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PRISONERS' PRIVILEGES.
Term Paper ID:24502
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Essay Subject:
Argues against giving inmates special privileges such as weightlifting, on basis of need for punishment.... More...
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6 Pages / 1350 Words
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Paper Abstract:
Argues against giving inmates special privileges such as weightlifting, on basis of need for punishment.
Paper Introduction:
Weightlifting Privileges for Inmates
This paper will discuss whether inmates should be allowed special privileges such as the right to engage in weightlifting activities despite the fact that they are incarcerated. The paper will present opposing arguments and then present the position that inmates should not be allowed weightlifting privileges. Moreover, the discussion will analyze why inmates should not be allowed such privileges and will give sound reasons against this type of policy for individuals who are incarcerated.
Today, most prisons in America are suffering from overcrowding. A few scholars have suggested that more prisons need to be built to solve the overcrowding problem. However, recent studies show that by the 1980s, the decision to build a 500-bed institution will require the public to spend tax dollars of $350 million
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Newman, G. Our Crowded Prisons. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Columbia U. (1973). Along the same lines, it is unreasonable forprisoners to expect that they should be afforded special privileges such asweight lifting during the time while they are incarcerated. In addition, some researchers and scholars have adopted the point ofview that even if prisons could rehabilitate inmates, that the purpose ofour prisons system is not to rehabilitate but to punish people who havecommitted crimes. 23). McConville, S. Weightlifting Privileges for Inmates This paper will discuss whether inmates should be allowed specialprivileges such as the right to engage in weightlifting activities despitethe fact that they are incarcerated. People who subscribe tothis theory believe that a person commits a crime due to some sort of moralfailure or evil caused by corrupt social institutions, however, mostrehabilitation programs fail. The discussion supported the position that theharsher a prison system is, the more likely it will act as a deterrentagainst future criminal behavior. Newman, who also teaches criminology, believes that prisonsshould be hellish workhouses in which criminals are taught the meaning ofsuffering. (1984). Afew scholars have suggested that more prisons need to be built to solve theovercrowding problem. (1985). 1 2). This paper takes the position that prisons are not for entertainingprisoners or allowing them health and recreational privileges such asweightlifting for many reasons. 56-58). New York:Macmillan Free P. However, recent studies show that by the 198 s, thedecision to build a 5 -bed institution will require the public to spendtax dollars of $35 million in current dollars. New York: New York State Bar Journal. (1983). Therefore, itcan be argued that by and large, prisons have had little success inrehabilitating or changing criminal behavior. 29-3 ). Another writer who has studied the subject of crime and punishment,Graeme R. Murphy, F. Mr. Murphy contends that the most desirable penalpolicy is that of just punishment. Prisoners are incarceratedso that they may be punished, not rewarded through special health orrecreational programs. Inother words, the goal of the prison system is to deter people fromcommitting crimes by showing that prisons will be severely and harshlypunished instead of providing interesting things for inmates to do, such aslift weights (thereby improving the appearance of the prisoners bodies andincreasing their sense of vitality and well being). Just punishment, according to Murphy,is the "swift punishment of blameworthy behavior" (Murphy, 1984, pp. Efforts at rehabilitatingprisoners "should be concentrated on the offender outside of the prisonsetting, the one place where rehabilitation might have a fair chance ofaccomplishment" (Murphy, 1984, p. R. Such a policy reaffirms the reality of moral values.Policies which support rehabilitation cut against the importance of moralvalues and weaken society's stand against criminal behavior.Rehabilitation is only a goal, and the extent to which that goal can orshould be achieved remains to be proven. 7). Therefore, to the extent that weight liftingor other body building prisons are sought to be introduced into the prisonssystem as a method to help rehabilitate or reform inmates, these programshave a good chance of failing to rehabilitate. Thus, the average yearly cost to build oneprison is $11.5 million (McConville, 1985, pp. Theprison system was constructed as an alternative to hanging and other typesof capital punishment. Beverly Hills, CA:Sage Publications. (1997). 12-13). Moreover, hestates that inmates should "suffer the long journey toward contrition"because he thinks that considering, the innocent lives that inmates haveruined, prisons should destroy rather than save the souls of the inmates.Newman's concepts are based on the idea that prisoners need to realize thatthey are guilty and then to be punished for their actions, not "treated" asif they have some inner motives or conflicts that the prison system issupposed to fix (1997, p. The concept of punishing peopleoccurs because society wants, on some level, to pay back the criminals forthe crimes they committed. Finally, he believes that there is a bigdifference between seeing prisons as institutions for cure instead ofkeeping them focused on what they were designed for: "to teach a lesson ina painful way; to ensure the offender suffers while he learns, through hispunishment, the quality of his crime" (Newman, 1997, p. Prisons are places for punishment, and when