Criminology Essays Crime, Punishment, and Life in Prison

Criminology Essays Crime, Punishment, and Life in PrisonCrime, Punishment, and Life in PrisonDefinitions of prisonA place limitation of persons in lawful detention, especially persons convicted of nuisancesA place or condition of confinement or forcible restraintA state of imprisonment or captivityGet help with your essay from our expert essay writersWhy do m each people end up in a prison cell?There is no straight answer to this question. There are more reasons why there are somany prisoners in the humans today, and to each crime there is a cause. This could bedrug related, money related, gang related, marital breakdown or level(p) from a personthat has suffered psychogenic and physical abuse in the past. The only person that knowswhy a crime is committed is the criminal him/her self. As much(prenominal)(prenominal) as we try to find out how a criminals mind works, we send packing never be sure, just mostly relates to hysteria, as Michel Foucault says All human behavio r is scheduled and programmedthrough rationality. There is a logic of institutions and in behavior and in politicalrelations. In even the most violent ones there is a rationality. What is most dangerousin violence is its rationality. Of course violence itself is terrible. But the deepest rootof violence and its permanence come out of the form of the rationality we use. Theidea had been that if we live in the world of reason, we can get rid of violence. This isquite wrong. Between violence and rationality there is no incompatibility. He tries toexplain 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 barsAn face of a motive would be the Mafia. Their motives to kill are to earn respect,to control areas, to conk out a major force in the world, and to own as much as theycan. An vitrine of how mafia are in prison is of Joseph Pistone AKA DonnieBrasco. Joseph Pistone was an undercover FBI agent that i nfiltrated the Mafia, whichled to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions. It also meant that even thoughhis cathexis was over, Joe Pistone never again became Joe Pistone due to the $500,000price tag that the inmates had put on his intent(taken from the novel my sprightliness in theMafia). change surface behind bars, the Mafia inmates still go through a powerful impact on society.There are many other organisations which have members behind bars that stillmanage to operate with the away(p) world. As money talks, this could have roughlythingto do with Police either being bribed, or too afraid for their lives.Our views on life in prison and shabbinessThe way that society view life in prison is influenced through movies and throughreality TV testifys e.g. programmes on reality TV and bravo. Movies onlyshow the viewer what they want to see. Many movies more or less prison have no care toshow the viewer how prison is really like. For example The movie mean value machine.The movie shows that the life of a prisoner is not even punishment. Yes they arebeing watched everyday, but its shows that they have the liberty to do whatever theyplease. 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 systemreally 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 andJon Venables, both aged 10. they brutally murdered him. Even thought they werechildren, their sentencing was not a fair hearing. In prison, they have used around 2million pounds of taxpayers money, enjoying the luxuries that many people cannotafford. They have had their names changed, didactics paid for etc. If this is the life ofa criminal then that could be a reason there are so many prisoners- an easy life behindbars.Many prisoners do show some compassion. For example a paedophile or child killerdoes not commonly get any sympathy from inmates. For example, Ian Huntley was tooafraid to leave his cell due to the threats made to him around his crime. this led toattempted suicide.A prisoner longs for the things that he/she had on the outside, and sometimes the onlyway to achieve this is by joining a prison organisation and doing the things thatchange their lives. Quote by Eldridge cleaver In prison, those things withheld fromand 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 thesociety today how prison life is and is it really as cool as the movies make it out to bee.g. Stanley Tookie Williams.Has the way that prisoners live their lives today behind bars made them less(prenominal) fearful of officials, causing many to carry on with crimes?I believe that a prisoners life has changed due to technology and due to the occurrence thatthey do not live like prisoners any more. 2 4 Surveillance means that prisoners arebeing watched throughout the day, but when a camera is not on them, anythinghappens. A prisoner only needs a few seconds to commit a crime, and most never getcaught due to surveillance on other prisoners or distractions. This is mainly due togang war, mainly between different hies. In prison, gang leaders demand respectand will usually stop at nothing to get it. An example of Gang warfare would be the 6major prison gangs that are nationally recognised in the USANeta-Puerto Rican/American/Hispanic gangAryan Brotherhood- Caucasian gangBlack Guerrilla Family- Black gangMexican Mafia- Latin/HispanicLa Nuestra Familia- Mexican/AmericanTexas Syndicate- Mexican AmericanThese gangs cause chaos among prisons in America. It is mainly race against race. Anexample of this is the breakout that happened on 14th February 2006, where a race riotbroke out in a California prison involving more than 400 hundred inmates, witharound 20,000 continuing in prisons a round the country. These riots were controlledby a Mexican gang leader who ordered an attack on blacks. This shows what animpact one man can have on hundreds. It also shows that even though moderntechnology is being used, there is still a way around it. 1 inmate died and manyhundred injured.However manifestation this, there is evidences which show that at least one gang leaderhad 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 age on death rowthat prison life is no life. He set out to make youth understand what kind of life thatcrime leads up to and wrote a book about it called Life in Prison which tells us ofhow he lives his life behind bars. His work to end gang warfare within youth earnedhim a Nobel peace prize.My greatest hope is that the lessons the stories offer will help you make betterchoices than I did. These are run-in he uses to warn youth not to follow in hisfootsteps. He wrote numero us letters to youth, explaining to them not to turn theirlives to crime but to, Learn about computer technology, politics and the sciences.He also made an apology to the youth of the United States and Africa for what thecreating the gang saying that he was no longer dys-educated (disease educated).I was his delegating to warn and deter youth away from crime, and it earned himnominations for the Nobel peace prize, as well as a motion picture which was madeabout his life. Unfortunately, and against much protest, he was sadly executed bylethal injection in 2005. It shows that even though a man can influence so many livesfor the obedient, 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 reinforcement to commit sophisticated crimes. A technology related crime today would bethe credit card scam chat rooms, or receiving persons details through theinternet. The internet is a one of the m ost ways that crimes are committed. These arethrough chartrooms- where many paedophiles lure youth through lies and deceit,pornography, hacking into another(prenominal)s computer and offensive emails to name some.A lot of work goes into protecting underage youth from being seduced in a chartroomby a paedophile. No matter how much can be tried, the problem never goes away dueto the rapid development and progression of technology today. We are shown aboutprison life through movies, documentaries, and websites. These influence our lives onwhat prison life is really like, and thats how close we will get to that unless webecome criminals ourselves.Due to the modern day technology, a prisoner can be monitored 24 hours a daythrough surveillance. This makes it easier for the guards. It does however invades aninmates privacy, but to maintain order and any corruption, this has to be done. Manyreleased prisoners have computer chips or electronic tags on them so that they aremonitored and locat ed all the time. I believe that this is a very good system, as it doesnot 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, prisonlife has become too easy. Today, a prisoner is given too much leniency. The reasonbeing is that while inside many prisoners would like to change their lives around, butmany also use it as an advantage to live a life of luxury. I believe that this is wrong asthere are so many honest people in the world that cannot afford to live the life thatprisoners can afford to in the modern day which could be a reason why criminalsbelieve that prison is not necessarily a terrible place it used to be.Bibliographywww.crimelibrary.comThe biography of Eldridge Cleaverwww.tookie.comRedemption- Motion pictureMichael Foucault- faithfulness is the futurewww.cnn.com