How might Randstades partnership program contribute to the effective decision making?

The Randstad is a Dutch company that has undergone great expansion in the U. S. majorly because of teaming up its young employees with the older ones who are more experienced. This partnership program has played a vital role in the business decision making process. For instance, it has ensured increased productivity from the paired sales agents since there was sharing of jobs and also a trade off in responsibilities. The end result realized has been a minimized production and distribution costs and lesser time being used in availing the products.This program has ensured that budgetary appropriations are not cumbersome. Moreover, the existence of a symbiotic relationship between the Gen Yers who needed a lot of attention and the older that needed the former to succeed aided in nurturing the young employees. This helps in growth of the business to a certain size within a shorter time span. The program also made job rotation possible since every employee had varied expertise in the vari ous departments.The vast knowledge greatly aids the firm in the recruitment process of new potential workers and ensuring proper record keeping. In addition, since there is also job specialization, competition among employees is not a problem since no one is seeking for recognition but for the prosperity of the firm as a whole. The personnel integration led to the recruitment of more Gen Yers which cultivated a relationship between them and the organization. As a result, each and every effort by the employers is directed towards the achievement of the business goals.2. How might it help employees generate and evaluate alternatives? Since there is nobody termed as the boss in the business, employees are free to bring into focus their views towards an arising situation affecting the business. The employees share the responsibilities equally thus willing to give out their different ideas and hence. As Benjamin states, no one is individually responsible for everything (Bloomberg). Throu gh this, each employee get to learn new alternative courses of action and methods of coming up with the solution.The fact that there are a number of alternatives puts at bay the unyielding option of giving up when one employee’s criterion fails since he/she in not over; there can arise a solution from the other partner’s course of action. The partnership program ensures that the best alternatives that will not put off clients are adopted. Through this program, employees develop courage and confidence in airing their various alternatives generated through partnering.These alternatives later undergo joined comprehensive scrutiny for best result realization. 3. How might it help employees choose alternatives and learn from feedback? The partnership program can play a crucial role in ensuring that the right alternatives are given a priority by asking the relevant questions and saying the right things to the clients. Further more, explicit suggestions can be obtained from a partner who with time might result to only making observations to the partner and understanding whether or not the alternative is right.The older employees are more experienced in comparison with the Gen Yers, thus their alternatives might be considered or else utilized as an important reference point in some major areas of concern thus strengthening the rapport between them. Negative feedbacks like sabotaging the other partner or reduction in productivity due to constant wrangling are indicators unfruitful partnership which can lead to its break up (Giancola, 13). In addition, the uncooperative partner is identified, since he ends up leaving the company. This serves as a warning for the business entity to engage in a similar relationship in the future.Older workers can mock the young counterparts in a general business set up but with the employment of the pairing program, this is discouraged. The focus in set on impacting the same business knowledge to the young by the old since t here is no master in the business. 4. How might this program contribute to organizational learning? Cross generation partnership, as practiced by the Randstad, may lead to the understanding of the connection between solidarity in work place and the feeling of being more successful and productive.It diversifies the egocentric thoughts of the management to caring about the welfare of its subordinates and improves the relationship between them. To add on, the older employees do not get cynical for having been in the business for a longer time than the Gen Yers. The younger agents are taught on how to be patient and avoid discouraging the clients by the experienced ones who first seek for the solution to the arising problems (Bloomberg).This fosters appreciation for each party in the business hence playing a motivational role which is eventually reflected in the increased units and quality of the output. Concisely, organizations learn the best employee combination criteria since some de pended on others for their success hence the organization attaining its objectives on top of nurturing the employees’ skills. Though these relationships are promising, they are susceptible to dysfunction and require a lot of maintenance for their sustenance thus the organization has to take necessary measures in good time.Thus, if the partnership proves to be doing more harm than good, the organization should opt for its termination the soonest possible. Works Cited Bloomberg , L. P, Bridging The Generation Gap: Employment Agency Ramstad Teams Newbie’s With Older Staff To Great Effect, September, 17 2007. Viewed on July 2 2010 from http://www. businessweek. com/magazine/content/07_38/b4050063. htm Giancola, F. (2006). The Generation Gap: More Myth than Reality. Journal of Human Resource Planning. Vol. 29, p. 12-29

Csr in Foxconn Essay

More and more companies are investing in China, to share the incredible profit generate from the 1.4 trillion people. One of the US based company, which it’s going to invest 35% of its stake, to a fast growing China private-owned timber flooring company. Like most local Chinese company, CSR is not implementing in that company as well as no management working on it. Generally speaking, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrates into business model, in which a company monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of law, ethical standard and international norms. Although this timber company has high growth in the market and generate good profit, it may easily pose a risk to investor if they are not pay attention to social and environmental issues. Below summaries would like to analyst the potential impacts may arise from different parties such as employees, consumers, environment, and communities and how they may be aff ected by the decision. First of all, it’s no doubt that employee are the basic component of an industry. By taking measures from the Social Accountabilities 8000 (SA8000), they should consider if the company has employed child labor. Child labor is very popular in China and other developing countries like Guatemala especially industry like involving agricultural and manufacturing that need high working force. It may violate the law and damage the company brand easily. Other than legal extend, an interesting figure showed that (www.DoWellDoGood.net), â€Å"83% of the employee will leave the job if their employer used child labor.† Obvious, child labor nowadays give more harm than good, instead, providing wellness program for employee and their families create certain shared value that they will love more the company in both mentally and physically. Moreover, it’s also important that the firm should provide adequate safety working environment as well as organize enough safety training. It will certainly reduce the number of accidents occurs. In the early 80s, China had launched Social Security Fund, all companies must follow closely and provide all kinds of insurances to employees in order not to obstruct from the law and political issue. In addition, the company should encourage workers to form union and those who involve won’t be discriminated. Because employee more involve in the discussion regarding payroll, community welfare and company development will surely increase their loyalty at all. The investor has to review all the working hours, salary standard and penalty and make sure it’s fair to everyone. Secondly, the investor should concern to the consumers’ feedback in which the company has to create customer’s satisfaction to their products. However, in this competitive world, many companies like to exaggerated the usage and beauty of their products to attract more customers by means of media as a communication platform. For this reason, the investor should review all these products advertisement that might cause harmful effect to the product brand name. Reputation of the timber flooring company takes years to come to the top five in China can be ruined in hours. One accident always cause in flooring industries may be the level of formaldehyde is so high that cause toxic to human. Heath problems always cause fatal to death of company. One of big scandal happened recently nearly killed AJISEN – one of the ramen restaurant in which â€Å"has been accused of making their broths using soup concentrate and cheap flavoring powders, known for a guarantee that all their soups come from a broth of pork bones simmered to perfection.†(Patrick Keefe) Stock price of AJISEN drops from HK$17.82 to HK$9.32 (51.7%) within 2 weeks just right after the scandal and never climb back up until now. Indeed, customer are all likely the same, they only purchase goods they fell confidence by faith as choices are not the only one. Above example shows a warning signal that in case the company has listed in the stock market in the future. They have to take care much more than now on the CSR issues as media can spread out news within one day. Thirdly, the company should put more efforts not to interfere the environment. Recently, Chinese government has set up many laws to preserve environmental friendly after enter the WTO, ISO14000 standard is basic management standard that has to follow. Due to their factories including plantation, chemical working for production and raw material importation, there are a lot of chances may encounter to environmental dispute. As an investor, other than make sure correct documentations and license for environmental issue, they also have to study all the process in terms of energy use and logistics. Considering the firm has 50% of timber source globally and 10% of their customers are overseas, excess packaging of products and greenhouse gases are not just costly to the environment but also costly to the business. â€Å"By reducing it’s packaging and cutting 100 million miles from the delivery routes of it’s trucks, Wal-Mart lowered carbon emissions and saved $200 million in cost†. (Harvard Business Review). Above example shows typical how mutual benefits if we re-arrange business decision and enhance regulation reforms even just simple as logistic. Besides, China has a lot of tax reduction and funding approaches to achieve government supports by encouraging people to protect the nature. Furthermore, the investor should also pay attention to their suppliers. Not only to check if the imported products are fulfill the regulations but also review the availability and the ease of transportation as 50% outsourcing of the company is not a small figure to ignore. Above all, CSR is not a short term objective, the investor should set up a CSR team in the company for promoting and working for long term prospective. It’s clearly that CSR is helping to build up the company brand far more easily than performing marketing and sales on timber flooring only. According to Harvard Business Review, â€Å"Not all profit is equal. Profit involving a social purpose represent a higher form of capitalism, one that creates a positive cycle of company and community prosperity†, it’s no doubt that customer will purchase more if the timber flooring shows â€Å"green† and if the company anticipate more social welfare activities. To conclude, the investor should immerse CSR into each employee and the community in order to enhance share value to form a mutually beneficial society.

