By: Kate Kennelly
While the death penalty has been an extremely controversial topic for decades now, nobody is talking about why our prisons are failing. There are currently over 2,600 Americans that sit on death row. While many of these cases will be revisited and possibly changed, many of these prisoners will still face the death penalty and be executed. Many people believe that execution is a fair punishment. If someone takes a life, it is seen as fair to take that person’s life as well. How beneficial is this, really? Taking lives does not seem to fit into the job of a prison. The job of a prison is to rehabilitate people who have done serious crimes. At the end of one's sentence, they should be able to go back into the world as a functioning and contributing member of society. The idea is to make it so they are no longer a threat, they should want to live a good life. Unfortunately, 77% of first time inmates end up back in the prison system within just five years or less. This statement alone proves that the US prisons are not rehabilitating the inmates like they are supposed to. If US prisons aren’t rehabilitating inmates like they should be, then what is happening? The simple answer is nothing. Inmates are sitting around all day long doing nothing. Some prisons offer classes for an hour or two a day, where inmates can learn skills that can help them get a job, depending on which prisons they are at. However, these classes do not give inmates the change that they need. For example, some prisons have classes where you can learn how to work on a car. While the inmate is incarcerated, they can work on becoming a car mechanic. Once they are out of prison, they would be able to work and make money for themselves, which keeps them out of trouble.While this seems like a great concept, it is very difficult to get into these classes due to limited availability. The classes also only go on for a month or two, leaving inmates with too little knowledge to get a job in that field. While prisons do keep the streets temporarily safer by locking away dangerous people, they are failing to do their job rehabilitating inmates. When the inmates are free, they do not have the skills they need to live a productive working life and struggle to contribute to society, leading them straight back to prison.
2 Comments
Joe Mama
9/27/2019 10:47:28 am
What do you recommend be changed about our current prison system? Should we change the laws to be more lax on smaller crimes or institute a new system in our systems and completely reform the prison system? I agree that our current prison system is not doing enough to help reform prisoners, but then also the prisoner themselves need to be open to be changed. We see large numbers of violence, gang activity, and other worrying activities still going on while people are in prison. While it is a concerning problem, the government or privatized prisons cannot do much to change.
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Writer Kate Kennelly
9/30/2019 02:30:01 pm
Thank you for your comment. I personally believe we are in need of a huge prison reform. The main thing I believe needs to change is they way inmates spend their time in prison. You are correct when you say that prisoners need to be more open to change. The first step prisons need to take is provide them with the opportunities to change. This will allow them the opportunity to change in the first place. The government needs to use their prison funds on classes that will allow these inmates to learn life skills and prepare them to go back out to the community as a contributing member of society.
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