Do Jails Work?

I think they should be segregated by crime actually, a person could learn too much more bad stuff in there for it to have positive effect. I think it does basically work but it can make a person more devious from fear of getting caight instead of just not doing the thing.

I don't think they are working the way they are now. I think they really need to work with the inmates more to try and help them become decent people and get back on the street.

I don't know if it's the jails themselves that aren't working or the system that runs the jails. Sure a person loses their freedom to come and go as they please, but they have three meals a day, air conditioning, TV, exercise equipement, etc. I know not all jails are like that, but maybe too many are. Just a thought.

I have recently learned that one of the scorecards for a particular state is cost/prisoner. That particular state had decided to meets its goal, it must increase the # of prisoners to keep the jobs and other expenses flat.

THAT is an atrocity and I am quite sure there are others that have or will followed suit.

I have to Here! Here! Christine... lol... Not all jails are like that, but it is true that some prisioners have way too many luxuries. Seriously, why do they need all that stuff, how bout going back to how it was on Alcatraz? Seems to me, not too many people wanted to stay there. There is too much human rights for people who don't give a rats @$$ about others human rights!

"Restraining" Humans does NOT magically convert them to some other Life Form ... the nature of Humans is reflected by the mere fact that there ARE Prisons.

Jails work just fine mechanically: they restrain and contain. There is no "system" that could realistically convert Humans into productive, constructive Beings ... Jails do the work that can be done with a flawed mechanisim. Human's appear to be a 'failed' experiment!

For all those Humans who treasure their proposistion that they are objects of an "INTELLIGENT DESIGNER" ... I urge you to take a closer look at yourselves ... maybe "Intelligent" is not the most descriptive word ... how about, "NOT-ALL-BAD-FOR-A-FIRST-TRY DESIGNER" would more accurately state the source of the objects that our "jails" can't make work too well...?

Love 'n (my Brain needs help) Stuff, RHEY ...

Liz, I tend to disagree with you. I am more arcain in my thoughts about the prison system and punishment. In many ways the prison system is invisable to the public and keeps the inmates at a distance from the regular population. Then when a person is released they are punished again by how society treats them. Whether they had been convicted of murder, robbery, drug crimes or failure to pay child support entry back into to society is made difficult by the many closed doors facing them. Rarely does society allow them to pay their so called debt then allow a smooth entry back into society. The stigma of being convicted remains and looms large at all times.

In another thought if prisons were more visable to the general public I'd bet there'd be a lot less of the false images many have of prison life. Perhaps if went back to using stocks in a public place to punish those who have committed lesser crimes it would have a larger affect on the guilty person. The anonymity of the punishment today has little affect on the guilty.

Perhaps, if prisons were more concentrated on punishment rather than rehabilitation we wouldn't have so many repeat offenders.

Take a prisoner, and give him/her a job. A real 8-5 or 9-6 or whatever job. Hard labor, no excuses. Working in the fields to provide food for the institution, cleaning up trash along roadways, providing services - vehicle repair, looking after animals, working in the prison kitchen, laundry, maintenance dept., etc. In other words, stop with the sitting in a cell all day long and give them viable life skills that can be used when/if they get out. Occupy every minute of every day, just like you do a kid when you want to keep them out of trouble.

Troublemakers, and those that refuse to work, they get solitary. One day for a first offense, one week for a second, and so on.

There's nothing "cruel and unusual" about any of this, though I think the namby-pamby lawyers out there will find something. It'll take a big set of brass cahoneys on the part of the warden to make it work. And as one prison shows progress, others will follow.

Anyone remember "Brubaker" with Robert Redford? Just a little self-respect and dignity go a long way towards rehabilitation.

Jails don't work, period. There are many programs that *do* work, but they tend to be small, underfunded programs with 10x the people eligible for them than they can actually handle.

If we as a society have decided that the penal system is the way to deal with our problems, do you think that we're doing a good job? A poor job? What has seemed to work and what has seemed to be a failure?

What programs should be initiated and what would the costs and benefits be?

In our country, I don't feel that jails are any kind of a deterent.
Now our military system has the answer for people who break the law but our bleeding heart citizens will not allow them to implement it.
I look at it as, if you don't break the law you don't get put in prison.
And yes, I know I am not of the popular opinion.

I think it's safe to say that most people have seen The Shawshank Redemption and will understand why I'm making the reference. I think that a big reason that people return to commiting crimes when they get out of prision is that it's all they know. The scene where the old man kills himself because he didn't know what else to do with his life ... I feel like that's a big problem.

