Death Penalty and Prisons

¶ … personal stance on the privatization of prisons versus traditional government run-facilities is against. I believe privatized prisons seek maximum profit at the expense of prisoners. That means lower quality food, cramped and full facilities, and limited rights to prisoners. Furthermore, because more prisoners, equals higher profits, private prisons may and have sought to lobby for policy that makes arresting people easier and keeping them behind bars easier.

"The two largest for-profit prison companies in the United States -- GEO and Corrections Corporation of America -- and their associates have funneled more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying efforts" (Cohen, 2015). This kind of behavior seems unethical, thus leading to the notion that it is unethical for prisons to focus on profit. Lobbying for bills and legislature that would favor deregulation of private prison processes and increasing the number of prisoners sent to private prisons is wrong.

Prisons are like public libraries and hospitals. They should not be privatized as they are an essential part of modern society. If people decide to privatize what should be government-run that leaves room for corruption and lobbying that would curtail any real efforts at promoting civility and justice in society. The phasing out of corporate-run prisons by the Justice Department is a great idea.

As a 2016 article noted, many of these prisons have a higher incident rate and do not perform their job duties adequately, making them useless for the present prison population. "An inspector general's report released last week found "more safety and security incidents per capita" at the corporate-run prisons compared with those run by the federal Bureau of Prisons" (Savage, 2016). These prisons fail to fulfill their obligations properly and simply aim to gain the most profit from the prisoners staying at their facilities.

Community corrections programs are part of the Department of Justice's effort to rehabilitate criminals. Criminal rehabilitation is an important aspect of any society. People that have committed crimes stand to improve with rehabilitative efforts versus punitive efforts. While people assume placement of these programs may affect communities and citizens, they often do not a decrease recidivism rates. While some programs are better than others, overall, they provide a benefit.

Those programs that focus on rehabilitative efforts like Functional Family Therapy produce reduce recidivism rates while others focused on electronic monitoring do not. Monitoring and other measures are done by correctional officers. They monitor prisoners in jail. When they engage with the inmate population, they must hold an ethical standard that does not violate ethical codes of conduct. Should they violate these codes, like sexually harassing or assaulting an inmate, or allowing inmates to hurt other inmates, they should be promptly arrested and face trial.

There needs to be control and civility when correctional officers perform their job as it could adversely affect the prison population should they not face consequences for their actions. Those actions should land them in with the very prison population they oversaw. Housing corrupt correctional officers in the very population they mistreated can teach them the value of ethical conduct. While some correctional officers face no punishment and simply a transfer, some have been sentenced to prison.

"Cosman and Lowery pleaded guilty to four counts: conspiring to deprive the victim of his constitutional rights; depriving the victim of his constitutional rights under color of law; obstructing justice by conspiring to file false reports; and filing false reports" (Lyons, 2016). Thus leading to the conclusion that it is acceptable to punish and imprison correctional officers for their professional misconduct. Crime should be punished. People that are punished can be monitored and it does help diminish the level of crime in society.

However, there are limits that must be maintained in order to avoid chaos in the criminal justice system. For example, physical punishment must not be allowed. Under no circumstances is physical punishment appropriate. So many people are beaten and killed by law enforcement officials that inflict physical punishment. This often leads to lawsuits and the police departments paying millions out to grieving families. Not only is it inhumane to beat someone, but it is ineffective in curbing bad behavior.

If anything, it adds to the budgetary concerns of law enforcement and creates unnecessary workloads and investigations. When discussing the death penalty, the death penalty had its place in America. However, as people have moved away from the death penalty, it seems it would be costlier to maintain it versus remove it entirely. This is due to the number of prisoners maintained in death row. Death row inmates are more expensive to keep than regular inmates. Furthermore, many death row inmates spend decades without facing the death penalty.

This seems like an.