Reading Blog due Tuesday 4/3 @ midnight

Chapter 16 is entitled Corrections: Sentencing, Imprisonment, and Alternatives. As the title implies this chapter discusses our countries corrections system and how it functions. I found this chapter to be interesting because it taught me a lot of things I didn’t know about the corrections system. I’ve never really thought a lot about corrections and how it has evolved over the years and what it is aiming to do. After reading this chapter I realize there is more to the corrections system than simply keeping criminals off the streets and punishing them. This system has undergone a number of changes based on different ideas of what a corrections institution should be.

Imprisonment starts with the sentencing. Once a defendant has completed a trial or agreed on a plea agreement, they must be punished. This can be done in terms of paying a fine, doing community service, or serving time in jail or prison. Those who decide the punishment of a criminal take many things into consideration including internal and external causes. Internal causes are thing dealing with personality and free will, whereas situational forces cause external causes. Similarly, judges and jurors also take into consideration whether or not somebody has control over their criminal behavior or whether or not the cause for the behavior was temporary or permanent.

There have been some issues with consistency in sentencing. People who commit the same crimes do not necessarily allows receive the same punishment. To help remedy this issue states and the federal government constructed sentencing guidelines to help decided on appropriate sentences. These guidelines generally list factors that should be considered when deciding on the correct punishment. Such factors would include: type of crime, viciousness of crime, defendant’s prior criminal record, circumstances of the current offense, and the average sentence given in the past for similar crimes. Unfortunately, judges are not required to abide by these guidelines, they are only their as reference. A more radical approach known as determinate sentencing requires judges to pass a sentence within a specific range based on the particular crime the defendant is found guilty of. This was created out of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which hoped to show that elected officials are “tough on crime”. A third way in which sentencing is controlled is through the “three-strikes” law, which states that a criminal must receive a long sentence of a life sentence when they have been convicted of their third felony.

I also thought reading about the evolution of prisons was interesting. Many of the older methods I have seen depicted in films but never really thought of as an actual way in which people were punished in the absence of large prisons that we have today. Public shaming was the original form of punishment, which included the use of stocks or being publicly whipped. Prisons went from being solitary to being more social and active. It’s sounds as if even today we might not have the prison system right. I never realized that all of these revisions to the system have been being made so recently. I was somewhat surprised to learn that the US imprisons way more people per year than many other countries. I’m not sure if this has to do with our sentencing system (perhaps we given prison sentences more often), or whether or not we just have more crime in general.

It has been common knowledge that life in prison is not easy. Gangs have made their way inside the prison walls. Life can be easy if you know and make friends with the right people, but it can also be horrible if you cause trouble. In a way I think that the presence of gangs and the hierarchical status prisoners are given does not help prisoners rehabilitate. It doesn’t take them away from the crime, instead I think it makes them tougher or makes them remain tough because otherwise they won’t be able to survive even inside of the prison walls.

I decided to take a closer look at the Attica Prison riot in 1971. I have never heard of this riot before and really didn’t even know that riots have happened that recently. It’s actually pretty scary. Attica is a maximum-security prison in New York. Thirteen hundred prisoners had rebelled and taken over the prison, holding forty guards hostage. The prisoners had a list of demands they wanted to see carried out, which included better living conditions as well as educational and training programs. They prisoners started negotiating with state officials. Unfortunately, these negotiations failed and police and National Guard troops seized the prison and killing 43 individuals during the process. Riots such as this raise a lot of questions. Not only does it bring a lot of attention to our prisons it also makes us question whether conditions really do need to be changed.

http://www.talkinghistory.org/attica/

A criminal is sentenced by the judge, the jury, and the public based on the seriousness of the crime and the attributions about the crime. When people try to explain the behavior of a person they have to look at the differences between the internal causes and external causes. Internal causes are behaviors attributed to personality or individual choice. External causes are behaviors that attribute to the situation or environment of the criminal. Psychologists look at controllability and stability. Controllability refers to whether or not a person could have controlled there behaviors, and stability refers to whether the cause appears to be temporary or permanent.

Everyone is aware that race, while it shouldn’t, plays a part in sentencing. A study showed that all judges evaluate case files different. Race and gender are just two things that cause different evaluations when people commit the same crime. African Americans usually are treated more harshly, while women are treated more leniently. It was also discovered that male judges give women lighter convictions. Since these inequalities are very bad for the system some states have created sentencing guidelines. Sentencing guidelines are to help the judges decide on appropriate sentences. These guidelines don’t have to be followed by the judge, just considered by them. There is also the determinate sentencing, which requires judges to hand down a sentence that falls within a prespecified range if a defendant is found guilty of a particular crime.

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 was created to try to stop the disparities. The judges have to follow a chart to figure out how long the criminals’ sentence should be. The chart only takes into account there prior criminal record and the severity of the crime. This is a problem because it doesn’t take into account their age, intelligence level, family relationships, employment stability, education, and drug addiction. Problems arose with this mandatory system so they changed it to an advisory system instead. Other states have the three-strikes law. This law requires that criminals receive a long sentence or a life sentence when they are convicted of three felonies. This is a problem in some states because they have to harsh of rules on it so people can go to prison for life when they committed unharmful acts. Parole is the releasing inmates from prison under the supervision of a parole officer before their entire sentence has been served. This decision is usually made by a panel or parole board.

Jails, prisons, federal prisons, and supermax prisons are all types of imprisonment. They all range from minimum to maximum security. Jails are short term cells operated by cities or counties and administered by local authorities. Prisons are where convicted criminals for long periods of time go. Federal prisons are for people who break federal laws. Supermax prisons are for people deemed to be especially serious or violent criminals. Here inmates are held in small cells, interaction is tightly controlled, and educational and recreational opportunities are scarce or entirely absent.

Some goals of imprisonment are incapacitation, deterrence, retribution, and rehabilitation. Incapacitation is when the criminal is contained inside of the prison so that they can’t hurt anyone outside. Deterrence is the hope that the prison sentence will stop the criminal from committing the act again when released. General deterrence is a sub-goal of deterrence. Its hope is that other people will choose not to commit crimes because they fear going to prison. Third goal of retribution is about getting revenge. The last goal of rehabilitation is to get the criminals prepared to be released back into society.

Punishments and prisons in the United States have been evolving over time. At first people were publicly shamed when they did something wrong. This allowed the community to see them, yell at them, and throw stuff at them. In the 1800’s people learned that it wasn’t just the individual criminal to blame for his actions, but also the community or social disorganization. The Pennsylvania plan was created to help rehabilitate criminals into society. This plan required inmates to remain in their cells for virtually their entire sentence. This plan made the inmates eats alone, work alone, and sleep alone. This was the created because humans are naturally social beings and this technique would cause people to not want to go to prison. In the 1900’s, medical and social sciences stepped into the picture. This was the time where people believed that the inmates had mental issues that needed to be fixed. Also in the 1900’s is when people started to bring up that prisons used brutality and were ineffective. There would even be some antiprison movements.

Over the years the rights of prisoners have been growing. They started out with no rights and that slowly changed over time. They were allowed to get mail and that was a good thing, but other to get other rights would take a lot of work. Now there is an act that will help protect inmates from rape. Also they can get medical treatment if they have a mental disorder, but it has to be thoroughly proven before the medical process would begin.

