiction of a drug we need to address this as a health problem as they are not doing this for the intent of hurting others. eagle789
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. I like your comment about how it is an open door for people coming in, but closed when they try to leave.This statement is so beyond true. The corrections system has failed these people in hard times when what they really need is help from others. I’m sure these people would be better off with just some extra help with their problems. I think it's dumb that people are getting arrested for having personal drugs on them and they are not even a threat to society, yet they are being incarcerated for years just because of that.
Delete- ST789
There are so many things that I agree with in this video, and then are some things im kind of skeptical about. One of things mentioned in the video that i thought was that we are failing to address the recidivism rate that is going on. They mentioned that there are tons of people going in and once they get out they come back in for another offence, which is usually just a violation of their parole or probation. He said that they usually come back because of the prisons and jails not providing enough help when in custody. A good point that was made was that some states have been ending sentencing for minor violations of probation or parole. This has caused a decrease in overcrowding and now they can send that money that would have been spent to house them again, on rehabilitation for inmates. I think this is awesome for places to be doing. It is probably helping so many people and decreasing the recidivism rate by a lot. One of the gentlemen mention that Hawaii has a really cool new program. This new program is called the Hope Program. In this if someone violates the law by doing something minor, instead of putting them away for several years, they make them serve 48 hours in prison. Afterwards they have a chance to get out into society again and even do rehabilitation programs to help themselves and better them. I personally think this would be a great program. I think it would be cool to focus more on the rehabilitation instead of the punishment for small crimes. Now one thing that one of the guys mentioned is that he thinks the reform would go to far and let violent people loose. Now obviously if you have a chronic offender and they become violent, they would need to be put away and get some time. But the vast majority will not be doing this. I think there is good content in this and some new ideas that could help people.
ReplyDelete- ST789
I agree. I thought video made some good points! Our correctional system is so bad that were really sending people to prisons for a dime of weed. Like we spoke in class, that weed is a natural plant that grows in the ground. But, booking someone for weed is to far because they can be sentence for who knows for how many years. Seems like Hawaii knows what their doing and maybe the U.S. can integrate a similar program some day down the future. We need to focus on helping prisoners to get them back into society and prevent them from coming into the correctional system. - LILPUMP789
DeleteI feel like the HOPE problem is not as good as some think it is. I could be wrong and it could work better than I expect, but I disagree with it for the following reason: 48 hour sentences should not be handed because the crime either should not warrant a sentence or it is not sufficient for the crime committed.
DeleteI am completely in favor of rehabilitation instead of punishment, but 48 hours is not sufficient time to rehabilitate someone who is very inclined to commit crime. People who are sentenced 48 hours for possession crimes should not be in prison for the first time if they are not doing anything that endangers anyone else. If they are endangering other people, I am not convinced that a 48 hour sentence would cause a person to sufficiently rethink their decisions - RudeDogg789
In this video most of the thing are thoughtful and some of them we have to think about it. They would need to begin by recognizing the difference between punishment and restrain when people are dangerous to themselves or others we restrain them. But that is altogether different from gratuitously inficting pain on them for the sake of revenge or to teach them a lesson. So the only rational purpose for prison is to restrain those who are violent from inflicting harm on others while they help them change their behavior. Policy makers and criminal justice practices need to get outside the box that defines punishment and rehabilitation as an either or proposition. Sanctions alone will either reduce recidivism nor result in positive behavioral change. On the other hand treatment alone may not provide the punishment or behavioral controls that are appropriate or necessary. Every offender ought to be fairly punished and held fully accountable for his or her criminal behavior . As I see to my point of view, we need smarter and more individualized sentencing and correction policies that allow judges, prosecutors, correction officers to more carefully target those individual who should be imprisoned and those who are most appropriate candidates for effective treatment, intermediate sanction or community correction programs. The reliance on incarceration and abandonment of effort to change the behavior of criminal offender results in historically high rates of recidivism among felony offenders. And as I see this recidivism among felony offenders fuels up the overcrowding of prisons and jail while at the same time reducing safety and subjecting the publicity to further harm. Gusii 789
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that we as america need to start being smarter on how we punish people and what type sentencing we give them because that is a big problem in todays country. We dont know how to sentence someone anymore, we lost that knowledge somewhere and we need to get it back somehow. But when it comes to rehabilitation I believe that everyone that is capable of getting out of jail should have a chance to rehabilitate. I dont believe there needs to be a certain type of person that is allowed to get rehabilitation because everyone in that prison that needs it, it also depends on how bad they need because some need more then others.
