Examining The Yellow Ribbon Project On Offenders Criminology Essay

Examining The Yellow Ribbon Project On Offenders Criminology Essay Help Unlock the Second Prison, the tagline from Yellow Ribbon Project, describes that the ex-offenders, upon release from the prisons, will be locked up by the walls built up by the society. Because of the perception of the public towards these ex-inmates, they often found difficulties in seeking employment. Such prejudice and discrimination will result in ex-inmates receiving fewer benefits, not just affecting the ex-offenders, but also their families. Fi the situation does not improve, inequality will continue to exist in the society. We should then implement pragmatic solutions to alleviate the discrimination against them. Ex-offenders, also known as ex-convicts, are those who have been released from prison or those with a criminal record or history (Wikipedia). Every year in Singapore, around 11,000 ex-convicts are released back to the society (Singapore Prison Service). Some of the common offences are offences against persons such as assault, offences against property such as robbery, sexual offences, drug offences and white collar crimes (Criminal Law). Employment is one of the key indicators on whether these former inmates are able to successfully re-integrate into the society. Looking at some of the employment statistics, Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE) expanded their database with 2,118 employers in their database and Industrial Services Co-Operative Society (ISCOS) has helped 3,000 ex-offenders to find jobs so far. In this essay, I seek to explore and compare discrimination on ex-offenders, especially employment opportunities, as well as its implications in Singapore with United States. After having knowledge about the issue, I will propose solutions across government, organisational and individual level. Many people would have known there are support programmes such as the Yellow Ribbon Project and other organisations such as Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE), to help ex-offenders reintegrate into the society. Although these support programmes exist, we need to consider its effectiveness in helping ex-offenders to reintegrate into the society. The re-integration rate will therefore serves an indication of the level of discrimination against these ex-offenders. Furthermore, there is little interaction with between the public and former inmates as the public shun away and feel that they do not deserve all the benefits such as housing and tax benefits. It is therefore important that we recognize the existence of such stereotyping and raise awareness to reduce the degree of discrimination and to assist these ex-offenders. After these former inmates leave their physical incarceration, they are faced with the second prison, i.e. family, friends, employers and the community at large. Most of the offenders have tattoos on their body, which signifies status, power and belonging to a certain group. Because of stereotyping, we tend to group people who have tattoos as those who have committed crimes and thus, concluding that they are gangsters and criminals. We are often afraid that we might be the next victim of these gangsters and criminals that we stand a distance away from them or go towards a crowded area. On an organisational level, we can see that some employers are still unwilling to hire ex-offenders, because they believe that leopards can never change its spots. It is heartening to see the number of ex-offenders being employed have increased with the years but we cannot guarantee that they have been given equal employment rights as the others. For example, some employers resorted to background grounds before make decisions with regards to employment. From the papers, excited applicants applied for a job at the Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands casinos, but before the official opening, at least 30 employees had to leave their job. All of them failed the Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA)s background checks and hence their contracts were voided. One of the affected employees had failed to declare his shoplifting offence. We realised that there is no difference on whether if those with criminal records declared or not, they still had their contracts terminated anyway. While we understand the concerns over criminal history as the amount of money handled in casinos are in large sum, we need to consider if these history are necessarily the best and sole predictors for future performance. Do we judge those have continuously erred and condemn that they do not deserve the chance to repent? For this case, suggestions would be to put those people who have a criminal record on a period of probation instead of sacking them. Some of the youths interviewed felt that the move by the casinos are not wrong, because we cannot guarantee that people will not be driven by greed and if there are any troubles, the public may complain and question on why the casinos were built in the first place and why were no precautions taken. Hence, it is only right to conduct background checks on them. Besides that, jobs can still be offered to them in the less risky areas. In addition, job applicants are often required to fill up the employment application form and declare that if they have been convicted in a court in any country before. Because this is usually a one-liner question, ex-offenders applications can be filtered out without considering the seriousness of the offences or even the recidivism rate of the offender. This may therefore provide an opportunity for employers to screen out ex-offenders and justify if there any inappropriate acts in the company in future. Generally, these applicants can expect that there will no reply from the company, and this may encourage them to lie about their background. If the ex-offender is caught lying, they will be automatically disqualified while declaration of their history may not be always disqualify them. We encourage all ex-offenders to be honest with the past. In the United States, the discrimination against ex-offenders is so great that they are deprived of the basic rights of voting. Without voting rights, this means that the policies and laws implemented could be against their rights. In 2008, the legislation amended the law to allow voting. Section III Why is it important for us to talk about it? The society plays a significant role in the reintegration of the ex-offenders. It is important that we recognise that these ex-offenders are human beings too. To err is human. Whether they have committed