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Collin Teng

Professor Rogers

Writing 2010

17 April 2017

Are Prisons Effective?

It seems that the current ideal of prisons in America is fear. People are afraid of isolation

from families and loved ones; people are afraid of losing their freedom in s country surrounding

it. In the constitution, amendment 13, the statement, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,

unless as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist

within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction (a bunch of old people, 30),

what is allowed and what is humane in terms of the actions towards prisoners of the law is

extended beyond what is right. But because of the ill treatment and resources in prisons, the

revisitation rates are much higher than should be expected. These rates are the result of a lack of

resources and opportunities inside and after prison which are reinforced by an unconscious bias

in the community linking negative connotations to those who have been in jail. In order to solve

this problem,

According to the National Institute of Justice, revisitation rates are surprisingly high.

Within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) of released prisoners were

rearrested. On the official website, their statistics for revisitation rates in prisons were, within

five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested. Of

those prisoners who were rearrested, more than half (56.7 percent) were arrested by the end of

the first year (National Institute Of Justice). Data like this should not exist in a country renown
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for its progressive ideas. However, it is not apparent enough that the purpose of prison should not

be to punish, lock away and forget about society's problems, but should rather be to reintegrate

each individual into a working aspect of it. This surprisingly high data supports the theory that

prisons do more harm than good, the reasons for which vary greatly.

The background of this issue can be found in the mass incarceration of th

When it comes to the resources available in prison, many inmates with mental illness or

specific needs are not treated correctly and instead are treated by guards with a lack of training.

In many cases, wrongfully so, they are viewed as criminally sophisticated and dangerous.

According to the Department of Justice, it is estimated that "over one and a quarter million

people suffering from mental health problems are in prisons or jails, a figure that constitutes

nearly sixty percent of the total incarcerated population in the United States" (George and

Hafenmeister 1). In order to address this issue, there needs to be medical resources, trained staff

and a better atmosphere in prisons. But instead, it is found that, Inmates with mental illness are

the most vulnerable in our state prisons. They can be victimized by predatory inmates or

untrained staff (Warner, n.d., 7). How they are perceived and what they say is always

being judged by others. What may seem to be a harmless statement outside may be used

against someone inside (Gussak 445). This quote shows that the mentality placed towards

treatment and helping those with mental disabilities is in general, a negative one. Because of

the fact that both guards and inmates withhold those who seek help as incompetent or not

tough enough, inmates develop a tough attitude towards society which works against the

very nature of a correctional facility and partially contributes to the high revisitation rates.

This mentality also proves that prisons are not pushing for inmates to embrace a better future
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and rather treat the sentence as a punishment, which according to many ideals in popular

culture, it is. In order to solve this issue prisons need to have better trained and educated

staff, working towards solving the various problems the prisoners have whilst in their care.

There also must be a shift in attitude towards prison from the public's point of view in order

to create a system that will influence revisitation rates in a more positive manner.

According to a multitude of sources, including Psychology Today, punishment does

not change the tendency to engage in the behavior that was punished. Instead, it makes the

person or the rat, [one of the many test subjects,] want to avoid the source of punishment

(Psychology Today). This data suggests that prisons, as a tool of correction, does not support

people labeled as criminals to change their actions. Instead, it just gives them the time and

connections to plan on avoiding the punishment. This is an idea that the revisitation rates

more than supports. And once the person reclaims their freedom, they are forced to either

find a job that will ignore a criminal record, which in a competitive marketplace is next to

impossible, or they are forced to commit crimes again which is what 67.8 percent will try and

fail to do with in the first three years of release. Instead, prisons should focus on educating a

person on life skills that will help them in the workforce and give them more options besides

crime.

Prisons have developed into a business, the reason for which stems in the earlier

mentioned section of the constitution. Because involuntary servitude, and slavery is defined as

legal for punishment as a crime, companies have exploited prisoners for work to be in turn, paid

an insulting value. As an example, Whole Foods exploited inmates in colorado to grow their

merchandise for as little as 74 cents a day. McDonald's is another prime example as many of
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their uniforms and others utilities were once on the table of a prisoner for much less than the

current minimum wage. While the actions of these companies have been highly criticised by the

public, the root problem still stems from the law, or in this case, the thirteenth amendment to the

constitution, an issue that was said to be abolished years ago but in fact still remains in the

justice system. The other problem with this policy, is that prison is viewed as a tool for

businesses, instead of trying to lower the sentences and amount of people entering correctional

facilities, it is in the interest of businesses and lobbyists to keep inmates in prison for as long as

possible and for inmates to have as few resources and opportunities as possible in hopes that they

turn toward the programs they offer in an act of desperation.

One way to change how we think and treat prisoners, is to look at a system that treats

their inmates as humans who have made mistakes rather than humans who are bound to do so in

the future. In one article by Christina Sterbenz on the success rates in Norwegian Prisons

compared to that of the United States, Arne Wilson (A clinical psychologist,) says that, In the

law, being sent to prison is nothing to do with putting you in a terrible prison to make you suffer.

The punishment is that you lose your freedom. If we treat people like animals when they are in

prison they are likely to behave like animals. Here we pay attention to you as human beings

(Sterbenz 1). The same article goes on to explain that the idea of treating prisoners as if they

were human, pays off. The revisitation rates in prisons is only 75 per 100,000 people, compared

to the 707 people for every 100,000 people in the US. (Sterbenz 1). These numbers alone shows

that the attitude the public and officials have towards prison and the prison environment can

change the success rates in prisons.

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It is with lack of morality that prisons in America function and operate as they do. There

are many different issues that are integrated in the justice system to make it what it is today. In

order to measure the effectiveness of correctional facilities, one must first take a look at the

revisitation rates which in comparison to other countries, is unreasonably high. In addition,

prisons have a lack of resources for those with mental disabilities as there is an underlying ideal

in prisons that to seek help from others, especially those that enforce the facility that revokes

your freedom, is to be weak. It is also detrimental that companies use prisoners as a response to

the outdated laws in place surrounding prisons and prison labor. In order to change the direction

that prisons have evolved to, there must be a change in law and a change in mindset towards the

purpose of prisons, these models can be seen in countries like the Netherlands and Switzerland

who hold some of the most effective reform systems in the world. These systematic changes with

the right reform and actions can change the way that prisons are viewed and function.
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Genty, Philip M. "Taking Stock and Moving Forward to Improve Prison Visitation Practices: A

Response to Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty-State Survey." Yale Law & Policy

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HAFEMEISTER, THOMAS L. and JEFF GEORGE. "The Ninth Circle of Hell: An Eighth

Amendment Analysis of Imposing Prolonged Supermax Solitary Confinement on

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