The statistics in this chapter were interesting to me. I was shocked to find out that our rate of incarceration is 5x higher than any other industrialized democracies. I also found it shocking that California has the most people in its prison system then France, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan combined. Our numbers are so high because we have cracked down on a lot of things like drugs, and juvenile crimes.

Prisonization is the assimilation of new inmates into the values, norms, and language of the prison. The fact that prisons are getting big enough to get gangs from the outside to form on the inside is very dangerous. Prison officials and other inmates can give rewards and punishments. There have been many research attempts done to try to understand prison life. These experiments are done to try to better the prison system. They found out that giving guards more power makes them more violent. Researchers have to rely on observation for most of their experiments because they don’t want to put anyone into danger. A main feature to prison life is violence. Violence is used to settle arguments between inmates, and also prison officials may use violence. Gangs are very dangerous in prisons because of the fact that the inmates outnumber the guards.

Prisons are a very expensive operation and it cost the tax payers a lot of money. The tax payers have to pay for everything that the inmates get. We also have to pay for medical needs. Incapacitation isn’t enough to succeed in the goals of prisons because such a high percentage of those released back into society get arrested again. Another name for that is the recidivism rate. Rehabilitation programs are more likely to succeed in their goal if they do the following: correct education and job skills, change attitudes and thinking patterns, improve self-awareness and self-esteem, enhance interpersonal relationship skills, reduce drug abuse, and reduce contact with criminal peers.

Some alternatives to prison are restitution, probation, house arrest, and residential community correction centers. Restitution is paying back the victims with money or labor for the crime they committed. Probation is when you suspend the jail or prison sentence and release the criminal into the community under the supervision of a probation officer. House arrest is enforced through some form of electronic monitoring system. In this type of punishment they are limited in the places that they can go. Residential community correction centers are places where groups of offenders live in a communal environment and attend some form of therapy. Alternatives to prison are important because they are cheaper and prison can be too severe of a punishment.

This entire chapter has to deal with social psychology because of the fact that prison is a social environment and everything to do with the rules and regulations has to do with socializing. I decided to look into the gangs in prison aspect of this chapter.

http://www.toptenz.net/10-extremely-dangerous-gangs.php

This is a website that listed the top ten prison gangs in American, and it also gives information on what signs they use and other characteristics.

http://www.gangsorus.com/prison_gangs.html

This website gives so much information on gangs all over. It gives the background of them, different types of gangs, and other information on them.

This chapter mainly focused on what is done with defendants and offenders after they are convicted. The different levels of sentencing and those decisions are reached was discussed first, as well as the goals and types of imprisonment. After conviction comes the sentence. Sentencing is mainly determined by the trial judge, but jurors can have a significant influence. The severity of a sentence is determined by what sort of drove the person to commit the crime. There are four variables to look at here. Was it and internal or external cause? Did the offender have considerable control over their actions? And are they likely to return to the same behavior? Often times internal, controllable and stable causes result in harsher sentences. There are guidelines that should be followed when determining a sentencing. The closeness to which these guidelines are followed depends largely on where you live. Some kinds of crime have a range of time and type of sentence that a person must serve. I thought the guideline sentencing table was very interesting. I had always assumed that sentences were situational and the judges ultimately decided.

The three strikes laws were very intriguing to read about. I had never heard of them before, but they make sense to me. If a person is convicted of a third felony, they receive a very severe sentence that can sometimes include life imprisonment. I do think that the type of crime should be better monitored. The text made it sound like some people get screwed over on small, not very serious felonies. Before this class, I’ll admit, that I was confused about parole. I would always get it confused with probation. This book and the one I read for my book report helped me understand that parole is offered after some time is served. Often times, criminals are eligible because of good behavior.

There are different types of imprisonment that all serve a different purpose. I was a little hazy on this matter before reading the text as well. Jails are used for more short-term, less serious crimes. People often stay here in the time between the arrest and the trial, and also between sentencing and actually serving that sentence. Prisons are used for more serious crimes and longer sentences. Federal prisons are just what their name says, for people who have a run in with the federal law. Supermax prisons are high security prisons that house the most dangerous criminals. What I got out of the text was that, the more severe the crime and sentencing, the more solitary confinement a prisoner gets.

There are many goals of imprisonment. The specific goal that a prison is trying to achieve will have play a significant role in how the prisoners are treated. Incapacitation is one goal that focuses of the safety of society now that “threats” are locked up. Deterrence is supposed to make a criminal not want to have any more run-ins with the law because of how terrible his prison experience was. Retribution is the idea of revenge. Most people seem to think that criminals need to pay for what they did. Rehabilitation is a more peaceful, productive goal. It focuses on actually curing a criminal of his criminal ways, so that once he is released, he will not behave dangerously.

I thought the bits about the history of prisons sections of the book were very interesting because I love learning about history. I knew about public shaming before, and it made me think of how much more less humiliating and brutal committing a crime is. Being spat on and whipped by the people you knew had to have been traumatizing. Also, the Pennsylvania Plan was based on an idea of almost complete solitary confinement. I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life in a cell, by myself with no one to talk to or even look at.

I have seen movies and heard stories about what goes on behind prison bars, and the fear alone is enough to keep me from doing anything that might involve any interaction with the police. Prisonization refers to the integration of new prisoners into inmate life. Many inmates don’t have an easy transition because other inmates make it brutal and sometimes bloody. There are also many gangs in prison, which I found shocking. I guess I always thought that prison were better controlled than they are, but the text made it sound like the prisoners actually hold more power than officers, which is sort of a scary thought.

Prison does not have high success rates, which is disappointing. About 67% of released prisoners will return. There are other alternatives to going to prison, but I haven’t heard many cases where these are exercised. Reinstitution with money or labor, probation, house arrest residential community corrections centers, the first being the most lenient, and the last being the most freedom restricting.

The text didn’t really talk about prison systems in other parts of the world, but I wanted to learn more. Although it has nothing to with the topic, I found an interesting fun fact about the rise of prisons in America. This website said that from 1976 and 2000, America f built on average one prison per week. The website focused mainly on the differences and similarities between Abu Ghraib and American prisons.
http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/resources/torture/brucefranklin.html