Background Information Of Gems And Jewellery

Background Information Of Gems And Jewellery Disclaimer: This work has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work produced by our Law Essay Writing Service . You can view samples of our professional work here . Background Information Of Gems And Jewellery The global gem and jewellery industry over the past decade has observed significant changes and showed signs of growth, on account of increasing income as well as demand from the emerging economies across the world. Among the various types of jewellery, plain diamond jewellery accounted for the largest share of the global jewellery market, followed by plain gold jewellery. Diamonds being the world’s major natural resource is used in both jewellery and industrial applications. The growth in demand for diamond-studded jewellery has been due to the strong economic growth in key diamond jewellery consuming nations and marketing efforts of diamond companies. Traditionally, gold has held the leading position in most of the jewellery markets across the world because of its value as well as tradability factor. In 2008, although the total gold consumed as plain gold jewellery decreased in volume terms, the sales recorded gain in value terms . Demand for platinum jewellery has gained ground in the last few years, in not only the developed markets of the US and Europe but also in emerging markets like China and India, due to the ‘elite’ tag and ‘high-end’ value attached to the metal. Geographically, the US continues to be the largest consumer for gems and jewellery, followed by China/ India, the Middle East and Japan. In Europe, the UK and Italy are the largest consumers, and Italy is also one of the world’s largest jewellery fabrication centers. The emerging markets, like China, India which are traditional jewellery centers of consumption, are expected to develop as the largest consumption markets for both traditional as well as branded jewellery. The report analyzes the trends and challenges of the gem and jewellery and also outlines the opportunities driving the present as well as future industry growth. The report focuses on the retail jewellery sales, different jewellery segments and future potential of the four large consumers of jewellery – the US, China, India and the UK. The report analyzes the sales trends, demand patterns and future outlook of the three major segments of the jewellery industry, i.e. platinum, gold and diamond. The report also talks about the future outlook of the industry and its growth. By combining SPSS Inc.’s data integration and analysis capabilities with our relevant findings, we have predicted the future growth of the industry. We employed various significant variables that have an impact on this industry and created regression models with SPSS Base to determine the future direction of the industry. Before deploying the regression model, the relationship between several independent or predictor variables and the dependent variable was analyzed using standard SPSS output, including charts, tables and tests. Problems and Challenges faced by the local and global industry Currently, the local gems and jewellery industry is encountering trade obstacles and high competition. These include, The lack of local raw materials The rapid growth of the gem and jewellery industry in competing countries with lower labor costs the high rate of import taxes in those countries, including new tariff barriers which play an important role for international trade; the rules of origin for gemstones; the rules of product origin;

Autism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Autism - Essay Example Early or untimely communication development and predictors of communication performance in autism are inspected, based on a review of retrospective and prospective studies (Deming, 1999). Autism is also recognized as a multifaceted developmental disability. It is believed that Autism manifest itself at the earliest three years of a child's life. The disorder is due to neurological problem that has the consequence on normal brain working, influencing the development of the child’s social interaction and communication skills. People or children with autism have problem with a wide range of social interactions, non-verbal communication, and activities which include elements of banter and play. It is known that Autism has a huge genetic basis, though the genetics of autism are multifaceted and it is uncertain whether ASD is clarified more by atypical mutations, or by unusual amalgamation of universal genetic variants. In extraordinary cases, autism is heavily associated with agent which causes birth defects. Controversies encloses other projected environmental causes, which include pesticides, heavy metals and childhood vaccination, the vaccine theory are organically improbable and lack persuasive scientific proof (Forbes, 2006). The extend of autism is approximately about 1–2 per 1,000 populace worldwide, and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) account 20 per 1,000 people in the United States are detected with ASD as of the year 2012[update] which is up from 11 per 1000 in the year 2008. The number of populace detected with autism has been rising radically since the 1980s, partially due to transformation in diagnostic performance and government-subsidizing financial inducement for the named diagnoses; the matter of whether the actual prevalence has enlarged is unanswered (Deming, 1999). People with an ASD who obtained early intervention or management end up having better brain function, communication ability and overall social behavi or in comparison to ASD people with no early intervention and management, various researchers accounted that the brains of children with autism showed respond well to the pivotal response management or treatment, If it were given early on. The agenda, that requires parental participation in addition to play circumstances, was fashioned purposely for brood with autism. The innovative technique incorporates learning and growth factors that are easy to use with very little children (Deming, 1999). Symptoms People with autism might have troubles with communication skills or abilities, social skills, and reaction to their surroundings. Not all characters or behavior will manifest in every child. Therefore, diagnosis must be done with the child's doctor or other qualified with knowledge in working with people with autism. Probable signs and symptoms associated with autism are categorized into communication, social skills and reaction to the world. For the communication the child could pre sent with the following sign and symptoms; child not able to speak or having limited speech, loss of certain words that the child was previously able to say, complexity in expressing their basic needs and wants, they tend to have poor vocabulary growth, having difficulty in answering questions

Major Theoretical Logic in Global Marketing Essay

Major Theoretical Logic in Global Marketing - Essay Example There is a major gap in our understanding of the types of internal organizational resources that are conducive to implementing a global marketing strategy and that can lead to sustainable competitive advantages in the global market. A major issue that needs to be investigated is what organizational processes that successful global competitors adapt to influence its foreign subsidiaries so that they can achieve global marketing standardization, coordination, and integration (Samiee and Kendall, 1992). Potential organizational processes may range from suggestion, inducement, request, to the direction (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1992). It should be interesting to know which process is more effective and, perhaps more importantly, under what conditions a particular process may be effective for implementing a global marketing strategy. Researchers need to properly conceptualize various organization processes, define their relationships to global marketing strategy implementation, and design emp irical studies to test such relationships. Another major issue involves the organizational structures that are conducive to global marketing strategy implementation (Appelbaum et al, 1998). While centralization vs. decentralization and product division vs. geographical division has received some discussion in the literature, other dimensions of organizational structure have not been investigated adequately. For example, how a firm's decision to enter into international joint ventures (or any other modes of foreign market entry) affects its ability to implement a global marketing strategy, and how various knowledge management systems relate to a firm's ability to implement a global marketing strategy are among important issues to be researched (Bellamy and Graham, 1987). Still another major issue in global marketing is the type of organizational cultures that facilitate global marketing strategy implementation (Beyers and Lindahl, 1999). Perhaps the strength of the organization cultu re is an important variable, or the content of the organization culture is more relevant. Researchers need to develop sound classification schemes for organization cultures and link them to a firm's ability to implement a global marketing strategy. Empirical research in this area is particularly scarce. In addition to the aforementioned issues that relate to a firm's internal organizational resources, research is also needed to identify various industry globalization drivers and the specific mechanisms through which a global marketing strategy can lead to competitive advantages for a firm. With quality research in these areas, a complete theory of global marketing strategy can be expected in the future. Culture is an important factor in the understanding organization because for any organization to operate effectively it must to some extent have a general set of beliefs and assumptions.  

The Situation of Palestinian Refugees Research Paper

The Situation of Palestinian Refugees - Research Paper Example The state of the Palestinian refugees has been extremely politically charged with no nation ever giving them citizenship and has therefore resulted in a second generation of refugees. As seen below the solution to this fifty-year problem is not a simple one. The history of Palestinian refugees can be traced back to 1948 during the period of the Israel–Arab war. The nation of Israel had been approved by the United Nation through a vote but was strongly voted against by the Arab community. This resulted in the Arab Israeli war which Israel won and thus expelled the majority Arab community that had lived in the area resulting in the original refugees. The Israel government has however never accepted that they expelled any Arabs insisting instead that they voluntarily fled the areas. This discrepancy in the origin story of the refugees is one of the problems that they face as no government has accepted responsibility over their plight (Morris 20). There is however documented proof that Muslims were expelled from the area however they were allowed to take their property as they left. Villagers in areas such as Samara and Nuqeib were pushed to move out of their villages through marginalization by the police and were also encouraged through economic incentives to move to Syria (Morris 513). The United Nation Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) began to focus on the plight of the Palestine refugees from 1950 estimating the refugees to be seven hundred thousand when they were expelled from Israel. Their attempts in the beginning were towards a possible reintegration of the refugees in other parts of the Arab world including Lebanon and Egypt. This however failed as the governments and the locals did not support the move. UNRWA thus focused on improving the living standards of refugees in Palestine and offered basic education and sanitation services. The UN was the only body that did put effort in improving the refugee situation with middle eastern nations stating tha t the refugees should go back to reintegrate with modern Israel (Milagny 80). The nation of Egypt was a prosperous nation in the 1940s – 1950s the nation had opened the Suez Canal and benefitted from the cotton trade to become one of the more prosperous nations in Africa. The wealthy Palestinians who arrived first were able to get themselves good housing in the more serene areas of Egypt through both legal and illegal means but the poor Palestines had to contend with living in the camps. Egypt was itself struggling with its overpopulation problem and so decided it would be better if a portion of the population would remain in Gaza which Egypt controlled and with themselves financing its upkeep (Oroub 40). The Egyptian government did not however respond positively to the new immigrants and enacted policies that prevented them from getting jobs and also prevented them from working altogether. The prevention from sources of income meant that even the wealthy Palestinians were so on unable to have a source of income and lost whatever savings they had. Egypt ensured that the Gaza strip was constantly under strict military rule while Jordan did the same with West Bank where it assisted with security. It wasn’t until in 1967 when Israel took control of the Gaza strip that the situation in it improved considerably (Oroub 41). These policies led to increased crime committed in Egypt by Palestinians for economic reasons and just as many were jailed for these atrocities. The hostility shown by the Syrian government towards the refugees and the hostility that the Arab world has shown to the Jewish

