New York Prisons No Longer Have Inmates
Equality and fair treatment in prisons have been in the spotlight lately for a lot of reasons. We have heard stories of inmates being treated unfairly and in a few cases, there have been inmates that have lost their lives. Just recently, according to newsbreak.com, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill striking the term "inmate'' from New York law. The reason behind this move is, the term "inmate" can actually have a dehumanizing effect on people that are in jail.
There has been a growing number of issues for criminal justice advocates, and passing this bill is another step in the right direction of reforming the justice system for people that are incarcerated.
So What Will Be The New Title For Someone That Is In Prison?
Well, you would this is a pretty obvious answer, so it is. A person or persons that are in jail will be now referred to as incarcerated "individual" or "individual's". Over the last decade, New York has reassessed the role of the prisons. The long time terms that were used like, convict, inmate, prisoner, and felon have always been offensive and dehumanizing. I'm sure there are many people that are not in the criminal justice system that probably never even thought of how those words and affect a person in jail.
Solitary confinement was one of the last things that criminal justice advocates push to get rid of, and I'm sure there will be more things to come to justice reform in the prison systems.
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