Chapter sixteen is about corrections: sentencing, inprisonment, and alternatives and what happens after a defendant is found guilty. The judge, jurors, and the public determine what would be an appropriate punishment for the crime committed based on the seriousness of the crime and some of the attributions of the criminal. They attempt to explain the criminals behavior based on internal and external causes. Also two dimensions of cause: controllability, which is whether or not someone could have controlled their behavior and stability, which is saying if the cause is temporary or permanent. People that commit the same crime don't always get the same punishment. In a study fifty judges were to evaluate twenty cases and say what sentencing they would give. There were major differences in the sentence given from different judges. What one judge gave three years in prison another judge gave twenty-five years with a 65,000 fine for the same case. It was also found that race and gender of the defendant made an impact on the sentence they received. The sentencing guidelines were created to give judges help on deciding appropriate sentences. Determinate sentencing was designed to prevent the public viewing the judge as lenient. This grid helps judge give sentence to guilty defendant that are between a specific range. The three strikes law was passed in 1993 states that criminals convicted on a third offense are required to receive a long sentence or life sentence. Parole is releasing the inmate before their whole sentence has been served under the supervision of a parole officer. Some important characteristics that indicate parol might be broken are bad behavior in prison, initial sentence that is perceived as lenient, going to prison for a violent crime, long criminal history, evidence of mental illness, and family and friends suggesting denial of parole. There are different types of imprisonment: jail, prison, federal prison, and super maximum security prison. Jails are short term holding places for people convicted of misdemeanors and also places where violent criminals can be held before and during trials. It is also where someone convicted stays between conviction and sentencing. Prisons where criminals stay long term. Federal prison are for people who break federal law, presently thirty six percent of federal prison inmates are drug offenders. Super max prisons are for prisoners that are very serious and/or violent. In these facilities prisoners spend twenty three hours a day alone. They have been said to "press the outer bounds of what most humans can psychologically tolerate." Despite these opinions the goals of imprisonment are incapacitation which means that because they are contained they cannot hurt others and society is spared. Deterrence which means that after being released from prison they will not longer commit the crime for the fear of going back, general deterrence hopes to dissuade others as well. Retribution is suppose to make the criminal suffer for the crime they committed and is more of an emotional practice. Rehabilitation is the final goal. It tried to improve criminals since most will eventually be released back into society. Back in the day of the american colonies locals that were guilty they would be publicly shamed. Between 1790 and 1800 there were eight prisons built. In the 1800s social disorganization was being blamed for criminal behavior. The Pennsylvania Plan required criminals to stay in their cell for nearly their whole sentence. Overcrowding became a important problem in prisons and they began double housing inmates two in one cell. In the 1900s it was seen that some criminals that suffered from psychological dysfunctions could benefit from treatment. In the 1960s there was growing concern about the prison conditions. In the 1970s there were a series of prison strikes which led to an anti-prison movement focusing more on rehabilitation. This didn't last long and soon the public was more interested in making the criminal pay for their crime. Prisons sports and recreational programs were ended. During the 1960s and 70's prisons gained rights. Muslims were allowed to copies of the Koran, eat meals without pork, and have religious meetings then prisoners were allowed to receive mail and there was a lawsuit defining minimum health care and raising of the due process standards. There was also limits on overcrowding. The United States has the highest rates of incarceration than any other industrialized democracy. With California holding the most prisoners. The number of people convicted on drug charges has been on the rise. About forty percent have another family member thats been incarcerated and 18% are married. Black males are sent to prison six times more than white males and ninety three percent of prison inmates are males. Prisonization is the integration of new prisoners into the values, norms, and language in the prison. In the Stanford prison study it was found that the guards became obsessed with their power and verbally abusive. The prisoners started showing signs of depression early on and the study was terminated. Some of the effects of prison are being separated from friends and family, no decision making, environment is oppressive, lack of privacy, constant threat of violence, enforced routine. Gangs and drugs have an impact on life behind bars. Prison is a very expensive form of punishment costing on average 24,000 per prisoner per year and as they grow older the cost rises. If you measured the benefit of prison by rehabilitation is would be considered a failure with 67% of ex cons eventually returning to prison within three years. A beneficial rehab program will correct educational and job skill deficits, change attitudes and thinking patterns, improve self awareness and self esteem, enhance interpersonal relationship skills, reduce drug abuse, and reduce contact with other criminals. Besides prison and the death penalty some alternatives are paying restitution, probation, house arrest, and hallways houses all of which are more affordable punishments. I found the three strikes law interesting. http://www.lao.ca.gov/2005/3_strikes/3_strikes_102005.htm This site tells about Californias three strike law and after three offenses the minimum punishment is twenty five years in prison. Since it has been enacted there have been many changes and revisions. As of December 2004 there are 43,000 people in prison under the Three Strikes law, this made up twenty six percent of the total prison population. A significant figure!http://www.totalcriminaldefense.com/overview/three-strikes-law.aspx
This site says sixty five percent of three strike prisoners were put in prison because of non violent crimes. Some of the states with the Three Strike law are iowa, california, colorado, florida, illinois, north dakota, wisconsin, etc. Social psychology plays a major role in the study of prisons and the prison environment. Abnormal psychology is also important to note because depression was noted in the Stanford study and also can be seen in prisoners kept in solitary confinement.

Chapter sixteen deals with how criminals are sentenced, the role that the prisons play, and psychological effects of being imprisoned. There are four factors that go into explaining the behavior of others; they are internal causes, external causes, controllability, and stability. The combination of those factors determines the sentence someone will get. However, two people who commit the same crime don’t always get the same sentence as a result of disparities from biased discretion of judges. Women receive shorter sentences then males. To combat some of these disparities in sentencing there are guidelines that judges are to follow when sentencing and if they do not follow the guidelines they have to have written justification. Mandatory or determinate sentencing was established after the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. Judges, lawyers, and legislators developed a grid like sentencing table that judges are required to use. Criticism of these guidelines that don’t take the defendants characteristics into account resulted in the Supreme Court making the guidelines less ridged and more advisory. More than 25 states have what is called three-strike laws that require a criminal to be sentenced to life or a lengthy sentence when convicted of their third felony.

Jails are operated by local authorities and offer a short term holding cell for someone convicted of misdemeanors with less than a year sentence. Other defendants can be held in jails while awaiting trial for serious crimes. Prisons obviously hold convicts for longer sentences and based on the type of crime convicts can be sent to a minimum, maximum, or supermax security prisons. Prisoners in a Supermax prison spend 23 hours a day in a cell alone which leads to a number of psychological problems.

The goals of imprisonment consist of incapacitation, deterrence/general deterrence, retribution, and rehabilitation. If a criminal is locked behind bars they cannot harm people on the outside is the basic premise of incapacitation. The goal of deterrence is to make the suffering of prison a persuading factor to not want to go back and thus not commit any more crimes. Retribution refers to giving suffering back to the criminal for the crime they have committed. Rehabilitation is an attempt to make the criminal a better person and citizen for once they are released back into the streets.

Prisons started to be built in the United States in 1790. The prisons were unsuccessful at surpassing crime and rather allowed convicts to spread their knowledge of crime. In the 1820’s prisons in New York and Pennsylvania made an attempt at rehabilitation. The Pennsylvania Plan consisted of locking an inmate in their cell for their entire sentence with no contact with anyone; it was thought that the social environment produced the criminal behavior. The extreme isolation made suicides, mental breakdowns, and self-mutilations common. By the 1860’s the isolation wasn’t possible because of overcrowding. To maintain their authority in these overcrowded prisons officials resorted to extreme forms of discipline.

