...David Ross Dr. Adebanjo PSCI-245 02 December 2015 Chapter 6: The Fire this Time Summary Analysis In the book, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States, though Alexander notes that the discrimination faced by African-American males is also prevalent among other minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. Alexander's central premise, from which the book derives its title, is that "mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow keeping company with the final chapter of the New Jim Crow, “The Fire this Time,” this section is devoted to the question of where we go from here. Michelle Alexander argues that we, as a nation, have reached a fork in the road. Likewise, here at the end of our journey with her book, we find ourselves at a critical point of decision. What is required of us at this moment in history, a time when millions are cycling in and out of our nation’s prisons and jails trapped in a parallel social universe in which discrimination is perfectly legal? How do we show care and concern for the children who are born into communities where the majority of men and growing numbers of women can expect to spend time behind bars? What must we do, now that we know that the usual justifications do not hold water, and that a human rights nightmare is occurring on our watch? The New Jim Crow begins...
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...In this essay, I will do a journal article comparison. The articles selected have something in common – treatment of drug. The first article is “Do drug treatment variables predict cognitive performance in multidrug-treated opioid-dependent patients? A regression analysis study” by Pekka Rapeli, Carola Fabritius, Hely Kalska and Hannu Alho. This article was taken from an open access article under Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 2012, at http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/7/1/45. The second article entitled “Treating Drug Abuse and Addiction in the Criminal Justice System: Improving Public Health and Safety” by Redonna K. Chandler, Bennett W. Fletcher and Nora D. Volkow. It was taken from a public access journal under National Institute of Health: JAMA. 2009 January 14; 301(2): 183–190. doi:10.1001/jama.2008.976. The purpose of the first article was to examine the predictive power of drug treatment variables on specific cognitive performance measures in multidrug-treated opioid dependent patients. Also, the researchers interested in finding out which of the possible significant associations turn out as hypothesized. On the other hand, the purpose of the second article was to summarize relevant neuroscientific findings and evidence-based principles of addiction treatment that, if implemented in the criminal justice system, could help improve public health and reduce criminal behaviour. For methodologies, the first research involved 104 Opioid-Dependent...
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...Executive Summary: Women Who Can (“WWC”) is a grass root organization located in Los Angeles County that will provide life skills, education career preparation and training, entrepreneurial support and training to women 16-39 with a determination NOT to return to the penal system. We have a large amount of competitors that offer some of the same services but we will approach this need by a holistic approach. Here are some hard facts and why we need to implement this program: • It costs taxpayers $42,000 each year per/inmate. • Once inmates re-enter the system, it costs taxpayers $35,000 each year per/inmate and these costs slowly increase. • 97,000 children in California have parents who are incarcerated. • It costs taxpayers $42,000 each year per/inmate. Okay this is the harsh reality 42,000 per/year per/inmate x 32,000 inmates = 1.344 billion in costs each year to continue to house them. It is our hope that we are able to get donors. But it goes without saying in some way or the other consumers and or taxpayers will pay the price as noted above because we share the costs. Investors can either reach out to organization like us or be forced to contribute Situation Analysis: Our goal at Women Who Can is to have our women succeed when it is unexpected; reach goals that are statistically not feasible; leave the penal system and never look back; break the cycle of generational incarceration; maintain employment and adopt skills to excel in all endeavors and then...
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...Justice Policy I N S T I T U T E Treatment or Incarceration? Treatment or Incarceration? National and State Findings on the Efficacy and Cost Savings of Drug Treatment Versus Imprisonment by Doug McVay, Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg January 2004 Justice Policy Institute 4455 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite B-500 Washington, DC 20008 v 202.363.7847 f 202.363.8677 www.justicepolicy.org POLICY REPORT J u s t i c e P o l i c y I n s t i t u t e Table of Contents Introduction: The national and local problem of drug imprisonment 3 Methodology 4 Finding 1: Treatment can be less expensive than a term of imprisonment 5 Finding 2: Treatment can be cost effective 6 Finding 3: Treatment can reduce substance abuse and recidivism while building communities 9 Finding 4: Promising treatment models exist in Maryland and around the country 11 Maryland: Break The Cycle The Correctional Options Program (COP) Drug Courts: Maryland and the National Perspective California’s Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act (SACPA) 11 12 13 14 Conclusion: Drug treatment can be more effective than cycling people in and out of prison 18 Endnotes 20 About the Authors Treatment or Incarceration? was primarily authored by Doug McVay, former research director for Common Sense for Drug Policy, a non-profit dedicated to expanding...
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...Court Case Analysis of a Young Offender The Canadian public perception of youth crime is that it is growing out of control and that violence crime is common. Sensationalized media coverage, frustrated law enforcement officers and vote-seeking politicians, have tended to portray only parts of the overall reality of youth crime (John Howard Society, 2008). The government of Canada has evolved over the many years to deal with youth crime from installing the Juvenile Delinquency Act in 1908 all the way to the Youth Criminal Justice Act recently amended in 2012. What these acts have accomplished is the separation of youth and adult sentences (Stevenson, 2014). This was done in order to protect children because it is the belief in Canada that children are not responsible for their actions because of Doli incapax or the inability to do wrong. That being said there is still legislation in dealing with youth crime that is punishing and effective (Stevenson, 2014). This paper will analyze a court case decision made under the Youth Criminal Justice Act which involves a young offender who was convicted of a gang-related murder and breached Conditional Supervision Order (R. v. S.(M.), 2014). This court case will be analyzed using relevant research on youth gangs using concept of theories that apply to our young offender. In conclusion, this paper will discuss limitations of laws and possible alternatives that dealt with the young offender. A summary of R. v. S.(M.), the court based...
