20 Sep The United States incarcerates more people, in both absolute numbers and per capita, than any other nation in the world. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people has increased sev

Prison Assignment

Name

Institutional Affiliation

Date of Submission

Prisons

The United States incarcerates more people, in both absolute numbers and per capita, than any other nation in the world. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people has increased sevenfold to 2.3 million in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime.

In the U.S., approximately half a million correctional officers are responsible for supervising more than two million inmates. Correctional officers are exposed to unique workplace hazards within a controlled prison environment.

Based on the videos from this week and your textbook, answer the following questions as completely as possible. Do NOT be too short in your answers. Please make sure they are complete sentences and grammatically correct.

Question 1:When did prison overcrowding begin to be a problem in the United States and what was the main issue that caused the overcrowding?

The U.S. prison population spiked between the year 1970s and 1990s. This was mainly contributed by the fact that the federal government was chasing the “war on drugs,”, this effort, left the states to manage the overcrowding yet these states had limited funds. Generally, this is what led to the overcrowding in prisons which can be said to have started towards the beginning of the War on Drug era in the 1980s. During this time, law enforcement started arresting any person with drug-related offenses and then taking them to prison. As a result, there are currently many individuals in prison for drug offenses as compared to the number of individuals who were in prison for any other crime in 1980. Generally, overcrowding of prisons may result in various related issues such as increased rate of violence, suicides as well as mental health problems(Champion, 1994).

Question 2:In your textbook, read Chapter 10, “Community Sentences: Probation, Intermediate Sanctions, and Restorative Justice.” Then beginning with probation and selecting two other alternatives to incarceration, complete the table below:

Alternative	Explain how this alternative works.	List one pro.	List one con.	Is this alternative effective? Why or why not?
1. Probation	Probation enables an individual who is convicted of the crime to stay in their community rather than spending time in jail. When providing probation, the courts set rules as well as regulations that require the probationer to obey. Therefore, in case the probationer fails to abide by these rules as well as the regulations, he/she is then sent to jail to serve the sentence there.	There are various advantages of probation, however, the major advantage is that it is quite cost-effective. because sending an inmate to prison cost about $25,000 a year while putting him/her on probation only costs about $2,000 a year.	There are also various disadvantages of probation. One major disadvantage is that while serving probation, the probation officer has every right to search for the home without a search warrant and this is a potential invasion of privacy.	Based on my opinion, I believe that probation has turned out to be quite effective because it keeps the majority of the non-violent criminals out of jail and this prevents overcrowding in prisons.
2. Restitution	Restitution might need the offender to pay back to the victims of crime or even to do various duties or tasks in their community, for instance picking up trash, cleaning up public parks rather than serving time in prison.	The main advantage of this method is that it is very cheap/inexpensive especially to manage and it also when providing a reimbursement back to the victims.	The key disadvantage is that the judges, as well as the probation officers, view restitution as a great benefit to offenders, victims, the criminal justice system itself, and society.	Based on its efficiency, I believe that I believe that the community service restitution is effective since the majority of the offenders who are sentenced to restitution complete the required number of hours can learn from their mistakes and they are likely not to commit a future crime.
3. Electronic Monitoring	This is essential in keeping track of the offenders, then the system ensures the implementation of the house arrest sentence is essential. Therefore, the system requires various devices, for instance, an ankle monitoring system that shows the location of the individual. The electric monitoring systems ensure that the offenders can comply with the new limitations on their freedom set by the judge.	One major advantage is that it can save taxpayers as well as detention facilities money since the offender is needed to pay for the monitoring among other fees(Siegel & Worrall, 2015).	The major disadvantage of this system is that Some who have committed serious offenses are allowed to use this system. However, I feel that such individuals should not be given this freedom.	This alternative is effective since it decreases threats to public safety. It also allows the probation officer to track and know where the offenders are, and if they are not obeying the rules.

Question 3:The death penalty is a very controversial issue that is used by the courts in extreme cases involving the crime of murder. While, in the past, executions have been authorized for other crimes, currently all prisoners sitting on death row have a murder conviction. Using Chapter 9, “Punishment and Sentencing,” in your textbook and the link below, answer the following questions in complete sentences.

The Death Penalty Information Center provides essential statistics like State by State information. See the basics by hovering over the states on the interactive map. Scroll to the bottom to select particular states for more details, and see a summary on the right side of the page for each state you select. For comparison, you'll see that Louisiana has the highest murder rate at 14.4 murders per 100,000 residents!

Fill out the table below as it relates to the state you live in.

State you reside in?	Death penalty in your state?	If no, when was it abolished?	If yes, how many are currently on death row?	What is the total number of executions in your state (including before 1976)?	What is the number of innocent people freed from death row in your state?
North Carolina	Yes		About 140 were on death row based on the report of January 1, 2020, in the state of North Carolina.	43 individuals have been executed in North Carolina Since 1977, all these people were convicted of murder.	This required and involved deep research. Based on the research I have done, only two innocent individuals have since been exonerated and they had served 30 years in prison. Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown were disabled half-brothers and were released from death row in 2014 after confessing to the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, but DNA evidence proved them innocent.

Question 4:Do you believe the death penalty is effective in deterring crime and should remain in place? Why or why not? (Please be detailed in your answer.)

According to my reasoning, I think that the death penalty is quite effective to a particular extent, however, I think that innocent individuals should not be put on death row for the crime they have not committed. Recent research studies have indicated that 1 in 25 death row inmates are innocent, unfortunately, this number is spiking every day. As of now, the majority of states have abolished the death penalty because it is considered cruel as well as inhuman. When a person is sentenced to the death penalty, he/she is exiled with lethal injection, however, electric shock among other forms of death is also utilized previously in the U.S. Therefore, I think that the death penalty should remain in place since some serious criminals’ offenders should be punished by death penalty so that other people cannot think of committing offenses(Herrmann, 2008).

References

Champion, D. J. (1994). Measuring offender risk: A criminal justice sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Herrmann, J. (2008). The history of the death penalty in the United States. GRIN Verlag.

Siegel, L. J., & Worrall, J. L. (2015). Introduction to criminal justice. Cengage Learning.

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