Effectiveness of the Current American Prison System Essay Example
Introduction
People always want a just system that will cater to eliminate undesirable behavior within the society. However, to define a proper system and its effectiveness in punishing crimes remains relative. There are many arguments for and against prison punishments being effective as intended in America. Some will say that the American prison system has been an effective form of punishment, while others will argue that the system does not work completely as intended. This is because of different angles of looking into the outcome of the prison punishments. While some rectify their behavior after incarceration, some continue with the same behaviors. However, generally the crimes have declined, though progressively distributed.
The prison system
The American criminal justice system has enforced the punishments to criminal cases over the course of time. Consequently, the r
...ise in incarceration and the justice system has led to the decline in crime rates. The decline in crime rates has been higher in poor and minority cities, as well as within cities in the poorest neighborhoods. This is significant since crimes mostly are concentrated in poor areas, and therefore justice enforcements in those areas results in the decline of the crimes. Over time, U.S. has toughened the punishment to crimes by increasing the condition and likelihood of being admitted to prison for all offenses. The sentence lengths within crime categories are now longer. This has in turn resulted to reduced crime rates, with the exception of drug arrest rates.
Incarceration
While incarceration has reduced crimes, the prison and jail incarceration rates are on a rise. Also on the rise is the criminal justice supervision. The incarceration rate in U.S. sees it ranked the highest compared t
other nations in the world. As researches have indicated, incarceration is justifiable for the crimes people are being incarcerated for; though it is still subject to critics, for no particular evidence has come out conclusive. “There is an ongoing debate on the extent to which the rise in incarceration and the extended reach of the criminal justice system drove recent declines in crime. There is strong evidence for the United States and other nations that incarceration can have sizeable effects in reducing crime, operating largely through physical incapacitation.” ( Lofstrom and Raphael, 2016).
“In what follows, we document that poor and minority communities have disproportionately experienced both the decline in crime and the increase in criminal justice sanctioning. We argue that the coincidence of these two trends do not necessarily mean that one has caused the other. In particular, the crime decline commencing in the early 1990s is observed in other countries that have not greatly expanded the scope and reach of their criminal justice systems. Moreover, while increases in incarceration during the 1980s likely suppressed peak crime rates in the early 1990s, the decline in crime since that time corresponds to a period of rapid growth in incarceration levels for which there is little evidence of an appreciable impact on crime.” (Lofstrom and Raphael, 2016).
To limit the size of the prison population, it is necessary for the justice system to introduce new measures to rehabilitate the incarcerated and to focus on the victims of the crimes too. “The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world,40 but several factors indicate that this response is ineffective—particularly with respect to juveniles. Some of the
primary criticisms of juvenile incarceration include: its inability to effectively address recidivism, its high cost, its failure to account for the decreased juvenile culpability, and its focus on the offenders rather than the victims of crime.” (Tsui, 2014).
Conclusion
The current American prison system has played a role in reducing the crime rates. Incarceration rates in America have rised over time, which in turn has resulted to reduced crime rates. Poor cities and their neighborhoods record the highest number of incarceration. There is need to change the prison system slightly to reduce the prison population.