I feel like there needs to be a greater emphasis on what happens to the prisoners once they get outside of the prison. They obviously need more than to check in every now and then with a probation officer. They need to get good jobs, be relocated to areas where they can get away from the life style that they are used to living.

I don't really know, but I'm interested to know how it works out.

First of let me say that the overcrowding in our penal system is ridiculous and unnecessary. Jail is not the answer to all of our problems. We have seen that we are not rehabilitating anyone in this system. So I don't see the point trying to rehabilitate certain people. Murderers, Rapists, Pedophiles, Child Abusers, I could go on forever.

I believe in the death penalty. I think that the government wastes our money and time with death row inmates. They appeal till the cow's com home and live in jail for years before ever having a date of execution set.

However I do feel differently about certain laws and how they are carried out. Our so called Drug War is and has been a failure from the get go. If they treat drug addiction as a health problem, and they do. Shouldn't they be treated as it is a disease?

Besides the fact that the government lets the drugs into our country. Afghanistan is one of the world larges producers of heroin. BBC report Business Afghanistan retakes heroin crown. For further information and my source. Monday, 3 March, 2003
copy and paste
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2814861.stm

Also mental health is a problem since we closed most of the psychiatric hospitals. During De institutionalization then the community center was started. Because not all patients go see the doctor and therapist. Many don't take the medication that they need. The Drug war has really added to the mentally ill population in prison. Now most prisons have a mental health ward for mentally ill. Check sourses and further facts about mental health and the prison system. Cut and paste into browser.
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/47631

Karen

I think jails are necessary for some criminals, they are dangerous and they need to be off of the streets, also being in jail gives their victims and their victims loved ones peace of mine. The non violent criminals might benifit more from programs that teach them how to be a more functioning member of society. Possible training centers, required education, or work programs, as much as we send to imprison each inmate we could certainly send them to a community college. Of course there would have to be very strict requirments and failure to meet any of them would mean jail time. I think if someone is willing to try to improve their life, and they are not violent or dangerous the world would be better served if they had the opportunity to do so.

Short term incarceration may work. A weekend in jail was the kick in the ass my cousin needed to straighten out her life, especially when she was told if there was another stay, it would be much longer.

Prison is a different matter. You've got people who feel they have absolutely nothing left to lose. There is little or no rehabilitation offered. One can learn only how to continue the violence and crime.

There are too many people locked up for petty stuff. I met a guy who was serving 20 years - the bulk of the sentence was for the marijuana joint he had in his pocket when he was caught comitting a theft. What kind of sense does that make?

Prison is it's own society and people who live in it too long forget how life works outside the cell.

Jails don't work because there is no forced rehab in them. Make the inmates do something to better themselves for their future. If nothing else make them work everyday to pay their way. Educate them, but make sure they have no choice at to being educated.

I recently read an article thatstates that 1 in every 100 americans are in prison or jail...which is accounting for the jails and prisons being full and is why most criminals now are getting the lighter sentencing of just probation or corrections.

The reason a person is sent to jail is because he ot she has either been arrested for a crime or been sentenced for a crime. Being incarcerated is the price you pay for that--you give up your freedom. Working as a corrections officer, I talked to guys who liked jail--they had a warm bed, three meals a day, showers, clean clothes and bedding, they could go to the gym, other programs. Some worked on their GEDs.

Prisons operate differently in different states. I like programs where they either have to work or go to school or they stay in their cells all day. You can offer all the programs in the world, but unless the inmate has the motivation to do something to change, it won't happen.

There are people who have committed very heinous crimes and should never live in free society again.

Unfortunately, a lot of mentally ill people end up committing crimes and end up in jail. Whether it is the best place or not, I guess it depends on the jail. The one I worked in treated men and women respectfully.

Nope, they don't!

Only temporarily...until they get out.

NO they don't--and I worked in them for 27 years so I should know what I'm speaking about.
Another thing that's been happening in this country is that now we have corporations that work just to privatize prisons--they cost more in the long run that government run prisons, but the neocons are jumping up and down about how great they are--since Reagan we have become more and more meanspirited and don't take into account what we now see as "crime" that other industrilized countries see as "issues"--i.e., drug use. We also are cheerleaders for the 3 strikes and your out and use this with burglaries and other non-violent crimes.
I'm not sure what you mean be "desegregating" prison. In Illinois, inmates are housed by aggression and time of sentence, not race or gang.