DeleteHollywood789
Recidivism is barely ever mentioned when people talk about mass incarceration and liked how that was mentioned a lot in this article. Something unbelievable that Bryan Stevenson said in the video was that there were 300,000 people incarcerated in the 1970’s and in current time there is 2.4 million people incarcerated. The overcrowding of people is usually caused by offenders that did not do something right while they were on parole or probation. They are very small things that people really should not be sent back for. Something that made me kind of laugh at because it was so true was what Pat Nolan said. He stated that we are incarcerating people that we are not afraid of but we are incarcerating people that we are just mad at. Which to me is so unbelievable true that I relate it to highschool drama. Based on that is because we do not have good rehabilitation systems for offenders. So when they go back out on the streets they don't know how to keep up a job or anything else so they usually turn to illegal acts to get money for themselves which in turn causes them to go back to prison. In the video a program really stood out to that they talked about and that was the Hope program in Hawaii. The program is they will keep you for 48 hours and give you a chance to think about what you did and how to fix it and then you go out and have a chance to get rehabilitated and back to normal life. I believe this is a very cool program that could be very useful in other states because most of these petty crimes do not need to be locked up for 6 years. I probably only takes a day to think about what you did not 6 years and by having this program it would really benefit people to become active citizens and have a chance at a new life without spending a bunch of time in a jail cell.
ReplyDeleteHollywood789
I agree with you when you say that the overcrowding of people is mainly due to offenders violating their probation or parole. A majority of these people breaking the rules of their probation or parole are getting caught doing drugs. These people who keep being put back into prison for drug offenses need to receive help, not more prison time. If these people got help for their problems instead of being put back into prison, two birds could be killed with one stone. The problem of overcrowding would become less of a problem and there would not be as many drug offenders going back to jail because they got over their problems with the help of rehab.
Delete-Fozz789
This video explained very well what is happening within our prisons today and some problems also being found as well. For example, it was mentioned that prisons are excessively beating prisoners and putting them into solitary confinement for extended periods of time. I think the overuse of solitary confinement is a way for the prisons to try and get around the overcrowding that is going on inside of them. Also, some of the prisoners do not pose a physical threat to anyone in the jail or in society, as they have been incarcerated for nonviolent things like drug offenses, etc. Yet, they are still being physically beaten for unknown reasons. Another idea stated in the video that I agree with is that the biggest problem within our prisons is incarceration. People are being incarcerated for all kinds of different crimes. This is a big reason why many prisons are facing the problem of overcrowding. Some states are attempting to deal with overcrowding by establishing programs. In Hawaii, a program exists called the HOPE Program. These programs like HOPE give people the chance to rethink what they did. They have forty-eight hours to do this and then explain to a judge how they will not do it again and make sure that they have truly changed for the better. By enrolling in programs like this, people get the opportunity to avoid going to prison by explaining themselves and how they know it was wrong of them to do and nothing like what they did will happen again. One statistic that blew my mind was the fact that 2900 people are in prison for drug possession charges. If drug offenses were treated as Health Care problems, two positive things would happen: 1) Overcrowding would become less of a problem. 2) People could go get help for their drug problems.
ReplyDelete-Fozz789
I do agree with some of the things that were said in the video. The fact that we know that some of the people are in for the wrongs reasons or for something not to serious is unbelievable. Like being sent to prison for drug possession shouldn’t be reason enough to get booked for. I do agree that there are bad people out there that need to be separated from the rest of the public to keep the public safe and unharmed. There are other alternatives for people that get arrested for minor infractions. Yes, they can be sent to jail and maybe that would give them some time to think about what they did and how it can affect them in the long run. But along with that time, while sitting in jail, they should have counseling depending on what they were sent to jail for. It may sound non-effective to some people, but you would be surprised how just talking to someone and giving them advice about a situation would go for some people in the world. This is where money comes in for the people that run the prisons. They have no morals and would rather have a lot of money coming in. The money they make is based on their income of inmates. They don’t want to rehabilitate the inmates because they know that a good percent of them are eventually going to come back. There are even problems within the prisons. The correction officers aren’t always good just like there aren’t just good police officers in this world. I have personally seen what some CO’s do to the inmates and how they treat them. Those are the ones that don’t deserve to work and actually should be locked away in one of the cells that they walk by everyday they go to work. I know there isn’t a way to stop this but it really hits that nerve because it just takes that one bad apple to spoil the bunch.
