Current Trends of Penal Reform in the U.S.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The United States’ penal system has been undergoing many changes in recentyears. These changes range from reducing prison sentences to changingrehabilitative programs for prisoners, and are based on studies and research lookingat what policies and strategies are most effective and most beneficial to society asa whole. Many of these changes have been or are being pushed due to the hugegrowth in the United States’ prison population over the past four decades, whichhas not only resulted in prison overcrowding, but has become a huge burden ontaxpayers who have to pay for each inmate being kept in prison. This epidemic ofincarceration has caused an increasing number of people in the United States toquestion the effectiveness of the current approach to imprisonment in the justicesystem, as well as many other aspects of the penal system, such as rehabilitation,education, and sentencing. In particular, there is a lot of criticism regardingmandatory sentencing for nonviolent crimes, such as drug offenses, which might bebetter addressed by assigning probation, community service, a fine, or sending theoffender into a treatment program, if necessary. After all, studies have found thathaving nonviolent offenders in prison for too long is actually more likely to makethem repeat offenders, so that the prison becomes a sort of revolving door formany of its inmates. Some states have already begun researching alternate methodsof sentencing in order to reduce prison population, and have had some measure ofsuccess, though the nation as a whole still has a long way to go. Another morein-depth method to reducing prison population is through rehabilitation, essentiallyensuring that the rate of incarceration is reduced simply by virtue of the fact that fewer offenders return to the prison, and instead re-enter society as law-abidingcitizens. The latter method is far more difficult to tackle, as each individualconvicted of a crime has a different story and different reasons for breaking thelaw, and as such, there is still a lot of room for discussion on how to improverehabilitative programs and also to make these programs more available to theinmates who need them.

참고문헌 (Reference)

• 1 Holder, Eric, American Bar Association. The Moscone Center West 2013
• 2 Nalitz, Marty, "the war on recidivism winnable?" AXS Digital Group
• 3 Laughlin, Mike, "Wyoming Honor Farm Inmate/Wild-Horse Program"
• 4 Burke, Kelly David, "Wild Horse Inmate Program in Colorado Benefits Both Mustangs and Prisoners" FOX News Network
• 5 Suede, Michael, "Why We Need Prison Reform: Victimless Crimes are 86% of the Federal Prison Population" 2012
• 6 Mehta, Hemant, "What Percentage of Prisoners are Atheists? It’s a Lot Smaller Than We Ever Imagined" Patheos
• 7 Lynch, Mona, "Waste Managers? the New Penology, Crime Fighting, and Parole Agent Identity" Electronic 32 (32): 1998
• 8 Fresse, Alicia, "Vermont Spending Less on Prisons" Valley News
• 9 Global Public Square staff, "U.S. wakes up to its prison nightmare" Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
• 10 McVay, Doug, "Treatment or Incarceration? National and State Findings on the Efficacy and Cost Savings of Drug Treatment Versus Imprisonment"
• 11 Wilcox, Agnes, "Theater Opens Our Eyes" The New York Times Company
• 12 Penal Reform International, "The Use and Practice of Imprisonment: Current Trends and Future Challenges" Penal Reform International
• 13 Kilgore, James, "The Myth of Prison Slave Labor Camps in the U.S" CounterPunch
• 14 Prison Education, "The Lionheart Foundation - National Emotional Literary Projects" Middle Street Publishing
• 15 Ward, Mike, "Texas prison population shrinks as rehabilitation programs take root" Cox Media Group
• 16 "Religion in Corrections" 3 : 2002
• 17 Song, Lin, "Recidivism: The Effect of Incarceration and Length of Time Served"
• 18 "Prisons, Jails & Probation – Overview"
• 19 "Prisoner Recidivism Analysis Tool. "Bureau of Justice Statistics. U. S. Department of Justice, 3 Feb, "Prisoner Recidivism Analysis Tool" U.S. Department of Justice
• 20 "Prison Project" The Lionheart Foundation
• 21 Campbell, Bill, "Prison Gives Boxers a Chance for Self-Esteem" Newhouse News Service
• 22 Kolker, Carolyn, "Madoff Victims May Have to Return Profits, Principal (Update1)" Bloomberg
• 23 Dzur, Albert W., "Forgiveness and Public Deliberation: The Practice of Restorative Justice" Electronic 21 (21): 2002
• 24 Rouvalis, Cristina, "Ex-con works toward opening boxing gym with businessman’s help" PG Publishing Company
• 25 Kirchhoff, Suzanne M, "Economic Impacts of Prison Growth"
• 26 Olasky, Marvin, "Do You Believe in Magic? Critics Misunderstand: Christian Prison Programs Work More Like Communion" Salem Web Network
• 27 Volokh, Alexander, "Do Faith-Based Prisons Work?" 63 : 2011
• 28 Ferrall, Bard R., "Criminal Law and Criminology: A Survey of Recent Books" Electronic 93 (93): 2003
• 29 "Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants"
• 30 "California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation"
• 31 James, Juliene, "A View from the States: Evidence-Based Public Safety Legislation" Electronic 102 (102): 2012
• 32 Kirk, David S, "A Natural Experiment on Residential Change and Recidivism:Lessons from Hurricane Katrina" Electronic 74 (74): 2009
• 33 Well, Tom Vander, "10 Ways Being a Theatre Major Prepared Me for Success"