Criminology

For a very long time now, there has been raging debate and ceaseless controversy regarding the application of various systems of criminal justice in the country owing to their perceived success rating. Many have decried the manner in which Methods like parole have been applied, and the consequences they have had not only on the prisoners themselves but also on the general public. The main bone of contention has been the manner in which prisoners have kept being released only to commit the same crime again and get back to prison  commit recidivism. As such, not only the methods used to punish the convicted prisoners have been under increased criticism for the increased cases of recidivism but also the conditions in prisons (Wanberg, 2006). This research proposal aims at seeking to establish the relationship there is between recidivism and prison conditions and so, based on its findings, help further research into the area with the aim of easing the problem. It specifically aims to address the issue of recidivism, and how it has been tied to jail conditions as opposed to any other causes like parole.

Background to the Problem - Recidivism and Prison Conditions
The aim of having criminals in jail is generally to keep them away from the society for some amount of time in order to facilitate their behavior change as well as to ensure security for other members of society. When the inmates are released, some of them revert back to criminal activities, creating a real problem in society. Recidivism is essentially the reversion of a person to criminal behavior after heshe has been through jail and rehabilitation. There is always a huge divide between those who argue on the need for increased in jail terms to maintain security and those who are against longer sentences arguing that longer sentences may not reduce recidivism after all (Wanberg, 2006). Therefore, the issue of what causes this reversion to crime after a person has been through jail life is of importance in determining the proper measures to be taken in increasing security and ensuring that the jail system does not undergo a heavy investment in keeping inmates for longer periods in vain.

Importance of the Research
A decision is required with support from some source different from these arguments by providing some solid facts about the prison environment with their relation to the behavior of the convicted person after leaving jail. Perhaps it is important to realize that recidivism is one of the contributors to changes in crime levels but is not the only parameter demographic changes, unemployment rates, immigration, among others, can affect crime rates too. The reason why recidivism is an important area of study is because it connects the what really happens in the process of rehabilitation in jails to the outcome, and therefore can be used to show whether jail efforts are fruitful or not. If the levels of recidivism are on the increase, then the system used in jails is a failure.

In some cases, though, it has been found that the exceedingly good state of prisons has encouraged prisoners to seek to get back in there. With the clamor for better prison conditions and the subsequent response by the government to improve conditions has meant that prisoners, rather than having prison as a place they would loathe and least desire to be, have actually preferred prison to freedom owing to their perceived better living standards there. While this is an altogether new and rare trend in the developed nations, it is very common in the developing nations where the majority of the people are poor and so some people would rather commit crimes that would get them longer prison sentences than be free yet starve to death (Zamble, 2001).

It is important to notice that the jail system is meant to take away the interest of a person in criminal activities but when the life inside jail becomes too harsh, it could form a training field where inmates learn to survive and hence get convinced that crime life is a tolerable form of living. In a for there to be an effective system for reforming jails, the importance of properly equipping prisoners with skills so that when they get out of jail they can fit in the society is underscored. There is also a need for the prisoners to be helped and supported through psychological and psychiatric professional counseling. If the solutions proposed by the many legal, psychological, and psychiatric professionals were to be applicable, then many things could surely change. For instance, the prisoners could have hope for a good life and skills to help them earn a living.

On the other hand, good conditions in jail are not part of punishment and this violates the capital principle behind the need for jails. If there are not enough punishments, then the culprits could not see the need to avoid crime in their life. The way the society views the use of jail as a measure to get rid of those that do not fit in the society leaves a big question on proposing good conditions for inmates from the inside of prison. Recidivism can be seen as the failure of an individual to live up to the societys expectation or, on another platform, as the failure of society to provide for the individual (Zamble, 2001). The focus point could either be the persons behavior or the environment in which that behavior is exhibited, in an effort to realize any source or course.

While looking at the situation closely - by examining jail conditions - one could reveal the extent to which the environment is contributing towards recidivism. Remembering that the key idea is a measure of failure rather than success of the system, criticism is encouraged. In the current situation, the assumption in dealing with recidivism is that the offenders are wrong, have a problem and need to be corrected. The assumption is also inclusive of the fact that there are officials and attendants in the jail system, capable of making these corrections. Considering the increase of rehabilitated and released individuals tendency of reversion to crime, the system must then have problems from within.

