Rights of Prisoners & Functions of Prison

Rights of Prisoners & Functions of Prison

Introduction

The prisoners are the offenders who have violated one or more rules or legislations of the state. Since they are not the usual citizens of the state; therefore, they are not granted the privilege of full civilians' rights that the constitutions provide to other citizens of the state. The prisoners; however, are not slave to the country and accordingly entail some fundamental rights granted by the constitution. The purpose of this essay is to provide that the mandatory rights of inmates are to be balanced with the fundamental functions of the prisoners by the correctional officers and administrators. The essay uses different examples to demonstrate the point.

Discussion

Prisoners in the prisons of United States of America lose a considerable number of constitutional rights that are normally enjoyed by a respectable citizen of the state. This however does not imply that the prisoners do not entail any rights at all and are considered to be a slave to the state (Palmer, 2010). The constitution of United States of America grants certain fundamental rights to prisoners which are mandated to be allotted to the prisoners by the officials (Cnaan et.al, 2008). The correctional officers and administrators are however required to balance any of such granted rights to prisoners with the daily functions of the jail such as security, constitutional requirements, safety, visits and other functions.

Rights of prisoners or inmates refer to those fundamental and essential privileges that constitution grants to prisoners in their sentencing period. These rights may vary according to the severity of the offense or crime committed by the prisoner (Rock, 2009). Functions of a jail or prison refer to the roles and purposes for which the prison exists and that the officials are expected to execute. These include ...