Abstract
The United States tops the list of the country with the highest number of incarcerated individuals. According to statistics released by the U.S Department of Justice, more than two million Americans were censored to be incarcerated with the local jail or prison. In late 1960, the United States realized the pressure overcrowding was impacting on the taxpayers. The government was spending a lot of money to take care of an individual in prison. Overcrowding led to the demand for better ways to deal with lawbreakers without necessarily taking them to prison, hence community-based correctional program.
This paper analyses the role of community correction on special population needs. The paper defines the special population as the non-violent or low criminal offenders. Alternatively, the paper looks the special population as those who have offended but due to their health conditions or way of life, they cannot survive in the prison. Some of these special groups include; expectant women, elderly offenders, HIV/AIDs patients, offenders with chronic sicknesses such as cancer, offenders with mental illness, offenders with mental retardation, and offenders with physical disabilities.
The paper finds out that community-based correction has a massive role to play to ensure that these special groups are corrected while at the same time ensuring that they do not spread their bad character to the rest of the community. Another finding is that the rationale behind community correction is to rehabilitate the offenders in the real world. The community correction is less expensive than incarceration and does not put the lives of the offenders under great danger from abuse by others who might use their agility as a chance to harass them.
Introduction
Community correction in the field of criminal justice can be defined as the management and supervision of offenders in a controlled environment within the community rather than taking them to jail. The idea of community correction was coined in the United States justice system as a way to reduce the number of prisoners and to cut down on the cost the government was spending to take care of those incarcerated (Chavira, 2016). However, things have changed over time and there has been another reason to why community correction has turned out to be a very important idea, the special population.
The special population can be defined as those who have been found guilty of offense yet their way of life or position in the community places their lives in a great danger in case they are sent to prison (Alarid, 2016). The special population comes in different ways. First, there are those who are non-violent or less criminal. For instance, the offender has no criminal history and is considered as a person who had a higher reputation among the community. Sending such a person to prison will have more negative impact on the person, therefore, the need of community correction.
Apart from the less-violent, there is this group of people who suffer from chronic diseases such as cancer, the elderly, HIV/Aids victims, mentally retarded, and those with physical disabilities. These are special groups that require being considered effectively in case justice is to be upheld in the judiciary. This paper looks at the role of community correction on the special population more so the physically disabled, those living with HIV/AIDS and the mentally ill.
Mentally ill Population
Over the past decade, there has been a fierce debate on capital sentence in the United States. Most people agree that there is a need for death punishment as this will reduce criminal activities in the country. Those who supported the proposition based their argument that it is necessary to have stiffer laws that will curb criminal menaces not only in the United States but also in other parts of the world. However, as the debate intensified, the anti-capital punishment lobby emerged. The group resented the proposal, saying that the States where the policy is already under active has executed those that are mentally ill. At the moment, there is a large number of inmates who are on death row yet mentally ill.
The question in this case, however, is not whether the mentally ill should have a capital punishment or not, but rather the impact of incarceration on this group. Sending a mentally ill person to prison has a long time impact on them. A study conducted in the U.S prisons in 1990 showed that a large population of the prisoners arrested due to substance abuse suffered from mental illness (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 1998). Since most of the prisons do not have better facilities to take care of the mentally ill, the situation gets worse and the inmates develop other disorders such as depression, bipolar disorders, or schizophrenia as a result.
The elderly
An elderly person needs proper care that most of the prisons in the United States cannot afford. Medical attention, space from noise and rest are the basic requirements for an old person (Chavira, 2016). The noise in the prisons puts the health of the elderly in a very steep condition that they will barely survive. The prisons do not offer an environment for better health attention such as exercise that is important for the elderly to maintain their limbs in shape. With the zero tolerance policy, it is impossible to find an old person at the wrong side of the law.
Expectant Women and the Lactating Mothers
Expectant and lactating mothers require a quite environment to take care of their unborn and born children. Prison is never a better place for a mother to raise their unborn. Therefore, while talking about the special population, it is very important to consider the expectant.
Those living with HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS is a viral disease that can be spread through sharing sharp objects that can lead to the mixture of body fluids. Apart from using a sharp object, sexual activities either with the same sex or opposite sex with a victim can lead to the spread of the virus. Prisons in the United States are notorious for sexual abuses. Rape has been reported in most of the prisons in the United States (Alarid, 2016). The point is that taking a person suffering from HIV/AIDS to prison is like putting the lives of others living in prison in great danger of contracting the virus.
Having looked at some of the special population, it will be easy to understand the role community correction will have on individual groups.
People living with mental illness need close monitoring to help correct the disorder. Frequent medication is necessary. It is the role of community-based correction such as parole to ensure that the offender is taken back to the community where correction officers will monitor their medication away from the prison environment. The importance of community correction is that the offender will be taken away from a noisy environment and can get assist from family members. His or her family will take care of their medical expenses offloading the government of the cost. Apart from becoming less expensive to the side of the government, the mentally ill will be able to blend better in the community since their correction will be done in the real world. Correcting a mentally ill person in prison is very challenging, not only because of the expense, but also how they will fit into the community after they have completed their sentence period (Chavira, 2016). Having a community-based correction, on the other hand, will provide the victim with the best opportunity to fit better as he or she will learn to live with the community even during the time of their correction
The elderly is a special population that is highly under-looked in the judicial system of the United States. The United States prisons still accept prisoners who are less dangerous to the community. In most occasions, these individuals barely survive the prison environment. Through community-based correction, the elderly population can serve their sentence and get corrected in an environment far from that of a prison. They can be offered special services such as medical attention and other services that are not possible in a prison environment, hence making them live longer.
Moreover, the expectant mothers can be corrected outside the prison walls through putting them under management within the community (Chavira, 2016). The only thing they will have to do is to make sure they frequently respond to the relevant authorities on how they are responding to the correction. Finally, community correction can help reduce the chances of those suffering from HIV/AIDS spread the virus in the prison cells. It can be concluded that it is important for the judiciary system to come up with an appropriate way to identify those who need special attention to avoid unnecessary sufferings they will impact on others or on themselves when sent to prison.
References
Alarid, L. F. (2016). Community based corrections. Cengage Learning.
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (1998). Continuity of offender treatment for substance use disorders from institution to community.
Chavira, C., Botello, T., & Lagomasino, I. T. (2016). From Prison to the Community: The AB109 Experience in Los Angeles County. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 34(2-3), 460-474.