Hospital Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Hospital Management - Essay Example This hospital is isolated from the public during the rainy seasons since the roads are impassible. It receives funds for running its affairs from various organizations. The bed management system is a system that involves crucial issues that improve on the rate of efficiency at the hospitals projects. The problems within the hospital can be solved though implementing the bed management system. With the introduction of the bed management system, an auditor may be in a position to audit the transactions taking place in the right way in the institution. The value of this system is to provide the organization with proper management techniques through determining the hospitals capacity and having a current and forecasted program that indicates the number of beds that are demanded by the source and the status of the pending discharges. The incorporation of sophisticated workflow system and rules that are tailored towards improving the status of the organization should also be incorporated within the organization. It has been observed that the hospital looses their patients due to diversion, delay, cancellations and isolations during the rainy seasons but the problem can be solved through optimally utilizing the beds turns, eliminating the hidden costs and unnecessary holds as well as accelerating the rate of the discharges within the hospital. ... The implementation of the management or the patient in ternary module can be used to reduce the unnecessary delays through having a central expediting care process and also help in the discharge of the tasks of the hospital in the right way. The patient management system can be used to ensure that tasks are completed at the right time through making proper coordination programs, real-time communications, task queuing and the escalation of the notifications in the appropriate way (Wolper, 2004: 866). Electronic management system would ensure that the hospital is in a position to cut the cost of operations and ensure that the affairs of the organization are undertaken in the right manner. The operation would ensure that the response time required to process the patient's information is indeed the right one and therefore the process of collating, collecting and retrieving of information would be undertaken in the right way. The system helps in the provision of the process management tools such as the modeling, analysis and simulation of information within an organization. The usefulness of implementing the above systems is that it would provide proper delivery of services to the patients, improve the health status of the patients, increase the rate of productivity of the nurses and the doctors and it reduces the time spent when filling in the patients details in the forms. The patients may also be given proper care at the hospital and this would enable it to reduce its costs of operation. The auditor would be in a better position to understand the way the transactions take place to reduce time spent while tracking hospitals activities. The

Global currency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global currency - Essay Example From the chart above, there are signs that the Rand attempts to gain against the US Dollar periodically by moving down to around 6.5 to a Dollar. However, in most of the times, it fluctuates and reaches highs of about 7.3 against the Dollar. Over the past month or so though, the Rand has really lost grounds to the US Dollar and has risen to highs of about 8.4 per Dollar. This indicates that there is potential for further escalations in the value of the Dollar against the Rand. The Rand can therefore be seen as a weaker currency in relation to the US Dollar and on the global markets. Figure 2 above shows the relationship between the South African Rand and the European common currency, the Euro. It is also seen that the Euro is stronger than the Rand. On the average, the Rand trades at about 9.5 to the Euro. Although there were times that the Rand gained and got to almost 8.5 to the Euro, most of the time, the Rand remains above the 9.5 mark. However, in the past three months, the Euro has strengthened further at levels over R10 per Euro. It is currently trading at 11 Rands per Euro. This shows that there is room for further appreciation of the Euro against the Rands. Aliber stated in 1970 that â€Å"the stronger a countrys currency, the more likely it is to invest in another country and the weaker the currency, the less likely it is to invest in another country† (Goldstein,1991 p1976). This assumption Aliber made is tried and tested in numerous empirical tests. Aliber & Click (1993, p97) identifies that there is a capital market bias towards businesses from a stronger currency nation. In this case, it will be better for a US based business to operate in South Africa. Sharan (2002, p70) explains that the reason why businesses from countries with stronger currencies succeed in weaker currency nation is that it is much more easier to capitalize income in a weaker

Windows Home Server Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Windows Home Server - Essay Example The 10/100/1000 Gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet can support both wired and wireless PC's via a wireless router. For storage, the HP EX475 model has two (2) SATA drives of 500 GB each which boosts the storage up to 1 TB. It also has additional four (4) hard drive bays for additional storage expansion up to 4 TB (terabytes) of maximum storage including all internal and external hard drives. Aside from the internal hard drive slots, additional off-the-shelf SATA I or II drives can be added to expansion bays. The smooth and streamlined micro-tower design of the casing and chassis really fits home and office use. For peace operation, the perforated steel exterior panels are the ones which provide the cool and quiet activities of the media server. The Windows Home Server is the operating system created by Microsoft which assists the user to centralize and link digital objects. Not only that, it also enables the user to share, manage, store, access and protect the precious pictures, videos, music and files. As presented by Microsoft, the Windows Home Server offers the following features: (1) computerized backup and simple restore of home computers, (2) access and share computer files inside and outside of home, (3) longer tenure and ability to meet the needs at present and also in the future.

Prejudice in Of Mice and Men Essay Example for Free

Prejudice in Of Mice and Men Essay Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart. Marguerite Gardiner. In society, both modern and in the past, prejudice has been a tool of thinking and labeling a group of race, people, class and culture in order to distinguish ones superiority and dominance from one another, but is simply a way to judge without gathering valid facts. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, we see that prejudice was just as rampant in the 1930s. In the novel, prejudice is demonstrated on 3 different levels: racial, sexual and social. It is shown how these prejudices generate false perceptions that although meant to aid, do no such good as their end result is clouding the truth. Racial prejudice is most significant when describing Crooks, who happens to be the stable buck for the farm. Crooks is also a Black man with a back disability, hence the reason he is called Crooks. While most of the other workers live in the same area and attend to jobs that are quite similar, Crooks is forced to live by himself, work alone in the stables and is almost never in contact with any of the other characters. People such as Curlys Wife go as far as to ridicule Crooks and even look down at him simply for the fact that he is a Black man with a disability who is a laborer. In one instance, Curlys Wife threatens Crooks by telling him Listen, Nigger, you know what I can do if you open your trap, I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it aint funny (Steinbeck, 98). The open brutality of this comment shows that even a woman, who would normally not have much or any say during this time in the 1930s, is still considered higher in social class than an African-American man. Nothing is known about him as a person by any of the other farm attendants, but the prejudices that in this case are completely false help propel a gap between them, when one does not need to be. Although he may be physically handicap, he is just as capable as any of the others. As a result of being an outcast at the farm, Crooks has become very isolated and disengaged with the other members. When Lennie enters Crooks cabin in order retrieve the puppies, Crooks lashes out and tells Lennie I aint wanted in the bunk room and you aint wanted in my room (Steinbeck,124). This comment shows that Crooks has become bitter and alone because of the prejudice constantly being aimed at him when there is no reason for the way he is treated. He is a great overall example of racial prejudice in Of Mice and Men and society, both past and present, in which a African-American male, who is as capable as any man of another color is denied the same opportunities because of stereotypes and perceptions which can only be supported with biased false facts. Sexual prejudice is strong when Curlys Wife is a part of a scene. Curlys Wife also happens to be the only female that is currently occupying the place of work that the novel is set in. Curlys Wife is presented as a character who tends to be very friendly with all the men on the farm and enjoys the attention she gets because her husband, Curly does not give her the amount of attention that she wants, so she finds it with others. Curlys Wife is often avoided by all other who work at the farm because she is a woman who could get them in a lot of trouble. Curly is the boss son and Curlys Wife being the daughter-in-law always gets her way and can have any man in the farm fired without reason. She got the eye goin all the time on everybody. I bet she even gives the stable buck they eye. I dont know what the hell she wants (Steinbeck,51). Being a woman, there is already significant amount of sexual prejudice directed to her and the fact that she is very flirtatious with the other men further strengthens their perception of her. They all try to remain as calm as possible, careful not to give her the wrong idea cause they know the trouble that she could get them in. In actuality it appears that Curlys Wife only craves attention from the other men and nothing sexual because of the lack of her husband to give her the attention that she wants. The idea of her wanting something only sexual and not spiritual shows the prejudice associated with gender in this novel and how its falsehood prevents a lonely woman from engaging and connecting with others on a mental level. Equally important is the Social prejudice towards characters such as Candy and Lennie in Of Mice and Men. Candy is very old and not capable of doing much around the farm but is still kept around to do the simple chores that the others are seen as more of a waste of time for others. These simple chores are envied by others and this jealousy helps create a division between Candy and the others. Candy also has a dog that in many ways is similar to him [The] dog aint no good to himself. I wisht somebodyd shoot me if I got old an a cripple (pg. 45). They are both described as being old, withered, confused and in many ways more of a nuisance who would do more good dead than alive. Socially being hated by the majority of the men at the ranch shows the prejudice that is directed without any reason, but simply motivated by jealousy. In the instance of Lennie, social prejudice is strongest evident in the perception others have of him because in their eyes, all they see is a big oaf incapable of accomplishing anything intelligent and only kept around for his strength. Before meeting Lennie and even engaging him in conversation, his position has already been established at the Ranch. With Curly we see that [Hes] like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. Hes alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like hes mad at em because he aint a big guy (pg. 26). Regardless of his ability to be of help at the farm, Curly already establishes his position on Lennie even though he has had no significant direct contact or enough time to accurately depict Lennie as a person and not just a big man physically. Not only Curly, but other members of the farm also have decided Lennies place at work before fully knowing him. He is left out of card games, left back at the ranch when George and the others go out to hand more important jobs. Being considered a simple minded men with little use who spend their days playing with and day dreaming about rabbits or sweeping after others, Lennie and Candy have become outcasts in the sense that one of them is perceived to be mentally unstable and added to the fact that he is physically strong, while the other one is a nuisance who many could live without, make them both isolated and all the more reason to be avoid and singled out. Of Mice and Men is a brilliant novel in demonstrating that prejudice is a tool that people use to become more familiar with other individuals in order to overcome the fear of uncertainty. However, the ending result is that it puts distance between the person and the one they judge because it is not fact, but perception that is completely untrue. Prejudice is simply the reasoning of a fool to make themselves feel secure.

