Incarceration is the detention of a person in jail A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail (or gaol), although in the United States "jail" and "prison" usually refer to different subtypes of correctional facility. Jails are conventionally —typically as punishment Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group. Inflicted unpleasantness without authority is not punishment, but is characterized as something else. Punishment may be administered following a formal decision process, or informally for a crime Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as ". People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility. The term is also used to denote the geographical area or subject-matter to which such authority have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within an larger system of justice The three major legal systems of the world today consist of civil law, common law and religious law. However, each country often develops variations on each system or incorporates many other features into the system. Incarceration serves four essential purposes with regard to criminals:
- to punish criminals for committing crimes
- to isolate criminals to prevent them from committing more crimes
- to deter others from committing crimes
- to rehabilitate criminals
Incarceration rates, when measured by the United Nations, are considered distinct and separate from the imprisonment of political prisoners A political prisoner is someone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, for his or her involvement in political activity and others not charged with a specific crime. Historically, the frequency of imprisonment, its duration, and severity have varied considerably. There has also been much debate about the motives for incarceration, its effectiveness and fairness, as well as debate regarding the related questions about the nature and etiology Etiology is the study of causation, or origination. The word is derived from the Greek αἰτιολογία, aitiologia, "giving a reason for" (αἰτία, aitia, "cause"; and -λογία, -logia) of criminal Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as " behavior.
Contents |
Justice studies
| This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be and removed. (December 2008) |
Wilkenson (2004) notes that overall heterogeneity of a society may provide a meta-explanation for the variance in incarceration rates: There may be a multi-directional causality where close-knit societies are least likely to offend against one another. Knowing ones' neighbors may hence bridge econometric explanations across communities. Or put another way, except perhaps for crimes of passion, people do not offend against people they know well.
Penology Penology is a section of criminology that deals with the philosophy and practice of various societies in their attempts to repress criminal activities, and satisfy public opinion via an appropriate treatment regime for persons convicted of criminal offenses. Penology is concerned with the effectiveness of those social processes devised and adopted and justice studies emphasize description and analysis of antecedents of criminal behavior and outcomes of consequences imposed by criminal justice on the criminal behavior. An example of a modern quantitative study of factors influencing the criminal behavior is the study by Krus and Hoehl (1994).
In the study by Krus and Hoehl, variables that might explain differences in incarceration rates among populations were located by a computer-aided search of the compendium of world rankings, compiled by the Facts on File Infobase Publishing is an American publisher of reference titles and textbooks geared towards the North American library, secondary school and college-level curricula markets. The company was founded in 1941 with its headquarters based in New York. Infobase operates a number of prominent imprints, including Facts On File, Films for the Humanities & Corporation and the World Model Group, containing over 50,000 records on more than 200 countries.
They argued that predictor variables explained about 69% of variance in the international incarceration rates. Cited as especially important were unequal distribution of wealth (the explanation perhaps favored by liberals Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equality. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but most liberals support such fundamental ideas as constitutions, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights, capitalism, free trade, and the separation of church and state) and family disintegration (the explanation perhaps favored by conservatives Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and opposes rapid change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way things were." The first established use). According to Krus and Hoehl, these variables act in concert: the presence of one variable does not always precipitate crime, but the presence of both variables often does precipitate crime.
Incarceration rates by country
Incarceration rates of selected nations[2][3][4]In many countries, it is common for prisoners to be paroled after serving as little as one third of their sentences.
China
In 2001 the incarceration rate in China China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity was 111 per 100,000 in 2001 (sentenced prisoners only), although this figure is highly disputed in the West. Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu Harry Wu is an activist for human rights in the People's Republic of China. Now a resident and citizen of the United States, Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps, for which he popularized the term laogai. In 1996 the Columbia Human Rights Law Review awarded Wu its second Award for Leadership in Human Rights, now an American citizen, who spent 19 years in forced-labor camps for criticizing the government, alleging that 16 to 20 million of his countrymen are incarcerated, including common criminals, political prisoners, and people in involuntary job placements. Even ten million prisoners would mean a rate of 793 per 100,000.[5]
Involuntary job placement is where the education system decides what vocational training or college major you will get, according to your aptitudes and availability of classroom seats. This was standard practice at least until 1978.
