Is a Prison Really Good For a
Is a Prison Really Good For a Rural Community?With a dramatic increase of crimes throughout the US one question that comes up is, where do we put all these criminals? Many over populated prisons have turned to rural areas to help out with this crisis. With a substantial amount land and resources these rural areas are targeted to be a solution. Stressing the idea of bringing rural and urban communities together the government turns to these rural areas. With the promise of an increase in the economy and to bring local jobs to the community, the process of bringing a prison to a rural area almost becomes a competition. The local government knows the positive effects a prison will have on the economy and will do everything it takes to "win" the right to have a prison within their area. The government does not however speak for the community itself though. Many locals around the nation fear the negative effects such as high property taxes, increased crime, a change in lifestyle, and many other changes. In this paper I will show how a prison can bring down a small community and even change the area forever. The biggest pro-prison support is that bringing a prison into a small town will bring jobs along with it. This stat
Maybe if given the true facts behind the circumstances of having a prison within your community some of these towns would change their minds about the whole idea. This leaves little to no room for the low skilled less income individuals to enter the prison system. It is also shown that there is no chance for advancement unless it's a result of relocation. So as you can see there are a small amount of jobs offered to the local people and out of those jobs only to those with skilled attributes will get the position. What a prison does bring to a community is an increase of housing cost. Some of the once easy affordable apartments become upgraded do to the population increase and has a direct effect on the lower income community, "single women head of households, their welfare payment or employment income has not kept to pace with the rising rents generated by population influx connected with the prisons" (Fitchen, 1991:223). Many fear the fact the some prisoners may relocated to their town after their sentence is up. The low skilled jobs that the prison adds to the community are usually fewer in number than had been hoped for, partly because much of the menial work is performed by prison inmates" (Fitchen, 1991:222). If the prisons actually follow the 20 percent rule that means only 80 people out of 400 are hired locally. This is also a problem, "effects of prison openings is to create an unprecedented raid on employees of the community's institutions: local hospitals, doctors offices, social service departments, business offices, law enforcement and correction departments, and educational institutions all report that they lose employees who are attracted to prison employment by considerable gains in salary and benefits" (Fitchen, 1991:222). I'm just like all the single mother I know, trying to manage a job and to be both father and mother to the kids at the same time" (Fitchen, 1991:223). Unfortunately this is what a family has to go through in order for one to be part of the prison system. Especially someone who comes from a small rural area, I can't imagine some of the things that one might encounter in a prison that they probably haven't ever seen before. Even corrections officers are usually brought into the area instead of locals. As noted above one might be mistaken by this idea.
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Acceptance Essays
