PRISON SYSTEM

Danny Davis Pat Moll-NevinsDeborah Singer

History Jails were among the first public

buildings erected in the new world, stemming from the British use of “houses of detention”. These first incarnations of prisons were mere holding cells in which criminal’s awaited trial or transfer.

Types of Facilities Juvenile Detention Centers Federal Prisons Minimum Security Medium Security Maximum Security Complex Contract Prisons State Prisons County Jails

State Prison State prisons hold offenders who have

been convicted of felonies which has a punishment with a sentence beyond one year.

Most individuals who are sentenced longer than one year will typically serve their time in a state prison

State prisons are operated by the state where the person was convicted of a felony.

Crimes/Felonies Homicide/Murder Assault and Battery Robbery Domestic Violence Burglary Aggravated Assault Drug Trafficking Weapon Offenses Sexual Battery False imprisonment Fraud Offenses

Time Currently the average time an individual is in

prison is approximately 3-5 years. Prison sentences can last from one year to life

in prison. One of every nine individuals in prison is

serving a life sentence. As of 2012, there were 159,520 people serving

life sentences, an 11.8% rise since 2008. Approximately 10,000 lifers have been

convicted of nonviolent offenses.

State Prison Designs Differ from state to state Since state prisons are for long term

confinement they are typically designed better than jail facilities.

Substance abuse programs, work release programs, educational services, religious services, reintegration, and health care services (medical, dental, and mental health services).

State Prison Security Levels

Minimum Medium Maximum Supermax

WHAT IS RECIDIVISM “A person's relapse into criminal behavior, often after the

person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime. Recidivism is measured by criminal acts that resulted in the rearrest, reconviction or return to prison with or without a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner's release”

Prison’s revolving door

STATISTICS ON RECIDIVISM A 1994 study concluded that “a little more than half of

released offenders (51.8 percent) were back in prison within three years, either for committing a new crime or for violating rules of their supervision. “

A new study released this year tracked 404,638 state prisoners from 30 states who were released in 2005. It found that 67.8 percent of them were re-arrested within three years of their release and 76.6 percent were re-arrested within five years.

“Higher security prisons are more punitive and, therefore, should decrease recidivism among inmates who have equivalent propensities to commit crime. Research shows, however, that being exposed to inmates who have higher propensities to crime may increase criminal behavior or reinforce antisocial attitudes”

WHY IS IT A PROBLEM “Between 1973 and 2009, the nation’s prison population

grew by 705 percent, resulting in more than one in 100 adults behind bars. Annual state and federal spending on corrections grew by 305 percent during the past two decades, to about $52 billion. During that same period, corrections spending doubled as a share of state funding. It now accounts for one of every 14 general fund dollars, and one in every eight state employees works for a corrections agency.”

Communities with a lot of released offenders have high rates of crime and poverty.

FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO RECIDIVISM

“In a lot of ways we set people up because we put them in prisons, which are are coercive, violent environments that can have psychological impacts, and when they come out we put up a lot of barriers, we make it difficult for them to get jobs, to find housing. We put them back in an environment where there’s a lot of temptations without a lot of support.”

~Deborah Koetzle

INABILITY TO FIND JOBS studies have consistently shown that

employed ex-offenders have lower rates of recidivism than unemployed ex-offenders

According to NBC News, “the biggest barrier to helping former inmates find jobs is getting employers to accept someone with a black mark on their record among their employee ranks”

EMOTIONAL/MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND ADDICTION

EMOTIONAL/MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND ADDICTION

EMOTIONAL/MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND ADDICTION

Within a two-year follow-up period, the felony re-arrest rate decreased from 40 percent before the drug court to 12 percent after the drug court started in one county, and the felony re-arrest rate decreased from 50 percent to 35 percent in another county

NIJ researchers found that drug courts may lower recidivism rates (re-arrests) and significantly lower costs. Re-arrests were lower five years or more later compared to re-arrests for similar drug offenders within the same county.

