Introduction
In theory, there are five primary purposes and objectives of the United States’s prison system—deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution, and restitution—that work together to keep communities safe and eventually integrate inmates into non-harming, productive contributors to society.
Deterrence
The possibility of being incarcerated acts as deterrence for a potential crime. When punished, the offender and the public are less likely to commit other crimes due to fear of future, possibly worse, consequences.
Incapacitation
Prisons incapacitate and remove criminals from the outside world to prevent them from committing future crimes.
Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation is the active training and counseling of an offender to rectify his or her behavior in hopes of a positive return to mainstream society.
Retribution
Retribution eradicates the desire for personal retaliation against the perpetrator because individuals are content with the punishment and thus have confidence and faith in the law enforcement system.
Restitution
Court orders the perpetrator to pay their victims for any damages inflicted (Criminal Law, 2015).
While all aspects can be considered when discussing the efficiency of the United States’s prison system, for the sake of length and meaningful discussion, I will focus on rehabilitation in measuring the success of prisons. To do so, I will examine what defines rehabilitation and how the United States lacks success in this field.
What Defines Rehabilitation?
As noted before, the purpose of rehabilitation is to alter a prisoner’s behavior through various techniques and treatments so that he or she is capable of re-entering society as a lawful member (Thomas et al., n.d.). Through correctional reforms, perpetrators are thus less likely to commit future criminal activity. Effective examples of rehabilitation may include educational and artistic programs, vocational training, specific treatment center placements, substance abuse therapy centers, and mandatory private and group counseling (Criminal Law, 2015). Overall, the system must provide services and programs that engage prisoners in beneficial activities and also heal them from pre-existing struggles.
Negligent Living and Health Conditions
Unequivocally, prisons are mainly ineffective, even sub-human, concerning overall treatment and care. For instance, physical and hygiene conditions can be squalid. As a result of overcrowding, disease transmittance, and negligence in providing mental health care, prisons fail to promote healthy healing. For almost 50 years, the number of people incarcerated in the United States has multiplied more than 4 times. Additionally, since 1970, the numbers have risen by 700%. Putting this into perspective, this means that one in every 99 citizens are in prison. As a result, prisoners must sleep in hallways or gyms. Inmates may also be bunked in groups of 3 or 4. Overpopulated prisons consequently lead to uncleanliness and lack of health care (ACLU, 2015).
High-density conditions cause diseases and illnesses to spread at great rates, effectively putting inmates in danger. Health conditions decline in prisons because of poor nutrition, sub-standard sanitation, minimal access to fresh air, and nonexistent opportunities for exercise. Consequently, physical ailments such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C, sexually transmitted diseases, skin diseases, Malaria, and Tuberculosis (TB) run rampant. When examining certain countries with high rates of TB, the prevalence of this disease can be up to 100 times higher behind bars. This is because inmates spend long periods in close proximity where Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB, spreads through droplets released via coughs and sneezes (CDC 2016). Similarly, in most countries, HIV infection rates within prisons are significantly higher than those outside of prisons. Prisons have notably been referred to as “reservoirs of disease” on account of this data (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2020). The prison system’s acceptance of these conditions proves the lack of care for an inmate’s renewed and healthy return to society.
Data attest to the devastating effects of the prevalence of diseases in prisons, more recently seen during the Coronavirus pandemic. Due to the confined living cells with multiple inmates in each, airborne viruses that are highly infectious put prison mates at higher risk of infection. In June 2020, prisoners in the United States were 5.5 times more likely to contract the virus and 3 times more likely to die from it than the general public. In August 2020, 90 percent of the most significant outbreaks in confined areas transpired in densely packed prisons. Suffering multiple outbreaks for another year, in June 2021, there were 512,864 cases among all prisoners and staff members, including 3,000 deaths. One of the greatest issues was the lack of care and testing, which resulted in underrepresented numbers. During the early stages of the pandemic, prisons were told that “there was no need to test prisoners” (The Marshall Project, 2021). Overall, many prisoners were left not knowing they were carrying a highly contagious disease, and its proliferation was further accelerated than within other populations. Even for tested individuals, facilities like FCC Oakdale in Louisiana allowed inmates to stay in their cell units near others without proper isolation or ventilation.
Mental Health
Beyond neglection of physical health, correctional facilities fail to meet prisoners’ mental health needs, especially those who suffer from diagnosed illnesses. In the United States’s prison system, over 50% of inmates battle with mental illnesses ranging from schizophrenia, paranoia, anxiety, delusional psychosis, and deep depression (Equal Justice Initiative, n.d.). Despite the prevalence of mental illnesses in prisons, facilities fail to properly treat patients through therapy, psychotropic drugs, and self-nourishing activities such as walks, workouts, journaling, or listening to music. Instead, these prisoners are forcibly placed in isolated mental observation units or sent to solitary confinement where suicide rates are high. Solitary confinement can psychologically impair individuals, resulting in hallucinations, paranoia, hypersensitivity, and an increased risk of suicide. In fact, 73 percent of suicides in Californian prisons took place in solitary confinement (Fair Fight Initiative, 2022).
