Reforms for Those People Who Are Incarcerated
A prison is a place or facility where people who break the law and have been convicted or those awaiting trial are held lawfully, and their freedom curtailed. The prisoners are often given minimal or no attention since the aim of the system of criminal justice is to keep the convicted away from the community and society. Prisons, therefore, become places with injustice and little chances of rehabilitation. Prison reforms are ways of ensuring the services provided to the inmates, and the way they are held is unique and different within the facility. Reforms are intended to improve the living conditions in the prisons, implement other alternatives rather than incarceration, or improve the penal system’s effectiveness. This paper will discuss prison reforms to the incarcerated, the impact they have on them while in prison, and why they are necessary.
Alexander indicates that mass incarceration is not just a system that locks individuals in prison but also locks people away from the reality of the world (Alexander 12). Once prisoners are released from prison, they tend to be discriminated against and excluded from society permanently. Prison reforms are necessary to prevent the inmates and their families from extreme poverty. Alexander states that prisoners are discriminated against, such that they are denied housing, education, public, and employment benefits, making them unwanted. Denying the prisoners such benefits is a clear indication that reforms are essential.
Regarding the mass incarceration issue and the reforms, Alexander states that the public’s attitude is of importance to the efforts of reforms. She says that efforts to eliminate mass incarceration are useless if those who advocate for it do not make people understand that those who support the existing system are racists (Alexander 198). According to Alexander, racial indifference is the reason why there is mass incarceration hence failed reforms. Some of the reforms that advocates have launched are restricting disenfranchisement laws and racial profiling, among others. Alexander has noted that there are no efforts in response to mass incarceration, especially to people of color (Alexander 212). The results of reforms that ending incarceration would mean closing the prisons, which would lead to panic in the communities who depend on prisons for economic growth and jobs.
Alexander has not stated much regarding prison reforms to those incarcerated or the impact it has on them. Regarding incarceration, Alexander has talked more about the rights of a prisoner that are violated due to mass incarceration, basing her argument on the mass incarceration of black people. According to Alexander, incarceration curtails prisoners’ rights to enjoy housing, employment, education, and other public benefits. Alexander necessitates the need to end mass incarceration (Alexander 56).
Prisons Reforms and impact
Prison reforms, such as educational and vocational programs, would help the prisoners greatly. Classes that are vocational and educational have been identified through research to be among the most effective programs in prison reforms. Vocational and educational courses reduce the chances of committing a crime again and increasing chances of employment once a prisoner is released, and they also reduce reports off incidences of violence and misconduct within the prison by over four percent (Johnson 10). The education programs offered to the prisoners do not just teach the prisoners to read effectively; rather, they also offer them the essential reinforcement promoting transition that is positive into the society when getting out of prison. Efforts that head towards this direction help in the rehabilitation process of the prisoners. “Prisoners who attend education programs while incarcerated are less likely to return to prison following their release” (Vacca 297).
The expenditures that come with misconduct in correctional facilities are reduced with every dollar that is spent on training programs that are vocational and educational. Costs associated with the correctional facilities, such as administrative costs, are also reduced when prisoners are reformed using education programs. It has been noted that “the U.S. spent a record $185 billion for police protection, detention, judicial, and legal activities in 2003” (Alexander 218). The cost of reincarceration is reduced with prison reforms.
Prison reforms, which involve prison programming, have been identified to prevent recidivism, increase the chances of acquiring employment in the future for the incarcerated people, and reduce the violation of rules while in the prison facilities. People released from prison often have no chances of being employed as they are considered felons “today employers feel free to discriminate against those who bear the prison label—i.e., those labeled criminals by the state” (Alexander 148). According to statistics on prison reforms, there is a positive impact on the correctional facilities providing the programs or even allowing other organizations to do so. Programs that are aimed at providing mental health support while the individual is in prison reduce the incidents of misconduct, especially by the people who are mentally ill (Bernstein and Seltzer 143). Programs that support substance abuse treatment and drug handling have been identified to reduce the level of reincarceration by over fifty percent.
Prison reforms on the visitation policies help to delay and reduce recidivism due to the smooth transition of the prisoners to the society upon being released. Since the prisoners had time to strengthen and continue with their relationship with families and friends even while incarcerated, they tend to feel loved and accepted in the society, hence rarely committing crimes related to social exclusion. Visitation also has a significant impact on the psychological condition of incarcerated people (Bales and Mears, 314). The incarcerated people still have friends and families with whom they wish to continue a relationship even while in prison. When the prisoners lack a positive relationship with the community and a strong connection with the family, they tend to be lonely and depressed, leading to psychological problems. Visitation in prisons helps to decrease violence in prison since the prisoners are in a healthy mental state.
