Journal assignment week 1

Journal assignment week 1

Federico C. Quiones
Keiser University

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Journal assignment week 1
Discuss at least three major challenges affecting the ability of corrections to
function. Some major challenges affecting the ability for corrections to function would be: Mass
incarceration, the financial cost of corrections and the lack of professionalism in corrections.
Within mass incarceration we face the fact that over 2.2 million men and women who are now
serving in jails and prisons in the United States, (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016). This overcrowding
of prison has been considered the major factor hindering inmate health services and
constitutional rights such as eight amendment clause cruel and unusual punishment identified
by the U.S. Supreme Court case justices opinion on BROWN v. PLATA (No. 09-1233 ) (Cornell
Law, 2016). The financial cost of corrections, is another big factor, according to Siegel &
Bartollas; The economic problems of the past decade have impacted all the agencies of justice,
including corrections. With virtually every state in the United States facing huge deficits, and
closing institutions, specially prison camps and minimum-security prisons. Furthermore, these
challenges affect the professionalism within the services provided within the correction system,
as the training, education and innovation needed to improve the effectiveness of services (Siegel
& Bartollas, 2016) become affected due to the lack of economic or financial presence or
government support it needs to function at a certain level of professionalism. This creates a hard
reality of human tragedy and failure in the correction system (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016).
Discuss consecutive and concurrent sentences and give an example of each. What
would be the benefits of giving a consecutive sentences verses a concurrent sentence?
Concurrent sentencing means that multiple sentences begin on the same day and are completed
when the longest term has been served (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016). Consecutive sentencing
means that on completing the sentence for one crime, the offender begins serving time for the

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second of what may be multiple sentences (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016). Mostly, consecutive
sentencing is mostly used on and/or requested by prosecutors for the most serious and violent
offenders and for those who refuse to cooperate with the authorities (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016).
In my opinion, both types of sentencing are righteous, in the way that is satisfies the just desert
sentiment when sentencing a more serious or violent offender using consecutive sentencing,
equally it gives some mercy to less violent offenders in which mostly is either their first offense
and is in nature of less violent behavior or misdemeanor in nature. A good example for
concurrent sentencing would be Watson v. United States (06-571) (Cornell Law, 2016) in which
the court used concurrent sentencing on this case, the accused appealed that the receipt of a
firearm as payment in a drug transaction did not satisfy the use of a firearm or active
employment of a firearm, added to his drug trafficking sentence. An example for consecutive
sentencing would be Greenlaw v. United States of America (07-330) (Cornell Law, 2016) in
which case the government asserted that a second firearm charge constituted a "second or
subsequent offense" under 18 U.S.C. 924(c), and therefore required the court to impose a
consecutive 25-year incarceration sentence to any other sentence (Greenlaw v. United States of
America).
Discuss good time and how it can affect an offender's sentence. Good time policy in
which some jurisdictions and some states prisoners can accrue time for good behavior and
participating in vocational programs, treatment groups, or volunteer for experimental medical
testing programs (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016) can affect an offenders sentence positively by
reducing their sentence in most cases by half as they are able to calculate their release date
(Siegel & Bartollas, 2016). The downfall of this process is that the offender during his/her time

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imprisoned have to avoid any serious disciplinary offenses such as drug use, attempt to escape
and so forth in which the inmate losses his/her good time earned (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016).
What if you were a first time offender and had the choice of drug court or regular
criminal court? Which court would you rather be sentenced in and why? Assuming that I
am being charged with a drug related offense, due to the choices giving between a drug court and
a regular criminal court, I would choose a drug court. The decision is based on the benefits of a
specialized drug court which promotes vocational programs, supervised release, probation,
substance abuse treatments, after care services such as relapse prevention, health care, education,
vocational training, job placement, housing placement, and child care (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016).
These are great opportunities for any first time offender or drug offender to rehabilitate, as
regular crime courts are more sentence driven and more crime deterrent driven as specialized
courts (Siegel & Bartollas, 2016)
What if you were sentenced to house arrest? What would be the most difficult thing
about being on house arrest and why would you have trouble being successful? This depends
on the type or form of house arrest, some house arrest have evening curfews in which an
offender is able to engage in employment, religious activities and health care (Siegel & Bartollas,
2016). In the most extreme setting in which there is a 24-hour house arrest confinement, and
employ electronic monitoring, I believe to be the most difficult because it has the less social
interaction for the offender, no employment opportunity in which in my opinion can cause
recidivism. It would be more comfortable as a jail cell, and obviously more secure than a prison,
but nonetheless even more isolated than prison itself in which can have adverse effects on the
offender such as depression, anxiety and other psychological, mental and social adaptation
problems.

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References

Eight amendment; Retrieved from; https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/eighth_amendment

Cornell Law, 2016. BROWN v. PLATA (No. 09-1233 ) 2011. Retrieved from:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/09-1233.ZO.html
Cornell Law, 2016. Greenlaw v. United States of America (07-330) 2007. Retrieved from:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/07-330
Cornell Law, 2016. Watson v. United States (06-571) 2006. Retrieved from:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/06-571
Siegel, L. J., & Bartollas, C. (2016). Corrections today. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Siegel, L. J. (2016). Criminology, The Core. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.