Denmark
Denmark Denmark is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. Denmark has a state-level government and local governments in 98 municipalities. Denmark has been a member of the European Union since 1973, although it has not joined the Eurozone. Denmark is a founding member of NATO and the OECD. Denmark is also a member of the also has a low incarceration rate with a total of 3774 inmates in the country.[6] Denmark has 59 people in prison for every 100,000 citizens.[6] 62 violent crimes such as rape, murder, robbery, and aggravated assault Assault is a crime of violence against another person. In some jurisdictions, including Australia and New Zealand, as well as the USA, assault refers to an act that causes another to apprehend an immediate harmful contact. The word "apprehend" doesn't equate with fear. While fear encompasses apprehension, a victim can be apprehensive of were reported. There were 322 Property Crimes reported.
England and Wales
Main article: Prison population of England and Wales There are 139 prisons in England and Wales, with 19 built since 1995. Seven prisons are private: built under the Private Finance Initiative, they are termed DCMF prisons and revert to the government after 25 years. A further two prisons are privately managed but were built with public money. The remaining prisons are operated by Her Majesty'sIn 2006 the incarceration rate in England The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant and Wales Wales ( /ˈweɪlz/ Welsh: Cymru; pronounced [ˈkəmrɨ] (help·info)) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. Wales has a population estimated at three million and is officially bilingual; the indigenous Welsh language and English have equal status, and is 139 persons imprisoned per 100,000 residents, while in Norway After World War II, Norway experienced rapid economic growth, with the first two decades due to the Norwegian shipping and merchant marine and domestic industrialization, and from the early 1970s, a result of exploiting large oil and natural gas deposits that had been discovered in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Today, Norway ranks as the it is 59 inmates per 100,000, whilst the Australian imprisonment rate is 163 prisoners per 100,000 residents, and the rate of imprisonment in New Zealand last year was 179 per 100,000.
India
India Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam has one of the lowest incarceration rates with only 281,000 prisoners in their jails.[6] This is just a fraction of their total population, 1,129,866,154.[6] India reported 1,764,630 crimes in 2007.[6] There were 236,313 assaults and 111,296 burglaries Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offence. Usually that offence will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary. To commit a burglary is to burgle (in British English) or burglarize (in American English).[7]
United States
A graph showing the Incarceration rate under state and federal jurisdiction per 100,000 population 1925-2008. It does not include jail inmates. The male incarceration rate is roughly 7 times the female incarceration rate. Main article: United States incarceration rate The United States of America has the highest incarceration rate on Earth. Though home to a little less than 5% of the world population, the US holds 25% of the world’s prisonersThe United States' incarceration rate Incarceration in the United States is a concurrent power under the Constitution of the United States, which means that prisons are operated under strict authority of both the federal and state governments. Incarceration is one of the main forms of punishment for the commission of felony offenses in the United States is, according to official reports, the highest in the world, at 737 persons imprisoned per 100,000 (as of 2005).[8] A report released in 2008 indicates that in the United States more than 1 in 100 adults is now confined in an American jail or prison.[9] The United States has 4% of the world's population and 25% of the world's incarcerated population.[10]
In the U.S., most states strictly limit parole Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their word of honor to abide by certain restrictions. One, requiring that at least half of a sentence be served. For certain heinous crimes, there is no parole and the full sentence must be served.
Conditions of incarceration
Severe punishments (such as beatings, prolonged sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, chaining) have been often inflicted on prisoners. There are many reasons given for justification of such punishment. In the 16th century, the Bishop of Trier The Archbishopric of Trier was a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany, that existed from Carolingian times until the end of the Holy Roman Empire. Its suffragans were the dioceses of Metz, Toul and Verdun. Since the 9th century the Archbishops of Trier were simultaneously princes and since the 11th century prince electors of the empire. Their, Binsfeld Peter Binsfeld (c. 1545/6 - 1598) was a German bishop and theologian, in his Tractatus de Confessionibus Maleficorum (1596) claimed that
-
- since the sinfulness of the world increases, God also allows increasing the severity of punishments.
A movement to abolish cruel treatment of prisoners began during the Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment is the era in Western philosophy and intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority and continued throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. However, there have been continual arguments for severe punishments, perhaps increasing somewhat in the early years of the 21st century. Contemporary justifications for such punishment often revolve around the "rights of the victims". Often underlying these perspectives are opinions that stress the vindictive eye-for-the-eye notions of the Old Testament The Old Testament is the collection of books that forms the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. The contents of the Old Testament canon vary from church to church, with the Orthodox communion having 51 books: the shared books are those of the shortest canon, that of the major Protestant communions, with 39 books and Qur'an [11], over the notion that the primary goal of incarceration should be the reform and reeducation of prisoners to facilitate their re-integration into society.
