Inmate Abuse in Prisons

Inmate Abuse in Prisons
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Inmate Abuse in Prisons
Introduction
It is real, it is here, and it is a concern. This is the case of most of the US prisons, where their fellow inmates and staff of the prisons have subjected inmates to much suffering and abuses. The US has one of the most blotted prison inmates, with an estimated 2 million people being in prison, probation or punished by other means. The rising number of cases of abuse of inmates in US prisons is a major concern in this age, where human rights of the prisoners are abused each day. There have been increased numbers of reported inmate abuses in the US. This ranges from the rape cases, sexual assault, negligence, and other abuses. This reality has been ignored for long by the free world, thus its spread across the years (Fox, 2000).
This setting has created a worse case for the offenders convicted for jail terms. This is because they get to experience more than their conviction was. The prisoners are severely punished in the prisons, and their rights suppressed left, right, and centre. Indeed, many of the prison inmates, who are successful to come out alive, have their story to tell. The experiences that inmates face within the prison gates are unbelievable yet real. They include the sexual assaults, sodomy, bullying, verbal abuses, and the list is goes on and on. These abuses are not justifiable by any standard, thus the need to solve this issue. This thesis paper suggests a solution to stop the abuses faced by inmates in US prisons (Mariner, 2001).
Thesis Statement
The solution to inmate abuse is in US prison lies in training the staff and inmates on the costs and consequences of abusing inmates. Inmate abuse in prisons would be stopped when the prison officials and violent inmates are trained on the need negative consequences of abusing inmates, and the need to restrain from the same.
Thesis Arguments
Training is critical in dealing in with the problem of inmate abuse in prisons. This is because of its impact in shaping the mindset and psychology of those who are potentially prone to abusing the inmates in prison. No one can doubt the power of effective training in shaping people’s mindsets. The shaming situation in US prisons desperately needs an intense training program, which would specifically deal with the issue of increased inmate abuse in prisons. There is need for a comprehensive training program, which would address the case of inmate abuse in the prisons (Couture, 2001).
Training is a key solution to the problem of inmate abuse. First, because the inmate abuse in US prisons is mainly a mindset/psychological problem. The abuses subjected to the inmates in prison is mainly caused by the mindset among the people responsible that prisoners have no values, they are not humans, and do not deserve dignity. Most of the abuses that are inflicted to the prisoners reflect the absence of value of the prisoners as human beings, who deserve respect and dignity. In this regard, the negative attitude violent prisoners have on their new colleagues; as well, the staff on the prisoners they are to take care is the root cause of almost all the inmate abuses in prisons. For a long period, inmates have been viewed as valueless people, not worth to be accorded their rights. This has led the staff and fellow prisoners to subject them to all kinds of abuses one would not wish to experience (Siegel, 2009).
This background make necessary for training to be embraced as a remedy for inmate abuses in prison. The contextual sufferings subjected to the inmates in prisons require a change in mind and conception of who an inmate is. It is true that inmates committed offenses, which landed them in prisons, but that not warrant the staff and fellow inmates to take advantage of this and abuse the inmates. Indeed, it is a wrong conception to view an inmate with an animalistic view, as may staff and fellow violent prisoners view their colleagues. The inmates have human rights entitled to them while in prison. The inmates are first human, then inmates, and not the other way out. However, the otherwise popular attitude of the prison staff that inmates are prisoners first then humans has made a number to turn abusive to the inmates. For this problem to be solved there is need for staff and inmates trained on the need to shun from inmate abuse in prisons. The efficacy of training a solution to the inmate abuse problem in prisons is explained in the following four elements of training (Paul, 2009).
First, training will publicize inmate abuse as a national vice. Training of the prison staff and inmates on the consequences of inmate abuse, and the need to stop the abuses is effective for it transforms the perception that they have on inmates, and publicizes inmate abuse as a national vice. This will significantly play a role in stopping the abuse of inmates in prison. An effective training exercise design and enforced among the prison staff and inmates on the costs and consequences of inmate abuses in prisons will change their perception of inmates as just criminals, but also human. This change of perception will increase the publicity of inmate abuse as a vice and not an ordinary practice (Thomas, 2003).
An effective training program conducted across the prisons in the nation on the costs and consequences of inmate abuse will cause the perpetuators to understand the harm they cause. It will also make a large fraction of the public to consider inmate abuse as an intolerable vice, regardless of the status of the inmate as a prisoner. In this regard, the training will open up the mind of the trainees that a prisoner is a human being and a citizen of the country. In this case, he or she needs care and support as they take up their jail terms. Indeed, the purpose of the prison system is to punish the convicted to correct, and not to dehumanize the convicted. In this case, training the prison staff and inmates on their roles, and responsibility in ensuring that no inmate is abused would turn the prisons to be effective correctional facilities, and not hell. Inmate abuses often make the prison to be hell for most of the inmates, and such abuses have been responsible for the rising numbers of recidivism (Couture, 2001).
Providing training to all the prison staffs and inmates across the nation will publicize inmate abuse as a national vice, and far from the acceptable values of the state. It will boos...