Prison reforms should aim to expand the rights of visitation within prisons to maintain a positive relationship between family, friends, and children of the incarcerated individuals. Prison reforms aimed at supporting prisoners’ visitation allow the family and friends of the inmate to consider them as a family still and help them even after they are released from prison. Family is essential to prisoners’ lives both while incarcerated and while released since prisoners have a home to go to. For example, one ex-convict stated, “if it was not for my family I would be in the streets sleeping in the cold” (Alexander 159).
Alexander views drug abuse as one of the biggest contributors to the rising number of imprisoned people in the U.S. kingpins, peddlers (sellers), and consumers are all subjected to the justice system. However, in most cases, users are the ones incarcerated for many years. Alexander notes that both the judicial and rehabilitation system need to realize that drug use is a health problem requiring medical attention and not a crime. Alexander says, “…we have relied too heavily on incarceration, that prisons are too expensive, and that drug use is a public health problem, not a crime (245).” Thus, people being taken to correctional facilities for drug use should be taken to health facilities. Correctional facilities need rehabilitation programs to help drug users. Incarcerating the drug users will is not a solution for these individuals. Rather treating drug users as sick people and helping acquire rehabilitation services.
As a way of reducing the prison population, Alexander proposes reducing mass incarceration and releasing petty offenders. “In many countries, a large proportion of the prison population has been sentenced for minor offenses (United Nation office on drug and crime (UNODC) 6).” Sufficient evidence indicates that small-time offenders get harsh sentences increasing the population in prisons. Alexander mentions that the war on drugs was largely to blame for the prison population explosion in the united states in three decades. “Harsh laws relating to drug offenses have led to the rapid rise of the prison population in a number of countries (UNODC 6).” Drugs-related arrests and sentencing accounted for most of the incarceration between the 1980s and 2000s as “the U.S. penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million (Alexander 6).” Alexandre proposes treating small-time offenders, including drug users, nonviolent criminals differently than just incarcerating them. Releasing these individuals on parole or probation is a better approach to dealing with these crimes.
Reducing juvenile incarceration and finding a better solution to juvenile crime. Racial discrimination for juveniles is one of the reasons for increased incarceration for black and Latino youth. “African American youth represent about 28 percent of all juvenile arrests, 35 percent of the youth waived to adult criminal court, and 58 percent of them admitted to state adult prison (Alexander 115).” By eliminating bias, it will ensure that there is a reduction in the number of young African American youths being sent to juvenile and adult prisons. Alexander proposes better juvenile education programs and political economic and social equality to help avoid increased crime, especially for the black youth.
Alexander says that eliminating some of the roots of some of the reasons for mass incarceration is an indirect form of prison reform. Focusing on the root of mass imprisonment, such as racial, educational, and economic inequality. “Shouldn’t we focus the public’s attention on the so-called root causes of mass incarceration, such as educational inequity? (Alexander 216)”. Addressing these problems in the U.S. will play a huge role in ensuring a decline in the prison population.
Reducing pre-trial detention as a way of reducing the prison population. Pre-trial detention has been misused in most countries. “the size of the pre-trial prisoner population is larger than that of the convicted prisoner population (UNODC 11).” In the recent past, access to a legal counselor and fair trial process for detainees. Alexander notes that one of the reasons that there is a huge number of incarcerated poor people of black and Latino background is because once arrested, suspects are detained, and they are not allowed to access the services of legal counsel and are subject to an unfair trial process.
Eliminating Unnecessary detentions. Alexander notes that one reason that causes unnecessary detentions of people with petty or nonviolent crimes, drug use, and witnesses’ reasons result in overpopulation. Some of the people are arrested on the bases of suspension. Others are detained in the incarceration centers being forced to witness against other arrested suspects. “After a month of being held in jail, the charges against you are dropped (Alexander 95).”
Reducing racial discrimination in the criminal justice system as a way of reforming prisons. “Because police target African Americans and Latinos in the War on Drugs, it is far more likely that they will be arrested for minor, nonviolent crimes (Alexander 143).” Eliminating discrimination when dealing with crime is an approach that goes a long way toward reducing the number of African Americans incarcerated. Alexander notes that there are more African American people in American prisons than any other race in the U.S. By eliminating the bias in the criminal justice system, it will play a significant role in eliminating the overall black population in American correctional facilities.
