Incarceration is the measure taken against the criminals in every country of the world, and since a long time ago, the society decided to punish the guilty by limiting his space of free movements and displacement. From the point of view of the common sense, it seems quite logical to suppose that state officials thousands of years ago were looking for the rationalization and the improvement of the incarceration system efficiency. It is very important to understand that the modification of everything should correspond to the real actual situation, and the changes should take place when it is really necessary.
This is the case of American prison system, and every year investigation should be taken into consideration when or before optimizing any item. According to Marc Mauer’s and Ryan S. King’s investigation of 2007 since the early 1970s in the United States, a total quantity of the prisoners has progressed like never before. “The more than 500% rise in the number of people incarcerated in the nation’s prisons and jails has resulted in a total of 2.2 million people behind bars” (Mauer & King, 2007). Such information provokes the idea that the United States prison system should be modified. The more rigorous and tough measures should be taken in public, and this would help to achieve such goals as cutting down the expenses for the prisoners and reducing their number. Every citizen is a potential prisoner so a detailed analysis must be processed dividing all the prisoners into categories according to their profession, ethnic origin, age, society, and matrimonial condition etc.
According to Franklin E. Zimring, two questions are important: “1.What are the differential merits of incarceration as a sanction with respect to property, violent, and drug offenses? 2. Does current sentencing policy confine too many or too few offenders in the United States? “( Zimring & Hawkins, 1997)
The above mentioned Franklin E. Zimring (1997) believes that “the serious problem in the United States is not crime but lethal violence. We have about the same rate of theft and burglary as other developed nations in the1990s but very high rates of those offenses that put life in jeopardy”. So, does the violence causes the violence or maybe the very violence is an efficient instrument against the violence or both things could happen depending on many other different factors?
The very word “correction” means the treatment which does not admit the following repeating of the crime. It makes sense to investigate whether the prisoner being set free immediately (or not immediately) goes back to jail because of another crime or the prisoner gets corrected and not inclined to harm the society any more. This is why the treatment must consider every single and useful detail for the prisoner submitted to the correction, and the correction must be multifaceted but above all efficient.
The United States of America are very big, so a reasonable supposition is that every state may have separate problems and advantages about its incarceration system, but the basic points of discussion are to make clear if the abundant financing of incarceration facilities is not “inviting” the citizens to become felons and delinquents and determine where the rights of the prisoners are violated. There is no doubt that every prisoner will reintegrate the society more probably if he has a permanent opportunity to keep in touch with his family as much as possible during his incarceration period because, in this way, he may think more about the people which remain dear to him.
If the security of the prison cannot be kept because the prison is overcrowded, this is precisely the problem which must cause the law amendments or the urgent solution by the means of urgent building of more prison space (Drew Johnson). The incarceration staff that, in this case, is the very personification of the state and the law must guarantee the sexual and life safety of every prisoner from other incarcerated citizens living in the same jail.
The financial crisis in Washington State forced the officials to reduce the staff of some Washington prisons, and this caused the strangling of one of the correction officer Jayme Biendl in the prison chapel at Monroe Correctional Complex 30 miles northeast of Seattle (Corrections.one.com, 2011). Apparently, the lack of equilibrium between the necessities and the possibilities caused that tragedy, and such things must be eliminated without a fail. Avoiding these kinds of things is a basic task of the alternative incarceration system policy.
According to Drew Johnson, some of the Washington jails have too much space. “While corrections officers and prison administrators around the country struggle with the persistent problem of overcrowding, several jails in Washington State are facing a much different dilemma”( Johnson, 2010). This is one more example when the lack of equilibrium comes as a testimony of the lack of exact previous estimation.
The incarceration system in the USA and particularly in Washington State works, but the daily news gives us the regular evidence that it is ameliorable.
