Law Essay Sample: Do US Prisons Rehabilitate or Enable Prisoners?

Prisons have the power to maintain and restrain lawbreakers. To achieve their ultimate goal, prisons usually aim at rehabilitating the prisoners to reform their behaviors and attitudes. Prisons have been therefore more of correction centers than are punishment grounds for lawbreakers until in recent years when most psychologists and researchers began arguing that the prisons main role is to punish criminals. Because of the emerging argument, prisons have begun concentrating on severe punishment thus increasing the numbers of prisoners. Prisons experience several challenges that limit them from achieving their goal of rehabilitating the criminals. The prisoners are taught to obey prison bars within and outside the prison. Thus, any prisoner able to obey these prison bars meets the target of any US prison. The need to fulfill the rehabilitation responsibilities may result to enabling the prisoners into becoming useful participants in the programs. Enabling prisoners is important in utilizing their skills in adding value to the justice systems hence helping in criminal reduction. This paper analyzes a deeper role of the US prisons unto the prisoners, whether it is rehabilitating or enabling them.

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US prisons both rehabilitate and enable prisoners (Craig and Susan Clark, 92-114). However, one of the rehabilitation and enabling responsibilities might overtake the other depending on the kind of prison and the primary focus in prison. In recent years, prisons put more effort in enabling prisoners rather than rehabilitation. The US governments focus on rehabilitating prisoners is to prevent further re-offending instances. The success of rehabilitation regimes sometimes gets hindrances from the increased populations of prisoners thus causing overcrowdings that are hard to maintain. Overpopulated prisons offer less quality rehabilitation services unlike to their lowly populated counterparts. Other hindrances include inadequate prison staff, prisoners transfers and poor prison administrations. Enabling prisoners empowers the prisoners in various ways for instance, enabling the prisoners to become leaders gives them an opportunity to utilize their skills and abilities in govern ship.

Why and how so?

Rehabilitating prisoners aims at preventing further criminal offenses. This has been achieved through canceling the prisoners and giving severe punishments to criminals with greater offenses. However, enabling prisoners especially through education has recently emerged more significant to the prisoners than rehabilitation and strict punishment. The US government now puts much investment in equipping education to prisoners and ensuring that prisoners have fully participated in the learning programs (Reiman, et al. 2015). Previous researchers have disclosed that majority of US prisoners are uneducated thus empowering them through education at different levels such as secondary education and vocational training is beneficial. Enabling prisoners does not only improve their behavior but also equip them with useful skills and are productive in their personal life and the society. Gerber and Fritsch (1993) study showed that prisoners introduced to programs different from the normal prison routines especially those equipping skills helpful in the job market have higher success chances after their release.

United State enables prisoners through different ways. The prisons allow some private industries to take prisoners and employ them for lower wages compared to other employees. The prisoners acquire jobs based on their level of education, experiences, acquired skills and expertise. Working for lesser payment does not mean that prisoners should be mistreated, disrespected or limited from exercising their rights. The government also allows the release of some prisoners but under specific rules and restrictions. Inmates who abide by the rules freely interact and engage in the community services though under parole boards while those who fail to adhere to the rules return to prison. The parole boards then determine the prisoners that can be released from the prison or get job promotions in the community.

What is fair punishment and how much say do victims get in defining fair punishment?

Sentencing a criminal has been a common punishment in which the purpose of imprisonment is to rehabilitate the prisoner (Easton, et al. 262). The prison punishment becomes severe to a prisoner depending on the level of the criminal offense. Fair punishment to my observation is a punishment that matches the intensity of the crime taken by the victim. Philosophers have argued that a punishments fairness should be in relation to the measure of justice sought. The US constitution provides lists of nearly all crimes and their required punishment. This shows the difficulties of judging a punishment's fairness outside the dictations given by the constitution. Most judges measure a punishment's fairness by making a judgment in relation to the constitution's requirements of the specific crime. However, the majority of the victims feel the punishment imposed unto their actions as harsh and unfair.

Despite the victims' feeling of unfairness in the punishment imposed on them, majority has no say or influence in changing the punishment. Having a say to a punishment might mean revenge against the law, and that is prohibited. Normally, most punishments have references from the constitution and are part of the law thus a victim cannot protest against the constitution or the law. Still, a few victims pledge for their punishments especially through their lawyers if the punishment is convincing enough to lack fairness.

In conclusion, prisons have great power in the US and are responsible for accomplishing the imprisonment punishments. US prisons recently enable prisoners, a factor that may outdo rehabilitation of prisoners in future. Punishments are part of law and thus victims have less or no say in it.

Work cited

Craig, Susan Clark. "Rehabilitation versus control: An organizational theory of prison management." The Prison Journal 84.4_suppl (2004): 92S-114S.

Easton, Susan M, and Christine Piper. Sentencing and Punishment: The Quest for Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.

Reiman, Jeffrey, and Paul Leighton. The rich get richer and the poor get prison: Ideology, class, and criminal justice. Routledge, 2015.