Criminology Essays Crime, Punishment, and Life in Prison

Criminology Essays Crime, Punishment, and Life in Prison Crime, Punishment, and Life in Prison Definitions of prison: A place confinement of persons in lawful detention, especially persons convicted of crimes A place or condition of confinement or forcible restraint A state of imprisonment or captivity Get help with your essay from our expert essay writers Why do many people end up in a prison cell? There is no straight answer to this question. There are many reasons why there are so many prisoners in the world today, and to each crime there is a motive. This could be drug related, money related, gang related, marital breakdown or even from a person that has suffered mental and physical abuse in the past. The only person that knows why a crime is committed is the criminal him/her self. As much as we try to understand how a criminals mind works, we can never be sure, but mostly relates to violence, as Michel Foucault says: All human behavior is scheduled and programmed through rationality. There is a logic of institutions and in behavior and in political relations. In even the most violent ones there is a rationality. What is most dangerous in violence is its rationality. Of course violence itself is terrible. But the deepest root of violence and its permanence come out of the form of the rationality we use. The idea had been that if we live in the world of reason, we can get rid of violence. This is quite wrong. Between violence and rationality there is no incompatibility. He tries to explain that even though there is so much violence in world today, it can be removed. Example of how a criminal is infiltrated to be put behind bars An example of a motive would be the Mafia. Their motives to kill are to earn respect, to control areas, to become a major force in the world, and to own as much as they can. An example of how mafia are in prison is of Joseph Pistone AKA Donnie Brasco. Joseph Pistone was an undercover FBI agent that infiltrated the Mafia, which led to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions. It also meant that even though his mission was over, Joe Pistone never again became Joe Pistone due to the $500,000 price tag that the inmates had put on his life(taken from the novel my life in the Mafia). Even behind bars, the Mafia inmates still have a powerful impact on society. There are many other organisations which have members behind bars that still manage to operate with the outside world. As money talks, this could have something to do with Police either being bribed, or too afraid for their lives. Our views on life in prison and injustice The way that society view life in prison is influenced through movies and through reality TV shows e.g. programmes on reality TV and bravo. Movies only show the viewer what they want to see. Many movies about prison have no care to show the viewer how prison is really like. For example The movie Mean machine. The movie shows that the life of a prisoner is not even punishment. Yes they are being watched everyday, but its shows that they have the liberty to do whatever they please. In some ways it does portray the life of criminal gangs i.e. Mafia. Triads etc, but it does not meant that every inmate lives like this. In some cases, the legal system really lets the victims down. An example of this would be the death of Jamie Bulger. 2 year old Jamie Bulger was kidnapped at a shopping mall by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 10. they brutally murdered him. Even thought they were children, their sentencing was not a fair hearing. In prison, they have used around 2 million pounds of taxpayers money, enjoying the luxuries that many people cannot afford. They have had their names changed, education paid for etc. If this is the life of a criminal then that could be a reason there are so many prisoners- an easy life behind bars. Many prisoners do show some compassion. For example a paedophile or child killer does not usually get any sympathy from inmates. For example, Ian Huntley was too afraid to leave his cell due to the threats made to him about his crime. this led to attempted suicide. A prisoner longs for the things that he/she had on the outside, and sometimes the only way to achieve this is by joining a prison organisation and doing the things that change their lives. Quote by Eldridge cleaver â€Å"â€Å"In prison, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.† There are many prisoners that write an autobiography of life in prison to tell the society today how prison life is and is it really as cool as the movies make it out to be e.g. Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams. Has the way that prisoners live their lives today behind bars made them less fearful of officials, causing many to carry on with crimes? I believe that a prisoner’s life has changed due to technology and due to the fact that they do not live like prisoners any more. 24 Surveillance means that prisoners are being watched throughout the day, but when a camera is not on them, anything happens. A prisoner only needs a few seconds to commit a crime, and most never get caught due to surveillance on other prisoners or distractions. This is mainly due to gang warfare, mainly between different races. In prison, gang leaders demand respect and will usually stop at nothing to get it. An example of Gang warfare would be the 6 major prison gangs that are nationally recognised in the USA: Neta-Puerto Rican/American/Hispanic gang Aryan Brotherhood- Caucasian gang Black Guerrilla Family- Black gang Mexican Mafia- Latin/Hispanic La Nuestra Familia- Mexican/American Texas Syndicate- Mexican American These gangs cause chaos among prisons in America. It is mainly race against race. An example of this is the breakout that happened on 14th February 2006, where a race riot broke out in a California prison involving more than 400 hundred inmates, with around 20,000 continuing in prisons around the country. These riots were controlled by a Mexican gang leader who ordered an attack on blacks. This shows what an impact one man can have on hundreds. It also shows that even though modern technology is being used, there is still a way around it. 1 inmate died and many hundred injured. However saying this, there is evidences which show that at least one gang leader had seen the error of his ways. This would be Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams. He was the Co-founder of the Crips gang La, and realised after 16 years on death row that prison life is no life. He set out to make youth understand what kind of life that crime leads up to and wrote a book about it called ‘Life in Prison’ which tells us of how he lives his life behind bars. His work to end gang warfare within youth earned him a Nobel peace prize. ‘My greatest hope is that the lessons the stories offer will help you make better choices than I did.’ These are words he uses to warn youth not to follow in his footsteps. He wrote numerous letters to youth, explaining to them not to turn their lives to crime but to, â€Å"Learn about computer technology, politics and the sciences.† He also made an apology to the youth of the United States and Africa for what the creating the gang saying that he was no longer â€Å"dys-educated (disease educated). I was his mission to warn and deter youth away from crime, and it earned him nominations for the Nobel peace prize, as well as a motion picture which was made about his life. Unfortunately, and against much protest, he was sadly executed by lethal injection in 2005. It shows that even though a man can influence so many lives for the good, he will always pay for his past. How is technology used by/for Criminals? Due to modern day technology, many criminals are using this technology to their advantage to commit sophisticated crimes. A technology related crime today would be the credit card scam; chat rooms, or receiving person’s details through the internet. The internet is a one of the most ways that crimes are committed. These are through chartrooms- where many paedophiles lure youth through lies and deceit, pornography, hacking into another’s computer and offensive emails to name some. A lot of work goes into protecting underage youth from being seduced in a chartroom by a paedophile. No matter how much can be tried, the problem never goes away due to the rapid development and progression of technology today. We are shown about prison life through movies, documentaries, and websites. These influence our lives on what prison life is really like, and that’s how close we will get to that unless we become criminals ourselves. Due to the modern day technology, a prisoner can be monitored 24 hours a day through surveillance. This makes it easier for the guards. It does however invades an inmates privacy, but to maintain order and any corruption, this has to be done. Many released prisoners have computer chips or electronic tags on them so that they are monitored and located all the time. I believe that this is a very good system, as it does not show leniency to those that have escaped prison, but no the punishment. I believe that through the ages and due to economic changes and technology, prison life has become too easy. Today, a prisoner is given too much leniency. The reason being is that while inside many prisoners would like to change their lives around, but many also use it as an advantage to live a life of luxury. I believe that this is wrong as there are so many honest people in the world that cannot afford to live the life that prisoners can afford to in the modern day which could be a reason why criminals believe that prison is not necessarily a terrible place it used to be. Bibliography www.crimelibrary.com The biography of Eldridge Cleaver www.tookie.com Redemption- Motion picture Michael Foucault- truth is the future www.cnn.com