The original criminal law dates back to approximately 1750 BCE, with Hammurabi’s Code, a legal text that outlines punishments for crimes based on reciprocity. It has acted as an inspiration for modern legal systems where offenders are faced with punishments as a form of deterrent under the ideas of consequentialism and utilitarianism, as well as retaliation for their crime. Therefore, offenders receive punishment by being placed within prisons, or in more extreme circumstances, in solitary confinement, devoid of social interactions. Sometimes, they are even sentenced to the death penalty. Notwithstanding the persistence of this argument, the goal to reduce crime and assist victims has returned predominantly fruitless. The law should not be centered around the judgment of a suitable punishment, but instead target the cause of an offender’s action and the restoration of the victim.
The current state of prison systems that administer punishment is globally flawed, with many disregarding humane conditions due to overcrowding, lack of adequate medical care, abusive environments, and corruption. The existence of solitary confinement as an option for punishment is inhumane and psychologically damaging. Social isolation, along with sensory deprivation, traumatizes the brain, increasing cortisol, initiating memory loss, and shrinking neurons from the sensory and motor regions of the brain. Moreover, prison systems have consistently targeted minority groups across history, region, and government, leaving lasting effects for generations. During the 1970s, President Nixon declared a War on Drugs, targeting African Americans, which furthered the enforcement of law and order. African Americans who were disproportionately punished due to the false distinction between crack and cocaine underwent a period of mass incarceration. They experienced disproportionately lengthy sentences compared to their white counterparts. Even if they are freed within their lifetime, as felons, they lose their rights to vote, effectively stripping them of political participation; with the lack of country-wide legalization of fair chance laws, ex-offenders also have limited job opportunities. These factors lead 20% of African Americans in the United States to live in poverty, further contributing to crime with the criminalization of homelessness and the relationship between financial difficulties and larceny. Without a solution for initial causes like poverty, offenders are at risk for repeated crime and permanent incarceration under three-strike laws, where offenders are given harsher punishment or lifetime incarceration following their third felony offense, present in 28 of the 50 states within the United States. Conjointly, within Europe, prisons contain an overrepresentation of Romani due to their issues with documentation and discrimination. Romani are culturally targeted and scapegoated by bureaucratic officials and often undergo challenging identification processes. These issues culminate in the loss of healthcare privileges, voting rights, and poverty, contributing to the discriminatory prison system.
The idea that prison systems enforce punishment for deterrence against crime has become corrupted with financial incentives. Within prisons around the world, inmates are forced to perform hard and extensive labor with negligible pay; a comparison between prison labor and modern slavery emerges within those contexts. Within the United States Constitution, the 13th Amendment states “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” which displays the loophole prisons fall under. By being deemed a criminal, offenders no longer retain their protections of minimum wage laws, workplace safety regulations, or the right to unionize due to exclusion within the 13th Amendment. Through labor exploitation, the United States generates 74 billion dollars annually, introducing the idea of a prison-industrial complex where corporations utilize prisons for cheap labor. Corporations began to lobby Congress with millions of dollars for offenders to receive harsher sentences, along with barring the prisoners from making minimum wage, which would hurt the profit margins of the corporations. Inmates within California had attempted to sue the state to attain minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act, but were not deemed employees within the Burleson v. State of California court case. Through the introduction of profit, punishment through prisons within the United States was no longer solely for the reciprocal treatment of the offender, but a place for cheap, unregulated labor. Wealth motives also act as an explanation for mass incarceration and the targeting of minority groups who don’t have the power to defend themselves. The current prison system is too defective to be considered an effective response to crime.
Prisons are not only inherently flawed, but also have not prevented crime as an option for individuals. If punishment were a proper deterrent, recidivism would not be an issue. Within the United States, around 68% of prisoners were rearrested within 3 years, totaling an average of 5 arrests per released offender within 9 years. Furthermore, harsher punishments have not displayed increased deterrence. In many countries of the southern area of Africa, many utilize torture, brutal punishments, and the death penalty, yet their recidivism rates range from 55 to 95 percent. Extending from prison time to childcare, punishments fail to educate children on wrongdoings and have increased the expression of aggression. Physical punishment has also decreased rates of confession, not aligning with the goals of compliance and a decrease in socially unacceptable behavior. Punishments, ignorant of severity and place, have repeatedly lacked long-term positive effects that truly correct the behavior they were targeting.
On the other hand, successful countries with low recidivism rates or crime rates share the commonality of rehabilitation centers with the goal of education and cognitive behavioral therapy for offenders. Rehabilitation addresses criminogenic needs as a preventative measure against recidivism. If rehabilitation is the solution for recidivism and not incarceration, it demonstrates that punishment is ineffective in prevention, both before and after the crime. Not only is punishment unproductive, but it is also costly, utilizing 182 billion dollars annually for public prisons in the United States, which hold 20% of the world’s prison population.
The combination of rehabilitation with initial prevention creates the basis for transformative justice, an ultimately more successful method to respond to offenders. Within transformative justice, offenders are allowed to heal from their negative catalyst experience without undergoing more punishment, which would only perpetuate more harm. The societal consideration and removal of the initial problem would also prevent future crimes stemming from that issue. Countries that have adopted rehabilitation for their prisoners by assisting with vocational education and reentrance into society have displayed lowered rates of crime and recidivism. Therefore, through acknowledgement of the societal issues that contribute to the offender’s behavior, crime is prevented instead of being simply condemned.
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