A World Apart

A World Apart

Correctional systems are a system of governmental agencies that govern the jurisdiction of the parole system and prisons. The systems have their ways in which they punish the offenders, which involve depriving their life, liberty or levying heavy punishment on them. The criminal justice system imposes sentences upon criminals that range from probation and community correction programs. Others may include heavy punishments, death penalty or intermediate sanctions of life imprisonment. The main function of the correctional system is to punish, protect and rehabilitate the lawbreakers. Therefore, there are similarities and differences on the correctional systems between the people of America and the Republic of China.

The types of management systems in China are very different from that of the United States. The Chinese has a system of treating their criminal, which is different from that of the United States. For instance, they provide medical parole to all their criminals and even those under probation. This is quite different from that of the Americans whereby the medial parole is given to those criminals having minor court cases. Those having life sentences are not given medical parole unless they are under probation. In America, there are correctional standards that govern the correctional systems. The correctional management team consults first with the various jurisdictions before handling any criminal case. These team members have the wider range of experience on matters such as security, medical matters, criminal legal matters and institutional operations.

The 2009 research report study indicates that the United States of America has the imprisonment rate of about 743 per 100 000 population of the nation which is the highest in the world. The fourth one is China with the rate of 120 per 100 000 (Wortzel, 2009). One quarter of the inmates in the United States is incarcerated comparing to the whole world. According to the published report from the department of justice in the United States, more than 7.2 millions of people in 2006 in prison were under probation and parole. This means that in every 32 people in the total population of America are being held in the prison for justice system. China is the world’s second population with many inmates. It is approximated that about 2.3 millions out of the total population of 7.2 millions of people are held in prison.

The prisoners in China are granted medical parole and compassionate release that releases them to go and get medical treatment. This medical parole acts as a non-publicity means of releasing the accidentally incarcerated prisoner. The legal codes for the Chinese have non-explicit terms for those in exile and they ensure that their citizens living in other countries are given medical treatment (Carlson and Garrett, 2006). Those who are released for medical parole are then imprisoned after they return to their country. In addition, among the inmates in the United States are drug offenders. The research report of 2009 indicates that the population rate of criminal in U.S. state had fallen drastically comparing to the year of 2006 but it still have a rate of 0.2% of the population. The numbers of women in prison were higher comparing to those of men.

Probation and community correction are relatively similar to those of the prison corrections. These corrections are ways of correcting people in the community who have committed minor crimes. In China, the target criminals eligible to community corrections are those sentenced to public surveillance, those under probation and parole. Others are those who serve their prison terms while outside the prisons. These cases are comparable to those in the United States because it widely applied. Their regulations on those under probation and community corrections are similar to those in China. Community corrections in both countries are seen as a policy of social development and a way of progress towards reformation and improvement (Kurian and Kurian, 2006).

The rehabilitation and other programs are provided in both countries but they vary considerably. Due to political, economic and social disparity in the China and United States, provision rehabilitation and other social service programs vary accordingly. For example, the communist country in China adopted Cultural Revolution and social movements from the western countries. Recently, China has advanced their rehabilitation and programs and they are quite similar like that of the United States. These countries provide correctional and they rehabilitate programs that are directed towards helping the inmates. The rehabilitation is done well in order to help criminals to fit in the society after they have been released.

The important reformation in this case focuses on individual reformation but not the penal system. Both countries emphasize the individual reformation through instilling disciplines to prisoners. They emphasize this in order to make the inmates become productive members in the society. They emphasize on issues such as education, self-discipline and treating their colleagues with respect. The young criminal are most likely to be reformed especially those with minor crimes. Both countries have reform schools for correctional systems. For instance, states established many voluntary programs with the aim of involving all the inmates to participate actively hence become reformed.

The type of amendment that significantly changed the rights of the prisoners similar to the eighth amendment or section 1983 reform is the medical parole provided to prisoners. The medical parole in the United States is different from that of china. In this case, the American court specifies the time spent for a prisoner to get the entitled medical parole. This is done through identifying the indeterminate sentence for instance it may be a long life sentence of about 10-15 years. The decision is first determined by the parole board incase an inmate should or should not get medical parole. Some other factors are focused depending whether to grant or deny the inmates medical parole. Mostly the common factors include gainful employment or self-support such as social security incase an inmate is released to get medical treatment.

The more effective correctional system is that of United States. My opinion on deciding on this system is because the states have a better way of dealing with criminals unlike that of foreign country. The United States does not issue medical parole to life imprisonment or death penalty. However, those who are not sentence to either death or life imprisonments have the right to petition for compassionate release. However, China provides medical treatment to all prisoners regardless of their criminal status. Thus, the correctional systems of the United States are effective because inmates are treated differently depending on their criminal status.

My rationale or justification basing on the American correctional systems is that the federal prisons should shut down large penalties in the states. The number of prisoners in New York has started declining and this is because of the controlling system of criminals applied in this state. Another underlying principle in America is that of proposing the strict drug laws within the states thus led to high criminal in the country. Most of them were drug traffickers thus the number of inmates in prison increased. It was proposed that the penalty for these criminals is 15 years in life sentence and heavy penalty. Thus, the government should reduce this penalties and life sentence because it leads to other consequences such as government wasting resources in maintaining these criminals.

My thoughts in whether any aspects of the United State’s correctional system should be adopted or perhaps changed to reflect aspects of the foreign country’s correctional system are prison reforms. This should be perhaps changed in that the states should treat others with respect and instill self-discipline in every community to avoid case of unnecessary imprisonment. Those who have committed minor crimes should be reformed. They can be allowed to access to resources such as free medicines, education through an acceptable channel. The government should create state correctional institution thus establishes volunteer programs with the aim of involving all the prisoners for he purpose of creating reformation. This will keep a way criminal from potential crimes thus reducing the crime rate in the sates.

In conclusion, there are similarities and difference between China and America concerning on the issues of correctional systems. The type of management system varies within these countries. This is because the American correctional systems have their own standards in the way they handle criminals. They do not provide medical parole to all criminals like the way the Chinese do. They only provide those criminal with minor cases but the one with cases of death penalties are not given. In addition, the rehabilitation and other programs are provided in both countries but they vary considerably. However, Probation and community corrections are relatively similar to prison corrections because they are seen as away of progressive and reducing criminology.

 

References

Carlson, P. M., & Garrett, J. S. (2006). Prison and jail administration: Practice and theory.

Gaithersburg, Md: Aspen Publishers.

Kurian, G. T., & Kurian, G. T. (2006). World encyclopedia of police forces and correctional

            systems. Detroit: Thomson Gale.

Wortzel, L.M. (2009). Report to Congress of the U. S. -China Economic and Security Review

 Commission. New York, NY: Diane publishing.