Running Header CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS I.docx

Running Header: CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL
INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 1
Critical Issues To Correctional Institutions in the U.S.
Name
CRJ 465
Instructor’s Name
Date

CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN
THE U.S. 2
There are many contemporary issues that are found within the
American penal system.
Perhaps we are not fully aware of these issues and just how
much they affect the American penal
system. Though we are aware that there are issues, we may not
be completely aware of just how
much they affect the everyday functioning of the correctional
systems. We are not fully aware of
the funding problems, or the overcrowding problems, or just
how much violence takes place in
prisons. These three issues seem to be the worst of all the issues
that these facilities face.
Funding
Correctional facilities, just like any other business, do not
operate for free. Total state
expenditures on prisons and related activities were about $9.6
billion in the mid-1980’s, where
about 40 percent of all state prison construction was financed
by a pay-as-you-go method, and 50

percent was paid by general obligation bonds, and the remaining
10 percent was financed using
lease revenue bonds and other revenue streams. By 1996, total
state expenditures for prisons
were estimated to be $22 billion, and more than half of all the
debt issued to finance prisons was
carried out through a specific variant of lease-revenue bonds
which were called certificates of
participation (Public Bonds, 2004). According to the staff at
Vera’s Center on Sentencing and
Corrections and Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit, after surveying 40
states in an effort to calculate the
taxpayer’s cost of prisons, the cost of prisons was $39 billion in
2010, which was $5.4 billion
more than what their corrections budgets reflected (VERA
Institute of Justice, 2013). Over the
past 40 years, the U.S. has seen a dramatic increase in prison
population, and as a result, the
country’s state prison population has grown by more than 700
percent since the 1970’s. This has
come at great cost to taxpayers (VERA Institute of Justice,
2013). At the end of 2012, the United
States prison population was 1,571,013, which is actually a
decline for the third straight

THE U.S. 3
consecutive year. More plans are under way in an effort to
lower the number of people who are
incarcerated in the U.S., which will help lower the cost of
running these facilities as well.
America exceeds every other country in prison inmate
population. Attorney General Eric Holder
announced sweeping plans that will be designed to address the
issue through drug sentencing
reform and this means that low level drug offenders could be
subjected to some type of treatment
or community service programs rather than prison time. There
are also plans of implementing
and expanding prison programs that would allow for the release
of some of the elderly, non-
violent offenders (Huffington Post, 2013).
These numbers and statistics are very alarming, yet it is widely
understood that in some
cases, expenditures at corrections facilities account only for a
portion of the financial costs a
state commits to when an individual is sentenced to prison.

Other costs include, but are not
limited to, employee health insurance, pension contributions,
and inmate medical care (Vera
Institute of Justice, 2013). Medical coverage for inmates is
mandatory, and at no cost to them,
when thousands of hard working Americans cannot afford
medical coverage and do without the
medicines and treatment that they need, yet they are the ones
who help fund an offender’s stay in
prison. With the number of incarcerated people, these costs
ultimately add up to astounding
amounts.
Overcrowding
Although the number of U.S. prison inmates has seen a decline
for the third consecutive
year, the numbers are still high, in fact, higher than any other
country in the world. United
States’ prisons are overcrowded. Efforts are underway to help
solve the problem of
overcrowding. Attorney General Eric Holder stated that
incarceration needs to be used as
punishment, as a means to deter and rehabilitate, and not to
convict, warehouse and forget. He

THE U.S. 4
also stated that widespread incarceration at the federal, state
and local levels is both ineffective
and unsustainable and imposes a significant economic burden
which totaled $80 billion in 2010
alone (Huffington Post, 2013).
Among the first buildings to be built in the New World were
prisons. Boston felt a need
for detention houses due to the crimes that were taking place,
but in early America, prisons were
not seen as a place for punishment. With the turn of the 18
th
century came the uprising of prison
facilities and their function, and among the most common of
prisoners were political prisoners
and high ranking prisoners of war, where few common criminals
were locked up unless they
were awaiting trial, and once a verdict was found, they were
either punished on the spot or
released (Lynch, 2013). The only offense which led to a long
term sentence back then was debt.

