Prison Punishment And Its Punishment - 1652 Words

Prison is a place in which people, found guilty of committing a crime or breaking a law, referred to as inmates, are forcibly held against their will. Prison is a place where inmates lose a variety of their given rights and many freedoms as citizens of the united states of america. Prison is a place where inmates wait under the watchful eye of guards for a length of time determined fit or as sentenced to serve by a judge, as a form of punishment. Why prison for punishment? What makes prison a punishment? What is the purpose of prison? There are three goals of incarceration and they are: retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. Retribution by definition is an act of revenge. In this sense the punishment of a prison sentence is†¦show more content†¦The punishment of a prison sentence makes it so that the law breaker, for the amount of time they are ordered to serve, can no longer hurt society. A prison sentence makes the â€Å"bad guy† disappear†¦ Or does it? away innocent people. Deterrence means the prevention of future crime. It is hoped that prisons provide warnings to people thinking about committing crimes, and that the possibility of going to prison will discourage people from breaking the law. Rehabilitation refers to activities designed to change criminals into law abiding citizens, and may include providing educational courses in prison, teaching job skills and offering counselling with a psyc hologist or social worker. The four major purposes of prisons have not been stressed equally through the years. As a result, prisons differ in the makeup of their staffs, the design of their buildings and their operatiorison system was set up in order to rehabilitate prisoners, so they can do there time and be mended back into society as what we would qualify as a productive citizen. Instead of doing this, other factors such as high crime rates and mandatory sentencing have caused an increase to the number of prisoners. This is not only overpopulating our jails but also correlating with the increasing our budget shortfall. In the article States Cut Prison Budgets but Not Prison Populations by Victoria Law she claims, â€Å"Budget shortfalls are prompting California and