Prisons in the United States are classified as follows:
The first prison is the minimum and medium security. In the medium security prisons, prisoners tend to sleep in the dormitories with beds and lockers. This group also contain communal toilets and showers. Prisoners in the minimum security prisons are perceived to cause little physical risks to the public, therefore, are strictly supervised by correctional officers.
Close security prisons refer to the prisons where prisoners are kept in the one or two person cells. The cells are often operated from the remote control station. The walls are double fenced. Each cell has its own toilet and sink.
Maximum security prisons are prisons where the prisoners are kept in the individual cells that sliding doors and are controlled from remote control stations. Movement of prisoners is highly restricted.
Supermax prisons refer to the highest extent of the prison security. The most dangerous inmates are kept in such facility, for instance, serial killers and murderers. Federal prisons hold the people who violate the federal regulations and laws.
San Jose, CA jail, holds the people waiting for the trial. It also holds people whose sentence is shorter than a year. This prison is operated by the department of the county sheriff. The Soledad, CA prison, on the other hand, holds the criminals convicted of crimes. It holds the people who are sentenced for a long duration of time, more than one year. This prison is operated by the correction and prisons office of the state.
The aspects relating to the jail and prison culture and subculture depends with the prison. Both San Jose jail and Soledad prison shows the aspects of prison and jail culture and subculture. This may arise from the painful experiences of the prisoners or may be imported to the prisons. The first aspect of prison culture and subculture is the fact that prisoners tend to believe in sharing what they have with the fellow prisoners (Tiger, 2013, p.26). The prisoners help each other in the prison they stay or reside in. The second aspect is that the prisoners do not trust the staff of the prisons. They do not trust the staff because they fear that their information pertaining to their acts of crime can be released. The two aspects of prison culture and subculture are mainly meant for the protection of the welfare of the prisoners.
Jails play an important role in the criminal justice system because they ensure that criminals are kept indoors awaiting trials. They help in ensuring that the criminals cannot escape from the hands of corrections departments. Jails ensure a cost effective system of criminal justice by ensuring low cost of transporting offenders to the courts. Jails also enables the judicial system to determine the offenders who should be committed to the prisons. Jails also play an important role in the criminal justice system by ensuring that the courts have enough time to plan on the trials and facilitation of the criminal cases. Jails also allow systematic and logical inspections to be made appropriately. Jails also facilitates the formation of reformatory systems of justice.
The community based corrections programs plays an important role in ensuring that the criminals are reformed by engaging them in the activities of the community. These programs also ensure that the criminals are exposed to training facilities that enable them to learn about constructive activities in the society (Day, 2013, p.18). The correctional programs ensure that the criminals can participate in income generating activities, in a society so as to avoid future possibility of engaging in such criminal activities again. The punishments on working for the community helps in decongesting prisons and jails. This also helps in making the criminals productive to the community. The participation in community programs helps to provide a suitable alternative of sentence as well as preventing non-violent offenders from interacting with other dangerous criminals in jail or prisons.
The most common violent behavior is an aspect of rape. The overcrowding situation in prisons and jails leads to cases of rape and sexual assaults. The prisoners are raped or sodomized by their fellow prisoners in the prisons or jails. This violent behavior is dangerous because it may lead to transmission of HIV/AIDS and other STIs. The prisoners engage in such a violent activities especially when they abuse drugs like tobacco leading to aggression. This violent behavior can be prevented or regulated by installation of cameras as well as decongestion of prisons and jails.
Probation and parole plays an important in correction of the criminals. Probation and parole involve coordination and management of the community based programs as well as provision of supervision services in order to improve offender success and public safety of the offenders. Probation and parole aim at ensuring public safety, rights of victims, as well as the accountability of the offenders through operative community corrections. This also aims at supervision of offenders as they provide services to the community instead of serving in prisons. Probation and parole also plays a role of assessment of the offenders as they perform activities at field. This may involve electronic monitoring, development of cognitive skills as well as contracting the residential services.
References
Day, J. (2013). Corrections & collections: Architectures for art and crime.
Loyd, J. M., Mitchelson, M., & Burridge, A. (2012). Beyond walls and cages: Prisons, borders, and global crisis. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Tiger, R. (2013). Judging addicts: Drug courts and coercion in the justice system. New York: New York University Press.
