Introduction

Among the various international as well as national security issues emerging one after another is the level of crimes and coping this challenge is now a days one of the most important area of concern for America . Therefore, the security and law enforcement departments are now focusing more on revising their policies to ensure more peace and security in the country from both national and international criminals. In this regard the current debating issue is to teach the criminals a lesson for the wrong they have done as well as make them realize their moral and legal obligations towards one another and their state so that they be restricted morally as well as legally from doing any crime or delinquency. In the present scenario, the value of the prison system has increased as now it is used as a laboratory and workshop for social change. Researchers therefore, are focusing more on the prison system and mobilizing the public opinion in this regard for a better social system, where punishment and incarceration are the debatable issues. At one side the federal government and the American criminal Justice system is rigid on the traditional approach to punish via incarceration, while on the other hand, media, researchers and scholars are focusing on the significance of stringent punishments in place of incarceration. The very consequences of incarceration are quite obvious among the masses as the media is playing a very prominent role in raising the voices of these scholars and researchers in favor of punishments as a substitute of incaceration.

Public Punishment Versus Incarceration

Crime cannot be stopped completely though it could be controlled via punishments according to the level of offence done. However, imposing some kind of burden constitutes punishment or some form of deprivation or withholding some benefit to a person. Punishments are usually given as a consequence to some kind of violation of law or interference of some one’s legal rights or such actions done with the element of criminal intentions to harm some one. Therefore, punishments are to make good the losses or to impose burden on a convicted offender. Basically the motive behind punishments is to make the criminal or offender compensate the damages as well as to learn a lesson for not opting the same or any related criminal action in future. Nonetheless, punishments are only given persons who are found guilty for some crime.

However, when the causes of the crimes are known, it could be a good help for the decision makers and the jurists to sentence any punishment against the criminals. All people who are caught for criminal prosecutions are not always professional criminals. Crimes are often done as a reaction of social disorder or many other reasons by the youth or other people who are not professional criminals but commit acts that are legally wrong or against the law of equity. At times crimes done by non-professional criminals specifically capital crimes, if imprisoned the offender then until he is sentenced would be in prison and then the actual punishment would be given. So in this way a lot of time and money of the state can be wasted. In such cases now the court decides and makes them compensate the damages of the wrong done by the offenders. Nonetheless incarceration is still very commonly practiced in the American justice system and punishments are very more restricted for light offences.

Therefore, in the American criminal justice system, incarceration is the most frequent punishment given for the grave offences. It is observed that 25% of the worlds total population is incarcerated by the American criminal jurists, that makes about two million adult US citizens. (Harary J. Charles) However, the amount of citizens imprisoned is still increasing. Therefore, in the American Law, it is used as a form of punishment. So lets try to understand why it is being used so immensely in the American criminal judicial system?

Basically there are four principle reasons behind this policy. These are Retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation. However, whenever punishment is sentenced, it becomes critical to decide what is the basic objective when punishment is being given. Usually the motive is rehabilitation. This means to make good the losses and make the offender realize for the wrong done by him. It is basically a kind of psychotherapy where the juristic believe the offender will realize and be restrained from such actions and offence in future. However, in the past few decades this philosophy has lost its importance and detention is considered to be the actual goal to prevent criminals from any dangerous crime in future. Actually it all depends upon the nature of crime and the type of criminal. If it were a case of a professional criminal or murderer, then definitely the punishment would be more severe, so the motive behind sentencing would be immense.

Therefore, either the reason is to detain, deter or rehabilitate. Basically the purpose of the Federal government and the House of Representatives while making the policies is to create an example for the other professional as well as non-professional criminals to restrain from criminal prosecutions. For instance, the Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott while explaining the need of a Federal legislation said that no doubt a small hardened group of criminals commit most of the violent crimes in the country and many people related to such crimes are released easily again and again due to the revolving door of the prison system. (Lipskar D. Rabbi Sholom)

Where the other objective for punishing in shape of imprisonment is the decreasing age of the juvenile offenders that are reaching the age of adult. Lastly is the lifetime imprisonment, which is sentenced to serious and dangerous criminals who are professionally criminals. Such punishments are given for the security of the nation from such criminals and their dangerous actions. However, there is a lot of room for criticism for this approach of the American Criminal juristic system. For the first objective, where incarceration is considered to deter the criminals for further crimes but this may actually give them more room for additional crimes. As soon they get release they will be more involved in felonies and misdemeanors. So what ever the objective behind imprisonment is, it not only increases the crime rate but also marks a label on offenders who are not professional criminals as ex-prisoner, which will reduce their chances for employment. This in future will give a boost to the grouping and percentage of criminals in the country. So it seems that due to incarceration, a person becomes an outcast from his family, friends as well as professional circle. He after releasing from prison will not be able to be a productive member of the society; this might change an un professional delinquent to a professional criminal as he would be easily accepted to the community of criminals rather then the community he actually belonged too.

However, research also shows that the root causes for the emphasis on incarceration over public punishments is not to secure the nation but is the racial and gender discrimination in the American Criminal Justice system. According to a research conducted by the “Prison Policy Initiative”, By 31 st December, 2002, the total rise of incarcerated prisoners in USA were 3.7 % (June 30 2002) where the noticeable thing among these prisoners is the unequal opportunity punishment. For instance, if we take the case study of races, then blacks were incarcerated massively at a larger rate then the whites, similarly where genders was calculated men were more sent into prison so we see a sharp edge of discrimination in the judgment policies that are apparently not visible to the common people. Furthermore, incarceration has been proved to be a very expensive business. According to the official statistics, over $ 27 billion per year is spend by the federal and state agencies over two million prisoners. (Marc Mauer and Meda Chesney-Lind 2002) So incarceration is very costly for the government, as the government has to bare the eating, clothing and medical expenses of the criminals despite the fact that incarceration does not result into any deterrence against crimes.