Causes and Solutions to Prison Overcrowding

Causes and Solutions to Prison Overcrowding Introduction The purpose of this paper is to look at the overcrowded prisons that are plaguing the U.S. The prison system that we have is constantly evolving, but seems to circulate through the same prison philosophies. An overcrowded prison does not lend itself to a productive environment for inmates. Many would not care about the environment that the inmates encounter as they feel the inmate has brought this upon himself through his deviant behavior, however not all inmates will stay in prison forever. We will examine some possible solution to curb the overcrowding that is prevalent in prisons today. Solutions to Prison Overcrowding Prison overcrowding has been a problem that has plagued the U.S. prison system since its inception. The solution to this problem for many has been to build more prisons to house the additional prisoners that have been sentenced there. Those who advocate building additional prisons fail to look at what is behind the overcrowding in the first place. Research has found that crime rates are decreasing. It has also shown that prison populations are increasing. Much like the Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams with the infamous quote, If you build it, they will come that by building more prisons, we will only seek to put more prisoners into them. To fully understand our current overcrowding issue, we must look at the history of the U.S. prison systems and the philosophies that drove them. Then we must look at the sentencing practices that have increased the number of inmates that are incarcerated. This will include the truth-in sentencing laws, the impact of the war on drugs and the enforcement and the increasing of the length of prison terms for certain offenses. We will also take a look at the cost of building a prison and the daily costs of housing an inmate. Then we will look at solutions for reducing prison populations which include rehabilitation and the release of aged offenders and inmates with minor offenses. The U.S. derived many of its ideas about the prison system from England. In the Middle Ages, prisons were used for housing criminals as well as debtors. Juvenile delinquents also began to be housed in prisons. As prisons developed and emerged, the purpose of them changed as well. Drawing from the ideas presented in Essays on Crimes and Punishment by Cesare Beccaria in 1764 a move towards less physical punishment for crimes was made. Beccaria was also responsible for the idea that a punishment should be severe enough to deter crime, but not too extreme. In 1557, England began the use of workhouses. Initially, they were to remove the homeless and vagrants from the streets during the day. During this time, many believed that most criminals were lazy and committed crimes as a result of that. This allowed inmates to work, however they did not learn any useful skills and were not kept in the workhouses overnight. In 1790, the Quakers from Pennsylvania reformed the Walnut Street jail into a prison. The Quakers drew from their religious background and sought to use the prison as a place for an inmate to perform a penance and to make amends for their actions against society. Also, known as the Pennsylvania System, the prison layout allowed for solitary cells. The inmate was placed in the cell, so that they could think about their actions and gain remorse. Work was completed in the cells as well, so the interaction with others was limited to an hour of exercise a day. Although the prison sought to reform the inmates through solitary work, some prisoners could not handle the solitary times and reform did not occur. There was also a high cost involved in maintaining this type of prison. In an effort to improve the prisons, the Mass Prison Era was implemented in 1825. Also known as the Auburn system after the first facility in Auburn, NY, this prison featured areas where inmates worked in groups. However, prisoners still maintained solitary cells when they were not working. When in work groups, silence was enforced. This was done through corporal punishment to maintain order and obedience as well as a strong code of silence at all times. The Auburn prison was also the first to experiment with solitary confinement as a punishment for not following the rules of the prison. One huge difference which produced negative results when compared with the Pennsylvania system is that inmates were not allowed any exercise and they were not given any work to complete. In this system, many inmates went insane, were suicidal and classified as unfit for re-entry into society. Unhappy with their current prison system, The Reformatory Era was developed next. This was the first to introduce the concept of indeterminate prison sentences in the U.S.. This concept came from two European counterparts. The first leader who emerged during this time was Captain Alexander Maconochie who was a warden at Norfolk Island, a prison off the coast of Australia. Maconochie was alarmed at the condition of the prison and sought to reform it. He developed a system where prisoners could earn an earlier freedom with good behavior. Ultimately, it placed the inmates freedom in the hands of that inmate. This was the introduction of the concept of indeterminate sentencing. Another leader during the Reform Era was Sir Walter Crofton who was aware of Maconochies progress and adapted it to the Irish Prison system. Crofton was able to set up a four stage system. In the first stage, prisoners stayed at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. They were restricted in their activities and movement. In the second stage, they were in Spike Island where they were to begin work. In the third stage, the prisoners were placed in the community on public-service projects. The fourth stage was called the ticket of leave where inmates were allowed to live and work in the community under mild supervision. The response to this was positive until there was an increase in crime which resulted in longer sentences. Crofton did not have the citizens support and could not keep it up. Back in the United States, the indeterminate sentence was introduced by Gaylord Hubbell who was impressed by the Irish Prison system. The indeterminate sentencing was started with approval from The New York Prison Association. Hubbell worked to implement the reformatory practice where prisoners who showed themselves as reformed could earn an earlier release. There were criteria that needed to be met in order to qualify for the indeterminate sentencing: the offender had to be between 16 and 30 years old and it had to be his first offense. Unfortunately, the reform prison era did not last too long as offenders would reoffend. Similar to Ireland, society was not willing to risk the higher crime rates and did not lend its support. It still was the basis for many of the ideas that we hold regarding parole, training and education today. As well as emphasizing the reform of a prisoner over the punishment of a prisoner. In 1890, the Industrial Prison era was sparked. This era brought to light an option to profit from the increasing prison population. There were several systems that utilized inmate work to bring an income into the prison system. The inmate labor systems were: contract system, lease system, piece-price system, state- use system, public-account system and public works system. In contract system, labor was contracted out to private businesses through the prison. Work took place in the prisons, but supplies were provided by the private businesses. In lease system, inmates were taken out of the prison facility and leased out to a private contractor for the day. Piece-price system was similar to the contract system, but inmates produced products that were sold to private businesses. The state-use system had inmates producing products for state offices. The public-account system was a combination of contract, piece-price and state-use systems where inmates produced, managed and sold product s in the free market that was fully run by the prison. Finally, the public-works system had inmates working on roads, highways, cleaning public areas like parks, and restoring other building in the community under the supervision of prison officials. During this time, inmates produced furniture, clothing, cleaning products and other items. The Prison Industry Era was running quite smoothly and making a substantial profit until workers from society like mechanics complained that inmates were taking over their jobs and with cheaper labor. Workers could not compete with them and felt it was unfair. These protests lead to the Ashurst-Summers Act of 1935 where Federal legislation which specifically prohibited the interstate transportation and sale of prison goods where state laws forbade them. (Schmalleger, 2007). This limited the sale of inmate produced products. In conjunction with the Depression, the once profitable Prison Industry ended. The Prison Industries Era lasted for over 40 years and was followed by the Punitive Era. The focus moved back to an age of confinement where the prisoner was to be locked away for their crimes. During this time, larger maximum security facilities were built like Alcatraz. Prisoners who were released from these types of facilities did not receive any education, valuable skills or treatment. The rate of recidivism was high. Luckily, this type of prison systems only lasted about 10 years. The Treatment Era began in 1945. This era relied on treating the inmates like patients versus inmates. Based on a medical model where a therapeutic perspective on correctional treatment that applies the diagnostic perspective of medical science to the handling of criminal offenders. (Schmalleger, 2007) One-on-one therapy was introduced as well as group therapy helped to get an understanding of the emotional and psychological reasoning for crime. There were drawbacks of this era, too. Some inmates fought against being forced to participate in these programs. Prison guards were not properly trained in how the medical model functioned and were also not trained in how to handle the inmates. In 1967, the Community-based Era arrived. In this era, prisons were again faced with overcrowding and coming off of the medical model with the optimistic view that inmates could be rehabilitated. This time they would move them back into the communities where they had committed their crimes to serve their time. The belief was that inmates would not be able to fully rehabilitate in a prison setting. The halfway house was reintroduced and gave the inmates the opportunity to work and reside in the community while being watched at the same time. However, lack of programs caused the inmates to be returned to society the same as they were before committing their crimes. The U.S. watched as recidivism rates and prison populations soared as they entered into the Warehousing Era. Deterred by the crimes that were committed by those inmates who were on work-release or residing in a halfway house, the U.S. decided to limit the liberties that the inmates had once enjoyed. The Warehousing focused on imprisonment for inmates to remove them from society to avoid the possibility of further crimes being committed. In 1970, a new treatment model emerged call the nothing works doctrine which was popularized by Robert Martinson that correctional treatment programs have had little success in rehabilitating offenders. (Schmalleger, 2007). This doctrine helped to implement the mandatory minimum sentencing provision and truth-in sentencing requirements. Calls for truth-in sentencing occurred when the average inmate was serving one third of their time that was handed out by the judge at sentencing. Victims and other citizens were dismayed to learn that the full sentence was not being fulfilled. In the 1990s another popular law was developed called the three strikes and youre out in California and was soon adopted by many other states. The premise for the three strikes law is that if someone was to commit a felony three different times, then the only option was to sentence them to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This has also contributed to a dramatic increase in prison populations. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1985 there were approximately 550,000 inmates in the U.S. prison and this figure jumped to 1,400,000 by 1995 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011) Opponents of this law argue that this law costs too much with the increased number of inmates, that it unfairly targets minority offenders, does not help to decrease crime and that not all who were convicted under the three strikes law were convicted of serious, violent crimes. Besides the sentencing guidelines, there was also a war on drugs that was taking place. Sentences for drug-related offenses became more severe and more of the sentence that was handed out by a judge was actually being served. The current era that we are in is the Just Desserts Era which started in 1995. Prisons had now become essentially warehouses for inmates who were receiving longer sentences for the same crime. Rehabilitation was not working, so the inmates are essentially being held. When we look at the past prison systems of the U.S., it is important to look at the goals that each of the systems advocated. Starting with the Penitentiary Era the focus was on rehabilitation and deterrence. The Quakers utilized their religious belief that time alone would lead a person to become remorseful for their actions. The Mass Prison system focused on deterrence as well as incapacitation. The Reformatory Era was focused on rehabilitation. The Industrial Era reverted back to incapacitation and restoration. The philosophy of retribution was strong in the Punitive Era. Not surprisingly, the Treatment Eras philosophy was on rehabilitation. In addition to rehabilitation, the Community-based Era also looked at restoration. The Warehousing Era looked at incapacitation. Finally, the Just Desserts Era looks at retribution, incapacitation and deterrence. The task before us is to find the right balance for todays society of rehabilitation, retribution and deterrence to decrease our pri son populations. One strategy to reduce or stop the increase in our prison populations comes from the sentencing phase. It is important to know the different goals of sentencing. They are: incapacitation, retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, vindication, and punishment. In incapacitation, the offender is sentenced to a prison with the goal of not allowing them to commit further crimes. In retribution, which was popular in the early ages of history, the goal is to seek revenge against the offender. An example of this is the eye for an eye mentality. Deterrence refers to stopping criminal behavior and there are two types: general and specific. General deterrence refers to the ability stop the criminal behavior by the public. An example, would be watching someone getting their hand cut off for stealing. The hope is that it serves a general deterrent to the public to not commit that crime as you have seen what happens to a person when they commit that crime. In specific deterrence refers to the offen der specifically in order to stop them from committing that crime again. Rehabilitation is means to change a persons behavior, so that they no longer commit criminal acts. Vindication refers to the making and enforcing of the law and punishment that goes along with a criminal act. Finally, punishment is the punishment of an offender fairly and equally. The consequences of the punishment for the offender are not taken into consideration. Currently, the determinate sentence law is used throughout the U.S. This started when the government and citizens gave up on the idea of rehabilitating prisoners. Its goals were to