a great sin in the past or not, they still belong to the society. They are able-bodied and are eager to contribute to the society and economy. However, despite their eagerness, we shun and discriminate them, and assume that they will revert back to their old ways. In the end, the society is unable to progress as a whole. We need to prove that former convicts are assets to the society. Also, when these ex-offenders are not able to secure a job, even on short-term, to get their income, they will revert back to their old ways to get the money to survive. The recvidism rate in Singapore has remained at 25 % since 2006 (Prisons-SCORE Corporate Advance 2009) . This is much lesser than the recidivism rate in California, where 70% revert back to their old ways. It is expensive to maintain the prison as well as support rehabilitative programmes. The economic costs, which comes from tax payers increased further when these ex-offenders recidivise. The major prisons in United States, such as the one in New York, faced increased pressure to release their prisoners after minimum serving period or putting them through programmes rather than prisons. The state spends $2.5 billion a year to maintain its corrections department. Sudden surge of ex-offenders was too overwhelming and many recidivise due to insufficient and effective rehabilitative and support programmes. The revolving door is very expensive, it adds $1 billion a year to Californias overburdened penal system (Another By-Product of the Recession: Ex-convicts, TIME). Skeptical about safety, Section IV Where can we start to fix the problem? As mentioned previously, these former inmates faced discrimination in the public and most importantly, at the workplace. Without a job, they will not be able to survive and support their families, especially if they are the breadwinner of the family. When this happens, they are not able to afford basic necessities. Their families may also suffer as a result of poor education and may need to come out to work. Their spouse and children may grow up thinking why should life be so demanding and will then resort to crimes to get what they wanted. It is difficult for ex-offenders to live a better life when they are not given the same opportunities. This will continue as a vicious cycle. To reduce and even eliminate the stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination against these ex-offenders, it is important that we find out the root causes of this issue and implement various programmes and activities to encourage active participation as increased interaction may improve the perspective of the public towards ex-offenders. To begin with, organizations should organize more activities to bring ex-offenders a step closer to the public. It is hoped that through such activities, it provides both the public and ex-offenders an opportunity to interact and hence, develop a sense of trust among them. Such activities may be visit to the prisons and / or halfway houses, outdoor and indoor activities, community service projects or even, encourage ex-offenders to participate in existing events such as Yellow Ribbon Prison Run. Through interaction, it may change the perspective of the public towards them and therefore reduce the extent of discrimination. Many ex-offenders have low self-esteem and are afraid of rejection. Therefore, we should involve the ex-offenders in the planning and executing of events in the community. These events provide an opportunity for the former inmates to showcase their talents in various areas. The public are aware that it is difficult for ex-offenders to find and secure jobs. Also, from an interview with an ex-offender from Highpoint Community Services Association in 2009, I found out that employers often do not want to give ex-offenders a second chance. This outright act of non-acceptance already killed the only hope that these ex-offenders have to reintegrate into the society. As such, more organizations should start working on a campaign on hiring ex-offenders. These campaigns should focus on instilling the correct mindset of treating the ex-offenders and also their ability to work as well as any other ordinary person. As much as I acknowledge that nobody can be free from discrimination, including employers, research shows that provision work is important. In addition, more jobs seminars should be introduced to increase the employment opportunities available to ex-offenders. To enhance the public confidence in them, we can consider cooperating with companies to provide these ex-offenders transitional jobs as probationers, to start them off for several years so that they have relevant working experience, instead of merely skills acquiring in the rehabilitative programmes. After the transition period, these organizations can also help to recommend the employees to other companies. Besides the technical skills acquired from the support programmes, the programmes should also focus on soft skills such as interpersonal skills. These ex-convicts should also learn more about resume writing and interview skills, as these will help them to market themselves well. For the declaration of whether the job applicant has been convicted in court before, we should further improve on the question so that it allows the ex-offender to declare that they have convicted for which offences and also the year of conviction. In this case, the employers benefit as they can take note of the offences made, and be aware that these are not detrimental to the interests of the company and other stakeholders. This is because if the ex-offenders cause any troubles, the company will be the party that suffers the heaviest losses. Also, the job applicants gains from this as the employers are practising selective screening rather than a total elimination. There are also calls to ban the declaration box. However, I feel that the employers are right to protect their interests and the ex-offenders should be honest and convince the employers on their efforts to stay out of crime. As noted above, generally the society has the perspective that ex-offenders are likely to revert back to their old ways. Hence, it is important that we improve the rehabilitation programme to reduce the chances of such cases occurring. We need to note that the limitation of the rehabilitation programmes as decision to go back to old ways varies from the circumstances faced by the ex-offenders. If the solutions proposed above are being implemented on a long-term basis, we could see that less discrimination acts towards ex-offenders and the Singapore will move towards a much more forgiving society.