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...those struggles in women’s lives seemed to affect their likelihood of recidivism. At last, the “pathways” perspective, which investigates whether women have distinct pathways to initial crime and recidivism compared to men, is improved mainly by qualitative methodologies. In the current study: Gendered Pathways: A Quantitative Investigation of Women Probationers’ Paths to Incarceration, featured in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Behavior, authors Emily J. Salisbury and Patricia Van Voorhis quantitatively investigate women’s possibilities of ongoing criminal behavior (2009). Although some implications did arise, this study is important to the field by offering explanations of female offending which can offer proper interventions to help reduce recidivism. Throughout this paper I will be summarizing and critiquing the above article. The mentioned study uses a path analytic statistical procedure with a sample of 313 newly convicted women probationers selected by the Missouri Department of Corrections according to a stratified sample, to investigate three gendered pathways to women offenders’ incarceration: 1) a pathway beginning with childhood victimization that contributed to historical and current form of mental illness and substance abuse; 2) a relational pathway in which women’s dysfunctional intimate relationships facilitated adult victimization, reductions in self-efficacy, and current mental illness and substance abuse; and 3) a social and human capital pathway in...
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...Executive Summary The American court system is overflowed with people that suffer from substance abuse. For example drug and/or alcohol related crimes have been implicated in violent crimes, instances of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect cases. Therefore, drug court has come in to offer people arrested for substances abuse related crimes and opportunity to receive community-based treatment with judicial supervision to avoid potential incarceration. For this reason drug court has changed people’s lives in a variety of ways, which are often overlooked, are the positive impact on families and society. Overall, substance abuse offenders have a recurring problem for the criminal justice system as a result drug courts are an important strategy to reduce incarceration, provide drug treatment and reduce recidivism among nonviolent offenders. Another key point is research study by the National Institute of Justice in 2009 called the Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation confirmed that Drug Courts reduced crime and substance abuse, improved family relationships, and also increasing employment and school enrollment. (Marlowe, 2010) Another key point is drug courts have affected the offender’s criminal behavior and substance use with mandated drug and alcohol treatment. Henceforth drug courts has been a popular diversion program for drug offenders since it’s began in Dade County Florida in 1989. Overview Drug courts represent the criminal justice approach to ensure public...
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...What Works with Juvenile Offenders Juvenile Offenders are categorized differently than their adult counterparts for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is that as an offender who is not yet an adult, they are still considered a protected class due to their age and the concern of disrupting their rights to council and the rights of their parents to help dictate the events in their lives. Over the past few decades there have been several studies completed correlating the quantitative analysis in primary research studies with success rates of juvenile offender treatment. Because of the repeated success of certain treatments over others, these studies have lead to an agreement on what programs and intervention strategies work and which have little to no repeated success. By analyzing these treatment strategies as they have been portrayed in academic literature and through the primary research that has been completed, a summary analysis of what plans work when dealing with juvenile offenders will be devised and put forth as the best option for treatment. The first aspect to analyze when dealing with implementing a new strategy for juvenile offender reformation and treatment plans is the idea of quality of the plan versus quantity of sessions required with all individuals in correctional institutions across the United States. In the past two decades, the numbers of individuals within the correctional systems across the United States has skyrocketed. In 2004, the jump in population...
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...Prison Violent Misconduct Sylwia Chamot April 20th, 2011 Dr. Hassett- Walker Senior Seminar CJ 4600, Section 02 Spring Semester 2011 Incarceration rates rose to unprecedented levels in the history of the U.S.’s imprisonment. Therefore, concern about social control of the incarcerated, that is, prisoners’ behavior, has increased. High inmate disciplinary infractions, especially violent infractions, are a threat to the safety of prison, of correctional staff, and of other inmates. Nevertheless, the issue of discipline in prison is important from an economic perspective, because an estimated average cost per infraction at a medium security prison is $970 (Jiang & Fisher-Giorlando, 2002). For these reasons, Jiang & Fisher- Giorlando conducted a research to help explain violent incidents, incidents against correctional staff and incidents against other inmates in prison. Identifying the risk factors of inmates to commit violent acts of misconduct is of great importance to prison administration. This type of research can assist in the classification process of inmates entering institutions as well as the ongoing classification adjustments of inmates already in custody. This study will identify and investigate factors for violent institutional misconduct. These factors include; however, are not limited to race...