have a punishment in proportion to the crime and eliminate the disparity in the prison terms. There are three levels of a term that is ordered by a judge depending on the facts of the case. The terms are called: presumptive, aggravated and mitigated. Presumptive terms are the middle of the road terms. In an aggravated term, there may things that occurred that made the crime a little more severe when compared with similar crimes. In a mitigated term, the offender may have had a limited role in the crime or the crime was not as severe. Another caveat in determinate sentence law is that there is typically not any parole. Once the inmate has served their time, they are released automatically. Also, inmates may work to earn days off their sentence. Prior to 1970, the indeterminate sentencing law was used. This law felt that rehabilitating inmates was the number one priority. Known for parole which released inmates into the community after part of their time was served in prison, indeterminate sentence law failed in the successful rehabilitation of the inmate. In indeterminate sentence law, judges were handing out a minimum and maximum time for a sentence. Then a parole board would complete an annual review of the inmate to determine if they were ready for release. The process was not consistent which caused many to become upset with the unfairness. Another important factor to consider is what do we hope to achieve with those individuals who have proven that they are not able to follow the rules of society? If our goals come from retribution, then we are not looking at deterrence, reformation and economic considerations. We are only looking at public safety. If our goal is to rehabilitate, then will we risk public safety in releasing supposed rehabilitated inmates. While we have increased our prison capacity we have also increased our prison populations. We have now learned that we cannot hold all these inmates as our prison are becoming overcrowded which is unsafe for the prison guards and staff who run them as well as to the inmates who reside in them. One major contributor to the increasing population is the mandatory drug laws. It is not uncommon to find stories of inmates who received a mandatory minimum sentence for their minimal parts in drug offenses. According to Family Against Mandatory Minimums, there are many stories those affected by the strict sentencing laws that were created during the war on drugs. Here is one of them: Stephanie dated several men who were involved in selling drugs. At times, they would help Stephanie support her family. In exchange, she occasionally delivered and sold drugs and took messages for them. On October 26, 1993, police arrested Stephanie after she was found sitting on the front porch of a house next to a bag that contained cocaine residue. She confessed she had crack in her possession and surrendered it to the officers. She received probation. On November 10, several weeks after her arrest, police sent a confidential informant (CI) to make a controlled drug buy from Stephanie. On November 15, the CI purchased two crack rocks for $120. On December 8, the CI bought $40 worth of crack from Stephanie and several codefendants. After this final controlled buy, officers searched Stephanies residence and found four pieces of crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia. Stephanie was fined and sentenced to nine months in jail. Nearly three years later on August 16, 1996, police raided Stephanies residence after a CI reported that he had seen crack in the house.   Officers found 500 grams of powder cocaine and $13,710 in an attic safe belonging to Stephanies former boyfriend, Michael. In the master bedroom, police found utensils that tested positive for drug residue. Michael had the key to the safe, along with $797 in cash in his pants pocket. He confessed to police that the money, the cocaine and the paraphernalia belonged to him and that the $797 was from 500 grams of crack he had already sold. Later, Michael would testify that he paid Stephanie to let him reside and store crack at her house. At the time of her arrest, Stephanie had no cash, no bank account and owned no other property besides her car, valued at $2,500. She depended on food stamps and welfare to provide for her children. Stephanie went to trial. She was held accountable for 500 grams of powder cocaine found in the attic safe as well as 500 grams of crack that Michael said he sold.   Several of Stephanies codefendants who dealt drugs with Michael testified against her. Because of their uncorroborated testimony, Stephanie was held accountable for an additional 290 grams of crack, for a total of 1,290 grams (about 2.84 pounds). Stephanie received a sentence enhancement for obstruction of justice because she testified that she had no knowledge of and did not participate in Michaels drug activity.   Because of her 1993 drug offenses, Stephanie was categorized as a career criminal, an enhancement which mandates a life sentence. Despite his objections, Judge Roger Vinson was forced to sentence 26-year-old Stephanie to life in prison without parole.    At sentencing, Judge Vinson said to prosecutors: Theres no question that Ms. George deserved to be punished.   The only question is whether it should be a mandatory life sentence I wish I had another alternative. He told Stephanie, Even though you have been involved in drugs and drug dealing for a number of years your role has basically been as a girlfriend and bag holder and money holder.   So certainly, in my judgment, it doesnt warrant a life sentence. Stephanie received the longest sentence of any of her five codefendants. Over a decade ago, the young mother of three was led out of the courtroom quietly crying. She has now been incarcerated for over 14 years. Her children have grown up without her and her older relatives have aged and passed away. Stephanie has been a model prisoner, actively participating in vocational and educational training and working hard at her prison job. She has completed drug treatment and is sober. Unfortunately, the mandatory minimum life sentence prevents Stephanie from ever having another chance (Families Against Mandatory Minimums, 2011). Stories like Stephanies are not uncommon. Like the judge stated Stephanie needed to be punished for her actions, however it seemed extreme to be sentenced to life in prison for such a minimal role. In many of these cases, the person who was more invested in the illegal activities seems to get away with less time in prison as they were able to make deals with the prosecution. The reason that this occurs is that the person with the most information is in a better position to help prosecutors out and may bargain smaller time in prison for themselves while the person who may have had the smaller role is left holding the bag. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics from a report in 2009, crime rates have remained the same or decreased since 1994 in areas of rape, burglary, property crimes, robbery, motor vehicle theft, and homicide (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011) In contrast, the number of inmates in the corrections system which include probation, prison, jail or parole, has increased. The trend remains that prison populations are slowly increasing as well. In 2009, the FBIs Uniform Crime Report (UCR) reported a 1.9 percent decline in violent crimes and a 0.8 percent decline in property crimes reported in 2008. This drop in crime came at a time when the prison and jail growth rates fell from previous years (2008). This data shows that while crime rates were decreasing in contrast the incarceration rates had increased. There should also be guidelines when determining who should be sentenced to prison instead of community service orders. A person should be sentenced to prison or jail if any lesser punishment would depreciate the seriousness of the crime that was committed, imprisonment is needed in order to deter them from crime, and if the person has had other sanctions applied to them. The cost of building a new prison is rather staggering. The estimated cost to build a new prison is $250 million and another $45 million a year to run it. In todays economy, it would be unwise to not consider economical factors when debating the construction of new prisons. It is not a mystery that a majority of inmates that were sentenced to prison will one day be released back into society. It is important to remember that once a person has spent time in prison, the chances that he will return are quite high. In a two year time frame, it was found that 70% of inmates committed another offense and were returned to prison. Since we know that many of these offenders will be returning to society (some for a shorter amount of time than others), it is important to ensure that are prisons provide inmates with opportunities. One opportunity that is a win-win situation for all is prison industries. Federal Prison Industries (FPI) emerged during the Prison Industries Era, but was limited by the Ashurst Sanders Act. Today prison industries are in place making license plates, office furniture and other items. However, they are limited as to who they may sell things to. This seems to be a resource that is not fully appreciated. If we were to implement additional trades to provide inmates with some skill upon leaving the prison system, then they would be better able to make the transition into society. Many inmates have an 8th grade education. If they were appropriately trained, they would be able to pay compensation to the victim of their crime, assist in supporting their family while in prison and build confidence in knowing that they have a skill that would allow them to work on the outside. Some examples of valuable skills would be to teach welding skills, automotive skills, electrical skills, farming techniques and other technical skills. Also, the profit that the prison industry makes could go to costs of running the prison facilities, provide education to the inmates, and other rehabilitative programs. There are those that against the prison industries who say that the inmates are being paid unfair wages, however the inmate is currently being housed, fed and clothed which are huge expenditures by a citizen out in society. It appears to balance out. There are others who dont think that the skills being taught are not useful; however it is a skill that they did not have prior to arriving at prison. It also gives the inmate something to do while incarcerated. Boredom in a prison is not a good thing; it could lead to violence and riots. Lets look at some other solutions or alternatives to building additional prisons. It is clear that in order to avoid building new prisons, the inmate population will need to either decrease or remain the same. An alternative to imprisonment would be day fines. Day fines are successfully being collected in both Germany and Sweden. The day fine process has two steps. First, you need to consider the severity of the crime. For example, the more serious the crime the higher the fine will be. Second, you need to look at the income of the offender. Currently, in the U.S. day fines have not completely caught on. Many times, day fines are not enforced or collected. This is the result of fines handed out that a lower income person could not afford, so they dont put utilize resources in collecting them. The day fine could be used as a better deterrent for someone who is rich as they would feel it the same as a person who does not make as much. For example, if you get a $500 speeding ticket and you are someone like Paris Hilton that will not really deter you from speeding again. Now if the fine was raised to $50,000, it could deter you from speeding in the future. An idea that stirs up great controversy is the release of inmates prior to the term deemed by a judge. However, we should remember the war on drugs and many of the sentences set forth by the judge were mandated to the judge. There are many cases where judges at the sentencing stated their unhappiness with being bound to the sentence. Discretion should be given to judge when making sentences, so that the punishment is fitting to the crime. The judge is present at the trial and has access to the pre-sentence report. Having seen the full picture, the judge should be able to hand out the best sentence for the offender. The mandatory minimum sentence law should be replaced with flexible guidelines. We should also look at the idea that not all who are convicted of a crime should go to prison. There are other alternative besides sending someone to prison for committing crimes. These are often cheaper when compared with housing an inmate in a correctional facility. According to the state of Georgia, it costs $28,936 a year for a minimum security prison to house an inmate compared with $1,434 for an offender with intensive probation (FY2009 Costs of Adult Offender Sanctions, 2008). Community corrections is the when punishment involves more community supervision and activities and less confinement. Probation is one of the most commonly used sentences that are applied. There are two types: general and specific. General probation is just that, these are the rules that many offenders must abide by. They direct that the offender must obey all laws, stay within the jurisdiction of the courts, stay employed, allow access to their homes by a probation officer or police officer and not be i n the possession of a firearm. In specific probation, the judge may add specific limitations and rules that pertain specifically to that offender. For example, if the offense was drug-related perhaps mandate drug tests and rehabilitation programs in addition to the general probation guidelines. Intermediate sanctions or alternative sentencing strategies are sentencing alternatives that cover a variety of options. Split sentencing is usually completed in a jail versus a prison. Then there is shock probation where the offender is sentenced to prison, but serves only a short amount of time, they are then released with probation. The goal of this is to surprise the inmate with a shorter prison term. Shock incarceration has the offender in a boot camp like setting for about 90-180 days to shock the inmate into better behavior. It is more commonly used for young offenders and first time offenders. Community service is a common punishment where the offender must dedicate some of their time to a community organization. Some pick up trash on the side of the road or volunteer in soup kitchens; this is usually reserved for minor offenses. Home confinement is another alternative to prisons. This is beneficial as it allows the offender to remain in his community, has the ability to keep his employment, and with his family. They utilize an ankle bracelet which is equipped with GPS to know the location of the offender. This is easily monitored 24 hours a day. Some monitoring devices are able to detect alcohol in the offenders system which would be useful in settings where alcohol or drug use was forbidden. Today satellites assist with detecting the location of the offender. This technology is constantly evolving and is sure to develop some other useful tools in monitoring large amounts of offenders. These are also done at a lower cost compared with incarceration. The Irish System that was created by Sir Walter Crofton is a good basis for the parole system. Under this system, inmates would be able to demonstrate that they have changed their behavior and are ready to enter back into society. It would be a system where they would have to work to be able to move into the next level and are rewarded with additional freedoms. Communities would benefit from the free labor that they receive from inmates through their trash pick-up and the fixing of buildings that are in disrepair. The ticket of leave inmates could be monitored with a