Reducing the prison population will help decrease the large costs of operating both private and public incarceration facilities. The U.S. experienced exponential growth in the number of prisons between 1980 and 2008. “the United States built more prisons than it had in the rest of its history (Selman & Leighton 18).” Consequently, there was an increase in funding for prisons by the government. “U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Statistics in 2006, the U.S. spent a record $185 billion for police protection, detention, judicial, and legal activities in 2003(Alexander 218).” Correctional facilities have grown drastically in the past few decades as large numbers of people are being incarcerated and thus making prisons a lucrative venture. Private prisons are big businesses in the U.S. The federal and state governments are incurring the costs of maintaining the federal prisons.
Alexander stresses the significance of attacking private investments in correctional facilities. “Prisons are big business and have become deeply entrenched in America’s economic and political system (Alexander 219).” There is a theory that indicates that increased prisons demand increased incarceration, which mostly is unjust. Thus, targeting the private prisons will help tackle the problem of poor prison conditions and mass incarcerations. Private prisons are businesses meant to make profits for their investors. “The dynamics that created private prisons – an increasing population and government outsourcing continue to shape it today (Selman & Leighton 17).”
Mass incarceration constitutes a deprivation of the rights of the prisoners. Usually, the people of color, due to the war against crimes such as those of drugs, are deprived of the essential privileges and rights of American citizenship and are demoted to a lower status permanently (Alexander 182). “Like Jim Crow, mass incarceration marginalizes large segments of the African American community, segregates them physically (in prisons, jails, and ghettos), and then authorizes discrimination against them in voting, employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service” (Alexander 18). Prison reforms are necessary to ensure that the incarcerated’s rights are respected, the prisoners’ human rights are protected, and their social reintegration prospects increased. Prison reforms would ensure the prisoners have the right to vote, and they are not denied chances to get employment, housing, and even education benefits. The prisoners’ rights do not only end at housing, employment, education, or public benefits, but they also entail rights to safe and clean prisons and being treated with humane by being provided with water food and proper shelter. Prison reforms ensure that the prisoners are kept secure and leave in hygienic and humane conditions (Jacobs 179).
Conclusion
Prison reforms efforts have been put in place to improve the outcome of incarceration in the U.S. Alexander has taken a broader approach to propose some of the prison reform that should occur as a part of the judicial system overhaul. Although The New Jim Crow does not directly talk about prison reform efforts, it provides a glimpse of what correctional facilities can do to improve prisons.
Educating and vocational reforms are helping prisoners to acquire knowledge and skills and reducing criminal activities in prisons. Alexander also proposes releasing people with petty crimes to reduce overcrowding in prisons. Alexander proposes addressing some of the root causes of mass incarceration, such as educational inequality, which will reduce the population committing crimes. Reducing pre-trial detention as a way of reducing the number of people being held.
Prison reforms aimed at improving prisoners’ human rights, including giving the prisoners the power to vote. Alexander proposes the need to attack the private investment in prisons that profiteer from mass incarceration. Reducing racial discrimination in the justice system ensures no race is favored while the other is sent to prison through injustice.
Works Cited
Alexander, Michelle. The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press, 2010.
Bales, William D., and Daniel P. Mears. “Inmate social ties and the transition to society: Does visitation reduce recidivism?.” Journal of research in crime and delinquency 45.3 (2008): 287-321.
Bernstein, Robert, and Tammy Seltzer. “Criminalization of people with mental illnesses: The role of mental health courts in system reform.” UDC/DCSL L. Rev. 7 (2003): 143.
Jacobs, James B. “Prison reform amid the ruins of prisoners’ rights.” The future of imprisonment 179 (2004): 1-186.
Johnson, Byron R. “Assessing the impact of religious programs and prison industry on recidivism: An exploratory study.” Texas Journal of Corrections 28.1 (2002): 08-11.
Mosteller, Jeremiah. “Why Prison Reform Matters in America.” Charles Koch Institute 22 (2018).
Selman, D., & Leighton, P. (2010). Punishment for sale: Private prisons, big business, and the incarceration binge. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
United Nations office on drug and crime (UNODC). “Prison Reform and Alternatives to Imprisonment.” 2011
Vacca, James S. “Educated prisoners are less likely to return to prison.” Journal of Correctional Education (2004): 297-305.