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...servants comes at a cost to the community through tax dollars. Police officers, Judges, Lawyers, Court Clerks, Bailiffs, Correctional officers, Wardens, and more have jobs due to the existence of crime and these people work together to provide safety within our communities as well as retribution and treatment for different offenders and their individual needs. Crimes exist on a regular basis within our communities, which employs significant cost on the general public to cover the cost of maintaining inmates in correctional and local detention facilities. Crime has a broad range in occurrence, which ranges from simple traffic violations or part II crimes to more serious offenses such as part I crimes. Such crimes tend to lead to incarceration; therefore, there is a cost to tax payers to aid in keeping offenders off the streets of society. This paper will discuss types of offenders such as occasional offenders compared to career offenders; also, this paper will discuss different types of offenses leading to...
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...with severe social and/or educational deficiencies, learning disabilities or language barriers; or offenders with special security or supervision needs, such as protective custody cases, death row inmates and those who chronically exhibit potential or aggressive behavior; or sex offenders, for whom appropriate treatment may reduce the risk of reoffending” ("Special Needs Offender Law & Legal Definition", n.d.). As more inmates are found guilty and are given prison sentences the prison system has to focus on separating special needs offenders. This separation is necessary to insure safety and balance within the facility. The special needs population can affect both the state and federal level of incarceration because they must gather accurate date. Putting offenders with different needs together can lead to violence issues among inmates. There is also an increase possibility of mental and emotion strain on all ready unstable prisoners “Correctional agencies today face many serious management problems that they did not have in the past as a result of the increasing proportion of the correctional population that may be termed as special offenders. The increasing number and percentage of the population that are drug offenders, mentally ill...
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...Professor Sung mentioned that our job is not to be an expert, but to find what experts do and evaluate what they said. Therefore, I realized rhetorical analysis is necessary to enhance my credibility and persuade the audience. When I wrote the HCP, I not only cited news published on Los Angeles Times and New York Times but also analyzed the scholarly articles published by famous professors or organization. For example, I cited the cost study written by Arthur L. Alarcon who is a senior judge and Paula M. Mitchell who is a professor in Loyola Law School, so the audience can trust the data and notice the expensive death penalty system in California. I also cited and analyzed the information from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). For AP, I did a rhetorical analysis to answer “who persuade whom for what and how”. I quoted credible resource claimed by professional attorneys, officials and professors to analyze the criteria of Prop 62 and Prop...
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...Effects of Single Parent Homes on Children Abstract Throughout the world, there are numerous children being raised in single parent homes. This paper is a summary of the increase of children raised by single parents and the effects it has on them. Single parent homes will consist of households with at least one child under the age of 18 and only one parent as a result of divorce, death, or parents having never been married. The effects on cognitive, social, and emotional development of these children will be compared to that of children raised in two-parent homes. Effects of Single Parent Homes on Children The American family dynamic has seen a drastic shift in the past few decades. The nuclear family structure, consisting of a father, mother, and children, has been rapidly decreasing as more and more children are being raised in single-parent homes. Divorce, parental death, or couples having never been married are some common circumstances leading to single-parenthood. Being a single-parent and sole provider for children can be a difficult and overwhelming task. Having to single handedly juggle all the responsibilities of career, maintaining a household, and raising children is hard on not only the parent but it takes a toll on the children, as well. When compared to their married-couple counterparts, the effects on cognitive, social and emotional development of children raised in single parent homes is made apparent. They are placed at a disadvantage and their...
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...many questions about whether or not this prison was able to handle such a significant crowd of elegant prisoners. Many issues had came up for prison officials and the media had given an image to the public that incorporated those issues, causing questioning from the public about whatever was going on in Alcatraz was being deemed constitutional. David Ward, along with Gene Kassebaum in Alcatraz: The gangster years, do a great job in bringing out detailed facts about topics and concerns that was being brought up after the migration of America’s most dangerous criminals into this institution. This paper will look deep into whether or not creating such a commendable prison was worth all the attention from concerned officials and citizens. SUMMARY A theory that I had encountered throughout the second part of this book was how much attention Alcatraz had created for the public and the media. According to Ward & Kassebaum (2009), if Alcatraz had been constructed in an unpopulated area, the public and media might have lost interest in the prison. But this had not been the case since it was developed near a city of over a million residents that had the thought of what was going on behind the prison walls. Apparently the media...
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...Chapter 1 The Problem and its Background Introduction A job is a piece of work or task that is assigned to a person with an agreed price or amount of salary. Having a stable job is one thing that every person strives for. It means having something that would help sustain not only the family’s basic needs for everyday life but also to secure one’s future. Unemployment is a stressful life event that can lead to financial difficulties, depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and increased substance use. (Wanberg 1999). It results to emotional health problems due to depression and anxiety as well as low self esteem and lose of respect from other people due to the inability to support one’s self and his family. In order to be employed, one of the most common requirements of an employer or a business establishment is that a person applying for work should be of good moral character. In most cases, a job applicant is required to secure clearances from either the National Bureau of Investigation or the Philippine National Police. The clearances serve as certificate of good moral character and behavior. The clearance reveals if a person has a clean police record or if he/she has been already convicted of a crime. The employment situations of ex-convicts are a different story because the certificate secured from the said law enforcement agency reveals that the applicant has a bad record on file. Employers tend to reject people with a criminal record for...
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