Pictograph Essay :: essays research papers

In the ancient times (4000-30B.C.) the Egyptian Pharaohs were the most powerful people on the planet. They had sophisticated methods for building and irrigation. In one area that they lagged in sophistication was the basic form they used for writing their language. The ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics that was often expressed through pictographs that are stylized pictures used to express words and subjects.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The use of pictographs was a very primitive form of communication that took lots of time and energy to inscribe. They did not describe the subject in great detail whereas in the English language you can describe the subject in great detail with little or no effort.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When using pictographs the Egyptians didn't use connectives, adjectives, verbs, or nouns. They would simply sketch a series of pictures in reference to the subject that they were addressing. Also when using pictographs it leaves most of the interpretation of the writings up to the reader's imagination, therefore often not accurately describing and communicating the findings or ideas to the author. This was also very obvious when we made posters in class trying to describe our favorite stories because they were very rough sketches (pictographs) of the story and the posters left much up to the reader's personal interpretation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Using the writing system in the English language a person is able to tell the reader exactly what you're writing about and do so in great detail. In our current system of writing we use a series of twenty-six letters; six of the letters are vowels and the rest are consonants. We arrange these letters in different sequences to create many different expressive words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and pronouns. There are over fifty thousand words in the English language and by skillfully using them we can accurately communicate to others by the use of writing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, we have come a long way in developing our writing system.

Amerigo Vespucci Essay -- essays research papers fc

Vespucci was the one person for whom North and South America was named after. Vespucci had a wonderful life and found many things on his voyages. Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy in March of 1451, and grew up in a considerable mansion near the river. As a young boy, Amerigo's happiest moments studying the stars. He excelled in mathematics and his hobby was copying maps. His dream as a young boy was to travel and get a better picture about what the Earth looked like. Amerigo spent half of his life as a business man hoping to strike it rich so he could explore. Amerigo was the third son, there were two older brothers, Antonio and Girolamo, the youngest was Bernardo. The parents were Stagio and Elisabetta Vespucci. Italy, at this time was not yet a civilized country. Italy was a bunch of city- states each self governed and looking for money for it's own purposes and not for the benefit of the country. Florence, where Amerigo was born and grew up, was in the city-state governed by the powerful Medici family. Later in Vespucci's life he ends up working for this family helping govern the city-state. Italy, at this time was not a good country as it is today. In 1492 Vespucci left Florence for Seville, Spain because Italy had the monopoly and didn't need, or want, exploration. Well into his forties, around 1495, Vespucci became the director of a ship company that supplied ships for long voyages. This was the first opportunity Vespucci had to make voyages and he was very ...

