Social Issues: Imprisonment and Punishment - Assignment Example

TOPIC REFLECTIONS AND REVIEWS Student’s Name Course Professor’s Name University City (State) Date Topic Reflections and Reviews Topic 1: Imprisonment and Punishment This first issue introduces imprisonment and punishment that are given by the Victorian courts. According to the lecture notes, the discipline is different from the other types of suffering and pain because it comes with legitimacy. Additionally, punishment originates from an authoritative source such as the State through justification. GARLAND (1999, p. 5) agreed that the penalties are commonly faced with the belonging social issues when it comes to legitimacy. Though the punishment is universally accepted it is also confronted with the problems asserting that it is just. Further, White and Perrone (2005, p. 1) emphasized that the State had already been given the mandate of ensuring that they curb crimes such as violence within the society. The class notes showed that a justified punishment has two elements which are censure and sanction. The censorship indicates that a penalty must be a result of communication about the offender on an individual issue. On the other hand, the sanction is something that is intended to cause pain on the supposed offends for a supposed offense from the accepted authority. In short, the punishment must come from a sound justification. Evidently, White and Perrone (2005, p. 2) discussed the state power over violence activities is prone to misuse, and that is why the magnitude and state violence abuse, and scope must bring out legitimacy. Through this process, the involved parties can understand the context in which the state can use their powers. Further, in the pursuit to bring out legitimacy, the class notes show that there are two primary forms of justification which are retributivism and reductivism. Accordingly, retributivism describes a punishment that fits the offense by looking back at the actions of the offender. On the other hand, reductivism, works to help reduce the crime by giving a consequential punishment. Additionally, a court can give denunciation and restorative justice. The notes emphasized that to bring out legitimacy in punishment; one must be able to locate the criminal justice system such as the Victoria’s Criminal Justice System. There is a procedure that must take place before punishing someone which is a crime occurring, recording a crime, identifying the crime, police caution, police decision to prosecute, giving of bail/remand (Class notes). Later, the offender is taken to the magistrates, supreme, or county court; the verdict, and finally a sentence. The sentence can be imprisonment, release, community corrections, drug treatment order, dismissal, fine, and diversion. Other can be restitution, compensation, confiscation, and sex offender registration. The Victoria's higher courts such as the County give imprisonment ten times than the Magistrate Courts (White and Perrone 2005, p. 7). In fact, 49.1% of the cases in the high courts ended in imprisonment within 15-year period ending June 2015 while only 4.9% of the situations in the Magistrates Court lead to imprisonment for an eleven-year period ending June 2015. The purpose of punishing offenders is rehabilitation, denunciation, protecting the community, and giving just punishment. The principles applied during sentencing are parsimony, totality, parity, and proportionality. Interestingly, imprisonment increases the chances of reoffending due to factors such as it forms a learning environment for more depth crime (Class Notes). Topic 2: Women in Prison Many studies link women crime to sexuality and gender empowerment. In particular, the liberation of women from the traditional roles has facilitated criminology. It is true that the Class notes find the women in crimes cunning and deceitful and mostly do something in pursuit of another one. Notably, women and men conduct similar offenses; nevertheless, women offend at a much lower rate than the men. Interestingly, the women crimes are ‘doubly deviant and chivalry thesis as well as equality with a vengeance. In short, few women end up in prisons compared to men. In fact, Easteal (2001, p. 90) stated that in June 1999, women comprised of 6% of the whole prison population. Additionally, women imprisonment is mostly linked to mental illness, family dysfunction, child protection, criminalization, traumatic experiences 85%, and substance abuse 60-80% (Easteal, P., 2001, p. 87-88). It is, therefore, true that women are likely to be arrested because of drug related offenses such as robbery and assaults. Evidently, women engage in other crimes such property crimes and prostitution to fund their drug related issues. In prisons, women are more vulnerable because they risk getting trauma, homelessness, legal responses, victimization among others. The topic starts by explaining that crime is under social construct because of gender understanding of the community. Accordingly, the sex offending has changed over time. Russell and Carlton (2013, p. 474-475) confirmed that in the past two decades the international policy makers are constituting the gender justice framework in the justice systems. The gender responsive reforms target to change the corrective principles as well as the penal practices to help when dealing women offenders. It is interesting that the first version of female criminals was more based on the natural virtues. For instance, the Class Notes describe the female criminals to have less stature, length of arms, and limbs. Several pathways have been identified for women in crimes which include the four-year 25.5 m initiatives for projects such as transitional housing for all women including the aborigines. On the other, more than men, female prisoners have needs such as they are mothers, and vulnerable to issues such as safety from the prison wardens. Several organizations have stepped up to link women to their needs such as connecting them with their children. It is not enough to look at the gender alone when it comes to women imprisonment. The intersectional approach enables us to understand that women jail is more than sex and even the race. For instance, in the class notes pointed out that the indigenous women are the fastest growing population in prisons though they are overrepresented. The intersectional approach helps to see the big picture of criminology through expounding on the relation of the social, cultural, and institutional factors. For instance, the women Criminology is mostly linked to victimization and that the rate of women imprisonment is increasing at the higher rate than that of men. In brief, intersectionality brings out the interconnectedness and complexity of the gender, race, sexuality, classes among other issues that bring out a difference when it comes to categorizing the crimes. Criminology, especially among women, is, therefore, a network of activities where one action leads to the next activity. Topic 3: Mental Illness and Imprisonment I understand that the healthcare providers who work in the context of criminal punishment have conflicts on establishing the interests of the public and the treatment of these individuals. A lot of scholarly work supports the dual