The overtaking of Attica prison in New York by the inmates sounded pretty wild so I choose to look for information on it. From the book I gathered that the prisoners were trying to improve conditions for months but to no avail. The inmates took control of part of the prison for four days and took 43 hostages. The state troopers and National Guard eventually regained control and all in all 10 hostages and 29 prisoners were killed. I found a pretty cool video on YouTube that has actual footage from the prison during the point in time when the prisoners had gained control. You can kind of hear one of the inmates saying to the crowd of other prisoners in the prison yard “hold onto the tear gas, we’ll need that if the pigs attack.” I got a chuckle out of that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ8O1DkBOu8

Chapter 16 discusses what happens with the sentencing along with the goals and processes of sentencing. The chapter then goes into detail about the correctional systems. Now there are a few different ways that a person can be punished in our system and some of these paying fines, doing a wide range of community services, or even spend time incarcerated in a jail or prison. The problem with these sanctions is that they don’t always pan out to be fair because not all people are punished the same way for committing the same crimes. It has been found that people are punished differently based on race and gender. Now when someone is sentenced to incarceration they can be sentenced to serve that time in a jail or prison. Jail is meant for people who are not going to be there for usually longer than a year. Prisons usually hold more severe criminals who have committed some type of crime that warrants a long time incarceration. There is different levels security among prisons ranging from low level to supermax.

Now going back to what I stated earlier on how people are sentenced differently based on gender. Men make up the majority of the inmates/criminals who are incarcerated. Now it is very well known and perceived that life in prison is not a stroll in the park. Many groups among the prison population identify themselves with either people of their own race but mostly identify themselves amongst gangs. Some were in gangs before they went to prison but a lot of them can join the gang. There are prisoners who are subjected to violence. This violence can be the result from another inmate or even a guard.

The goals of incarceration are mainly to incapacitate a criminal so he can’t commit another crime. Another goal is to deter that person from committing that crime showing them that there is a consequence to their actions. The final and maybe the most important goal would be to rehabilitate the prisoner to be reintegrated into society. Now one thing I felt was interesting is how they say that they are trying to rehabilitate people but most of the time the people don’t come close to being rehabilitated because funds are bad and the prisons/jails don’t have the necessary resources.

Chapter 16 was all about how people are sentenced once they are convicted of a crime. It goes into great detail about how the system ethically suggests guidelines for the best sentence of a crime. However, there are a few laws about Determinate Sentencing, more commonly known as "Mandatory Minimums," in which the law requires a certain sentence for a crime, and it is out of the judge's discretion. Although I appreciate the sentiment of legislating to be tough on crime and stuff, I believe that pushing through bills about determinate sentencing is just a political tactic to get re-elected by the more conservative crowd. It is not really the legislature's job to determine sentences...it is totally the job of the judicial system, and I think that it is very ignorant of legislators (and the common folk) to think that if they don't pass a bill of determinant sentencing, that the judge will somehow not sentence the person. We need to put more faith into the judicial system and let the judges determine punishments of criminals. Let's be rational...the judge is a human too...the judge is just as likely to be harsh on a murderer or rapist as the legislators and the voters who keep those legislators in power. The difference is the discretion of deciding what is the best legal way of punishing a person. Judges understand that they need to try to be as impartial as possible, and not let their emotions get the best of them. In an extreme situation, we wouldn't want somebody to get a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison just because of a technicality!

I found it very interesting that there was such an extensive system for categorizing crime and punishment. I had no idea that there was a chart with different zones, offense levels, and crime history criteria that is used in suggesting punishment of convicted criminals.
I was also very surprised that there is estimated to be 100,000 more black men in prison than white men. This is a shock, because I always thought that black people were just proportionally more prevalent in prison. I didn't know that the actual population numbers were higher than white people. There is definitely something wrong with the system.

I am a firm believer that our prison system doesn't "work." It just makes small time offenders into hardened criminals, and makes hardened criminals more likely to offend again. This is going to be a huge issue (moreso than it already is) as our population continues to skyrocket. We can't afford to just keep locking more and more people up in a tank and hoping that they somehow get magically cured by the time they get out. This chapter is essential in understanding the way the criminal justice system works!

This chapter dealt with what happens after someone is convicted of a crime. That person must be sentenced with some sort of punishment. There are a variety of different punishments that can be implemented. The harshness of the punishment is dependent on the severity of the crime as well as the attributions of the criminal, meaning what factors, whether internal or external, the deciding party decides were responsible for the crime. For example, if a judge believes that a perpetrator committed a crime because of external extenuating circumstances, that person's sentence would probably be much less harsh than if the judge thought that person wanted to commit the crime due to their character.
As I said before there are varying degrees of harshness for sentencing. Sometimes, the punishment is left to the discretion of the judge or jury. Other times, certain crimes require a minimum sentence or have a specific range of punishments associated with them. This type of sentencing is called determinate sentencing or mandatory sentencing. There are certain crimes that carry a mandatory minimum sentencing, regardless of number of previous offenses. Other crimes can have smaller punishments until the crime is repeated. Generally a three-strikes law is in effect where if a felony is committed three times, the criminal will receive a long term or life sentence.
The chapter continues by describing the types of imprisonment which include jails, prisons, federal prisons, and supermax prisons also known as maximum security prisons. These imprisonments hold people who have been convicted of crimes with varying severity, with those in jails being used for holding people short-term and supermax prisons usually holding people serving life sentences.
The book also discusses four goals of imprisonment: incapacitation, deterrence, retribution, and rehabilitation. Of these, rehabilitation is the most idealistic goal, however most people probably think that retribution is the most important goal of imprisonment, even if they won't admit it. The book also talks about how prisons and imprisonment methods evolved over the years. Earlier methods of punishment included public humiliation like stockades and eventually in the 20th century, people fought for the rights of prisoners, eventually improving conditions of prisons and initiating some rehabilitation programs.
The chapter then continues to discuss some basic demographics of prisoners in the United States and discussed several aspects of prison life. They talk about the Stanford Prison Experiment which is something I have studied before and found really interesting. They also talk about the presence of gangs and drug use in prison. I was surprised to find that about 11% of prisoners actively use illegal drugs while in prison, though the availability of drugs is typically exaggerated by prisoners and downplayed by administrators.
The chapter finishes by discussing if the prison system actually works and some alternatives to prison for committing crimes. These include probation, restitution, house arrest, and correction centers. Personally, I am not convinced that the prison system works because punishment is not as effective in correcting behavior as reinforcement. Many people who are in prison are repeat offenders and have already served time. A lot of people in prisons are a product of drug crime, which would probably be lessened if the rehabilitation programs in place in prisons were more effective.
After reading the chapter, I wanted to find out a little more about mandatory sentencing. Specifically, I wanted to know which crimes require this type of sentencing.
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/rpt/2008-R-0619.htm
This link shows a list of crimes that require a mandatory minimum sentencing. There are currently 61 crimes that require a minimum sentence of a specific amount of time in prison.