This punishment was used as a way to persuade the wealthy who
refused to pay their debts to
pay them or be locked up. Misdemeanors, much like today, were
punished by fines, public
shame, physical chastisement, or death (Lynch, 2013). Today,
as we all know, anything that is
considered to be a felony will land a person jail time. Things
were a lot different in the beginning
of the New World compared to what they are today.
Today, overcrowding in U.S. federal prisons is so severe that
the problem will not easily
be solved. A report from the nonprofit Urban Institute said that
lawmakers have many options
available to start making dents in a prison population. In 2011,
America incarcerated 2.2 million
people in state and federal institutions (Ingram, 2013). A large
part of the overcrowding is due to
mandatory prison terms which were enacted in the 1980’s and
1990’s when crime was on the
rise, but those policies are not as favorable as once before due
to the expense and the social
effects of locking up people who are disproportionately
members of racial minorities (Ingram,

2013). Lawmakers and conservatives are pushing legislation to
reduce federal prison terms or
THE U.S. 5
give judges more flexibility when sentencing offenders (Ingram,
2013). According to the Urban
Institute, a research group with roots in President Johnson’s
Great Society anti-poverty program,
the task of reducing prison population is going to be no easy
task. Their findings show that even
if mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes were cut in
half, federal prisons would still be
20 percent over capacity after ten years (Ingram, 2013). The
truth is that there are many
alternatives that can be used in place of incarceration. While not
all offenders will be entitled to
these alternatives, a lot of them who commit lesser crimes
should be rather than using mandatory
sentencing which is only aiding in the overcrowding problem
within the prisons. Alternatives
such as electronic monitoring, community service, and drug
courts could be used in place of

incarceration. Drug courts are a program that helps drug abusers
get clean or face more severe
penalties. A lot of people become violators of the law due to
drug abuse and this is well worth
sentencing many drug offenders to. Not only can one alternative
be used, but they can be
grouped together or used in sequence which means that the
punishment that offenders receive is
more severe than what it would be with only one alternative
sentence used, but less severe than
incarceration.
Violent offenders such as murderers, rapists, or big time drug
dealers will not be allowed
these alternative sentences due to public safety. Incarceration
should be used to protect society,
and not just as punishment. Punishment can come in different
forms. Alternative sentences are
also a form of punishment, because it does take away from the
freedom that one once had before
they committed their crime. If used right, these alternative
sentences can deter criminals just as
good as incarceration. As stated before if they are used in
sequence or coupled together then they
come as a more severe form of punishment, and it will deter

future criminals.
THE U.S. 6
Overcrowding of prisons not only leads to more financial
needs, but it also leads to more
health risks, and violence. According to a report from the
Department of Justice, offenders
entering prisons bring with them infectious diseases from
impoverished home environments that
are breeding grounds for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and
tuberculosis, which are the three most
prevalent communicable diseases found in America’s prisons
today (Zulficar, 2005). When
living in crowded conditions, prisoners can pass on their
infections to other inmates, staff, or
people who may come to visit them. If inmates contract diseases
while inside correctional
facilities, they risk spreading these diseases even further into
the communities in which they
came from upon release from incarceration. Statistics show that
in the year of 2000, the U.S.
incarcerated a staggering number of people totaling 2,071,686

individuals. Eighty four percent of
these new prison admissions were for nonviolent crimes such as
drug abuse. According to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1996, approximately 24,000
inmates world-wide were infected
with HIV, but more recent studies show that the numbers are
continuously increasing. Statistics
also show that 1 in 4 inmates are affected with tuberculosis, and
that hepatitis C infects more
than 41% of California inmates alone (Zulficar, 2005). These
diseases pose serious public health
problems. Several factors such as overcrowded conditions, poor
health education in prisons, and
weak community based public health programs for infected
people help exacerbate the problem
(Zulficar, 2005). Other contributing factors to the spread of
these diseases among prisons are the
fact that items such as condoms and bleach are not allowed in
prisons. Victims of rape, or those
who engage in consensual sex in prison, are at risk for
spreading these diseases throughout
communities upon release. Tuberculosis is an airborne disease,
which means that it thrives
within people who live in close quarters with poor ventilation

(Zulficar, 2005). Other than
diseases, inmates face a variety of risks that come from violence
within prisons.
THE U.S. 7
Prison Violence
There is so much violence within prisons that just the thought
of going alone should be
enough to keep people from committing criminal acts, yet it is
not. Despite what we think, not all
inmates are violent offenders, but sometimes they enter prison
as nonviolent offenders, and learn
violence as a way of life in prison, which further endangers the
public upon release (Zulficar,
2005). Many different types of violent acts occur in prison
which include, but are by no means
limited to, murder, rape, gang activities, and cultural diversity.
Gangs are common within prison
systems, and as on the streets, they tend to take care of one
another by any means necessary.
Even people who are released from prison still stay loyal to
their prison gangs. Gang members

