The effectiveness of imprisonment as punishment and rehabilitation

Prison Problem

"The violence people bring into the world has its roots in violence they witnessed, or which was done to them, at very young ages."

-Bruce Western

People usually commit crime in a hopeless effort to pacify a paining urge that must have hurt them at some point in life. They may be taking revenge, satisfying a psychological craving, fulfilling a passion or simply just unknowingly committing a crime; a price is always to be paid for their profane action. Imprisonment of people charged guilty of committing a crime is practiced nearly all over the world and is actually a way of the society to exhibit that it rejects actions which can potentially compromise the safety of citizens (Gendreau, 1999). History also has evidence regarding imprisonment of those who spread despair in society but in ancient times the convict had to undergo a similar treatment as punishment that he had inflicted on his victim, mostly in the form of bodily suffering (Cragg, 2002). Fortunately, now the aims associated with punishment are more humane and are fully justifiable as they focus on punishment that would encourage deterrence from crime and rehabilitation (Foucault, 2008). The extent to which they are being achieved by the system now is, however, questionable.

The Purpose of Imprisonment and Punishment

From the strategy of corporal punishment, the world has now moved towards objective imprisonment in which offenders of society are removed from it for a period of time so they no longer remain able to carry on with their hostile behavior (Cragg, 2002). This isolation is meant to function as a means of punishing the criminal and also to gain contention of society that retribution is taking place; it is supposed to deter the lawbreaker from committing more crime by generating abhorrence for his own acts in his heart so he may know the futility of his actions; and finally that time of seclusion should sculpt a new person out of the criminal who may be able to act as a functional and acceptable part of the society when he returns to it (Johnson, 1996).

Living Conditions Provided to Imprisoned Persons

The whole idea of imprisonment revolves around solitude and segregation. The culprit is isolated from the world, everything that stimulates his criminal behavior and even from other criminals in social contact (Cragg, 2002). The restrictions that entangle the convict in prisons may be harsh but these restrictions intend to debilitate and smother all personality traits that render the criminal harmful or dysfunctional in the society.

The aims with which imprisonment and its design is suggested for offenders is defensible as it is society itself that demands justice but the actual physical and mental outcomes as compared to the intended ones are highly debatable. The solitary confinement which is destined to give the prisoners a chance to deem over their past and make amends has proved to be nothing but an inhumane torture that often yields even more deteriorated personalities out of the convicts (Johnson, 1995). Delusions, claustrophobia, depression, panic and mild to extreme madness are traits of some of the mental disorders that attack the prisoner.

Imprisonment: Eliminating or aggravating crime?

It is not a hidden matter that jails, even after intensive care and security, are not free of brutality, stress and violence among the inmates. The safety of each and every inmate is threatened as well as the prisoner himself is a threat to other's safety. Record of prisons show that constant fear and stress hardly cure the offenders. More than 2.2 million Americans are imprisoned at this time; this population remains dynamic and the number of people released is quite near to the number of people who go back (Gudrais, 2013). The released persons, although apparently lucky, have to face the world from where they were rejected before with an even more smudged past. Unfortunately, more than two thirds of the people released are arrested again. This ratio raises a very significant question on the status of prisons as remedial facilities for offenders of the society (Gudrais, 2013).

Lack of social support and rehabilitative services to the prisoners carry a heavy cost to the offender. Locking up people and being ignorant towards their basic human needs is not humane as well; this strategy does not work anymore. Crime itself is stimulated by poverty, addiction and family violence and providing the same conditions in prison is not a punishment. It is actually a recap and reinforcement of what the prisoner faced before being imprisoned.

Imprisonment was designed with the intention of curing the society's wrongdoers and not to compel them to loathe the society even more. They are in actuality correctional facilities doing a noble job for everyone in the world. Instead, now prisoners go to jail and return even more psychologically disturbed and contorted. Social security institutions have to develop methods and living conditions in jails and prisons that provide a reformatory environment to the prisoner; he should be able to recognize his crime as a 'crime and wrong-doing.' Once out of jail, the formerly incarcerated person should ideally be able to live a productive life without being a public safety threat.

Psychologists and psychiatrists play a significant role as well as people who have had spent some part of their life in prison are now functional citizens. Inspiration of seeing a similar person living a wholesome life can be the very best incentive. Psychologists, on the other hand, are able to understand and manipulate the mental situation and turmoil experienced by the prisoners and recommend programs that will suit best to an inmate for his mental and social remedy. A person in prison has to be helped in dealing with the reality that he is facing in a way that he grows out of it as a better and improved individual at the very least.