Alternative incarceration 1)Unit 1 AS: History in Action Consider which factors were most influential to the evolution of corrections in America and answer the following questions. Present your...

Running Head: Alternative Incarceration
Alternative Incarceration 14
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Alternative Incarceration
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UNIT 1 AS: History in Action
Earlier the prisons were not confined and were known as Gaol or Jail (Lynch, 2011). Very few criminals experienced long term incarceration. On release of the verdict, they were punished and released. The long term imprisonment was only given for the citizens in Debt. The Obligations of wealthy debtors were settled through imprisonment. New York Legislation in 1732 allowed for the long term imprisonment of poor people even for a small amount of money. However in 1830s the debtor’s prisons were abolished. The main classes of punishments were Public shame, Fines, Physical Chastisement, and Death. Mostly the Misdemeanors were demanded for public confession of the crime, a mark to differentiate them for doing offense (such as A for Adulterer, B for Blasphemer, F for Fighter, T for Thief and R for Rogue etc.), and a term in the stocks. Physical Chastisement involved Hot Iron branding, loss of ears, flogging etc (Lynch, 2011). In the 18th Century, the capital punishments like death penalty became prominent however there were ways to escape the sentence. The priests could avoid extreme and harsh penalties by just reciting and reading the bible verse. Several amendments in the Bill of Rights stipulated that the excessive bail is not to be granted, excessive fines not to be imposed, unusual and cruel punishments not to be inflicted. The punishment was given to reform the sufferer, to stop the crime, and to remove the extreme criminals from society, to protect the public. Establishing all three principles was not possible for the system.
Secular Law emerged from the belief that the human beings require their right to be free from religious teachings and rule. There is a separation of state and the church in America. There is a reunion of the religion with the modern values. However today according to Religious Landscape Study 2014, America has observed reduced affiliation with the religion just to an extent of 6% which has shrunk between 2007 and 2014 (Stetzer, 2018). The young people do not attend church.
Nowadays in US, there are specified constitutional Laws for the every crime and punishments. There are proper legal processes, and distribution of sentences. The death penalty is not imposed for general crimes. There are 16 aggravating factors that the convict needs to be eligible for, being eligible for the death sentence. Mainly there are five types of punishments: Incapacitation (taking the criminal away from society), Deterrence (persuading the offender to conform to the laws ), Retribution ( provides satisfaction to the public that the person is given right sentence), Rehabilitation ( helping the criminals improve occupational skills, psychological attributes and facilitating the productive transition to the society) and Restoration (Point Park University, 2018).
UNIT 2AS: Sentencing Ideology Applied
The chapter reflects a change in the criminal justice policy since the last 30 years by elaborating six lessons of the get tough movement in the US (Mauer, 2004). These 6 lessons are as follows
1. Mass Incarceration has had just a minimal effect on the crime. Since 1972, the population of the prisoners has increased 5 times, which is termed as Mass Incarceration. With more number of people reaching behind the bars has significantly reduced the crime rate. The cause of this decline can be attributed to strong economy during the period, weakening of the epidemic of crack cocaine, community policing and changes in the behavior of people to ignore and avoid the violence and conflict.
2. Just like Deter and Death Penalty, It causes majority disruptions in the court system. In 1970s the court cases challenged the death penalty and the capital punishment became constitutional in 1976. Today there are more than 3500 persons waiting to be executed while at that time there were only 900 prisoners been executed. Lengthy appeals and trials impose high fiscal cost of more than $2 million per case on the legal system. Such processes consume lot of resources and distract the attention from the topic about how to address the safety concerns of the public.
3. Incarceration has broad collateral impact on society. High frequency of incarceration in the low income families influences the stability and formation of the family. A number of men have been found missing in these communities.
4. The cost of incarceration influences the social priorities. It is costlier to construct and maintain the prisons. The process exerts direct effect on the funding. Incarceration observed increased spending on corrections rather than on higher education.
5. Privatization cannot be a solution of increasing prison cost. Expansion of private prison industry by the For profit Organisations has ascertained that they can imprison the people at reduced cost than the public organizations. The potential low budget of private prisons may be due to limited training, inexperienced staff and the programming cuts.
6. Mass Incarceration influences the democracy. The felony conviction in US makes a person invalid for casting his vote for certain time period and also may lose their right to vote permanently. The number of such voters may go as high as 5 million people.
However since the developments in the recent years, the prisoners are now prepared for their return back to the society one day.
    UNIT 3 AS: Application of Sentencing Theory
New Jersey has many operating Problem Solving Courts which help with the implementation and planning of the new courts, improve the public confidence by improving accountability, offering the framework for performance measures, and facilitating evidence based practices (National Center for State...