4/3/12
This chapter discusses after the trial is over and the defendant has been found guilty – the sentencing. Sentencing is done by either the jury or the judge, depending on the trial. There are several decisions that go into sentencing. The book discusses internal and external causes. An internal cause is when the crime is committed by free choice or due to a personality trait. An external cause would be due to powerful situational circumstances. Juries and judges have to take into consideration whether or not the person could have controlled their behavior, which is controllability. They also must consider whether the cause appears to be temporary or permanent, stability.
When it comes to sentencing there are some gender differences. Women tend to get lighter sentences than men; even when the same crime has been committed. Steps have been taken to and avoid disparities with sentencing. Sentencing guidelines include factors that need to be considered before delivering a sentence. Factors such as type of crime, amount of violence or viciousness, a prior record, circumstances. There is also something called a determinate sentencing that requires the judge to give a sentence that falls within an already established range of sentences. There is a three-strikes law that requires a long or life sentence in the event of someone’s third felony. Parole is another option that the book discusses. This is after someone has been in jail or prison and then are released but kept track of.
Chapter 16 discussed four types of imprisonment. The first is jail; jails are short-term holding cells that are more locally run. Prisons are where defendants go for long-term sentences. There are federal prisons for those who have broken federal laws (this is where Abraham Bolden spent his time in the novel that I read for this course). Lastly, there are supermax prisons for the most violent/dangerous criminals.
The main goal in our justice system is punishment without rehabilitation, as we discussed in class. But, there are many other goals for imprisonment. The first of the other goals is incapacitation – keeping then in a confined space. Deterrence is when the prisoner is being discouraged from behaving poorly or from committing the same crimes again. Then there is retribution is backward-looking and focuses on their crime(s). A forward-looking goal is rehabilitation this is in order to better prepare criminals after they are released from prison.
The next section of the chapter discusses how the United States’ prisons have evolved. Over the years prisons sentencing has become more human for the prisoners. But, this took a lot of work and trial and error (no pun intended). The next section of this chapter discusses what life in prison is like. It is not like these persons’ lives stop or become isolated. Prisoners/criminals have to live and interact with other criminals. Life is dangerous in prisons; there are drugs, gangs, cultural differences, etc. We have information about what kind of power and control issues may come up in a prison setting, Stanford prison study.
Lastly, the chapter discusses the several types of alternatives to prison. The ones highlighted in the book included restitution which is paying for the crime such as with petty thievery. As previously mentioned there is probation, but as we mentioned in class this come after one has done time in prison. There is house arrest or home confinement. This is someone is kept track of using electronic monitoring. Lastly, the book discusses residential community corrections centers also known as halfway houses.
Overall, this was a very interesting chapter. I realize how ineffective or unhelpful our current route for corrections is. In the future we should put more effort toward rehabilitating these persons – especially if they are going to be released in society. I can understand when other become irritate that prisons are being cared for better than some of our free and innocent citizens.
http://www.bop.gov/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/11/19/us-usa-prisons-idUSN1841666120071119

This chapter deals with what happens to individuals after they commit there crime and when it comes time to sentencing. For two different people who commit the same crime, their sentences can be very different. The book gives the example of the crimes of tax evasion and credit card frauds. One person can receive a sentence a 3 year sentence with little or no fine and another person can spend up to 20 years in prison with over $60,000 in fines. When judges are trying to decide on the sentence, then can use sentencing guidelines. These are simply factors that should be considered when determining sentences such as the nature of the crime, any previous record of the defendant, and the average sentence of crimes of the same nature. The chapter talks about the difference between sentences for women offenders and male offenders. Even if the charges are similar for men and women, male judges are more likely to give women a smaller sentence. When it is a violent crime, men and women are both likely to be sent to prison, but again, women are more likely to have shorter sentences. I thought the three-strikes law was very interesting. We briefly talked about it in my criminal justice systems class. This law says that criminals will receive a long sentence when they have committed their third felony. One thing that was mentioned in my other class was that the third felony could be very less severe than the first or even the second, but that individual will still receive a large and harsh punishment simply because it is their third strike.

Once a criminal has been arrested and has received their sentence, they do have a chance to get out on parole. Parole means that the individual is released from jail under supervision by a parole officer before their sentence is up. There are different types of imprisonments. Offenders will either go to jail or some type of prison. Typically, jails are for people who have committed a misdemeanor or people who have committed a serious felony while awaiting trial. Prisons will hold convicted felons very a longer period of time. This is where people will serve out their life sentences. I have always been told that if you had the choice between jail and prison, you would want to go to prison. They have a lot better facilities for you to stay in than a jail. One type of prison is a supermax prison. This is for people who are considered especially dangerous. These people are kept in small spaces all by themselves and have very little opportunities for recreational activities.

There are different goals of putting people in prison. The first, I think, it the most basic. That is incapacitation. When someone is in jail or prison, it stops them from further committing crimes. They are no longer able to hurt people outside of prison. Another goal is that of deterrence. It is a hope that when someone is sitting in jail, they are thinking about what they did. When they are thinking about it, hopefully it will dissuade them from continuing to commit crimes. Similar to this is general deterrence. Some people avoid committing another crime because they are afraid of going back to jail. The third goal is about getting even and is called retribution. When someone commits a crime against someone else, that other person wants to get even…and jail may be that for them. The last goal of imprisonment is rehabilitation. The idea behind this goal is that a lot of prisoners will be released at some point in time. Since they are being released, some see it necessary to get them ready for being back in society and abiding by the laws. Some prisoners are able to get an education while awaiting release. There is a lot of emotion that goes along with this goal, similar to retribution. A lot of people do not understand why we want to give special treatment to people who are in jail. They see it as; they did something bad, why are we giving them attention. There are other people that see this as a good idea since quite a few of them will be back in society with them.

I found the section on statistics on prisoners and prisons very interesting. California has the largest amount of prisoners than Germany, France, Japan, and Great Britain combined. The large increase has been influenced by the war on drugs and the increasing number of people incarcerated on drug charges. The chapter also says that about 40% of prisoners have at least one family member who has also been to jail. I also found the concept of prisonization to be interesting. This seems common sense almost. This means that new inmates are integrated into the system through a set of norms, values, and languages associated with the prison. Often times in movies you see different gangs or groups in the prisons. Often times in these movies, a new inmate is harassed by the groups and eventually taught to be like them. It is not only the people that can have a large influence on the person, the situation tends to have an even larger impact. This is where the book mentions the Stanford Prison experiment.

There are some alternatives to going to prison. We talked about this some in our class today. One of them is paying restitution. Another is probation. You generally hear about this one a lot. While on probation, the prisoner's sentence is suspended and they are released into the community under supervision. A third alternative is house arrest. When someone is on house arrest, there is some form of monitoring. I always think about a movie that I have seen many times that involves a guy being on house arrest and has to wear an ankle bracelet. He can only go so far in his yard and if he crosses the boundary, the bracelet starts blinking and he only has to much time to get back to where he should be before the authorities are notified.

One thing that I wanted to look at more closely because it was not discussed in too much detail in the chapter is what happened at the Attica Prison. There was a riot at the Attica prison which is a maximum security prison in New York. It was the bloodiest prison confrontation in the United States. The website I found described that 1300 prisoners had rebelled against the guards and took quite a few of them hostage. The prisoners were fighting for better living conditions in the prison. The government denied their demands and started to get involved. In the end, troops seized the prison back and in the process killed 43 individuals of which 10 were hostages.
http://www.talkinghistory.org/attica/

Chapter 16 covers Correctional facilities. The three main topics covered in this chapter are sentencing, imprisonment, and alternatives to prison. The story at the beginning of chapter was interesting because it described many different types of prisons. My favorite was New Folsom in California because it has a "death wire" fence that can send a lethal jolt of electricity through anyone who touches it. Most correctional facilities have high walls, gun towers, and razor wire. Also it disproved the stereotype that prisons are still large stone fortresses because of how Hollywood portrays them.