Alexander the Great: Establishing the Supremacy of Western Thought Essa

The conquests of Alexander the Great and the significance of those conquests in establishing the supremacy of western thought. Alexander the Great started his military career on such a stellar note in 340 BC at the young age of 16. His father, Philip II was on a campaign in the east against Byzantium, having left Alexander in charge of Macedonia and during this time, a rebellious tribe attacked but was crushed by the troops led by Alexander. His efforts were lauded, he was rewarded by founding the first town of many to bear a version of his name and with Alexandropoulos, his military adventures began gloriously. During his father’s next campaign, Alexander leads the cavalry charge against a combined threat and strengthens his stance as a military leader. With Philip II’s death in 336 BC, Alexander sought approval of the army generals for the kingship, the generals agreed and Alexander was proclaimed king and ruler of Macedonia. To ensure his initial days as leader were uninterrupted he killed all other competition. 334 BC Alexander has demonstrated his ruthless actions are...

Microsoft Recruiting Strategy

Those people adapt faster to new situation and hence solve problems much faster, and it is also unnecessary to antenna them their cooperate culture. Rule N minus 1 To keep the people busy and permanently challenged. The HRS management has developed a general rule of hiring people. The so-called n minus 1 rule. What Is this rule, it basically means that Microsoft is not hiring the needed amount of employees, instead they hire less than needed. In this case, they are not pressured to fill up all the positions and can make sure only to hire the best and most fitted for the Job.All the employees are challenged with more work to keep workstation and work performances high. Hire/ no hire – system In Microsoft, the hiring process followed the strict hire or no hire system. The system works Like this. There are approximately 10 Interviewers for one employee and all of them have evaluate the candidate base on his creativity, problem solving skill and their personal opinion. Then they a re bound to give their vote of hire or no-hire. All the results come together and finally the manager over the position, which to be filled, will decide on those results and his personal opinion over the candidate.Babbler says, if we are not 100% sure that we want this guy, we always don't hire. Hiring mediocre is far worse than hire the bad. Work environment Campus Work Place Since most people are recruited fresh from college education, most employees lack comfortable and familiar. So he created his firm to look like a campus for fresh off college employees. The offices of the employees were all closed offices which you could decorate and personalize. Those reminded more of dormitories than of offices.A garden and a small pound in the middle of the campus for leisure and creative thinking process were also included. Caffeine culture Microsoft spent a lot of money for mandated benefits for their employees. The key to this strategy is to bind the workers as long to their workplace as possible. So the average day of a Microsoft employee looked like this: get up in the morning, drive to work, do some work, breakfast, do some more work, lunch, do more work, dinner, drive home sleep. The cafeteria was subsidized and basically everything with caffeine was for free – to raise productivity.Feeling of a small company Bill Gates wanted to keep the feeling of his company the same one when they first founded Microsoft – a small company. To ensure that, he splinted his firm into small divisions and even smaller workups. That way people felt more important of their job, not like some wheels in a big company. Development Personal mentoring To ensure competitiveness, Microsoft has developed a ladder system – linked to their salaries. If work was accomplished in a satisfactory way, one could climb up the ladder without being promoted to management level.This system is especially fitting to Microsoft, since most newly recruited employees were high technical ly skilled programmer, that meant not everyone of those people was a good manager. Don't fire the learning When people at Microsoft fail at some projects, they won't have to fear being fired. Bill Gates says that it would be stupid to fire people who Just learned a lot from allures and give them away to other companies. Instead they even get promoted to other projects to encourage them and motivate them to do better on this new project.Review and Reward SMART system. It was a evaluation system of the employees achievement based on his work results quantified in Specific, Measurable, attainable, result-based, and time-bound features. That way, comparison between coworkers was made possible. Evaluation system Everyone at Microsoft was evaluated twice a year. They were given a rating between one (poor) and 5 (outstanding) to evaluate their work. All employees had to evaluate homeless first before seeing their supervises and getting evaluated by them.That way it was made sure that every one stayed on track and was getting permanently challenged. If an employee had no idea of what rating they were going to get, it meant that their manager did a poor Job. Options Last but not least, people were motivated with options on the firm. It not only meant, being rewarded for their present work but also meant to reward those in the future, to bind monetary rewards to the future performance of the firm, which is all dependent on the employees performances.

The Da Vinci Code By Dan Brown - 1258 Words

we asked ourselves for what valid reason Da Vinci picked those specific sustenance’s, on the grounds that they don t relate to what the Evangelists depicted, says Bauer. Why bread, fish, salt, citrus and wine? Why is the saltshaker tipped over before Judas? Why is the bread raised? The four analysts don t get tied up with the unrealistic speculations presented by Dan Brown in his top rated book, The Da Vinci Code, yet they concur the craftsman included images and discourse in his portrayal. He intentionally endeavored to befuddle and trick the spectator with conflicting images and twofold implications. Case in point, a fallen saltshaker is customarily an indication of bad fortunes. The scientists question if as opposed to demonstrating the fiendishness of Judas, the fallen saltshaker could propose his recovery. He could have been decided to assume the part of the double crosser. What s more why is he the one and only with a void plate? It could mean he is full and wicked or that he is the singular case out of many others who isn t tricked? The fish has likewise been the theme of a few studies. It is unmistakably an update that Jesus spent a large portion of his life around Lake Tiberius and that he chose his Apostles among neighborhood anglers. Yet it isn t clear whether the fish is herring or eel. Some contend Da Vinci was deliberately uncertain about the types of fish. Eel in Italian is aringa, despite the fact that when it is spelled arringa it impliesShow MoreRelatedThe Da Vinci Code By Dan Brown1304 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.†(Balt, 2013). This is a quote by Leonardo da Vinci and states one of his main ideas; knowledge will open your mind to new ideas and helps you learn about the past. A book that represents this quote, is the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. 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