Do We Rely Too Much On The Prison System - 1305 Words

In the early years of this country flogging, exile, branding, and the â€Å"stocks† were some of the ways used to punish a guilty offender. Today, though, these types of punishments would quickly be labeled as cruel and unusual forms of retribution. Since we can no longer utilize such forms of punishment, the criminal justice system has turned to; imprisonment, probation, fines, and even the death penalty to help and deter offenders from a life of crime. As the prison population continues to rise in this country health and safety questions rise as well. Not only for the prisoner but for also for the guards that are there to watch over and protect the inmates. It is time to ask some very important questions regarding sentencing alternatives†¦show more content†¦For years, it has been the belief of the American public, politicians, and criminal justice authorities that crime rates in this country were just too large. It has also been the general consensus that in order to stop the rising crime rates, there had to be a great push in the severity of sentencing in the courtroom. Mostly this was done by way of utilizing the maximum sentence for a crime in hopes of deterring others and decreasing the amount of recidivism. One other method was to impose a minimum sentence for certain nonviolent crimes including; driving while intoxicated, drug offenses, child molestation, spousal abuse, and sexual assault. â€Å"Over the past three decades, the United States has built the world’s largest prison system. This system is ten times larger today than it was in the mid-1970s.† (Lynch, 2007)As America’s prison population has grown there has been a lot of debate on whether or not prison is working. Arguably, all intents and purposes of a prison system are to deter crime. The hopes of our criminal justice system, all of its judges, lawyers, and even the American people is that either someone will not commit an offense with fear of going to prison or that if they do, they will not do it again once they have stepped foot inside a correctional institution. Is this the case? Do prisons in fact act as deterrents and reduce crime rates? Lynch goes on his book after a review of several studies