Major trends in corrections Essay Example for Free

Major trends in corrections Essay Functions of photography in police investigation: It can be to heal- using of photography, the investigator solved the crime by examining the photograph and identify who is the perpetrator. It can be to inform It can be to record- to record the crime scene itself and to record the evidence. It can be to influence It can be to entertain It can be to transform It can be to preserve- to preserve all the evidence that captured in the crime scene. Even though the crime scene is cleaned there are the photographs to be examined. It can be to decorate It can be to use- used in examining crime scene. And it is used as evidence. It can be to play 2010: The year of the correctional officerIn a year of tightened budges, officer furloughs, and increased media attention, officers stood strong.| By Barry EvertEvery year I am asked to write about the year prior. Quite honestly, I rarely agree to this because it usually has little training value. This year, though, I have made the exception. 2010 was a lot of things to a lot of people. Overall, probably, it was a rough year for most reading this. 2010 was not the year of the dragon, or the year of the dog; it was the year of the Correctional Officer.Budget cuts was the song sung from high at almost every capitol building in the country. Politicians proudly paraded themselves as the saviors of the economy as they slashed public safety budgets to new lows. At the same time new spending programs were put into place for everything from the protection of tree frogs to building bridges to nowhere. At the bottom of this pile was corrections. Many police agencies were able to scream loudly enough to get enough funding to keep their departments running, albeit barely. When Corrections agencies made the same call, we were largely ignored. Many states implemented a â€Å"furlough† program, or something similar, that cut the salaries of the lowest paid employees. On top of this, training was cut to an all time low, while the hiring of new officers was frozen. Simple math tells us that it was also time for a whole generation of officers to retire. They have yet to be replaced, so mandatory overtime is the norm. During the build-up of the popularity of crack cocaine in the early 80’s, crime rose to an all time high. Incarceration rates shot through the roof at the same time. This, along with tougher sentencing laws, led to a wave of prison building and hiring. By the early 90’s, most departments had outgrown themselves, and were desperately hiring as many people as they could. Those officers are now due to retire. Few states took this into consideration, so as we entered this year under budget cuts, we were expected to do more with less much less.So was 2010 a loss? Not exactly. Through all of this, the community has learned an important lesson if they choose to look. In almost any other profession, these reductions in pay, along with an increase in danger at the working environment, would have led to catastrophic work stoppages, or large scale protests. But no one walked away from their duties. No one went on strike. And to the best of my knowledge, there were only a few small scale protests by officers. At the end of the day, feeling underappreciated and underpaid, correctional officers punch the clock after protecting society from those they have incarcerated. With many of the resources cut or gone, we went about our business and did our job. Yes, some mistakes were made. Many were due to a lack of resources or just plain tired officers making mistakes. With fewer resources in place, and with less staff, the average officer worked even harder than usual, and did so at a discounted salary.No walk-outs, no â€Å"blue flu,† no rebellion. I would never have expected less from us as a group, but others are starting to take note. People who have never dealt with corrections are starting to understand our predicament. It was not because we sat on the floor and threw a temper tantrum about our working conditions, but it was through our continued dedication to the safety of the public, regardless of what was thrown at us, that people are starting to take note of us. 2010 was the year of the Correctional Professional. I have never been prouder to be part of a group of people than I am today. I realized this about 6 months ago when I overheard several officers talking. The officers were discussing a major union conference that had just taken place. During this conference, the possibility of striking had come up. It was decided at this conference that the membership of this union could vote to strike if they felt it necessary. The officers were discussing the possibility of a strike. By the time the 5 minute conversation was over, all of the officers walked away agreeing that there was no way they would ever strike, even if it was legal to do so. The reasons ranged from not wanting to leave their brothers and sisters behind, to feeling that they were officers first, union members second. Do you think this conversation would have been the same had it been on the floor of a factory?This sentiment quickly spread throughout the state, and it was made clear to this union that striking is not now, and never will be an option; it would be better to resign. This came out of the mouths of officers who, like me, had suffered a 15% pay reduction, an increase in their medical payments, and an increase in retirement contributions. Many officers have lost their homes, or have had members in their family, or themselves, take on another job. Through it all they are still dedicated.This is why this has been the year of the Correctional Officer. Although this has been a tough year, and things are not looking any better for next year, people on the outside are getting to see us for who we really are. How many times have we said: â€Å"If people only knew what we went through.† The people are listening, so speak wisely and keep your head up. Don’t ever forget why you wear that uniform, and continue to be the proud, dedicated officers we know you can be.So I raise my glass as we pass through the last part of this year, to all of those we lost this year. To all of our brothers and sisters who have made the ultimate sacrifice: You are not forgotten. To all of us who continue to protect, I say: Bravo! The people are finally starting to listen. Make sure you are saying the right things.Be safe out there folks, and party sanely.