often have unique markings on their bodies in order to help
identify each other or to show
loyalty, and they also tend to stay within their own race within
a gang, meaning that whites
usually stay with whites, blacks with blacks, etc. Gang
affiliation and the violence that comes
along with it can be a major safety issue in prisons. The most
common reasons for the evolving
of gangs are protection and control.
The goal of prisons is to identify gang affiliated offenders,
track them, monitor their
conduct, take interdiction action, and apply sanctions when they
are found to be involved in
illicit or unlawful gang activities. Though there is no one known
strategy that has been proven to
be effective at managing every gang found within prisons, some
strategies do work in one
jurisdiction, whereas they may not be effective in another
jurisdiction. Reports show that over
three quarters of prisons has established gang management
strategies that include monitoring
inmate communication, collecting and compiling information
from searches and in most cases

sharing this information with local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies (Ruddell, 2010).
THE U.S. 8
Cultural diversity within prisons can be a result of differences
among groups of people
and individuals based on ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status,
gender, exceptionalities,
language, religion, sexual orientation, or geographical area.
This not only affects the inmates, but
the staff as well. Diversity towards staff members can come
from inmates or co-workers as well.
Women and minorities were previously viewed as threats to the
cohesiveness of the correctional
workforce, and those officers were often victims of
discrimination or abuse. It was reported by
many staff members, including African American, Hispanic, and
women, that Caucasian, male
coworkers were slow to accept the idea of them working
alongside them, but the fact is that
minorities and women are an integral part of the correction
process (Carlson, & Simon, 2008).

People of all different races and backgrounds are within prison
facilities, and cultural diversity
will always be a problem due to the fact that so many people are
reluctant to accept others for
who they are even though they are different. We cannot control
how someone feels about others
who are of a different race, yet we can teach them, and hope for
a good outcome by helping them
learn about people who are different from them and how they
live, they may, in turn, be able to
accept and respect, or at least keep the peace with others who
are different than what they are,
but this is probably a long shot. Staff members who use
diversity will be punished in the proper
manner, whether it be suspensions, or termination of their job.
Due to the nature of their jobs,
and the fact that they come into contact with so many people of
different cultures and such,
training is provided for some officers on how to avoid cultural
diversity.
There are so many different issues that correctional facilities
face in this modern day. Not
all of these problems will be fixed within a small amount of
time, but they are something that

need to be looked into in order to keep the correctional
facilities up and running and in order to
maintain a safe environment for our families to live in. The
need for funding is extreme, but
THE U.S. 9
there seem to be no ways of coming up with additional funding
in order to maintain a safe
environment within these facilities, so the only other option is
to stop incarcerating so many
people when other types of sentences can be used in order to
punish criminals who commit the
lesser crimes. Overcrowding is already a major issue within
prisons, which makes for unsafe
environments due to the inability to keep diseases from
spreading, and the inability to control
violence within the prisons as well, so the best option would be
for intermediate sanctions to be
implemented upon those who are non-violent criminals and
don’t really pose a threat to society
due to them not being incarcerated. Prisons were made to be
used as a means to protect society

from other people who were a danger to them. The fact is that
the United States of America has
incarcerated more of its population than any other country, and
not all of these people really
deserve incarceration as a fair punishment.
THE U.S. 10
References
Carlson, P., & Simon, J. (Eds.). (2008). Prison & jail
administration: Practice and theory (2
nd
ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Inc.
Henrichson, C., & Delaney, R. (2012, Feb. 29). The price of

prisons: What incarceration costs
taxpayers. Vera Institute of Justice. Retrieved from
http://www.vera.org/pubs/special/price-prisons-what-
incarceration-costs-taxpayers
Ingram, D. (2013, Nov. 5). Even with changes, U.S. prisons
might stay overcrowded: report.
Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/05/us-
usa-prisons-
idUSBRE9A405120131105
Lynch, J., (2011). Cruel and unusual: Prisons and prison reform.
Colonial Williamsburg Journal,
Summer 2011. Retrieved from
http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Summer11/prison.cf
m
Wing, N. (2013, Aug. 13). Here are all of the nations that
incarcerate more of their pcopulation
than the U.S. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/incarceration-rate-
per-
capita_n_3745291.html
Winterdyk, J., & Ruddell, R. (2010). Managing prison gangs:
Results from a survey of U.S.