Fight Club: A Battle Between Humanity and Capitalism Essay -- Palahniu

Within the past few millennia, people have socially evolved away from the aggressive, deep-rooted nature they have been biologically programmed over the past million years to feel (Palahniuk 4). While most have embraced this approach, whether it be through religion or other means, many people, mostly men, feel this suppression is unhealthy and unnatural. Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, a transgressional piece of fiction, was set in a world of parental abandonment, womanly men, and corrupt political and corporate practices, a dark, nameless city in modern day America (Palahniuk 28). This setting allows for the author to provide a stark comparison over what we have become as a nation compared to what we should be, a nation of self-respecting people with a lack of value on materialistic things, and a push towards Buddhist principles (Reed). Fight Club is about how feminism, commercialism, religion, and politics in modern day America have caused a decline in the masculinity of American, mi ddle-class men and how that has destroyed society as heavily demonstrated by the support group he attends, the fight club he helps start, the terrorist group that sprouts from this, and the Narrator's second personality (Tuss). The story's second chapter starts the flashback that comprises all but the first and last two chapters of the book. In this scene, the Narrator has been suffering from chronic insomnia and is attending a self help group meant for men suffering from testicular cancer, a treatment sarcastically "prescribed" by his doctor in an effort to make him, the Narrator, feel less narcissistic since the physician himself was unwilling to give him the medicine to treat his insomnia. All of the men in this group have become feminine due to ... ... Literary Reference Center. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1996. Print. Price, Bryan R. "A Psychological Analysis of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club." Yahoo Contributor Network. Yahoo, 3 May 2007. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Price, Bryan R. "A Psychological Analysis of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club." Yahoo Contributor Network. Yahoo, 3 May 2007. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Reed, Charley. "Journal of Religion & Film: Fight Club: An Exploration of Buddhism By Charley Reed." Journal of Religion & Film: Fight Club: An Exploration of Buddhism By Charley Reed. University of Nebraska at Omaha, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. Tuss, Alec, SM. "Masculine Identity and Success: A Critical Analysis of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club." Journal of Men's Studies. University of Dayton, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

The Veldt

Paragraph- â€Å"The Veldt† Theme In the short story, â€Å"The Veldt†, written by Ray Bradbury reveals the odds by creating a machine that only allows children to detach emotionally from their parents and their loss of innocence. Lydia and George Hedley live in a Happy life home a technological marvel that automatically tends to their every need which dresses them, cooks the food, brushes their teeth, and even rocks them to sleep. The house also contains a high-tech nursery. The nursery turns into any scenery the children imagine about in that room.Children are usually naive and silly. But in this story children lose their innocence gradually because they feel abandoned and alienation. The children feel abandoned by their parents when they were left in the care of a technological baby sitter which led them to lose their innocence. When  George and Lydia realized that there is something wrong with their way of life. George and Lydia are also perplexed that the nursery is stuck on an African setting, with lions in the distance, eating the dead carcass of what they assume to be an animal.There they also find recreations of their personal belongings, wondering why their children are so concerned with this scene of death. Therefore, they decide to call a psychologist. The psychiatrist evaluated that the children and he said to the parents that the children need treatment. Both of the children feel abandoned by their parents so they activated the room into a veldt where they imagine that they are looking for their missing parents because of the insufficient time their parents give them.In one point the psychiatrist says: â€Å"You’ve let this room and this house replaces you and your wife in your children’s affections. This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents. † In this story man is destroyed by their machines in two ways: not only are George and Lydia were murdered by the nu rsery’s technology, but the children’s humanity is also destroyed. By identifying so closely with the nursery, the children have become less than human.They feel no guilt, remorse or regret when their parents died, and it was clear that they have become as cold and emotionless as the machinery that controls the nursery. Children often feel powerless against adults and create elaborate sceneries in their heads in which they have the power to conquer any adult who refuses to give them what they want. George triggers these fantasies in Peter and Wendy when he threatens them to turn off the nursery. The children are used to getting their own way, and they become very angry when they cannot have what they want and the cycle of revenge starts in which they end up murdering their own parents.When David McClean the psychiatrist asked the children where their parents are when they were on their way to New York it says in the story â€Å"The children looked up and smiled. †˜Oh, they’ll be here directly. ’† Even though they were the ones who killed their parents, they feel no emotions at all. In conclusion people would say that children are usually harmless and full of life but in the story â€Å"The veldt† because they felt abandoned by their parents and because of alienation Peter and Wendy gradually lost their innocence.