Literature review
For a long time, the state of prisons in this country has been the subject of widespread discussion, with human rights groups particularly seeking to have the federal government and the states intervening in the matter and doing more to ensure that prisoners get a chance to have a bearable life. This is especially so because, according to the countrys criminal justice system, prison is not supposed to be only a place of punishment but also  and more importantly so  a place for prisoners convicted of different offenses to be helped to reform and get reintegrated into the society (Baldry, 2008). Therefore, it is upon the law enforcement agencies, the government, and the various courts jurisdictions in the country to ensure that they work together with community systems to give convicts a chance to be punished but also to quickly get reintegrated into the community by using methods that do not emphasize prison terms served to the very completion.
 
This is particularly because prisons have in the recent past become like torture places where inmates are exposed to punishments that sometimes are extra-judicial. Therefore, the prisons are not any more the ideal places for helping prisoners because they tend to encourage inmates to remain opposed to law and order and so make them more inclined to commit crimes once they are released. The effect has been the exacerbation of the problem of recidivism which is already very high (Stohr, 2008).

According to Baldry (2008), the population in prisons has been on the increase, signifying an increase in level of crime in the society. Because of the increase in the number of prisoners without necessarily having immediate expansion, the resulting effect is deterioration of conditions in jail. It is, therefore, right to assume that since this effect does not happen in a systematically controlled manner at all places, two criminals jailed at different places could serve the same term but with different degrees of punishment (Zamble, 2001). This could determine their likelihood of engaging in future crimes differently. The larger population of jails is constituted of the prisoners that are serving short terms and this means that they will eventually be released. Consequently, it is important to understand how a former criminals life in jail could determine his future likelihood of committing a crime (Charles, 2010).

From a social policy point of view, it could be easier to change prison conditions rather than reviewing and adjusting terms of sentence in an effort to reduce the probability of a criminal going back to crime after release. Understanding that the conditions of jail directly affect the level of crime in the society is, therefore, important. Theoretically, there is evidence of both positive and negative effects of incarceration. On being separated from the society, a prisoner becomes weaker on issues of societal bonding and is more likely to commit crime (Baldry, 2008). On the other hand, increased punishment through imprisonment slowly reduces the tendency of an offender to repeat crime.

There have been earlier discussion on the effect of length of terms served and the conclusion has been that it has no effect to recidivism. The problem with dealing with time served in jail as a factor affecting recidivism is that there are other different factors affecting recidivism that goes along in jail life. For example, the type of crime committed where burglars and robbers are more likely to revert, age at release where older culprits have less likelihood to revert and criminal history where first time offenders are unlikely to revert. The investigation involving jail conditions requires the exclusion of the effects of time served (Wanberg, 2006). There are various ways used to avoid the effect of time including taking a study of the individual prisoners cases within a specified period of time and other statistical analysis tactics.

As far as Zamble (2001) is concerned, it is very difficult for any prisoner to actually confess that one will get back to a state of being socially well and sound enough to effectively take part in the process of community development. Writing in the book The criminal recidivism process, the author advocates for more targeted measures to address the problem of inmates failing to fully get reintegrated into the community. That the approach to reintegration rather than the actual prison conditions, argues Zamble, is what constitutes the most cases of recidivism. The author, based on these assertions, is of the opinion that a lot more has to be done by law enforcers between the time the prisoner is set to be released from prison and the time one actually is released or finishes serving ones prison term. This means that there has to be a lot of preparation for the inmate before the time set for actual release comes. This will help prepare the inmate for life in the community owing to the fact that most prisoners fail to cope well with new lifer in the community immediately after being released from prison. A number of preparatory approaches or methods ought to be used for this particular case, including parole and community policing. Parole is helpful in that it allows the inmate the opportunity to taste free life when actually the entire prison term has not been fully served. This is done when the inmate commits to obey certain preset conditions which are reached based on the inmates record while in prison, and after an assessment of possible behavior patterns of the inmate once back in the society. 

Past statistics have shown that in the past efforts have been primarily on prevention of recidivism rather than on its treatment. The findings also point out that the tendency of the offender to be against the law rather than hisher search for help and personal characteristics is always higher. In the past, various methods have been used to collect and analyze data based on the individuals records and there have been conclusions that do not relate to the exact conditions in jails. One research provided an analysis of prison conditions in the USA from 1950-90 with their effects to crime rates in the country. In this analysis, the argument is that poor prison conditions are a very effective measure of criminal behavior and the extent of correction because they affect all inmates regardless of the crime committed and the length of time served. It is explained that poor prison conditions may lead to more negative results in the inmates behavior like bitterness and anger to society rather than correction. It may lead to increase in violence in the prison and in turn inhibit the absorption of jail leavers back t the society.