prisonsconcentrate on punishing criminals so as to discourage others fromcommitting crimes, prisons serve the goal for which they were intended. U.S. Federal and States Prisons:Inmate Populations, Costs and Projection Models. Therehabilitative ideal holds that a primary purpose of incarceration is tohelp change the character of prisoners in order to help him and maybeprotect society from him or her in the future. This view is supported by researchevidence which has accumulated and shows that "very few of the correctionalprograms were having any appreciable impact upon rates of recidivism or onthe ever increasing volume of crime" (Ohlin, 1973, p. Thus, it seems that theAmerican prison system has, at least so far, worked better as aninstitution which punishes bad behavior than an institution which reformsand rehabilitates criminals or turns them into law abiding citizens whostop committing crimes. He believes that although murdererscannot bring back their victims, they should work off their guilt, and forsome "even a lifetime will not be enough" (1983, p. Washington D.C.: GeneralGovernment Division. But that does not meanthat the survivors of the criminal behavior, or the members of society whobelieve in the prisons system, want the punishment for inmates to bemitigated to the extent that they enjoy recreational activities and specialphysical education programs as if they belonged to some private healthclub. The idea that prisons were built to punishcriminals, and not to rehabilitate them, is supported by a study done byFrancis T. Newman suggests that many penalists have lost sight of theimportant function of retribution. Prisons Should be Dehumanizing. In the fiscal year1994, the United States government spent $2.3 billion dollars on prisoncapital costs--a dramatic increase from a figure of $538 million in 198 (U.S., 1996, pp. Others believe that the prison system cannotrehabilitate (Kroll, 1984, p. Since not all members of society or any countrybelieve that a criminal should always be made to pay for a crime with theirlife (or even that if a person cuts off another person's arm then thatperson's arm should then be taken), the prison system was made to take theplace of capital punishment and death penalties. Prisoners in America. 1 1). In addition to the fact that prisons are overcrowded and thetaxpayers will have to spend millions of dollars to build new prisons inthe future, some people believe that the goal of the prison system is torehabilitate criminals. For the AAmerican prison system tofunction in the way it was originally intended, prisoners must suffer ifthey are to be held fully and morally accountable for their acts againstinnocent victims. Today, most prisons in America are suffering from overcrowding. The opposing viewpoint is that prisons should not be used solely topunish and deter people from committing crimes out of fear that they willdo time in a horrible place which restricts their personal liberties andfreedoms, is that prisons should help rehabilitate criminals. Ohlin, L. Moreover, the discussion will analyze whyinmates should not be allowed such privileges and will give sound reasonsagainst this type of policy for individuals who are incarcerated. 89-96). There is a theory that punishment forcrimes actually advances human dignity. Moreover, specialrecreational programs for prisoners, whether it be weight lifting or boxingor any other type of sport, just sends the message to the public that thepurpose of prison is not to scare people from committing crimes and todeter criminal behavior but to entertain prisoners and help make their stayin prison tolerable. Over a 3 year period, thecost of financing the building of additional prisons rises to about $135million in average construction costs of a prison, with an additional $21 million for operational costs. America's Prisons: Opposing Viewpoints. The idea that prisons should be used topunish criminals, and not to rehabilitate them or make their stay in prisonpleasurable, comes from the concept that criminals have broken the moralrules of society and that there, the job of the prison system is to punishinmates for their infractions against society (Leone, 1997, pp. 29). 1 3). T. O. Therefore, it can easily be said that it costsmore to build and maintain prisons than is commonly believed. The position that prisons were built and should bemaintained solely for the purpose of punishing criminals, is supported bythe fact that they were "originally constructed as a humane alternative tothe public floggings and executions that were originally used to punishcriminals" (Murphy, 1984, p. If inmates are allowed weight liftingprivileges, then they are not, in effect, really serving a harsh prisonsystem which this paper has advocated is best for the punishment of theircrimes. The penal policy which this discussion advocates is that prisonersshould be punished to the same degree that they were culpable of committeda heinous crime. The paper will present opposingarguments and then present the position that inmates should not be allowedweightlifting privileges. General Accounting Office (1996). SanDiego: Greenhaven P. Murphy. The period oftime that inmates spend in prison is supposed to be time where they areatoning for the evil acts which they have done. The idea that inmates should be allowed special privileges, such asweightlifting, is in direct opposition to the concept that prisons werebuilt to punish criminals. References Leone, B. This scholar believes that when a person is sentenced to prison, thejudge has spoken about the seriousness of that person's criminal behavior,and society has spoken about how it wishes to deal with that behavior. 33). In conclusion, this paper has shown that prisons cost so much tobuild and maintain, and that they have not always worked as institutions ofrehabilitation, and that therefore, their main purpose should be to punishand not to rehabilitate. Moral Accountability and the RehabilitativeIdeal.
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