https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj Genre 4 en-us 2017-03-30 16:39:20 UTC 2025-10-03 04:55:53 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Growing.png caesarishere https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765039 "Gentlemen. Ladies. My name is Alexander Harding, and I represent the National Rehabilitation Institute of Research. For two long years we have been collaborating and collecting information related to overcrowded prison populations and how to reduce them. Did you know that around 1 in every 100 Americans is in some form of prison? That incarceration rates increase yearly? That in 2009, for the 37th consecutive year, the number of US citizens behind bars increased?" (Petersilia). "Our great country is plagued by an unseen tumor of millions of Americans being locked up with no chance of being able to better themselves, form a family, or have any sense of normalcy, all the while using taxpayer money to barely survive off of. Something has to change, because how can we call ourselves a free country when we have the highest incarceration rates in the world, including Russia and China?" ("World Prison"). ]]> 2017-03-30 16:41:18 UTC https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765039 caesarishere https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765119 "It is my humble opinion that recidivism rates in this country are the problem. While crime rates have a consistent average over time no matter what you enact, recidivism rates have been proven to be easily lowered with simple acts and programs. For those of you wondering what recidivism is, essentially, it's the act of a former prisoner getting rearrested and/or re-incarcerated. This means that said prisoner never learned his or her lesson, or was unable to adjust to normal life. You may think that recidivism rates are low, yes? That criminals would be intelligent enough to learn that prison is not a place they want to be? Well, see, it isn't quite so simple. In fact, a study done over time shows that 76.6 percent of prisoners were rearrested within just 5 years after being released in 2005, with 56.7 percent of them being rearrested within the first year." ("Recidivism"). "How can our prison system expect to lower the prison population when its old prisoners keep coming back? It's this vicious cycle of arrest, release, and repeat for hundreds of thousands of men and women that prevents us from lowering our prison populations, as well as preventing them from getting the help they need to stay out permanently." ]]> 2017-03-30 16:41:34 UTC https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765119 caesarishere https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765204 "You may be realizing, as I have, that coming back from the edge we're on will be nigh on impossible. I totally understand that. I also understand that in this great nation, we can accomplish anything we put our minds to, and in comparison to some of our achievements, lowering the recidivism rate will be simple. So how do we get it done? Well, the main school of thought for fixing this problem is rehabilitation, one I obviously support and the one I propose to you now. Did you know that Norway's prison population is just 75 per 100,000 civilians compared to our 707? That their recidivism rate is just 20 percent? That they have one of the most rehabilitative prison systems out there? Their prisoners, rather than being locked up, given a strict military-like regime, and offered no mental release like ours are, enjoy a prison stay of self-improvement. They are given their own rooms, educational programs, sports teams, etc." (Sterbenz). "In simple terms, unlike ripping the sense of normalcy from life as American prisons do, Norwegian prisons do their best to emphasize it, providing their prisoners the best care possible to ensure they don't commit crime again."]]> 2017-03-30 16:41:49 UTC https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765204 caesarishere https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765256 2017-03-30 16:41:58 UTC https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765256 caesarishere https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765398 "It's this sense of normalcy and rehabilitative programs such as educational opportunities, which America offers in limited quantities with things like the Pell Grant, that gives Norwegian prisons their edge in low recidivism and incarceration rates. In fact, said American prison education opportunities have been shown to reduce our recidivism rate by over 40 percent, so why don't we fund them in larger quantities?" (Chen). "The answer is simple... we've hit a point that our already bloated prison budget can't afford to give prisoners these programs. Even basic psychological welfare is limited, and when you consider how many American prisoners have underlying psychological conditions, you understand what a clear problem this is and why recidivism rates are so high." (Benson).]]> 2017-03-30 16:42:24 UTC https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765398 caesarishere https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765499 "What America needs to do is to siphon a bit of money from another bloated budget, such as the military's, and invest it into prison rehabilitation programs. Said programs, within five to ten years, should clear out prison populations and lower recidivism rates to the point at which the budget will actually sink below what it is today. The best part is, said lower budget will still have the large rehabilitation programs that will keep the recidivism and incarceration rates low. It's a win-win situation. However, time is a factor. The longer we wait to implement some form of large scale prison reform to lower these rates, the more the prison budget will become stretched, leading to higher recidivism rates due to more basic accommodations, leading to a collapse of the system itself. We need to do something now, or there may not be the possibility of doing something in the future." ]]> 2017-03-30 16:42:39 UTC https://padlet.com/caesarishere/myxje4dxbosj/wish/163765499