The problems with the American Correctional System is multi-pronged, however most just like to blame it on one particular facet. You have to look at the American Justice System itself, a system based on just desserts, that says you will suffer for what you've done. You will either be deprived of your money, freedom, or life, (i.e. fines, incarceration, or incarceration for life/death sentence). Those are the three ways our correctional system wants to make people suffer, however those are not the only ways in which a convicted offender is made to suffer.
What the correctional system can no longer do, society picks up the slack. We as a society love to make these individuals suffer. What do we call a person released from prison? An ex-convict, a constant reminder that they are still a convict and therefore below us honest civilians. Other ways we continue to make them suffer is denying them the right to vote, yet another reminder that they are not one of us. The same goes for when they apply for a job, if you were a CPA, doctor, banker, or any other licensed profession you probably won't be able to go back to it once you're out. The types of jobs readily available for ex-cons are generally manual labor or trades, which are enough to get by on (most of the time) but not really enough to ever rise above. Worst of all is perhaps the degree in which society decides who gets paroled and not. Murder is the gravest crime a person can commit, however many of them are committed in the 2nd degree with no malicious forethought, and extreme guilt afterwards. Yet murders hardly ever get paroled, even though their recidivism rate is apparently less than 1/2 of 1% (or so says one of my CRJ instructors). Who does get paroled? Drug dealers serving 3-5 year sentences who will more often then not go back to the corners right after they check in with their parole officer (if they're lucky).
I could go on and on with the ills of the American Correctional System, but I think one of the biggest obstacles is not so much the system itself, but the way our society is programmed to act towards convicts. I know there are a million different answers, all of them weighing in, but I think that one is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.
|