Posted: August 1st, 2023

Prison Reform Is An Essential Component Of Contemporary Prison Systems

Wallace (2021) argues that prison reform is an essential component of contemporary
prison systems. Do you agree or disagree with the pronouncement made by Wallace
(2021) on prison reform? You are required to provide and discuss three reasons for your
stated position (agree/disagree). How does virtual visitation, specialized courts, and
electronic monitoring advance the goals of Prison Reform?
Prison Reform Is An Essential Component Of Contemporary Prison Systems

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Prisons are currently considered a reality globally and are an important societal response tool to different crimes. Over time, the prison systems in other regions have evolved from centers of severe punishment into systems that will foster rehabilitation, reintegration, and punishment for violating the laws. One prominent need that has been identified in the 21st-century prison systems is the implementation of prison reforms. Prison reforms are mainly the attempts to improve the conditions within the prison environment, improve the penal system, and implement alternatives to incarceration. One of the central arguments supporting prison reform implementation is centered in human rights, specifically the premise on which numerous UN standards and norms have been established. The current imprisonment conditions have had a detrimental effect on the individuals and their families and different societal elements such as the economy. Therefore, there is an urgent need for prison reforms to affect positively. This essay agrees with Wallace’s (2021 pronouncement) that prison reforms are a fundamental component of the modern prison system.
Policy stakeholders must acknowledge the prison environment’s power in shaping behavior that can be to the advantage or detriment of the prisoners and prison workers. Haney and Zimbardo’s study asserted that psychologically healthy persons could become sadistic or depressed when put in the present environmental conditions. For instance, the prisoners kept in solitary confinement demonstrated extremely high anxiety levels, among other negative emotions. After their release from prison, often with no ‘decompression’ duration within lower security facilities, these individuals will have very limited social or occupational skills needed to succeed in the outside world. Unfortunately, this is the kind of prison environment that current prisoners constantly deal with. The need for prison reforms comes from the fact that the present incarceration conditions made of stringent sentencing guidelines, budget shortfalls, and punitive approaches for correction have made the prisons very unpleasant. These environments have made it challenging for the prisons to rehabilitate their inhabitants. Even when they are released, there is a higher likelihood of committing crimes again and going back to prison. Extensive research has shown that criminal tendencies in prisons are greatly linked to child abuse, poverty early exposure to substance abuse, among other risk factors for criminal conduct. Therefore, bringing in prison reforms made up of individual-centered approaches to preventing crime in conjunction with community-based approaches would help attain high rehabilitation levels.
Modern prison systems are dealing with various challenges that mainly arise from the diversity of their prisoners. Therefore, it would be inadequate for these systems to be specifically run like the conventional prison systems. Prison reforms that are upheld through strategies such as virtual visitation, specialized courts, and electronic monitoring advance the goals of prison reforms which are fundamental objectives of the entire criminal justice system. The importance of visual visitations cannot be downplayed, especially for the foreign national prisoners who cannot easily have close families or friends regularly making physical visits. According to Wallace (2021), it was time that the prison systems in the Caribbean region adopted virtual visitations in their operations to work in conjunction with the rehabilitation, resettlement, and reintegration objectives it is focused on. These prisoners’ interactions with their families will ensure that a bond is created between the two parties, enhancing the self of belonging for the prisoners even after their incarceration. Virtual visitations are attainable activities considering how technology has evolved considerably. This bond already impacts the prisoners by giving them hope for their future even after imprisonment. They believe that they are not alone nor condemned to be failures despite the mistakes that led them into prison. Thus virtual visitations in the modern prison systems would be fundamental in fostering the objectives of prison reforms.
The impact of having specialized courts emphasizes the news for prison reforms in the current prison systems. Specialized courts are specifically designed to address particular sets of offenders. Some of the courts that various jurisdictions have implemented include the drug courts, the juvenile and families’ courts, and the courts handling mentally ill offenders. The importance of these specialized courts is that they are designed to have solutions that will specifically work for the challenges they face. Therefore, their insistence is on rehabilitating the individuals, community integration, and accountability for drug courts. The judge is responsible for establishing a follow-up plan for the offenders. They are expected to make regular appearances in court, engage in some form of drug treatment, and be involved in regular tests. From these courts, the aim is not to confine these individuals but rather ensure that they can fight the abuse and reintegrate back to society without dealing with the stigma of being an ex-convict. The judge will also administer a predetermined set of frugal sanctions if the offender violates the drug court directions. This process poses a higher likelihood of dealing with the war on drugs, a primary challenge in almost every jurisdiction. Instead of confining initials into places where they find it challenging to beat the abuse due to a poor prison environment, a prison reform that will include a specialized drug court that takes up a personalized approach in handling the matter is more effective and efficient for the entire justice system.
Modern prison systems have been forced to deal with overcrowded prison environments considering that the goal was to have everyone locked up. However, the enforcement of prison reforms that incorporate techniques such as electronic monitoring will become fundamental in reducing prison crowds. The primary objectives of electronic monitoring and prison reforms do align, considering that the jurisdictions that have implemented the techniques ensure that the offenders remain conscious of their behaviors and comply with the Radio Frequency systems. When offenders are tracked and demonstrate reduced recidivism levels, it is proper to indicate that the techniques are geared towards meeting the primary objectives of prison reforms. Therefore, when there is an emphasis on the need for prison reforms in all prison systems, the approach incorporates ideals such as electronic monitoring, specialized court systems, and virtual visits for the offenders, which are all important for rehabilitation, resettlement, and reintegration after completing their sentences.
Conclusively, Wallace (2021) asserts the need for prison reforms in modern prison systems because the former have demonstrated consistent positive results from the offenders’ prison workers and crime levels. By looking into the benefits of virtual visits, specialized courts, and electronic monitoring techniques, this discussion agrees with Ellace’s proposal. The implementation of prison reforms is not focused on just helping the offenders alone but the entire society because when these people become better, society will experience reduced crime levels.

Bibliography
“Opinion | Sen. Webb’S Call For Prison Reform (Published 2009)”. 2021. Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/opinion/01thu3.html.
Benson, Erienne. 2003. “Rehabilitate Or Punish?”. Https://Www.Apa.Org. https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab.
Bulman, Philip. “Electronic monitoring reduces recidivism.” Corrections Today 72, no. 6 (2010).
Eason, Christy. 2021. “A Better Path Forward For Criminal Justice: Changing Prisons To Help People Change”. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/research/a-better-path-forward-for-criminal-justice-changing-prisons-to-help-people-change/.
Haney, Craig, and Philip Zimbardo. “The past and future of US prison policy: Twenty-five years after the Stanford Prison Experiment.” American Psychologist 53, no. 7 (1998): 709.
Mackenzie, Doris Layton. Sentencing and Corrections in the 21st Century: Setting the Stage for the Future. University of Maryland, College Park, Md., Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Evaluation Research Group, 2001.
UNODC. “Prison Reform and Alternatives to Imprisonment.” Prepared by the Justice Section, Division for Operations (2011).
Wallace, Wendell C. “An Exploration of Virtual Visitation as a Complement to Physical Visitation for Foreign National Prisoners in the Caribbean.” Caribbean Perspectives On Criminology And Criminal Justice, 2 (2020).

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