Enron Bcci Case

IBCCI’s Misgivings: Four major frauds explained in the Price Waterhouse report. 1. According to the Sandstorm Report, some $633 million of losses related to treasury trading. 2. Price Waterhouse had been doing its job, there's no way that this $1 billion exposure [in BCCI's Central Treasury] which was taken to $11 billion exposure in the course of 3 or 4 months [in 1985] could have happened. 3. All of BCCI's serious treasury problems were related to the activities at Grand Cayman, which had taken place in a blatant and repetitive form over many years.BCCI was paying its auditors $5 million per year to conduct audits which each year took nearly five months. if properly done, these audits should have uncovered the problems and forced action long before April, 1990 4. In the case of BCCI, there can be no question that the auditing process failed to work. As the Bank of England stated in determining that BCCI be closed 5. Given the demonstrable failure of the auditing process, ser ious questions have been raised about how and why BCCI's outside auditors permitted BCCI to flourish as long as it did, despite fraud and other bad practices which went back many years. 6.The record offers both support for assessing blame on BCCI's auditors, and the suggestion that their work in the spring of 1991 was an essential component of the investigative process that ultimately forced BCCI's closure. 7. One view of the culpability of BCCI's accountants was expressed by BCCI's own chief financial officer, Masihur Rahman. Rahman testified that as BCCI's top financial official, he did not know of BCCI's frauds prior to the spring of 1990. He testified that has the bank's chief financial officer in London, he did not have access to any of the underlying loan information and related files at BCCI's various field offices.Rahman testified that he therefore relied on the work of the outside auditors, operating around the world at the local level, to review BCCI's records at its vario us offices and branches, and thereby ensure their truth and accuracy. 8. At the other extreme was the position taken by BCCI's principal auditor, Price Waterhouse (UK), that it was completely deceived by BCCI until the spring of 1990, and handled its responsibilities concerning BCCI without any fault whatsoever. 9.If Price Waterhouse had been doing its job, there's no way that this $1 billion exposure [in BCCI's Central Treasury] which was taken to $11 billion exposure in the course of 3 or 4 months [in 1985] could have happened, says CFO. 10. According to Rahman, Price Waterhouse (UK) had signed off on BCCI practices year after year without issuing any red flags, until suddenly, in April, 1990, it found massive deficiencies at the bank, in which, as Senator Kerry put it, â€Å"every red flag in the world was flying,† raising the question of how Price Waterhouse could have missed all of BCCI's bad practices previously. 1. Price Waterhouse should have known from their audit of Grand Cayman over many years that deposits of BCCI were being misused. The ‘fictitious' loan accounts were in most cases so obviously fictitious that the year after year audit of PW should have detected most, if not all. PW not only knew about accounts where some $600 million of the fraud had at BCCI had taken place. 12. BCCI was paying its auditors $5 million per year to conduct audits which each year took nearly five months.According to Rahman, if properly done, these audits should have uncovered the problems and forced action long before April, 1990. 13. In contrast, as Price Waterhouse expressed their position, BCCI had deceived them through colluding with shareholders and borrowers to create false documentation that mislead them. 14. The auditor's responsibility is to design and execute an audit so as to have reasonable expectation of detecting material misstatement in the financial statements whether due to fraud, irregularity, or error.However, common sense dictates, a nd it is accepted internationally, that even the best planned and executed audit will not necessarily discover a sophisticated fraud, especially one where there is collusion at the highest level of management and with third parties. Under such circumstances, it is reasonable to expect that it may take a number of annual audits before accumulating concerns change to suspicions and ultimately lead to the identification of fraud; in fact, this is what happened in audit of BCCI. 15.Price Waterhouse found that BCCI Treasury losses had been concealed and its profits manufactured through BCCI's failure to record deposits and other liabilities; the creation of fictitious loan accounts; the purchase and repurchase of BCCI's own shares through nominees with buy-back arrangements; and the collusion between BCCI and major customers in supplying false confirmations to the external auditors, among other techniques. 16. $346 million related to the illegal acquisition through nominees of several US banks were identified. 17.BCCI's initial strategy for the United States was to infiltrate the U. S. banking system through purchasing beachhead banks in major banking centers, and then to expand the beachhead operations until BCCI had U. S. banking operations of sufficient size that they could ultimately merge with BCCI itself. 18. State regulators in New York had proven resistant to BCCI, and BCCI had successfully acquired National Bank of Georgia and FGB/First American 19. BCCI expanded in the United States by opening BCCI branch offices in regions with significant populations from the Third World engaged in rans-national commercial activity, such as Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. 20. BCCI's intention was to use these branch offices to feed depositors and banking activity to NBG and First American, expanding BCCI's activities through pushing deposits into the federal deposit insurance system. Abedi had decided that he would work systematically to integrate the various U. S. banks BCCI now secretly owned, until the survivor was strong enough and large enough to in turn purchase BCCI 21.BCCI’s accounts and balance sheets had been manipulated to cover-up a loan of $725 million to a Pakistan based shipping company. 22. The relationship with the Gulf Group began in 1972 when it placed very large deposits with BCCI in Luxembourg and London. There was little tangible evidence of other businesses until 1976 at which time the trade finance lines and shipping loans were opened by the Group. An amount of $1. 2bn was financed to the Abu Dhabi Company (Gulf Groups) owned by Abbas Gokal . Abbas along with his other brothers used amount of money as a lever obtain short-term funding and repayment of non-BCCI bank debt. 3. This exposure of huge sums gained the attentions of Bank of England in 1977 resulting in BCCI transferring accounts to Grand Cayman in 1978 when it became apparent that the Gulf Group faced financial difficulties . This was the time when account manipulation started which is why a ‘special duties’ was assigned the duties to oversee these accounts. This ‘special duties’ department was involved in fabricating information in respect of the ‘offshore accounts’. This included the creation of profiles of the beneficial owners, financial information, false instruction letters etc. 4. Management in collusion with Gulf used sophisticated methods of deception to conceal funds flows including: * Use of gulf ‘bank’ account which received funds and then redistributed them around a number of accounts * Transfer between Gulf locations in different parts of the world to create turnover and imply debt servicing, particularly just before year ends. * Conduit accounts at external banks, under the control of BCCI officers. * Funds transfer through BCP and nostro accounts at various BCCI branches. * Use of excessive interest and charges to provide profits 5. BC CI had used $500 million of its own resource to acquire 56% of its own shares through a series of complex transactions. The final losses may well be in excess of $4 billion and Abu Dhabi’s exposure to BCCI and related activities is estimated to be some $9. 4 billion A few other misdeeds have surfaced regarding; 26. Money Laundering From the time of BCCI's indictment on drug money laundering charges in Tampa, Florida in October, 1988, there was little doubt to anyone looking at the facts that BCCI had been used to launder drug money 27.Bribery The recipients of funding from BCCI may not have considered the payments to be â€Å"bribes,† but simply a mechanism by which BCCI obtained what it wanted from an official, and in return the official helped BCCI, such as BCCI's payments to two of the Gulf emirs in return for the use of their names as nominees for the purchase of First American 28. Support of Terrorism and Arms Trafficking BCCI's support of terrorism and arms traff icking developed out of several factors.First, as a principal financial institution for a number of Gulf sheikhdoms, with branches allover the world, it was a logical choice for terrorist organizations, who received payment at BCCI-London and other branches directly from Gulf-state patrons, and then transferred those funds wherever they wished without apparent scrutiny. Secondly, BCCI's flexibility regarding the falsification of documentation was helpful for such activities ENRON 29. Houston Natural Gas Corporation and Internorth Inc. merged in 1985 to form Enron Corporation.Since its conception, Enron has distinguished itself as an innovative, prominent leader in the natural gas market. Enron, headquartered in Houston, was the largest trader of natural gas and electricity in North America. Enron also market and traded other commodities, including water, paper, coal, chemicals, and fiber-optic bandwidth. The success of Enron’s aggressive strategies is demonstrated by the rise in its stock price from a split-adjusted $3. 20 per share in 1985 to $80. 63 per share on November 20, 2000. In this same period, revenues increased from $10. 3 billion to $40. 1 billion and net income improved from a loss of $54. million to $919. 0 million. 30. As a result of its ability to discover new business opportunities, transform traditional industries, and enter new ones, Fortune magazine named Enron â€Å"Most Innovative Company† for an unprecedented sixth consecutive year in 2001. 31. Enron’s focus on innovation has been demonstrated throughout its history. As a newly formed company in the mid-1980’s, Enron pioneered the trading of natural gas when natural gas markets were deregulated. When Enron entered the electricity market in 1993, it revolutionized the industry by facilitating a market to trade electricity.Enron was also among the first energy companies to expand beyond traditional energy markets by entering the telecommunications industry. Enro n even entered the e-commerce sector by partnering with leading high-tech companies to form Enron Online, a business-to-business website that facilitates the trading of commodities. 32. Enron’s events timeline: * 1985 — Houston Natural Gas merges with InterNorth to form Enron, HNG CEOKenneth Lay  becomes CEO of combined company the following year * 1989 — Enron begins trading natural gas commodities 1990 — Lay hires  Jeffrey Skilling  to lead the company's effort to focus on commodities trading in the deregulated markets. Andrew Fastow  is one of Skilling's first hires later that year. * June 1990 Jeff Skilling, who has been a consultant for McKinsey & Co. , joins Enron * June 11, 1991 Enron asks the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve mark-to-market accounting. * Jan. 30, 1992 SEC approves mark-to-market accounting for Enron * November 1996 Richard Kinder, COO of Enron, doesn’t get CEO job, so he leaves. * December 10, 1996 Enron announces that Jeff Skilling is taking over as COO. June 28, 1999 Enron’s Board of Directors exempts CFO Andy Fastow from the company’s code of ethics so that he can run a private equity fund—LJM1—that will raise money for and do deals with Enron. The LJM Funds become one of the key tools for Enron to manage its balance sheet and make investors think that it is performing better than it is. * October 12, 1999 Enron board exempts Fastow from Enron’s code of ethics so that he can raise money for LJM2 * August 23, 2000 Stock hits all-time high of 90 dollars. Market valuation of 70 billion dollars.FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) orders an investigation into strategies designed to drive electricity prices up in California * December 13, 2000 Enron announces that President and COO Jeffrey Skilling will take over as chief executive in February. Kenneth Lay will remain as chairman. * Late 2000 Enron uses â€Å"aggressive† accounting to declare 53 million dollars in earnings for broadband on a collapsing deal that hadn’t earned a penny in profit. * August 14, 2001 Skilling’s resignation announcement. In evening, analyst and investor conference call.Skilling: â€Å"The company is in great shape†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lay: â€Å"Company is in the strongest shape that it’s ever been in. † Lay is named CEO 33. What went wrong- Corporate governance : The purpose of Corporate governance is to act as a ‘gatekeeper’. ENRON lacked proper surveillance on the part of its Board of Directors, Auditors and Investors. 34. Inappropriate Tools: * Mark to market: As a public company, Enron was subject to external sources of governance including market pressures, oversight by government regulators, and oversight by private entities including auditors, equity analysts, and credit rating agencies.This method requires that once a long-term contract was signed, the amount of which the asset theoretica lly will sell on the future market is reported on the current financial statement. In order to keep appeasing the investors to create a consistent profiting situation in the company, Enron traders were pressured to forecast high future cash flows and low discount rate on the long-term contract with Enron. The difference between the calculated net present value and the originally paid value was regarded as the profit of Enron. In fact, the net present value reported by Enron might not happen during the future years of the long-term contract.An overly optimistic projection was set forth. * SPE—Special Purpose Entity: Accounting rule allow a company to exclude a SPE from its own financial statements if an independent party has control of the SPE, and if this independent party owns at least 3 percent of the SPE. Enron needed to find a way to hide the debt since high debt levels would lower the investment grade and trigger banks to recall money. Using the Enron’s stock as c ollateral, the SPE, which was headed by the CFO, Fastow, borrowed large sums of money. And this money was used to balance Enron’s overvalued contracts.Thus, the SPE enabled Enron to convert loans and assets burdened with debt obligations into income. In addition, the taking over by the SPE made Enron transfer more stock to SPE. However, the debt and assets purchased by the SPE, which was actually burdened with large amount of debts, were not reported on Enron’s financial report. The shareholders were then misled that debt was not increasing and the revenue was even increasing. 35. Fiduciary failure: The BOD was unable to live up to their fiduciary responsibilities. By having no proper check on the conflict of interest. 36. Conflict of Interest: Enron hired and paid its own auditors.That was a conflict of interest built into the legal system because the auditor had an incentive not to issue an unfavorable report on the company that is paying him or her. The Board allowe d conflicts of interests with the partnerships it held, and did not keep a proper oversight of the partnerships. There was also a basic lack of communication on the part of the Board to review the related party transactions. SPE’s served as a major conflict of interest. E. g. the committee failed to recognize clear elements that indicated the downfall, such as Anderson communicating that Enron was ‘pushing the limits’ since 1999.Also, 3000 Special entities, out of which 800 were organized in tax havens. 37. High Risk Accounting: Enron’s Audits committee failed not only to guarantee the independence of the External Auditorsbut also to maintain proper accounting practices in accordance with the interest of the shareholders. It furthermore, approved transactions that were entirely designed to cover up the debts and over-stated revenues, instead of focusing on the economic outputs. Corporate Culture: Utter lack of Interest, specifically by the Board of Directo rs, on off-the-book financials. They had a general culture of being defensive.They would rather cover up their own failures, than acknowledge it. Jeffery Skilling is reported to have said, â€Å"I've never not been successful at business or work†¦ ever! †Furthermore, the corporate culture did not allow open dissent. The Board was also inadequately informed; hence their decision making was clouded, and obsolete. 38. Extensive Compensation to the Executives: The Company paid millions of dollars in deferred salaries and bonuses to midlevel and high-level executives still working in late November, just before the Dec. 2 bankruptcy filing, which forced the company to suspend all such payments.But a number of employees who had retired or recently left the company were denied similar payments. 39. Lack of Independence: Financial ties between the Board of Director and Enron and also financial ties between the external auditors and Enron. The Board was also relying too much on th eir auditors. They were not entirely independent, which led to variation in their process of information disclosure. They clearly shred information. 40. Transparency: The management was not transparent and truthful about the position of the company. They had a general culture of being ‘the best’ at everything, hence, they denied exposing their failures.Enron did not live up to their duty of full disclosure and good faith. The Board did not communicate effectively with its auditors from Arthur Andersen. The idea that Enron’s employed accounting techniques were â€Å"aggressive†, wasn’t conversed clearly enough. E. g. When the CEO disclosed to the employees that the stock price was to rise, there is whatsoever no evidence of him disclosing that he was selling stock as well. Only the investigation surrounding Enron’s bankruptcy enabled shareholders to learn of the CEO stock sell-off before February 14, 2002 which is when the sell-off would other wise have been disclosed.