Gender and Society :: Gender Society Sexism Essays Papers

Society has stamped an image into the minds of people of how the role of each gender should be played out. There are two recognized types of gender, a man and a woman, however there are many types of gender roles a man or a woman may assume or be placed into by society. The ideas of how one should act and behave are often times ascribed by their gender by society, but these ascribed statuses and roles are sometimes un-welcomed, and people will assume who they want to be as individuals by going against the stereotypes set forth by society. This paper will examine these roles in terms of how society sees men and women stereotypically, and how men and women view themselves and each other in terms of stereotypes that are typically ascribed, as well as their own opinions with a survey administered to ten individuals. What I hope to prove is that despite stereotypes playing a predominant role within our society, and thus influencing what people believe about each other in terms of their same and opposite genders, people within our society are able to go against these ascribed stereotypes and be who they want and it be okay. Through use of the survey and my own personal history dealing with gender stereotyping I think I can give a clear idea as to how stereotypes envelope our society, and how people and breaking free from those stereotypes to be more individualistic. The differences between women and men are not solely biological. Our society’s culture has established a set of unwritten cultural laws of how each gender should act, or in other words society has ascribed a stereotype. Men’s gender identity has been one of masculinity, and masculinity is defined as referring to a man or things described as manly. What does manly mean though? Is a male manly if he is â€Å"Mr. Fix-it†, or the jock, or if he sits on the couch on Sunday watching football? This latter statement is a stereotype of men, that has been around for decades, and is current as well, but starting with the 1960’s a man’s role started to change, despite the stereotype not changing to accommodate it. For the past 40 years one can see how men have taken on roles stereotypically ascribed to women, such roles including being the â€Å"stay-at-home mom†, which we can find an excellent example of in the 1980’s film â€Å"Mr.