After a criminal is convicted or punished the criminal has to be sentenced in order to determine the length of time they stay in prison. Criminal behaviors due to internal causes evoke the strongest punitive responses. Behaviors that are external and less controllable may elicit empathy and more lenient sentences. If two people commit the same crime that doesn't necessarily mean they receive the same charges or sentencing. The reason why is because depending on the perpetrator's reasons for committing the crime can have an impact on the judges final decision. The judges discretion determines what charges or punishment the criminal receives. When I read that black people often were treated harshly and women were treated more leniently when it came to sentencing I couldn't believe it. It just isn't right that even if they committed the same crime that they would not receive fair or equal punishments.

The different types of imprisonments are:jails, prisons, federal prisons, and supermax prisons. Jails are short-term holding cells that are operated by cities or counties and are administered by sheriffs or city police. Prisons are for holding criminals for long periods of time. Most will eventually become free but a few will live the rest of their lives in jail. Federal prisons are for people who break federal laws. For instance, Rod Blagojevich who was Illinois's former Governor will have to spend 14 years in federal prison for taking bribes for an Illinois senate seat. Since it was a federal crime he will have to stay at a federal prison and will have to serve at least eighty percent of his sentence because it's a federal prison. Supermax prisons are reserved for people who are serious or violent criminals. The cells are smaller, interaction is tightly controlled, and educational and recreational opportunities are very scarce or not available at all in these prisons. The many goals of imprisonment include: incapacitation, deterrence, retribution, and rehabilitation. Incapacitation involves containing them in a small cell and preventing them from escaping. The second goal of prison is deterrence. By giving the inmates a suffering experience in prison by depriving them of their normal freedoms that they had before prison. The third goal is retribution and the purpose is to make sure that people who commit very hideous crimes such as killing a child. By making them suffer for their terrible crime it restores moral balance. The final goal is rehabilitation and the purpose is to help of improve the criminal so he is better when he is released back into society.

It was interesting to read that California has a larger amount of prisoners than France, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan combined. Also 40 percent of criminals have another family member that has also been incarcerated. Fifty-three percent of people put in state prisons are placed there for committing violent crimes. The male to female ratio of prisoners is 93 percent of prisoners in state and federal prisons are male. Reading about the harshness of prison life I learned a numerous amount of stuff that I had no idea existed. I knew that there was homosexuality in prison and in most cases rape is used as a way to show dominance. However, I did not know that when someone gains dominance over another male in prison they sometimes sell or trade the weak individuals for either another sex slave, drugs, or other valuables. Gangs are progressively getting stronger because they vastly outnumber guards. With in prison gang members can bribe correctional officers to allow crimes such as extortion, homosexual prostitution, gambling, drug sales, and robbery. The thought that guards who are working to keep the prisoners can be bribed isn't right and it should be stopped before gangs become to strong. Which would put the guards who do and don't allow these crimes to happen in danger. Undercover police officers should go in and pretend to inmates and put guards in situations where they have to make the decision to allow an illegal act to occur and if they decided to allow it they should lose their job.

Alternatives to Prison are: restitution, probation, house arrest and residential community corrections centers. Restitution is when you pay for the crimes you commit with money or labor. For example, a teenager who spray painted a wall would have to repaint the wall in order to make up for what he did. Community service is a more common form of restitution. Probation is when someone serves a jail or prison sentence and they are then released into the society under her supervision of a probation officer. House arrest also known as home confinement and it is monitored by an electronic bracelet that is locked around the ankle or wrist and when a person passes their allowed boundaries the authorities are notified. Residential community corrections centers are also known as halfway houses. These are places where groups of offenders live in a communal environment and attend group therapy. People who stay there are typically required to find jobs and perform chores.

I choose to look up articles about the evolution of prisons in the United States. Here is an article that talks about New York's history of prison.

http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/state/html/nyprisons.html

This article gives a variety of different problems that prisons face with gangs. The article talks about a study done in order to find out more information that goes on behind prison bars. By finding out what's going on in prisons these days we can find ways to regulate and control prisons in a more sufficient way.

http://www.ngcrc.com/corr2006.html

chapter 16 begins by tell about prisons and how when crime rate is up we build more and when crime rate goes down we attribute it to the increased number of prisons. Also prisons are not like they used to be in movies. Now many of them have extreme surveillance and items that are undetectable.
After a criminal is convicted but before hi is punished he must be sentenced by judge, jurors, and the public. Behaviors that are considered to be internal and controllable tend to have harsher punishment than the ones that see to be external and less controllable. people who commit the exact same crime can have different punishments depending on the details of their particular crime. If the person has no previous criminal history and was coaxed to do it by his friends he is likely to get a lesser punishment then the guy who has a record of criminal acts and acted alone. The sentence all to often depends on the judges biased feelings. The same criminal could receive no fine and 5 years in prison from one judge, but could get a $100,000 fine from another and 20 years in prison. Sex and race also plays a role in you sentence. A woman will be give more leniency and a Hispanic will be treated harsher. A system known mandatory sentencing was created to help create consistency in the court room. It gives specifics for how long some should or should go to prison for the crime they committed. The three strikes law is use din more than 25 states. It states that if a person is convicted of a third felony they will receive a life sentence. An inmate can be released from prison before his sentence is up. This is called parole. They are under the supervision of a parole officer and are under strict rules.
There are several types of imprisonment. The first is jail. Jails are only for short term holds and are operated by cities or counties. These holds are for people who have been sentence to a year or less or are awaiting trial and are to dangerous to be released. Another type of imprisonment is prison. These hold people for long periods of time and some felons will spend the rest of their life there. Withing prison there are federal prisons for people who brake federal laws. Then there are supermax prisons saved or people who are look at as being serious or violent criminals. One of the most well known supermax prisons is Alcatraz.
There are several goals prisons have like incapacitation, deterrence,retribution, and rehabilitation.
In the American colonies, when a crime was committed people were likely to be subject to public shaming. They were put in a wooden structure that allowed people to taunt, spit, or whip. Between 1790 and 1800 8 prisons were built. These prisons seem to be more of a meeting place for criminals to share their skills and tactics that any kind of punishment, but then there was a shift in the thinking about crime causing prisons to be reconceived and redesigned. By the late 1960s there was a concern about the brutality of prisons. Inmates got tired of the way things were running and began to go on strike and changed prisons once again.
For every 100000 people in the us 756 are in prison while only 63 out of every 100000 in japan are in jail. California holds the most prisoners and has a prison system larger than france. 40% of prisoners have 1 family member that has been incarcerated. 93% of prisoners are male. This is believed to be due to the fact that men and women behave differently to situations.
Gangs are not only limited to outside prison but occur inside prison as well. They do well in prison because inmates easily outnumber guards. Due to the danger of the gangs prisoners almost have no choice but to save themselves by joining a gang.
When put against the goal of rehab prisons are a failure. If they are not given coping means before they leave prison they are not likely to change their ways.
Prison is extremely expensive thats why there are alternatives to prison out there like paying restiution, probation, house arrest, and correctional centers, that cost far less and can be more effective.
I found the prison stats to be quite interesting so i wanted to find some more.
In 2008 1 in 100 people were in prison or in jail.
70% of prisoners in the US are non-whites
In 2009 Maine, Minnesota, and New Hampshire had the lowest ratio of imprisoned people while Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma had the highest ratio.
From 2000 to 2008 prison population increased by 159200 people
in 2009 about 40% of inmates were black
At the end of 2009 the female population in prison was 113462
About 17% of prisoners are employed by UNICOR
In 2006, $68,747,203,000 was spent on corrections
In 2005, it cost an average of $23,876 dollars per state prisoner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

