Should Incarceration Serve as Rehabilitation or...

Should Incarceration Serve as Rehabilitation or Retribution Should Incarceration Serve as Rehabilitation or Retribution 1 Introduction Incarceration refers to the state of being confined in a prison. It may also mean detention, custody or captivity. This is usually as a result of a crime committed, and serves the offender as a form of punishment. It is meant to deter others from committing crimes, and to rehabilitate criminals. Rehabilitation on the other hand, refers to the process of restoring someone to a useful place in the society. People are not treated completely as criminals, but are engaged in useful activities so that they can be of†¦show more content†¦Houses of correction were originally a section of the machinery of the Poor Law. The main intention of the poor law was to instill habits of industry through prison labor. Most of those the people held up in correctional facilities at the time were petty offenders. These included vagrants and local people who were disorderly. By the end of the seventeenth century, they were absorbed into the prison system, which was under the control of the local J ustices of the Peace. Rehabilitative strategies came to the fore in many Western penal systems in the 1960s. They remain prominent in sentencing policies in many European countries. Although today community-based sanctions would be seen as the clearest rehabilitative type of sentence, the idea of the prison itself has a beneficial reforming effect has had a longer history. Modern-style imprisonment only became commonplace in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. This replaced corporal and capital punishment regimes and deportation. The main principle on which prisons were established was that of enforced isolation, causing the offender to contemplate his or her sins and need for redemption. Throughout the nineteenth century the rhetoric of reformation persisted even within the harshest penal regimes. The reformative model then became reinvented in the twentieth century in terms of behavioral science, and reached its high point in the medical or treatment model widely accepted in USShow MoreRel atedPunishment and Sentencing Paper1278 Words   |  6 Pagescrime. The adult court systems rely on deterrence to come from punishments people found guilty are sentenced to. Punishments should fit the crime and when punishments are severe, most people will reconsider committing the same crime in fear that incarceration will result. Juvenile courts use the threat of punishment as a deterrent for minors that commit crimes. Rehabilitation is another punishment philosophy. In this philosophy, people that are found guilty of committing crimes might need to haveRead MoreShould Prisons Be Effective?1367 Words   |  6 Pagesbeen picking retribution as the primary function of their prison system. If retribution is the only goal, then, prisons do work. However, if we evaluate whether prisons have been effective deterrents to crime, the evidence points to its failing. Numerous studies have shown that the threat of prison has little to no deterrent effect on first time offenders and even less of a deterrent effect on repeat offenders. So, the prison has little to no deterrent effect. (Wright, 2010) Rehabilitation has shownRead MoreThe Goal For Punishment Is Justified956 Words   |  4 PagesScenario #2 The goal for punishment that I have for this offender is retribution. She believes that drugs are victimless crimes and I want to show her otherwise with retribution because I want to inflict punishment on a person who has infringed on the rights of others and she does deserve to be penalized. Also this will serve as reminder to the general public of the rules and values of law, which may help my reelection as well. Also another goal for punishment is deterrence but I will only pursueRead More Are Prisons Effective? Essay1490 Words   |  6 Pagesnon-beneficial? This argument is presented from the viewpoint of both sides of this issue. One group, The Council on Crime in America, is pro-incarceration; while on the other side of this issue, The National Criminal Justice Commission, is con-incarceration. Both sides have presented their viewpoints clearly and factually. Those who are for incarceration present their opinions in such a way as to sway the reader toward accepting what they say as the only answer to fight back against the growingRead MorePunishment Philosophies1704 Words   |  7 Pages Abstract The processes by which justice is applied are determined largely by proposed punishment philosophies. These express various concerns and arguments regarding appropriate sentencing and treatment. The philosophy of rehabilitation dominates the proceedings of juvenile courts, and is heavily scrutinized at an adult level, or when the criminal behavior of juveniles continues to accelerate, but when successful is most beneficial for society. The appeals process advances theRead MoreMandatory Minimum Sentences For Nonviolent Drug Crimes Essay1644 Words   |  7 Pageshave been almost universally negative. Mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug crimes has proved to be a cost ineffective system which exacerbates the problem of mass incarceration while failing to deter crime, provide rehabilitation, and lower drug usage. Since the expansion of mandatory minimums, incarceration rates have gone up exponentially. So much so that today, more than half of federal prisoners are in on drug related offenses, most of which are low level offenders (Gross, 68).Read MoreThe Time Of Early Human Civilization3258 Words   |  14 Pagesmodel of creating a practice where criminals would be punished for their wrong doings. One of the earliest philosophies of this ancient time was the term Lex talionis or an eye for an eye. This practice is based on the criminal punishment idea of retribution, which means that a criminal deserves to be punished based on the crime committed. As time progressed, new ways of thinking emerged and eventually crime had to be the responsibility of the government because they believed that a crime committedRead MoreDoes Incarceration Affect Recidivism?1433 Words   |  6 PagesDoes Incarceration Affect Recidivism? The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation’s prisons or jails. Incarceration is a widely argued topic with many understood viewpoints, and it directly deals with three main important correctional topics which are deterrence, rehabilitation, and recidivism. The definition of incarceration is the state of being confined in prison. Not only does incarceration affect people directly by taking away theirRead MoreSentencing Paper1264 Words   |  6 Pagessome of the major reasons for punishment are to reform, deterrence, rehabilitation, compensation, and retribution. Punishment for reform is intended to benefit the offender and society by changing the offender into a contributor to society. Punishment as deterrence is intended to benefit society by discouraging would-be offenders. Punishment to extract compensation is intended to benefit the victim of the offender. Finally, retribution is the only object for puni shment that is primarily intended to harmRead MorePunishment vs Rehabilitation1661 Words   |  7 PagesPunishment vs. Rehabilitation Helen Olko October 1, 2012 Abstract The expectations that our society has for the criminal justice system  is to punish and rehabilitate individuals who commit crime. Punishment and rehabilitation are also two of the four acknowledged objectives of the criminal justice system, with deterrence and incapacitation being the others. In the United States, punishment has always been the primary goal to achieve when dealing