role conflict where the professional care giver is expected to treat the patient and at the same time observe the rules of imprisonment. Further, it is evident that the psychiatric treatments require closed areas as well privacy, isolation, among other things that are very hard to find in prisons another conventional conflict is the fact that forensic psychiatric treatment does not prevent the prisoners from becoming mentally unwell. Additionally, lack of a mental disorder does not mean that a person is not responsible criminology. Nevertheless, it is evident that there is a high prevalence of mental illness in the prisons (Konrad, Völlm, and Weisstub 2013, p. 416-417). The class notes show that 1 out of every four prisoners has medical related mental issues with most reported as comorbidity. The most vulnerable people are women, young people, aborigines, and reminders. First of all, comorbidity means a person has more than one mental disorder. Individuals with comorbidity such as having psychiatric and substance abuse are vulnerable to imprisonment than one with only one issue because if they do not go for one, they will go for the other. For instance, both drug abuse and psychiatric disorders are the reason most of the criminals are violent. Thus, if an offender is not violent or in theft to buy drugs, then they might commit crimes due to psychotic illness. In short, the combination of more than one disorder makes someone more vulnerable to crime (Kellan, 2006, p. 10). The consequences of failure to provide enough mental health in both community and the prisons are: Post-release mortality According to the Kinner et al. (2011, p. 66) in class notes between 380 to 527 people who were let to go from the prison in 2007-08 died within the first year where some died within the first weeks. Evidently, these people died because they lacked proper care in the jail since they are deaths are associated with violence, suicide, accidents, and even drug abuse. Therefore, it is a consequence of improper treatment of their mental disorders while in prison. Re-imprisonment The health’s of Australia’s prisoners’ show that 68% of the prisoners had previously been in prison or juvenile detention, remand, or even sentence. Additionally, 21% of the jail entrants had been in juvenile prisons while 66% had been in adult prisons. Finally, 26% of the prisoners have been to the hospital for more than five times a year before (Class Notes). In short, most of the people who miss proper treatment are likely to go back to the prison. Increased costs of mental health and prison administration Kellan (2006, p. 1-2) argued that for the last decade Australia has experienced a 50% expansion of the Australian prison population. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WTO) observed that Australia spent 6.5% of its health budget on mental health. Further, the author stated that the Adult Parole Board of Victoria has failed to meet the needs of the mentally ill people and that is why they continue increasing in the hospitals (Kellan 2006, p. 3). In short, lack of proper treatment enhances the number of the mentally incapacitated people. Thematic Analysis Themes Issues Ideas References Topic 1 Punishment Legitimacy Discipline is vital for the criminals; however, it must be from the right authority. Punishment must be justified or rather legitimate Legitimacy occurs due to the need of social belonging amongst the people in an individual community. There is possibility of misuse of the state violence power when giving punishment to individuals Censure and sanction elements make the punishment justified. The other forms of punishment legitimization are reductivism, retributivism, denunciation, and restorative justice. Further, the punishment should follow the criminal justice within their countries such as Victoria criminal justice system in Australia. GARLAND (1999) White and Perrone (2005) Topic 2 Women criminology Women vulnerability Gender-responsive reforms Intersectional approach when dealing with crime In the past few decades, there is increased criminology from women. Additionally, due to their vulnerability, the criminal justice system is required to undertake reforms so as the penalties and punishments given to the women can be lenient and fair. Further, though women commit crimes, these crimes are mostly linked to issues of victimizations at a time in their life. Others, such as the indigenous women have mental disorders which make them more vulnerable to crime. Several pathways for creating gender responsive punishments have been undertaken such as four-year 25.5m initiative for projects. This effort built houses for women from 2005-09. Others understand that women need to be close to their families and therefore the non-governmental institutions such as the WTO is linking the female prisoners to their kids. In this topic, I also understood that crime is an intersectional context which includes more than gender and race. It is, therefore, necessary to know a prisoner through a cross-dimensional study of the factors that led to the prison. For instance, in case of women, the majority of them are driven to imprisonment due to drug abuse. Russell and Carlton (2013) Easteal (2001) Topic 3 Mental illness and Criminology Dual role conflict Comorbidity Adequateness of mental health services The mental illness increases vulnerability to imprisonment due to inappropriate behavior such as drug abuse. If a person has comorbidity, then they have higher chances of imprisonment. The treatment of prisoners with mental illness has a dual role conflict since the psychiatrist must observe the interests of both the public and the private organizations. Inadequate mental health has consequences both in the hospital and also in prison. The prisons cause or sometimes aggravate the mental disorders of the prisoners. Mental illness is related to other harmful issues such as comorbidity, substance abuse, sociality, among other self-harming behaviors in prisons. The major mental issues recorded in the hospitals are the anxiety, depression, and drug abusers. Most of the time depression comes with schizophrenia, and they are the most common mental disorders among the prisoners. Inadequate mental illness healthcare is what results in long-term impacts such as re-imprisonment, post-release mortality and even increased costs of administering the mental health institutions and prisons. Women, youth, and Aboriginal communities are the most vulnerable to mental disorders. Majority of the prisoners with a mental disorder are recurring in the prisons. Konrad, Völlm, and Weisstub (2013) Kellan (2006) References Easteal, P., 2001. Women in Australian prisons: The cycle of abuse and dysfunctional environments. The Prison Journal, 81(1), pp.87-112. Kellan, J., 2006. National Conference Of Parole Authorities 2006: "Mental Health Issues In Parole." Coogee, New South Wales, s.n. Konrad, N., Völlm, B. and Weisstub, D.N. eds., 2013. Ethical issues in prison Psychiatry. Springer. Russell, E. and Carlton, B., 2013. Pathways, race, and gender responsive reform: Through an abolitionist lens. Theoretical Criminology, 17(4), pp.474-492. White, R.D. and Perrone, S., 2005. Crime and Social Control. 2nd ed. s.l.: Oxford University Press. Read More