I also wanted to learn a a bit more about Alcatraz.
It is now closed an available for tour.
during its operation Alcatraz claimed no one had ever successfully escaped. 34 prisoners made 14 attempts. 23 were caught, 6 were killed, and 3 were never found. On June 11, 1962 Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin completed one of the best escapes ever devised. Chipping away at a mostiure damaged air vent which led to an fan vent which took them to sanfrancisco bay where they were never found. When the devised this plan they had to make and collect several things. Like a motor for a drill, hair for dummies, raincoats for a boat, and things to paddle with. They were said to have drowned but their bodies were never found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island

Chapter 16 was about the corrections side of the system. It talked about decisions based on sentencing, types of imprisonment and the evolution of prisons, the type of culture associated in prisons, and it also talked about whether or not prisons actually work.

One of the things I found most interesting in this chapter was the Stanford prison study. This is a study used to demonstrate how personality characteristics have less influence on behavior than the characteristics of the situations that people find themselves in. Even though it was only a 6-day simulation of a prison, I think it is a good sociological and psychological experiment. I think it's interesting how when put into a situation such as this, seeing how people act when put into a position of authority or in a position of inferiority and see the roles that these people take on. Their behavior may have something to do with what they see on television or in movies but I think it's just a simple basis for their actions and they just try to fit into a role that they think is appropriate and act in a way that suits that role.

Another thing I thought was interesting was something called shock incarceration which was used on juvenile offenders as an alternative to prison. This consisted of a juvenile visiting a maximum security prison or having a brief period of incarceration under difficult conditions. This was suppose to scare the juvenile into behaving better otherwise see where they might end up. Some inmates are brought in to talk to the juveniles to tell them of the horrors of being in a maximum security prison in graphic detail. Hearing of this horror, the juveniles are supposed to opt to not commit crime anymore.

One thing I wanted to research more about was the types of gangs in prison. One website showed the top ten US prison gangs. The two I wanted to look at more was the Mexican Mafia and the Aryan Brotherhood.

The Aryan brotherhood was originally formed to protect whites against blacks in prison and was formed in the year 1967. It now has approximately 15,000 members. The only way to be a member is to abide by their rule of "Blood In-Blood Out" which means you must kill someone in order to join and in order to leave you must die. The Aryan brotherhood makes up about 1% of the population in prisons and are responsible for up to 18% of murders in prisons.

The Mexican Mafia, formed in the 1950s, is one of the most powerful and oldest prison gangs. It's mostly known for murder, drug trafficking, and extortion. As a member, you are expected to prove your loyalty by doing such things as robbing someone or murdering someone. Because the gang cares so much about loyalty, a member may be severely punished or killed if they become an informant, engage in acts of homosexuality, engage in acts of cowardice, or show disrespect against fellow gang members.
http://listverse.com/2010/12/11/top-10-us-prison-gangs/

Chapter sixteen deals with sentencing, imprisonment and other venues an individual can take after being convicted. The first thing that happens is sentencing. An individual can express attributions that attempted to explain the behavior that made them commit the crime. From there, juries look at all these characteristics and distinguish a sentence for them. However, these sentences vary in every circumstance. Two people never receive the same punishment no matter how similar their crimes. Many times two people with the same crime get punishments on each end of the spectrum. Sentencing guidelines can help judges decided the right sentence. Some states also have a three-strike law. This law forces individuals to receive a long sentence after they committee their third felony. Some states limit these to just certain crimes such as rape or murder. Parole can also be used for some individuals.
Not only does sentencing differ, the type of imprisonment establishment can vary as well. An individual can be placed in jail or prisons. Jails are used to for short-term incidents. They can also hold dangerous individuals during trials. Prisons on the other hand are used for long-term placements. Individuals can go to federal prisons or supermax prisons. Federal prisons are served for individuals who have broken federal laws. Supermax prisons are prisons that hold individuals cells for individuals who are extremely violent and serious.
Over time, the prison system has changed. Back in the day, public shaming was used to publicly humiliate and severely punish individuals for their crimes. The more crimes they committed, the worst punishment they received. Eventually, they were hung or beaten to death. Eventually, prisons were built. The prisoners didn’t have very many rights through. For instance, the Pennsylvania Plan placed inmates in extreme isolation. They spent the rest of their life alone. Instead of punishing the inmates like they hoped this would do, it drove inmates mentally insane and lead to suicides. As population increased, prisoners were forced to share cells. This led to other ways to punish the inmates such as ball and ankle chains. Eventually, prisoners started to gain rights in the twentieth century. Inhuman conditions started to become a problem and forced to change.
Today, the United States imprisons the largest number of people. Their prisons are well beyond capacity and still growing. California holds one of the largest imprisonments around. One of the main causes to imprisonment rates increasing is the “war on drug.” It caused more people to become incarcerated very quickly.
One question that was brought to attention was if prisons really work. It is costing a ton of money to keep people in incarcerated especially when the inmates get older. The recidivism rate is also not very high for people who are incarcerated. There are other things people can do besides prison. They can pay restitution, go on probation, be on house arrest, or reside in community correction centers.
I thought it was really interpreting to learn about the different disparities between juries. It is crazy to think that an individuals case can go either way depending on the people they get on a jury. I feel like their should be more scientifical way to convict someone of their crime than that.
I was intrigued to learn more about the three strike law in the different states. In the first website I found, it discussed the California three strike law. In California, you can be put in prison for life for nonviolent crimes. Originally, it was used to deter people from punishment but it actually caused a lot more unintended consequences like over crowding of prisons. One interesting thing is that person can get a strike removed if a judge decides that their sentence wasn’t fair.
http://www.shouselaw.com/three-strikes.html

The next website gave me a list of what states had the three strike law and which ones don’t. I learned that Iowa was one of the places that does have the three strike law. This website also talks about the criticisms of the three strike law. One main thing that struck me was that it claimed that the three-strike law was oversimplifying the criminal justice system and having no impact on individuals. I thought this was an interesting viewpoint.
http://www.totalcriminaldefense.com/overview/three-strikes-law.aspx

Chapter 16 is basically talking about the correction system and how it functions in the U.S. I’ve learned a few new things about this system, especially with the differences between certain ideas of how the criminals should be prosecuted and then later handed their punishment. If a criminal’s attributions are more lenient the court may sentence them. What was surprising was women tend to have the most leniency during their sentencing. While African Americans usually get more severe sentencing. Something interesting is many states have the three-strikes law, which basically means once you hit three felonies you’ll have either a long sentence or a life sentence. But if the criminals get out of prison, they will most likely receive parole to make sure they aren’t causing too much havoc, for the first few years after they are released.