prison systems. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38, 730-736.
Retrieved from
http://www.academia.edu/1116898/Managing_prison_gangs_Res
ults_from_a_survey_of
_U.S._prison_systems
Zulficar G. R. (2005, October). Public health implications of
substandard correctional health
care. American Journal of Public Health, 95(10), 1689-1691.
Retrieved from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449420/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/05/us-usa-prisons-
idUSBRE9A405120131105
http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Summer11/prison.cf
m
per-%09capita_n_3745291.html
per-%09capita_n_3745291.html
ults_from_a_survey_of_U.S._prison_systems
ults_from_a_survey_of_U.S._prison_systems

Running Head: CULTURAL TRAINING FOR EMPLOYEES
1
Cultural Training for Employees Research Outline
[Your Name]
[Professor]
[Course # and Title]
[School Name]
[Date]

2
Cultural training for employees
Introduction
So many countries such as Coca-Cola have opened businesses in
so many countries
around the globe. It is clear that most of these countries where
Cola-Cola is working have
different cultures. Employees who go to work in such places
end up getting confused and while
so many of them resign from work, those who sign to continue
working there may make so many
errors that can cost the company or other stakeholders in one
way or the other. Cultural training
is thus very important since it helps the employees to stay on
task and know what they are
supposed to do at what time.
Importance of cultural training for employees
There are many reasons why employees should be trained:
are going to work

the country where
they are going to work (Association & Resources, Global
Business: Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools and Applications: Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools and
Applications, 2013).
-
workers, their bosses
and other people who work in the company.
the communities
where they are going to work so that they do not commit errors.
3
codes, eating,
entertainment and others so that they do not get stuck or look
like outsiders.
The aim of training these employees is to make them look
inclusive and one with the people

whom they are going to serve. It is also to enable the employees
to be able to work in societies
that have cultures different from theirs (Martin, 2015). By doing
so, the company will be saved
additional charges that may arise from the employees’ lack of
knowledge including the loss of
customers.
What can be trained to employees?
ught to employees is
communication. This can include the
language of the people; both oral and gestures or the sign
language.
leisure and general mixing of the
people.
that country and of specific societies they
are going to work so as to
avoid trouble with authorities.
any meanings to the messages
the people send, the simplicity or complacency of the people
and how they perceive
people from their countries or from outside (York, 2015). For

instance, Indians
concentrate on family relationships so much before they start
worrying about business.
This can help retain customers and work well with other
stakeholders from such regions.
It is very important that while offering such training, the
trainers should base their material
on reality and not what they hear. They should be able to give a
full comparison and
4
difference on the countries the employees stay and where they
are going so that they give a
full image of what to expect and what to do in order to fit in the
two worlds.
How to reinforce employees training
In order to make the material taught to employees, orientation is
very important.
Orientation ensures that the employees realizes the information
given and struggles to fit into
the changing working and survival climates. Other than
orientation it is also very important

to offer premiums to give them motivation to struggle and fit.
Assessing employees
Learning orientation is one of the concepts that are considered
valuable for assessing and
training employees. In such cases, employees who have weak
learning orientation withdraw
easily from conditions and situations that result in low
judgement of performance since they
think that they will not be able to adapt. The ones with strong
learning orientation fight and
continue until they adapt. The strong ones are thus considered
for such works outside their
countries for their own benefit and that of the company where
they are working. In today’s
environment where globalization is considered the solution to
competition, employees play a
key part in influencing other employees who may be new to the
company. Thus, selecting
them should be based on a criterion that is exact and that can
give realistic results. Thus,
learning orientation may give better results than just theoretical
training.
How to assess success of the training for employees

ways of the people in the
country of their work. This should be in tone, attitudes,
language and sign language.
5
satisfaction.
not
only the authorities but also
the societies where they will be working (Association &
Resources, Cross-Cultural
Interaction: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications:
Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 2014).
ees should not look as foreigners in such
countries but should be able to fit in
their eating ways, dress, entertainment and other areas so that
they can be acceptable in
their new societies among other things.
Conclusion

Training employees may be taken to be simple but in one way or
the other, it is complex
in that the trainer has to make a person fit into two totally
different worlds. Companies that
are successful in this concept tend to perform so well in any
country they globalize.
However, the most important value is the experience gained by
the individual employees that
can profit them and the globalizing company.
6
References
Association, M., & Resources, I. (2013). Global Business:
Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and
Applications: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications.
IGI Global, 2013.

Association, M., & Resources, I. (2014). Cross-Cultural
Interaction: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and
Applications: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and
Applications. IGI Global, 2014.
Martin, J. (2015). Key Concepts in Human Resource
Management. SAGE, 2015.
York, K. M. (2015). Applied Human Resource Management:
Strategic Issues . SAGE, 2015.

Running Header CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS I.docx

More Related Content

More from anhlodge (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Running Header CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS I.docx