Assignment : Balancing Values

When state budgets get tight, people's attitudes on the cost of incarceration versus their attitude on alternatives to incarceration tend to change. This assignment discusses the choices available to citizens when the priorities on alternatives to incarceration conflict with each other.

Tasks:

Write a 2- to 3-page report, including the following:

Examine people's attitude toward the cost of incarceration versus their attitude toward alternatives to incarceration, especially when budgets shrink. How does the public's attitude toward incarceration and its alternatives compare to the "Get Tough on Crime" and the "Three Strikes" laws?

Do you place more value upon incapacitation or upon rehabilitation and correction? In the end, which works better, or do they work best together in some combination or hierarchy? Support your responses with evidence from the readings for the course or other credible sources.

Discuss one article from real life (located using the readings from the textbook, Argosy University online library resources, and any other credible outside sources) demonstrating how some communities have resolved the conflict in corrections between incapacitation and correction.

Consider the parks versus prison conundrum. Do we spend more on parks so as to nurture better society or more for prisons to remove and restrain the evildoers? Are people born criminals or can their environment-more parks, more employment, or educational opportunities-deter or reduce crime and criminality?

Should communities ask for flexibility on laws that make crime punishable? Support your responses with evidence from the readings for the course or other credible sources.

Should communities outsource prison operations or do they agree to increase taxes to maintain the incarceration rates? Support your responses with evidence from the readings for the course or other credible sources.

Analyze and explain whether community leaders (the politicians, criminal justice professionals, community members, and businesses) need to think of other solutions instead of punishment as an option for offenders.