¶ … prison system. The writer explores the prison system and presents good and bad points about it. The writer argues that the prison system is not an effective one, as is demonstrated by the rate of return by former inmates. There were five sources used to complete this paper. America is well-known for having the largest prison system in the world. The criminal justice system continues to send convicted offenders to the big house, and those who have been released continue to return. Whether or not the prison system is effective has been a topic of hot debate for many years. As prisons are constructed and politicians use crime as a political platform, victims demand harsher sentences while advocates for change allege it won't change things. Prisons in America receive a lot of attention because there are so many inmates within the walls and wire, but the bottom line is the system needs to be changed if it is to become an effective rehabilitation and deterrence tool.

Argument For the Prisons

For those who support the prison system, the fact that America has the largest and most comprehensive system on earth is a comfort. They believe the system removes those who are a danger to society, either physically or morally and allows the rest of society to live freely and safely.

Protection society is the bottom line according to prison advocates and if the inmates are behind steel and wire they are not able to perpetrate their acts of crime upon innocent people.

"Although some of this growth has no doubt been related to fluctuations both in crime -- especially violent crime -- rates and in shifting demographics, noted criminologist Norval Morris sides with Currie and a number of other commentators in arguing that most increases in our prison...

Parole prevents needless imprisonment of those not likely to commit further crimes and who meet the criteria for parole. It protects society as it helps ex-prisoners get established and re- integrated into the community (Lee Lam, 2001). "
Prison protects society according to those who support the system.

Argument against prison

Those who are against the current system point to the large number of return inmates, the constantly growing system needs, and the fact that prison does not seem to intimidate criminals into changing to avoid prison as reasons the system does not work.

The prison population housed more than two million inmates at the end of 1999, with an annual growth rate of seven percent (Prison, 2000).

In theory prisons are meant to rehabilitate those who are sentenced. They are supposed to have time to consider their choices, get the help they need, be removed from society until they change. As they became more crowded the system became more about punishment than reform. Angela Davis, one of America's more famous prisoners speaks about her experiences (Kalscheur, 1999).

"Prisons once presented the possibility of enlightened moral restoration," she said. "Now as the U.S. is emerging as a model of democracy, it is providing a model of the penitentiary for the world (Kalscheur,…