In the case of Karl Taylor, there are evident displays of the prison system’s lack of concern for mental health. Karl Taylor, an inmate at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in New York State, suffered from a delusional disorder and paranoid personality disorder. Although the court ordered psychotropic medication and other recommendations for him, the prison failed to meet them. The prison also failed to nurture and provide him with healthy diversions such as music, reading, or personal property. Instead, the prison provided merely two trips to a psychiatric hospital and lengthy periods in solitary confinement, which only exacerbated his mental state. For some time, Karl Taylor was transferred to Great Meadow prison and stayed in a unit for the mentally ill. There, his symptoms became less intense, and his cellmates described him as “in excellent shape.” He had time to enjoy rehabilitative activities he liked and would go outside in the yard, listen to music, sing along to his favorite artists, Donna Summer and Barbara Streisand, work out, and exercise. Taylor’s mental state improved when moving to a specialized unit that focuses on mental well-being. This demonstrates how placing inmates struggling with mental illness in accepting environments foster mental soundess and growth, which will ready them once released (The Marshall Project, 2018).
Guard Violence
The intensity of violence inside prisons stresses the extent to which prisons don’t work when protecting and healing the inmates. Instead of enforcing rules to keep inmates in check and free from harm, correctional officers are—to a considerable extent—responsible for more harm than good. In many instances, guards abuse prisoners verbally and physically, leading to their deaths. Furthermore, the guards do not attempt to mitigate tense situations among prisoners. As prisoners are threatened, raped, stabbed, passed drugs, and tied up, guards fail to take action or even notice and inflict more violence, especially by repositioning cameras and attacking at night (Eisen, 2020). Officers prey on the vulnerable and powerless instead of humanely treating and guiding them to be better individuals.
Another example of abuse from guards is clearly seen in cases of female prisoners. Female prisoners are at higher risk of harassment as they are frequently sexually abused by male officers. For example, more than 50 interviewed women in Julia Tutwiler Prison reported many cases of strip shows, rape, sexual, verbal abuse and harassment, viewing of prisoners showering, and voyeurism. Female prisoners live in a constant state of fear and are scared to use the available Prison Rape Elimination Act hotline because of possible retaliation from male guards. Although investigations of Tutwiler prison resulted in the conviction for “criminal sexual abuse of incarcerated women” of six officers, only one served more than five days in prison (Equal Justice Initiative, n.d.). Investigation and reports reveal extensive abuse female prisoners suffer, but the law is not taking enough action where there is a lack of responsibility and accountability.
The Norway Paradigm: A Model Prison System
So what constitutes a prison that does work? In my research, I found that the Norway prison system is most successful in humanely rehabilitating inmates. In Norway’s prison system, the primary focus is on “restorative justice” where inmates are treated as members of a rehabilitation facility rather than as criminals in prison. Notably, inmates are placed in nurturing environments that help them feel a sense of normalcy – something one cannot receive in United States’s prisons. Rooms are designed as individual dorm rooms, consisting of a toilet, shower, fridge, flat TV screen, and windows without iron bars (Dorjsuren, 2020). To maintain their sense of freedom, inmates are allowed to access kitchens with sharp objects and socialize in common gathering areas (Sterbenz, 2014). During the day, inmates can partake in relaxing, enjoyable activities that ease their emotional and mental stress. Activities include participating in yoga classes, woodworking, making ceramics, exercising, gardening, playing board games, attending worship ceremonies in The Holy Room, and spending time in nature (Dorjsuren, 2020). Norwegian prison systems also devote two to three years to training and educating officers—as opposed to three months in U.S. systems—in various fields of study such as law, criminology, ethics, and English, as well as riot prevention and security training. Highly trained guards are well equipped to deal with inmates and violence in a compassionate, mitigating manner. In fact, guards act as mentors and motivators instead of aggressors and enemies. Prisoners and guards interact as comrades who eat meals, play sports, and engage in other restorative activities together (BBC, 2019). These amiable relations allow officers to diffuse tense situations quickly, significantly reducing violent incidences.
These factors transform dangerous criminals into valuable members of society, effectively rehabilitating them. Through workshops and activities, offenders find new purposes and occupations; among the unemployed offenders, there is a 34% increase in attending employment training and a 40% increase in employment rates. Regarding recidivism, defined as “a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior” by Merriam Webster, Norway has the lowest rate in the world: 20%. In contrast, the United States has a 76.6% recidivism rate, almost four times that of Norway (Sterbenz, 2014). This data conveys the effectiveness of Norway’s prison system and the necessary actions taken to rehabilitate prisoners.
A Positive Vision for the Future
Undoubtedly, the current United States’s prison system is highly ineffective. Across a broad continuum of issues, improvements must be made to facilitate successful rehabilitation for the prisoners. We are not simply housing people in perpetuity: we are healing and rehabilitating them so they can re-enter society as mentally and physically healthy. Most importantly, we are mentoring and guiding people to serve as positive contributors to society. No matter the crime, no matter the cause or the geographical place, people are human beings who deserve a level of dignity and personal safety.
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