ReplyDelete-Chewbacca789
Video makes some good points. These so called ‘prisoners’ are being sent for small violations such as a dime of weed, single joint, or drugs in generally. These prisoners can be rehabilitated, and get help. Yes it will cost money, but many of the prisoners being put into jail are not bad people. They are just people who did bad mistakes. Why book someone for disorderly conduct? I mean now in day, you can book everyone for anything. Yes, sending them to prisons or jails may help them rethink about their mistakes or can come back all over into the correctional system, but our system is so poor and unprofessionally handled. It’s almost like a cycle! I understand that if we help one person, now we have to help the rest of the prisoners because it would only seem fair, but it only cost the same thing as registering them again in the system. It’s been proven that it works, and now was just eliminating rehab centers. It goes with immigrants, and how were locking them up for various years and than sending them back to their country. The only benefits prisons get from keeping prisoners is money, but it’s not the way to handle things. In the video states, that in 1900’s their been less incarcerations compare to present, now that we have more than 1 millions prisoners. This is the cause of overcrowded prisons and the reasons were building three prisons every month. Aren’t police officers suppose to serve and protect, I understand were protecting our people from danger, but a little bit of weed aren’t no threat to the average good civilian out there. Some people in prisons are probably mentally ill, and we as a correctional system don’t see that. What happened to community policing? What happened to building more rehab centers? - LILPUMP789
ReplyDeleteI agree people who have done nothing but a petty crime like a drug charge should be rehabilitated and not just thrown into the belly of the beast. It seems like this will only make them worse. i also think they should be using that massive amount of money of rehabilitation. the cycle they have created needs to be stopped. Its true, its all about the money. The greed that goes behind some of these policies is sad. It has to stop but you can see in this people are starting to see this as a problem and that is promising. pj789
DeleteI believe that this video missed a fundamental problem with our criminal justice system. I think that America’s founding fathers were right to look to the writings of Thomas Hobbes when designing this country’s legal system. Hobbes stated that man intrinsically has natural rights to life, liberty, and property. I think the justice system should only prosecute people who infringe upon other people’s rights to these things Instead of using this criteria, people often argue that sentencing for a non-violent crime should be less than that of a violent crime. This is a bad distinguishment because the categories are far too broad. Usually when people argue that non-violent crimes should not be as punishable, they are referring to illegal substances. I believe that possession of illegal substances should not be punished because it does not infringe upon anyone else’s right to life, liberty, or property. I believe that the abandonment of this principle is a serious problem and things like Hawaii’s Hope Program only treats the symptoms. If possession and use of illegal substances was a serious problem, 48 hours of detainment would not be a proper deterrent for the crime nor would it rehabilitate those who have committed it. Because these things do not violate anyone else’s rights, the any sentencing including the 48 hours of detainment is unethical. One of the people speaking in this video worries that decreases in legal penalties will go to far. I believe that this is an example of the slippery-slope fallacy. As long as the criteria for crime is held to the definition of being the infringement of another’s right to life, liberty, or property, there is no need to worry about a crime not being treated as such. The man who purports this concern specifically references violent criminals. Violence is by definition an infringement on another’s right to liberty, therefore, it is not unclear whether or not a violent aggressor should be convicted.
ReplyDelete-Rudedogg789
This video is interesting in how it shows some of the different mentalities when it comes to our prison system and what define a serious offense against society. The older mentality of tough on crime laws continues to plague us today. It seems also that there is a shift in the way we are thinking about the prison system. People are starting to see that there is a better and more cost effective way to deal with certain crimes instead of locking someone up and praying they have been rehabilitated by the time there sentences is up. I like how Pat Nolan stated that there is an overuse of a good thing. Prisons should be use for those that pose a serious threat to our society, from murders to rapist. It should not be for those people who have done nothing to hurt another human being. I like the idea of spending money that they have used on prisons, close to 80 billion, to help the individuals that need rehabilitation. It was nice to see that they are thinking beyond just the release of a prisoner and starting to think of following them and setting them up for success. I know if I was released after a good amount of time behind bars I wouldn’t be able to get a good job nor have the sense to keep out of trouble. That sentence stays with people and it is almost a guarantee that employment for most of these individuals will be very difficult to obtain. By using that money on helping to people succeed after prison will be a far more cost effective and smart bet for those in charge not to add for more human.
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ReplyDeleteThe way I think that we should handle the overpopulated prisons is that we could start programs that allow prisoners to work at sanctioned jobs for slightly below minimum wage. This would allow them to save up money for when they leave the prison as well as teach them skills that they could use to find new jobs. In this system, we would have to make them do all of the things that they normally would when applying for a job, or else they would have the skills they need to do a job, but many wouldn't be able to get those jobs. This system would have one big drawback however. With that many more people in the job market, wages for everyone else would drop a bit because the supply of workers would outpace the demand even more than it currently does. I believe that this wage decrease would be worth it because it would give a boost to the economy and reduce a big expense for the american government. Because of this increase to the economies vitality, I personally think that the lowered wages would somewhat quickly return to their original positions, or even increase if given enough time.
ReplyDelete-DMPeschy