Prisoner Re-Entry Programs in America - 734 Words

America sends more of its citizens to prison than any other country in the world. The United States, though only five percent of the world’s population, incarcerate 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. America is supposed to be the land of the free, not the land of the incarcerated. About 6,937,600 offenders were under the supervision of adult correctional systems at year end 2012. Around two-thirds of the prison population which is released annually (637,400) will recidivate within the first three years of release (Glaze, 2013). The prisoner re-entry programs that are currently in place are clearly ineffective and insufficient. A reallocation of the budget is the first step towards fixing our re-entry programs. Once the budget is under control, the government needs to have a complete overhaul of system. There are many prisoner re-entry programs that have shown promise which means there is already a blueprint to success available. The first problem that prisoner re-entry programs face is the lack of monetary support. The government is focused on the punitive aspect rather than rehabilitation, therefore the majority of their money goes towards security. The 2014 Budget requests a total of $8.5 billion for federal prisons and detention centers, with a miniscule percentage going towards re-entry programs. Program increases totaling $236.2 million provide for the activations of newly constructed prisons and for new contract beds, allowing the Bureau of Prisons toShow MoreRelatedDo We Really Need Prisons1599 Words   |  7 Pagesmaintain a safer society. Thirdly, the prison system is there to deter people from commiting crimes. Prison have to be a warning to society to show that there are consequences for law breakers. Last but not the least, prison aims to rehabiliate prisoners and make them a part of society. As can be seen in the previous paraghraph society gave prison system important missions which are retrebution, incapaticing, deterring and rehabilitation. However prisons are not capable of achieving this missions;Read MoreRe Entry Program For Prisons1521 Words   |  7 PagesEnglish Composition I 8 November 2015 Re-entry Program Prisons have been a way for us to remove persons of danger away from the rest of society, and it is the sole purpose. The prisoners are placed into a facility and they serve their time doing just it, nothing else. However, over time we began to initiate a new concept for prisons. Prisons can be used as a place to rehabilitate people and change the path which they have been following. We have given prisoners the ability to get an education, getRead MoreThe Problem Of Prison Population1536 Words   |  7 Pagestrying to prevent it, prison population continued to increase. Mandatory minimum sentences and the privatization created more prisoners, rather than cutting down on the amount incarcerations. Since the 1980’s, the prison population has quadrupled and today one in every one hundred adults are in prison (Mandatory Minimums (HBO)). Infact, America leads the world in prisoners with 20% of the earth’s prison population (The Prison Crisis). In a study done by The Ameri can Prospect, charts and graphs provideRead MoreEssay about The Growth of Adult Corrections in the United States1472 Words   |  6 Pagesstill overcrowded. State and local governments approved hard-hitting crime legislation during the late 1980s and early 1990s. For instance, California established the â€Å"three strikes and you’re out† law which required a set sentence of recurring prisoners, and New York implemented the â€Å"Broken Windows† policy that allowed for the detainment and trial of all crimes big and small. Guidelines such as these led to a reduction in the numbers as far as crimes committed, but the jail and prison populationsRead MorePrisons and Jails Essay611 Words   |  3 Pagescorrectional system is used to house criminals and keep them away from society. Our country is made up of close to 3 million prisoners and not enough prisons. With close to four thousand housing facilities there is little room to house the remaining. The United States alone spends nearly 1.6-billion dollars per year in prison accommodations and about fifteen thousand per prisoner. Different prisons do different things to h ouse their inmates. Some punish inmates different, and some prisons comfort andRead MoreThe Incarceration Rate Of The United States1370 Words   |  6 Pagesthat America was the land of freedom and opportunity. As the Pledge of Allegiance states, â€Å"One nation under God, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.† However, under the current criminal justice system, more and more people lose their liberties because of the crimes they have committed. According to Roy Walmsley, a consultant of the United Nations and Associate of the International Center for prison studies, â€Å"In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was theRead MoreAmerican Prison Systems: Do They Really Work?4530 Words   |  18 PagesChain gangs emerged during the era of the Auburn prison model. Auburn prisons were cheaper to construct and maintain versus the Pennsylvania style prisons. These were the predecessors of modern privatized prisons because Auburn style pri sons used prisoner labor for profit (Abadinsky, 2008). As Abadinsky (2008) points out, there were initially several models of exploiting inmate labor. One was the contract system, in which convict labor was sold to private entrepreneurs (Abadinsky, 2008). This is generallyRead MoreCalifornia University Links Prison Overcrowding And Recidivism1272 Words   |  6 PagesOVERCROWDING AND RECIDIVISM America has the highest rate of incarceration per capita of any other industrialized nation. That is an amazing fact. Don’t believe it? Then do some research. ASTOUNDING INCARCERATION RATES The World Prison Brief, a database hosted by the International Centre for Prison Studies, provides an online table* that list the world’s prison population broken down by nation. With a total population of over 320 million, the U.S. ranks at 698 prisoners per 100,000 people. ThatRead More What Works in Reducing Recidivism Essay2390 Words   |  10 Pagesfound that the average five-year recidivism rates of 404,638 prisoners released in 2005 is 76.6% among thirty states in America (Matthew, Alexia, Howard, 2014, p. 1). In other words, most of the released prisoners did not escape the cycle of recidivism and were sent back to the prison after time. This indicates that the present American justice system, which focuses on punishment as Benson (2003) noted, fails to rehabilitate prisoners efficiently and is far from achieving the goal of reducing crimeRead MoreThe Problems Faced By Prisoners And Women Experience Hardships When Re Entering Society After Spending Time2005 Words à ‚  |  9 Pageshardships when re-entering society after spending time in incarceration. Released individuals face the issues of employment with a criminal record, education and family relations when trying to adjust back into society (Cobbina 2010). Researchers to this day focus on individual experiences in order to better understand the challenges ex-prisoners stumble upon when transitioning back into everyday life. This is important to study today because there are a high number of people in North America that get