HypothesisResearch Questions
It is always very important for any research to be conducted in a way that is most likely to produce results which are not only reliable but authentic and possibly empirical as well (Locke, Spirduso  Silverman, 2000). As such, there has to be clearly defined research questions and hypotheses for such a feat to be achieved. The subject of recidivism has been very controversial. No-one seems to have any real cause of it or the ways through which it can be best addressed. However, this research is founded on the possible close links there are between recidivism and the way prisoners are treated while in prisons. This includes the exact state of the prison, which either fail to meet the required standards or are too cozy to cause any discomfort to the inmates. To address the research effectively, therefore, the following hypotheses have been formulated

The more comfortable prisons are, the more the chances that prisoners will desire to live there longer and so the more the cases of recidivism.

In no less proportions, prisons that are poorly conditioned or those where coping for inmates is almost impossible are equally very likely to encourage recidivism because prisoners develop a mentality that they are being treated unlike human beings and so give up on ever having a life out of prison again.
Harsh and intolerable prison conditions are responsible for reduced cases of recidivism especially in the developed World.

Recidivism is largely a factor caused by prison conditions than by any other factor like release of prisoners on parole.

This research also had to narrow down its scope in order to address the aspects that are known to be critical to community needs. Therefore, the following research questions will be used to help keep the research focused and on the right course

Is the rate of crime in the society related to increase in jail population
This particular research question aims to specifically address the main aim of the research the relationship between prison conditions  prison density, freedoms of expressions, nature of services, treatment from prison officers, among other factors and recidivism. Increase in crime rates with increase in jail population means that there are more culprits reverting to crime after release because most of the convicts in jails serve short terms. If there are more inmates without jail expansion, then the conditions in jails become worse and this could be the cause of the chain reaction. The aim of the research will be to find out how deaths in jails, among other parameters, is related to the tendency of prisoners to commit recidivism as opposed to reduce it as many law enforcement officers tend to believe.

Do the conditions in jail pay a key part in determining the likelihood of an inmates committing the same crime for which one is serving the prison sentence or does it act as a deterrent to recidivism
This research question will entail giving factual correlations between jail terms and the mental states of the inmates. This is because the mentality of the inmates as opposed to their physical comfort has been thought to play a more pivotal role in determining the behavior of the inmate once out of prison.

The Research Design
The quality of data collected for any research will greatly influence the outcome of the research. The research design, therefore, has a direct bearing on the results and so the conclusions made from the research. Because of the nature of the research questions, it will be proper for the research to employ the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The variables involved differ in scope and range and so the selected methods have to have this aspect considered. The analysis of the effects of prison conditions on the prisoners recidivism will be performed by means of data obtained from different sources. First will be a survey research where a group of former inmates will be responding to specifically designed set of questions (Marshall  Rossman, 2006). The survey can be conducted through either phone, mail or in person where possible.

The second method will be through the analysis of data from a prison database where the records will be screened for reoccurrence of prisoners in the prison and if the prisoner committed any crime from the time of release to a specific date. By comparing the data captured from the surveys and from existing records, there can be some measure of consistency and some amount of generalization established from the group of subjects that will be involved in the survey. This is essentially a secondary method of gathering information. These past records are usually taken every time an individual commits any crime and is reported to a correctional facility or to any relevant agency. As such, there will be a high chance of establishing the link between the number of offences or criminal acts committed in the past and the likelihood that the inmate will go ahead and commit yet another offence in the future. Committing offences by criminals is sometimes, as Wanberg (2006) argues in Criminal conduct and substance abuse treatment strategies for self-improvement and change pathways to responsible living the participants workbook, a habit which is deeply entrenched in the inmates behavioral patterns. Having these clearly defined records will therefore help in ensuring that the data collected will be authentic ad reliable and will help in drawing very informed ad reliable conclusions.
The variables to be measured from the collected data will be the number of deaths in the prison facility during an inmates stay, the population extent of overcrowding in the prison and the distance of separation between the prison where the subject served and the city of stay after release (Keith, 2006).

This will be in an effort to figure out whether a harsher condition can reduce the possibility of an inmate repeating a crime involvement. The reason as to why death rate will be used is because it is directly related to harsh conditions of poor spacing, competition for resources and poor health conditions. The correlation of these factors to death makes it a parameter enough for the measurement to be important. The distance from the prison to the city of association with social ties will be used to determine the extent of separation of the inmate with the social activities and support and hence the extent of isolation from his society in general. The data will be collected in forms filled for the details shown for each particular subject.