The researchers also found, however, that the drug courts' impact on recidivism varied by year as a result of changes in programming and judge assignments over time. Reductions in recidivism ranged from 17 to 26 percent.

• EDUCATION REDUCES RECIDIVISM

“Prison education is a means of rehabilitating and re-directing. If you release someone with the same skills with which she came in, she’s going to get involved in the same activities as she did before.” – Marymount Bedford Hills Program student

Studies conducted over the last two decades almost unanimously indicate that higher education in prison programs reduces recidivism and translates into reductions in crime, savings to taxpayers, and long-term contributions to the safety and well-being of the communities to which formerly incarcerated people return.

EFFECTS ON RECIDIVISM Prison education is far more effective at reducing recidivism

than boot camps, “shock” incarceration or vocational training, according to the National Institute of Justice

A 2005 IHEP report states that recidivism rates for incarcerated people who had participated in prison education programs were on average 46 percent lower than the rates of incarcerated people who had not taken college classes.

A high correlation exists between the level of education attained by an incarcerated person and his or her recidivism rate. The American Correctional Association has reported that in Indiana the recidivism rate for GED completers is 20 percent lower than the general prison population’s rate, and the recidivism rate for college degree completers is 44 percent lower than the general population’s.

BENEFITS OF EDUCATION Cost “A study by the Department of Policy Studies at the

University of California at Los Angeles found that “a $1 million investment in incarceration will prevent about 350 crimes, while that same investment in [correctional] education will prevent more than 600 crimes. Correctional education is almost twice as cost effective as incarceration.”

In a 2005 IHEP survey, more people with a high school diploma reported receiving public assistance in every state than did those with a bachelor’s degree, and in 28 states no one with a bachelor’s degree reported receiving public assistance in the prior year

BENEFITS OF EDUCATION Good for families

“The more opportunities we in prison have to learn to value education and see possibilities for ourselves, the greater the chance we will break the cycle of incarceration not just for ourselves but for future generations to come.” – Chrisfino Kenyatta Leal, 2011 valedictorian of the Prison University Project” In the first decade of the twenty-first century, more than half of all people behind bars had minor children at the time of their incarceration. Most incarcerated parents had lived with their children prior to incarceration and expected to be reunited with them upon release

• RETRIBUTION V. REHABILITAION

Retribution: Retributive justice is a theory of justice that considers punishment, if proportionate, to be the best response to crime. When an offender breaks the law, justice requires that they forfeit something in return

Rehabilitation: The rehabilitation model of sentencing is expressed through strategies designed to reform the offender's character. It assumes that criminal offences are to a significant effect determined by social structures, particular individual circumstances or psychological influences. Offenders are seen as needing help to change their behaviour, by changing their circumstances through a range of different programmes such as individual counselling, therapy, family intervention, education and training. This approach to sentencing indicates that sentences should be tailored to the needs of individual offenders.

WHAT IS OUR CURRENT FOCUS In the United States, the criminal justice

system focuses on retribution. As such, the death penalty and life imprisonment are commonplace

WHAT SHOULD OUR FOCUS BE

“One of the major justifications for the rise of mass incarceration in the United States is that placing offenders behind bars reduces recidivism by teaching them that “crime does not pay.” This rationale is based on the view that custodial sanctions are uniquely painful and thus exact a higher cost than noncustodial sanctions. An alternative position, developed mainly by criminologists, is that imprisonment is not simply a “cost” but also a social experience that deepens illegal involvement. Using an evidence-based approach, we conclude that there is little evidence that prisons reduce recidivism and at least some evidence to suggest that they have a criminogenic effect. The policy implications of this finding are significant, for it means that beyond crime saved through incapacitation, the use of custodial sanctions may have the unanticipated consequence of making society less safe.” Francis T. Cullen

Solitary Confinement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lVqIe

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Ethical Considerations There are many ethical dilemmas/considerations when

discussing prison systems. These may include; Free healthcare services Educational opportunities Overrepresentation of the number of minorities in prison Capital punishment Prison rape Cost Solitary confinement Availability of condoms for prison inmates Private prisons Prison labor