Neil Condon CRJS 600 Dr. Richeson Nonviolent Offenders - Is Incarceration the Answer? "It's really clear that the most effective way to turn a nonviolent person into a violent one is to send them to prison," says Harvard University criminologist James Gilligan. The American prison system takes nonviolent offenders and makes them live side-by-side with hardened killers. The very nature of prison, no matter people view it, produces an environment that is inevitably harmful to its …showed first 75 words of 1488 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1488 total…for education system rather than the millions allocated to the prison system of Pennsylvania. Prisons are not places where nonviolent offenders can serve time and then be released a better person, more fit for society. The prison environment is wrong, and as a result a nonviolent offender will leave unimproved. It is my belief that the alternatives of community control programs, rehabilitation programs, and restitution programs are the answers to the sentencing of nonviolent offenders.