Jail or prison is where the criminals get sentenced to. Jail is a short term gig of being imprisoned, while prison is where the convicted criminals are held at for a long length of time. State and federal prisons are the options. They can vary from have a low amount of security to the ultimate max security. The prison’s four goals are to have incapacitation, deterrence, retribution, and rehabilitation. The end of the twentieth century is when the prisons started to questioned on how their inmates where being treated, so eventually people looked into it and decided that it was time to make sure they were being treated equally. What’s really interesting is 93 percent of inmates in prison are males. They say that the types of people who go to prison don’t usually come from stable family lives or situations. On top of that the U.S. has one of the higher percentage in the democracy of the world for imprisoned citizens that are in there for longer periods of time. Prison life is not the life to live. The prisoners are secluded from their family and friends, often those relationships decline. They can’t make important calls on their life, that is not their power to choose for themselves anymore. Their privacy is exposed, and they live a very oppressed life. There is a routine that is needed to be follow and they have to be able to defend themselves from violence that does sometimes pollute their environment. There is drugs and gangs in prison. Some alternatives people have been looking at to save money on prison are: restitution, probation, house arrest, and residential community correction center.

Something that interested me would be the gangs that sometimes form in the prison. Social psychology takes place here inside the jail/prison because they are changing as time goes by, from the person they once were when they first entered their cell, to the person they have now become. Also it's social because of the interaction they do on a daily basis with their other cellmates, guards, and gang members.

This article lists the top ten gangs in prisons/jails. It explains a reasoning to why they form and they say it started off as protection for themselves from their inmates, but now has grown more so prostitution, assaults, drugs, and murder are committed by criminals who are most likely already serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Out of the ten I haven't heard of any of them before this site.

http://listverse.com/2010/12/11/top-10-us-prison-gangs/

Chapter 16 deals with sentencing, imprisonment, and alternatives. Sentencing happens after conviction and before punishment. Sentencing is decided on by the judges, jurors, and the public. There are many factors included in the sentencing decision including internal causes (personality), external causes (situation), controllability, and stability.

There are also disparities in sentencing meaning that two people who commit the same time are not necessarily sentenced to the same punishment. There have been various studies done to show that sentencing disparities may be due to bias of the judge. For example, women are likely to receive lighter sentences than men are. There are sentencing guidelines to help judges decide appropriate sentences for the case at hand. Determinate sentencing requires a judge to give a sentence if the defendant is found guilty of a specific crime.

An interesting aspect of sentencing that I learned through the reading is called the three-strikes laws. This law passed in many states, first by Washington. These laws require a long sentence or a life sentence when criminals are convicted of a third felony. This varies by state, as in some cases in targets sexual offenders or violent offenders or the definition may be very broad.

There are various types of imprisonment. Jails are used to hold people for a short amount of time. I was not aware that jails can also be used to hold defendants believed to be potentially dangerous that are charged with serious violent crimes before and during their trial. Jails are overcrowded places. Prisons hold convicted criminals for an extended amount of time. Federal prisons hold people who have broke federal law. The largest group of inmates in prison is drug offenders. Supermax prisons are used to people who are especially dangerous. Interaction is very controlled. Alcatraz is an example of a supermax prison.

It was interesting to learn about the goals of imprisonment. These goals include incapacitation through containment, deterrence, retribution and rehabilitation. There is also a history of the evolution of prisons in the U.S. Public shaming involved being locked into stocks or in a public cage. Some were also publicly whipped. Hangings also occurred. Incarceration then became popular with the first prisons being built between 1790 and 1800. I found this interesting because for some reason I thought that the idea of incarceration was more recent.

I really enjoyed reading about the statistics that the book offered. I could not believe that the United States imprisons more citizens for longer periods of time than any other industrialized democracy in the world! California holds the largest number of prisoners. Violence is much less prevalent in women’s institutions. They tend to harm themselves more than male prisoners do.

Imprisonment is paid by taxpayers. Prison costs range from $24,000-$40,000 per inmate per year. The costs rise when people develop health problems. The cost of a prisoner over age 55 is more than $80,000 per year. There are alternatives to prison. These include paying restitution, probation, house arrest, and residential community corrections centers where offenders live in a communal environment and go to group therapy, are all options.

I found the disparities in sentencing to be an interesting part of the chapter, so I chose to research disparities in prisons. This study is reported from Iowa in 2007 declaring that blacks in the U.S. are imprisoned more than 5 times the rate of whites and Hispanics are imprisoned at double the white rate. States in the Midwest and northeast have the greatest black-to-white disparity. Iowa had the widest disparity in the nation! In our state, blacks are imprisoned at 13 times the rate of whites!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-18-prison-study_N.htm

This site addresses gender disparities. It says that most of the women incarcerated are poor undereducated, unskilled, single mothers, more often women of color. It states that a service that should be provided to incarcerated women is to keep them in contact with their families. Without interventions in incarceration, such as addressing substance and sexual abuse, women have a poor chance of succeeding after prison.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/10/recidivism.aspx

Chapter 16 was about corrections and more specifically sentencing and different sentencing alternatives. The chapter started out talking about sentencing decisions. The big thing here is that how the defendant is sentenced is largely in the hands of the public, jury and mainly the judge. In most cases the driving point to finding the appropriate punishment is the seriousness of the offense. Also important as described in the chapter is the internal and external causes. The internal causes refer to the personality and free will of the person. External causes refer to the powerful situational forces. Also it talked about the culpability and stability of the offender. What is meant by these two things is the individual him or herself. Culpability meaning whether or not the person could have controlled there emotions and stability refers to whether the cause appears to be temporary or permanent. Temporary could be something like robbery, while permanent could be something like murder.

There are different sentencing guidelines that a judge could choose to follow. Sometimes judges use sentencing guidelines to help decide on appropriate sentences. Often times there is a list of factors that are considered. Factors could include the type of the offence, whether a weapon was used, and the defendant’s prior record. Generally all of these things are taken into consideration along with many others. If a defendant is sentenced they can either get a determinant or indeterminate sentence. A determinate sentence means a defendant will be in jail or prison for a set period of time. A indeterminate sentence means there isn’t really a set period of time and it sort of depends of the actions of the defendant while in jail or prison. I don’t think many people realize there is actually a difference between. If you are sent to jail the max time you will be there is a year. Any sentence over a year you will be put in jail.

The most interesting I read about in this chapter was the history and evolution of the correctional system. In the old days defendant could be shamed. They could be locked of in wooden sheds and not treated very well. This had really changed as a lot of that stuff wouldn’t fly today. Today’s system has guidelines that must be followed. This really occurred after the revolutionary war. Americans wanted to create a system different from the English. Prisons now have some right such as they have to be fed and so on.

Psychology plays a big role in the sentencing decisions of the judges. They have to be able to sort of judge the mental state of the defendant. At times they may be evaluated by a psychiatrist to see where their mental state is. This is vital because to can put a defendant back into society if they have committed a crime are mentally not really to go back. They could just do more harm in the community.