Everyone Struggles with Their Identity Essay

Identity is an intrinsic idea of one’s life. Whilst there are no certainties, the struggle of identity often happens, and the conflicts may depend on the individual himself. The conflict may occur due to various factors in one’s identities including their sexual orientations, skin colour and religious background. These variables may cause noticeable damages to one’s mentality and psychology, and hence lead the individual to struggle with who they are. Individuals with homosexual preferences often experience conflicts in terms of their identities. Homosexuality is considered wrong by part of the society because the majority- heterosexual human beings- partially as a result of religious influences over the past centuries due to the mass control the several religious convictions had over the human’s civilisation as a whole, sees homosexuality as breaching the norm of the social order. Homosexual individuals often try to avoid the controversy caused by confessing their sexual preferences, as ignorant people often judge them by being different to the society. In ‘The First Kiss’ written by Lian Low, Lian was a typical example of homosexual individuals struggling with their identities. She has failed to embrace the fact that she was interested in women instead of men during her teenage years. ‘‘You’re not the L-word, are you? ’ Of course I denied it. ’ She didn’t want her ‘Malaysian Christian friends’ or ‘badminton buddies’ to judge her by her sexuality which caused a conflict throughout her high school life. Lian has been in a conflict between whether she should confess her sexual preference to her loved ones, or just pretending to be interested in men like all her peers. Like Lian, some homosexual individuals may have same issues as Lian faced and struggled in the same way with their character as she did. Although homosexuality causes a lot of people to struggle with their identity, the damage caused by racism due to diverse skin colours is worse. As a result of historical factors, coloured races are often ignorantly considered inferior to Caucasian people, especially those with white skin throughout the world. Examples such as the 2005 Cronulla riots in Australia, a racial conflict involving Middle East Appearance, show that until today, people with coloured skins are still targets of racism due to bigotry and conservatism. In the movie ‘Skin’, Sandra Laing has been struggling to figure out whether she was a ‘black’ or ‘white’ throughout her school life which can be shown when she said to her maid, ‘Am I black? ’ Sandra has been discriminated for her skin colour all through her tragic life. From her primary school classmates calling her ‘monkey’, the boy she went for a ‘date’ with saying, ‘you don’t have to feel bad for looking like a coloured person’, finally to her husband Pietrus who said ‘her skin is a curse’. Sandra’s miserable life was a classic situation of a coloured person in the last century. She has been exploring her identity throughout the entire film including a change of skin colour identification twice, before she finally defined herself as nobody else but her children’s mother. Under the influence of bias opinions over coloured appearance individuals, for instance the apartheid system in South Africa, a vast amount of people are possibly undergoing similar conditions as Sandra, persevering to figure out there true identity. Besides racism, a personal choice of approach to an event, one’s cultural background can also possibly cause struggle to their identity. As the modern society involves more immigrants changing their nationalities, children in recent generations may have multiple identities in terms of where they are from, and has become a social norm for the new decade. For instance, the Australian-born-Chinese people, also known as ‘ABC’ in general, has developed into a stereotype or even a race over the history of Chinese immigrating into Australia since the gold rush. However, it is difficult for these immigrant’s offspring to relate to their family’s culture as they may not have had any type of interaction with it. In the short story ‘Sticks and Stones and Such’ written by Sunil Badami, Sunil failed to understand the meaning of his name due to the lack of understanding to the Indian naming culture, was however conscious of his peers not pronouncing his name correctly, which further led him into obstacles of fitting into his friends’ groups and referring himself as ‘Neil’. These immigrant’s offspring may even find it challenging to answer questions like, ‘where are you from? Using the ‘ABC’s as an example, should they answer Australia, where they have grown up in, or China, where their parents are from? According to a survey done by the Herald Sun in January, 77% of the participants answered ‘I don’t know’. The result has portrayed the difficulty of self-identification by ‘ABC’ racial groups, which also may apply to various societies with similar cultural conditions. Despite the main causes of identity struggling mentioned above, every individual in the human’s society will somehow doubt their identities in their own manner, including you and me. Let us think back together, have we ever felt left out in a group of people? Did we question ourselves on sporting fields when we had a bad game? Did we ever think why are we even born in this world? The answer is yes. We have all questioned ourselves at some stage throughout our lives. It isn’t something to be ashamed of. By doubting ourselves, we can revise what actions have we done wrong, it is a motivation for ourselves to do better in all areas, with the ultimate goal to not doubt ourselves ever again-noting it isn’t possible. One’s identity is intrinsic to the individual. Without the desire to explore their own identities, human beings are not very different compared to beasts like monkeys or chimpanzees. Although some particular individuals may experience conflict in their process of discovering their identities, but please note, a perfect elite in all areas only exist in fairy tales. As an ordinary human being like everybody else, I would like to say, ‘please keep on questioning yourself’.

Comparing the Portrayal of Women in A Dolls House and...

Portrayal of Women in A Dolls House and Hedda Gabler The extent to which Ibsen directly sympathized with feminists is still debated, but this is somewhat irrelevant when considering his portrayal of women. Ibsen had a deep understanding of the nature of women and a strong interest in the manner in which women were treated by society. This resulted in the creation of female protagonists such as Nora Helmer, in A Dolls House, and Hedda Gabler, in a work of the same name. The character traits of each woman are remarkably developed and the portrayal of marital relationships is equally convincing. Ibsens emphasis on the Victorian husbands attitude towards his wife provides tremendous insight. The manner in which†¦show more content†¦It could be argued that throughout the play Torvald is subconsciously deluding himself by understanding Noras actions in this inaccurate way. He is certainly disgusted by the idea of her secret involvement with Krogstads business matters, warning her that little song-birds must keep their pretty little beaks out of mischief (Ibsen 31). This allegorical language is probably for his benefit as much as hers: he is reluctant to address directly the possibility that his wife is intrigued by matters which, under societys rules, should exclude her completely. When he discovers the extent of her deception, he is moved by his anger and fear by describing the situation as utterly squalid (p.75), but upon realising that he is saved his first inclination is to comfort poor little Nora (Ibsen 77). Torvald is clearly anxious to return to the previous state of decorum in which his wife was simply his little pet, flattering himself that I wouldnt be a proper man if I didnt find a woman doubly attractive for being so obviously helpless (Ibsen 78). Here Ibsen reminds the audience of Torvalds main aspiration: to live the life of a proper man. With Jorgen Tesman, Ibsen portrays a husband who succumbs less obviously to societys expectations of a good marriage, but who is nonetheless always quietly encouraging his wife to act more appropriately. Elizabeth Hardwick even suggests that