The criminal justice system is not as it should be. The aspect that should be changed is the treatment method. Throughout America's time, prisoners have been treated as animals. Centuries ago criminals were sent to dirty, unsanitary prison cells without due process of law. An example of this is the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The accused either pleaded guilty or they were tortured to death until they did so. Such inhumane and unjustified processes have since been extinct. Now all citizens, criminal offenders or not are entitled to due process of law. According to the Fifth Amendment of our Bill of Rights: "…. nor shall any person…. be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Such early amendments to the Bill of Rights now protect criminal offenders personal rights. Once these criminal offenders are tried and sentenced, they are referred to as 'prisoners'. They are sent to a penitentary confinement and their personal rights are taken away. No longer do they have a right to life, for some are sentenced to death. No longer do they have a right to liberty. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, 'liberty' is freedom from captivity, confinement, or physical restraint. Prisons therefore take away an individual's right to liberty by captivating, confining and physically restraining him/her. The criminal justices' system of imprisonment is inhumane and contradictory to our country's Bill of Rights. It takes away an individual's personal rights. In many prisons, inhabitants are treated as if they are not humans. According to documented reports by the Human Rights Watch in 1997, it was found that several guards were abusive to the prisoners. Since Corcoran State Prison in California opened in 1988 fifty inmates, most of them unarmed were shot by prison guards and seven were killed. In Pennsylvania, dozens of guards from one facility, SCI Greene, were under investigation for beatings, slamming inmates into walls, racial taunting and other mistreatment of inmates. "Many local jails were dirty, unsafe, vermin-infested, and lacked areas in which inmates could exercise or get fresh air. Some jail authorities placed inmates in restraining devices for long periods far in excess of legitimate safety considerations" (Human Rights Watch 1997). Not only is the current criminal justices' system of imprisonment inhumane, it is also inefficient. In 1996 we as taxpayers spent $933 million to operate the state prisons and an additional $550 million to repair and build more. With this money we could have let these prisoners roam the streets with a personal escort for each, at the daily rate of $120. These statistics are absurd. This hard earned money could easily be used for an expenditure deemed more important by the citizens of the US. It could be used for a necessity such as education, or health care. Prisoners are not in a rehabilitating environment. The only people that they have contact with are other criminal offenders. In this manner, prisoners are within their own sub-culture. A sub-culture is defined as the cultural values and behavioral patterns distinctive of a particular group in a society, according to the American Heritage Dictionary. The prisoners are among others with similar values contradictory to the majority of America's civilians. This discourages the prisoners to participate in any activity that would attempt to reintegrate them into society. In opposition, they could be exposed to individuals that practiced non-deviant behavior and possessed values of socially moral nature. This would enable them to view society in a different manner, outside of their self-created sub-culture. Being in prison does not help prisoners with hostile instincts to rid of their violent urges. Most prisoners have to live in a violent state of mind in order to avoid being brutalized by their fellow inmates. Physical abuse, rape and emotional cruelty are threats to the everyday life of each prisoner. "Violence breeds violence" as some may say. This situation is one of the main causes of repeat offenders. A criminal of hostile instincts is not going to rid of these unless his violent beast is tamed. This can only occur through rehabilitation and not the punishing manners our prison centers are structured upon. The problem of criminal deviance is not based upon our judicial system. It should not place blame entirely on society. The blame should be focused on the inhumane and ineffective means of prison treatment. The criminals of America need to be rehabilitated and seen as people, not caged as animals. This will calm their violent instincts and help them to realize that they can help society. They should be looked at as emotionally unstable individuals, who are desperately in need of our help to shape their morals.