U.S. Corrections Systems the Current U.S. Prison

U.S. Corrections Systems

The current U.S. prison system has several purposes, including retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. (Legal Encyclopedia, 2011). Although the current model is attempting a greater emphasis upon rehabilitation, this objective has met varying successes and failures. One of the most legitimate criticisms against prison rehabilitation programs is the fact that the treatment involved is compulsory or coercive. This factor then led to the likelihood of returning to criminal activity once the prisoner is released.

According to the Legal Encyclopedia (2011), there have been advances in rehabilitation programs that have in fact proved to reduce recidivism. The success of these programs are based upon their focus on offenders' needs and on improving their cognitive and social skills. Recidivism resulting from these programs amounted to 30% or more.

Because of the high costs of maintaining and constructing prisons, the rehabilitation purpose has enjoyed increased attention over recent years. Simply removing an offender from society is no longer financially viable in the United States. Hence, there is a current movement towards rehabilitation, not only within the prison system itself, but also within the community. This is especially the case for low-risk offenders such as substance abusers, whose incarceration only drives prison costs upwards.

On might therefore say that, today, the main purpose of incarceration is becoming increasingly focused upon rehabilitation, particularly as a result of the high costs of maintaining the prison system, as well as overcrowding in prisons. Because the main aim is to protect society, critics of the current prison system note that long-term incarceration does not serve this purpose, mainly because of its excessive costs.

In this light, sentencing has been the focus of much critical attention. According to Gets (2010), more than 750,000 people were incarcerated in 2007. Of this number, the author notes that only a little more than half were court sentences, of which only about a quarter were for violent crimes. The majority of prison terms were imposed by drug crimes, followed by property crimes and public disorder offenses. The remaining half of prison populations consisted of probation or parole violators.

The amount of prison terms imposed by sentencing is therefore significant, especially in the low-risk, non-violent categories such as property crime.

According to Gest (2010), each additional year to keep an inmate in prison is about $24,000. Although the crime rate has dropped, and the justice system is operating more efficiently, the likelihood of beign arrested for violent crime and being incarcerated has increased over recent years. Conviction rates for crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault has increased significantly at the beginning of millennium, with the total number of convictions exceeding 1 million in 2004. These numbers are significant in terms of the total cost of conviction policies. Hence, professionals and critics have started considering new policies on convictions and rehabilitation programs, which would actually serve society by reducing the cost of the prison system. This would then result in more money to be poured into constructive social purposes.