State Government: Sociological Perspective Paper #2 (Essay Sample)

Name
Tutor
Course
Date
Sociological Perspective Paper #2
People always have an undesirable image about the life and people living in prisons. To most people, a prison is the chanciest and unsuitable place people can find themselves. Causes of such reasoning are mostly due to wrong information, especially from some prison wardens. These officers use such information as a method discouraging people from participating in criminal activities that may lead them to prisons. The prison is actually a disagreeable place individuals can find themselves living in. The situation is even worse particularly for prisoners sentenced for life imprisonment.
Some of the things people imagine when they think about the prison are a murky environment without washrooms, with some rotting smell, and hard labor. Homosexuality is another reason people envisage when they think about penitentiaries, as members of the same sex live in one prison. In terms of gender, men’s prisons are worse than those of women are as it is assumed that men have the s to stomach hard labor and unwanted living environment. Ted Conover wrote the book New Jack: Guarding Sing Sing in an effort to give a full intuition on the life of prisoners and wardens. He used the Sing Sing prison as it is one of the worst place prisoners would ever live in. Most prisoners’ fear is being jailed there, as it is a home of some of the toughest criminals in United States. In his book, Conover illuminates that before one becomes a guard here, one must pass through a series of military training as all wardens also have to be tough.
Conover explains that he went and successfully passed through the military training and achieved work as a ‘New Jack’. The term ‘New Jack’ is a name used by jailbirds in Sing Sing when referring to a new guard. At first, Conover explains that life in the prison is the same as how people outside the prison perceive it. Nevertheless, the environment is not pleasant for both the officers and the captives. He argues that a new officer would probably give up at the first sight of this working environment. Conover becomes familiar with the prisoners, and later realizes that prisoners are like any other human beings. They have feelings; they seek help and fall sick. He enlightens that it is important to make improvements in prisons even though it is a place to hold criminals. From the book, it is imperative to note that life in prison should be hard to help prisoners reform from behaviors that resulted to them being in jail. However, the conditions should not be such that it affects the prisoners’ psychology or the working environment of the guards. Conover explains that guards come from different parts of the nation to offer protection to prisoners and the facility. In order to ensure that life in prison is not as hard as Conover explains, it is important to make necessary changes in the institution. Some of the essential changes are providing a better working and living environment, improving health facilities, introduce communication services, visiting time and rectification programs. Such changes would not only improve the life of prisoners but also motivate the guarding officers to work more effectively.
A prison is a place where criminals live to pay for the evils they have committed. Therefore, the institution should not be a hole where prisoners die or get affected with conditions that may lead to their demise. In addition, if a prisoner is serving a death sentence, the facility should not be an environment where the prisoner dies. According to Conover’s description of the Sing Sing prison, it is clear that the prison has working environment that can lead death of people, particularly the prisoners, living within the walls. From a sociological perspective, no one is entitled to live in a harsh environment despite the crime one has committed. Poor living condition does not mean that individuals will automatically reform. According to Conover, life in Sing Sing penitentiary resembles hell for both the prisoners and the officers guarding the facility. First, there is a putrid smell emanating from the prison cell especially the washrooms that are seldom cleaned and when cleaned the cleaner does a slapdash job. The smell spreads to the prison’s office such that working becomes a problem, as the smell is distressing. To solve such a situation, it is vital to fix the area producing the putrid smell. Putting an officer in charge of cleaning is a way of ensuring there is clean environment in the prison. The officer’s onus would be to ensure the prisoners are responsible for proper cleaning. Also, ensuring availability of cleaning equipment is another good technique of enhancing hygiene.
Introducing or improving on health facilities is another change that needs to be implemented in the reformatory. According to Conover, the health facilities at Sing Sing are available but are not sufficient and not enough for the detainees and officers. Straining for available resources makes life even harder for the institution management. Conover adds that the health services are poor such that guards have to take their share of medical services and drugs then live the rest to the prisoners. It is for such reason that the prisoners keep on bugging the officers who in most times ignore their hassles. Conover explains a situation where a prisoner becomes sick and takes a while before recovering due to the absence of medicine for catering such situations. Such a situation can lead to spread of contagious diseases if not addressed promptly. Improving on the medical and health services will ensure the prisoners are healthy as they serve their term in the prison. Such changes would also improve the lifestyle in the prisoners. Some prisoners will have a positive attitude towards the prisoners.
In order to ensure there is change in the conduct of health services a lot has to be done. First, the institution should employ enough physicians who can attend to the big number of prisoners in the facility. Second, ensuring there is adequate medicine to treat the prisoners and officers. Physicians can also provide health recommendations and advise on illness distressing a prisoner or officer. However, these medical officers cannot be able to solve the ailment if there is no medicine. Lastly, the doctor should equally treat the prisoners and officers, not to promote equality but to make work easier for the doctor. However, the guards should get the first priority as they provide security for the facility. Therefore, there should be a definite schedule for receiving medication and treatment. Such measures would certify healthy living conditions in the prison.
Conover maintains that communication is another issue facing Sing Sing prison. There is poor communication between the guards and prisoners as many officers are ignorant of the needs and demands of the prisoners. Just as Conover claims, prisoners are humans just like any other and deserve an equal treatment as other humans. For this reason, detainees have issues they would like to share but do not have the audacity to pass the information as the guards assume that their duty is to pr...