Research Assignment 2: Improving Corrections Facilities

Improving Corrections Facilities
Name
Institution of affiliation
Date
Improving Corrections Facilities
The United States has a prison population of approximately 2.2 million individualsCITATION Lau11 \l 1033 (Glaze, 2011). There has been a raging debate in the United States regarding the sentencing laws. President Obama in his 8 years in office commuted more sentences that all previous president. Obama even commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence, raising uproar and support in equal measure. The discourse on sentencing laws emanates from the belief that these laws are based on archaic social demands. As such, they are ineffective in dispensing justice. Where the laws are either too harsh, too lenient or untenable in the prevailing social construct. The paper therefore looks at Georgia’s correctional facilities. It will concentrate on the Georgia State Prison and the Washington State prison in Davisboro.
Diversion programs in the United States are designed to divert or channel offenders from the prison system. It is predicated on the belief that the prison system may do more than good for the offender. Noting that the corrective system is designed to rehabilitate the offender. Meting out punishment but also changing the mindset and attitude of the offender. Finally the correctional facility should be able to prepare the offender back into the prison system. The limitations of the Georgia’s correctional facilities affect their ability to rehabilitate offenders. Diversion programs are however beneficial to offenders who have committed misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. Noting, that these offenders are likely to exacerbate when placed in the general populations of the prisons. Offenders charged with felonies and violent crimes are unlikely to benefit from the diversion programs. Noting that the program’s main aim is to ensure that offenders do not get worse. However, these types of offenders will take advantage of the program. Their rendition in prison is mainly to punish them, the nature of their crimes necessitating this CITATION Geo17 \l 1033 (Georgia - Department of Corrections , 2017).
The Georgia State prison is a maximum security facility. It is credited with housing the most dangerous offenders credited with the most dangerous inmates in Georgia. The prison is not liable to benefit from the diversion program. The nature of the offenders in the prison cannot allow them to benefit from this program. The Washington State Prison is a minimum security facility that house petty offenders who commit non-violent offenders. The Washington Street prison would benefit greatly from the diversion programs noting the offenders housed here committee non-violent offences and misdemeanors.
The use of private prisons in the United States began in the 1990s. It was ...