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Thanks for your opinions of this topic. I loved to hear what you had to say. Thanks for your opinions.

in my experience with my son, no they dont......

Yes and no is my answer. My husband is a teacher in a state prison in PA and he teaches building trades. He has a good average of his guys once they get out stay out, as they have something they can do to make money besides drugs or stealing to feed their families, which by the way is the reason better than 1/2 of them did it for, which nobody can really understand until they have to watch their little ones do without and go hungry, and I can honestly tell you it is getting worse, as I personally know people outside the bars as you call them who live in such poverty that it is hard to even explain it and yet they can not get food stamps or much help at all either because the make too much money at their so called jobs, but yet do not make enough to pay their bills and eat too or have health insurance! In my mind something is very wrong there, that people who are trying to help themselves through this world have to live in such poverty and yet others who don't give a rats ass about trying to help themselves get help with food which isn't stamps anymore, I believe it is a card and the other ones I mentioned have to skip meals just to make food last and watch those who don't do a damned thing to help themselves go through the line in the grocery store with all kinds of good meat, like t-bones and roasts and all kinds of good food and goodies galore and they go home with very little! THAT REALLY SICKENS ME! Just because you don't have 15 kids or you make a little too much on your minumin paying job that they have to go hungry just to pay bills and try to live a normal life is no reason for us to starve them to death which is literally what is happening and Dan does our state govt or fed govt give a damn? NO! So now maybe you know why there is so many prisoners in our country! Our country is not what it once was anymore and God help whoever gets to be President next, as they have one hell of a job to do if they think they are going to get us back where we were or even close after this President! He has ruined us and yet he was never impeached or even slapped on the hand, what is with that? He should be ashamed but he still thinks he did a wonderful job! Sorry I went on so long Dan, but I am truly very worried about our once wonderful country who in my heart and anyone I ever see's in in deep trouble. These are terrible times and crime is going to rise more and more unless something is done to help everyone not just imagirants and people who don't even try to help themselves! Our Fore Fathers have to be rolling over in their graves by now!

Jails do what they're supposed to do, and that's to keep those who have been convicted of certain crimes off of the street for some duration of time.

Somehow, we have the impression that they should be behavioral correction institutions, which would be beneficial to society. However, for the more severe criminals, that would require teaching the inmates moral values - a violation of what too many of us perceive as the 'separation of church and state'.

I really do believe that there are some people who simply cannot be changed. There has to be a system in place to punish for crime but I think they are too quick to just throw them all together and leave it go. I agree they should segregate by crime and time.

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My response would take to long to read. I'll leave it at that.

I think they work. Look at Nelson Mandela. He's not a repeat offender.

Beverly is exactly right! There are some who will never change, they don't even want to change, and should never get out, but we cannot put them all in the same catagory with the ones who just made a mistake through the desperate times, as they are very different from the murders and the mentally sick, perverts and ones who just don't care, which I call the ones without souls. There is a saying, "There for the grace of God is me" and that is what some of them are and what some of us someday may become if things do not get better and soon.

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Whether or not rehabilitation works is entirely up to the individual. Prisons are necessary to keep habitual criminals away from innocent victims. For non-violent offenses, alternatives are certainly acceptable and preferable. A habitual sex offender or drunk driver, however, simply cannot be trusted at large in society.

Prisoners are bad people. They've done something wrong and in most cases they've done something very wrong. I don't think they should be taught jobs because they don't try to find a job when they get out. I think they should be made to work hard every day for their three meals a day. They should be worn out when it's time for bed and they won't have any energy for the other things they do. I don't think prisons are hard enough on prisoners. If they were these people wouldn't want to go back.

I think they need to remain segregated. I don't know if you mean segregated by crime type, or by male and female. Either way, they do not need to be mixed.
Better solution than prison? You're going down a slippery slope.

For the most part I don't think Jails work , because they are filled with repeat offenders. However I believe that if they desegregate it should help with the gang population, or at least keep them from recruiting more youths that are locked up for the first time!
Great Article!

Jails serve a purpose. It is hard to say that they are perfect. I do not think that people with small drug possession charges should be locked up forever. Many murderers are set free after only a few years.

I am not sure what a better option would be- but we do need them.

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I think that for SOME people, jail does help. For some others...it is not going to do one bit of good.

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