Reference no: EM133757454 , Length: word count:300

Question: It should become apparent that although everyone would like to embrace all of the objectives of incarceration, it really isn't possible for a variety of reasons. Let me suggest two of the most important reasons:

1. The citizens of the jurisdiction in question have gone through an intense process of enacting sentencing laws that reflect the majority feeling of the stakeholders.

2. Fiscal resources are, in fact, limited and thus the outcome of policy has to be tied to those resources.

In other words, it is time to understand as aspiring correctional administrators that you cannot be "everyman" and represent all interests. You can be fair handed, but you have a duty to accomplish the mission and goals of the organization and the citizens that you serve. It is easy to understand why one would want to protect the public, punish criminals, change the criminal behavior so they never returned to prison, and efficiently warehouse inmates until the sentence is concluded. However, there just isn't enough money in the world to do all of those things. This is what prioritizing is all about. It is important for all administrators to understand what they believe to be the purpose of corrections and begin to be able to articulate that position effectively . This leads to the week's current discussion. Please pick 1(one) of the five purposes of incarceration presented in the text that you most strongly believe to be the highest priority of incarceration and discuss why you believe that to be true. One purpose of this assignment is to make sure that you understand the proper academic and professional terms that are used in connection with this discussion, so make sure you use the professional terms that are included in the reading assignments. If you select more than one of the five purposes of incarceration, you have done this assignment incorrectly and will lose credit for this week's assignment. After defending your point of view, please respond to at least one of the other students who did not agree with you and provide some constructive criticism to that student in an attempt to convince them that your position is more appropriate.

Lakeshia

The highest priority of incarceration for me would be Punishment (Retribution). For many years the justice system has tried various ways to in some way still accommodate those who committed and had engaged in illegal acts of crime and violence. Having that leniency made individuals feel too comfortable, where they would get out of jail from a crime and then end up right back in jail for the exact same crime. Learning no self control, having no remorse for the crimes they have committed and making a mockery of our judicial system. Years later and now justices are fed up with people continuously committing crimes and not being held fully accountable for them. Punishment (retribution), consists of punishing a criminal with the intent of giving them proper sentencing for the crime they have committed and giving them prison time where they would have to learn from their bad actions. Criminals should be held accountable where it gives the victims families a sense of relief that the justice system did not fail them. Stop letting people commit awful crimes and get away with it with no consequences or repercussions.

One of the five purposes of incarceration that I believe is the highest priority is rehabilitation. There are alternate purposes that are valid as well, but I feel rehabilitation should be the highest priority in the prison system today. With budgets soaring within the prison system, many supervisors, managers, and administrators are trying to find ways to reduce spending. Rehabilitation will offer a positive fiscal result, but not as a short term financial goal. Implementing programs, grants, and initial funds that would offer services to rehabilitate inmates will reap a positive reward on the back end of the prison budget. The goal with rehabilitation is to offer services that the offender lacked at some point which caused the incarceration. These can include, substance abuse, mental health, and financial issues, and lack of employment and job training. If we add in work and training programs this would add to the initial financial impact of a rehabilitation program. The reward is that if implemented appropriately, recidivism rates would decrease which in turn lowers the financial responsibility of housing for prisoners as well as the costs associated with maintaining costs for medical, mental health, and miscellaneous items that housing an inmate requires. The rate at which America's prison population is rising is directly related to the U.S. Correctional systems inability to correct inmates (Seigafo, 2017). As a country we are punishing inmates more harshly as opposed to rehabilitating and correcting the behaviors. Re-entry and transitional preparation is making up for deficits created by removing people from the community for extended periods of time (Wright 2020). By balancing these deficits within the inmate population and offering transitional and rehabilitative services we are benefiting both financially and by lowering recidivism rates within the prison system.