Within the framework of penology Penology is a section of criminology that deals with the philosophy and practice of various societies in their attempts to repress criminal activities, and satisfy public opinion via an appropriate treatment regime for persons convicted of criminal offenses. Penology is concerned with the effectiveness of those social processes devised and adopted, the trend toward increasing the severity of punishments is reflected in publications such as Block's (1997, p. 12) advocacy of policy initiatives aimed at increasing the unpleasantness of prison life that would likely be "a cost-effective method of fighting crime” and Arpaio Joseph M. Arpaio is a law enforcement officer, and the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. Arpaio, who promotes himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," is controversial for his approach to operating the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. He has a large number of vocal supporters as well as detractors. His practices have been criticized and Sherman's 1996 book claiming that the increase in the severity of treatment of prisoners will result in decrease in recidivism Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior. It is also known as the percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested.[12] Arpaio and Sherman proposed to increase the severity of imprisonment by the construction of tent prison camps in the Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States. Named after the Mohave tribe of Native Americans, it displays typical Basin and Range topography where summer temperatures reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit, by serving prisoners foul-tasting food, by humiliating prisoners by cross-dressing, and by reinstatement of the chain gangs A chain gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work, such as mining or timber collecting, as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include building roads, digging ditches or chipping stone. This system existed primarily in the southern parts of the United States, and by 1955 had been phased. Mauer (1999, pp. 92–93) documents some other the measures used to implement the increasing the unpleasantness of prison life policies that include shooting around prisoners to keep them moving, forced consumption of milk of magnesia, placing naked inmates in strip cells, and handcuffing inmates for long periods of time.
Incarceration and torture
Main article: TortureAs noted above, cruel treatment has long been a feature of incarceration. Taken to extremes, such treatment might be described as torture.
Torture has, for much of history, been seen as a tolerable or even necessary component of imprisonment, whether performed as punishment Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group. Inflicted unpleasantness without authority is not punishment, but is characterized as something else. Punishment may be administered following a formal decision process, or informally or as part of interrogation Interrogation or questioning is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime. Interrogation may involve a diverse array of techniques, ranging from.[citation needed] Recent controversial cases described by critics as torture of incarcerated people include the Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūrīyat Al-Irāq, Kurdish: كؤماری عێراق, Komara Îraqê) is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert and the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Camp X-Ray was a temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Joint Task Force Guantanamo on the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The first twenty captives arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002. It was named Camp X-Ray because various temporary camps in the station were named sequentially from the beginning and scandal.
See also
- List of countries by incarceration rate This is a list of countries by incarceration rate. The main source of information for this article is the World Prison Brief list of highest to lowest rates by the International Centre for Prison Studies at the School of Law, King's College London
- Detention (imprisonment) Detention generally refers to a state or government holding a person in a particular area , either for interrogation, as punishment for a crime (see prison), or as a precautionary measure while that person is suspected of posing a potential threat
- Sentencing Project The Sentencing Project, based in Washington, D.C., promotes "more effective and humane" alternatives to prison for criminal offenders. It has produced several influential reports on inequalities in the U.S. penal system, including the disenfranchisement of prisoners
- Supreme crime A war of aggression is a military conflict waged absent the justification of self-defense. Waging such a war of aggression is a crime under the customary international law. It is generally agreed by scholars in international law that the military actions of the Nazi regime in World War II in its search for so-called "Lebensraum" are
- Recidivism Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior. It is also known as the percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested
- Incapacitation (penology) Incapacitation in the context of sentencing philosophy refers to the effect of a sentence in terms of positively preventing future offending
|
Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:39:05 GMT+00:00
al.com It was like reverse home incarceration . Instead of not being able to leave, Shoal Creek wasn't able to open its doors, even after opening its doors, ...
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:13:33 PST
Organizations in a Common Covenant for Justice and Ending Child Incarceration. ... Civil Common Covenant Goals Harry Incarceration Justice MLK ... gatheringforjustice.ning.com.
