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Confinement in the US
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Confinement in the US
Confinement facilities in the US provide short-term post-trial coupled with pretrial confinement support. Confinement facilities in the US are a part of the correctional facilities and operate not on a punitive basis but corrective basis. The basic aim of the confinement facilities is to turn prisoners, who are guilty and incarcerated, into a responsible citizen. However, the confinement facilities, despite being operated on corrective basis rather than punitive basis, do not serve the very purpose i.e. turning the incarcerated people into productive citizens. Incarcerated persons even commit crimes within the prisons because prisons, somehow, encourage the criminals to commit a crime. Confinement facilities are more or less like a nursery for petty criminals to graduate into bigger crimes and master criminals. A criminal arrested for minor offense gets introduced to bigger mesmerizing world of crime wherein he meets drug lords/ Big shots of underworld and how their writ runs in the prison. The net result is they graduate into a bigger world of crimes. Besides, Secondly, the prison system, no matter how much restorative it is, the fact remains, it does nothing to reintegrate the person accused of a crime to get back to society or repent. Once a criminal, he remains a criminal.
Most of the offenders return to prison because they know the rules on how to operate there without any problems, as opposed to the fish and punks. Prison means three squares a day, in most cases, they can work the system and be safe enough where they don't need to watch their backs, and they are safer in prison then they are on the streets. Besides, most of the incarcerated habitual criminals are actually psychopaths. They do not (cannot) have guilt, remorse or any feeling of empathy. If the crime benefits them, and they think they can get away with it, they will do it ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"LDCbeXCR","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Johnson & Toch, 2000)","plainCitation":"(Johnson & Toch, 2000)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1341,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/32BCM7ZB"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/32BCM7ZB"],"itemData":{"id":1341,"type":"book","title":"Crime and punishment: Inside views","publisher":"Roxbury Publishing Company","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Crime and punishment","author":[{"family":"Johnson","given":"Robert"},{"family":"Toch","given":"Hans"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2000"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Johnson & Toch, 2000). The reason why a large number of criminals commit a crime again after being released from prison is that the same conditions that caused the original crime are still present in them. In addition, there are certain laws that make it for released persons to achieve stability. Everyone is different, and there is no way to know for sure what someone will do after being released from prison. One thing that is constant and should be taken into consideration is to try and understand the environmental effects of prison on a person and how completely opposite it is when they are released back into the free world ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"aw3EyeYW","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Alper, 1974)","plainCitation":"(Alper, 1974)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1340,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/IF4UMV24"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/IF4UMV24"],"itemData":{"id":1340,"type":"book","title":"Prisons inside-out: Alternatives in correctional reform","publisher":"Ballinger Publishing Company","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Prisons inside-out","author":[{"family":"Alper","given":"Benedict Solomon"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1974"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Alper, 1974). It is hard for people who have never been in prison to understand exactly what their friend or family member had experienced while being in prison.
People do not realize how challenging it is to go from an environment where they spend every day, every minute, basically being prepared to have to fight or deal with a violent situation. The released person is expected to accept that they are safe, they are expected to understand that they can make mistakes and are able to joke, and they are expected not to take things so seriously. Besides, they are also expected not to feel threatened when that is all they did day in and out for years ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"Oh9yZMDV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Visher, Debus-Sherrill, & Yahner, 2011)","plainCitation":"(Visher, Debus-Sherrill, & Yahner, 2011)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1344,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/QUPFBIS3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/QUPFBIS3"],"itemData":{"id":1344,"type":"article-journal","title":"Employment after prison: A longitudinal study of former prisoners","container-title":"Justice Quarterly","page":"698–718","volume":"28","issue":"5","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Employment after prison","author":[{"family":"Visher","given":"Christy A."},{"family":"Debus-Sherrill","given":"Sara A."},{"family":"Yahner","given":"Jennifer"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Visher, Debus-Sherrill, & Yahner, 2011). Prison does not allow for mistakes, misunderstandings, or humor. One wrong word, one misunderstanding, one joke that offends someone can lead to violence. To go from that world to being sent into the free world where everyone around them is casual, people joke, people make mistakes, people express themselves in ways that are completely unacceptable in prison, and they must accept that. Let that simmer with people for a while, and maybe they can get a better understanding of the mindset of someone who was just released. Those released face a world completely foreign to them in many ways. It is not easy to adjust especially when there is so much working against them to make them fail.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Alper, B. S. (1974). Prisons inside-out: Alternatives in correctional reform. Ballinger Publishing Company.
Johnson, R., & Toch, H. (2000). Crime and punishment: Inside views. Roxbury Publishing Company.
Visher, C. A., Debus-Sherrill, S. A., & Yahner, J. (2011). Employment after prison: A longitudinal study of former prisoners. Justice Quarterly, 28(5), 698–718.
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