The war on drugs is increasing the population rate in our prison system, leaving the states to increase government spending and to decrease spending in other areas such as the educational system. But this mass incarceration cannot and will not change if we do not change the inequality of race. Punitive laws and mandatory minimums can no longer be a law of the future, we can no longer afford to keep offenders in prisons for long periods of times for non-violent charges. Better yet we need to take the money we are spending on these offenders and put it to better use such rehabilitation programs, school systems by keeping these children off the streets and by giving these minority communities more opportunity by offering more employment. These
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Show More1. Before the rise of imprisonment there were a number of alternatives to incarceration that were being used. These alternatives include; flogging, which is historically, the most widely used of physical punishment. The bible mentions instances of whipping, and Christ himself was scourged. Whipping was widely used in England throughout the Middle Ages, and some offenders were said to have been beaten as they ran through the streets, hands tied behind their backs.
In today’s society, it seems as though everybody has their own theory as to what makes a criminal act the way they do, but also the perfect solution and sentence needed to correct it. History has proven that not all methods of incarceration are successful when given to every criminal, instead it is necessary that each model also be compared with theories of criminal behavior to assess the course of treatment which will allow the convicted individual the highest chance of success and rehabilitation. Before I begin it is imperative that we fully understand each correctional model and behavioral theory, therefore, we can truly gain an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. There are currently five correctional models: The medical
My findings focused on the points that mass incarceration substantially affects families and jobs, which then become factors in the issue of recidivism. Moreover, these problems especially target minorities at high rates. To strengthen these points, I could have done more interviews, especially with past convicts or convicts who have returned to jail in order to get more first-hand experiences. As well as interviews with different ages of children exposed to incarceration to see if or how the effects differed. In the future, I hope to expand on the other ways incarceration affects lives, such as through health, especially mental health, or college opportunities.
Incarceration does not only affect those that are in prison but also the families and communities the prisoners are from. When it comes to visitation at San Quentin, Megan Comfort argues that visitors are treated as criminals because of the control they have to go through before visiting. Visitors mostly comprised of women. Most of the time, these women were forced to learn the hard way of visitation on their own. In some ways it seems as though the COs know they have control over these women and their time, so they cross boundaries such as, sexualizing their outfits and taking away their personal belongings.
I know most inmates get jobs within the jail that pay very little like 20 cents an hour so imagine an inmate barely having enough to purchase some soap or food, then they have to face the challenge of having to pay for their stay? On the other side I also understand the Civil rights side which is the side I 'm going with, although their argument is very weak. It doesn 't necessarily create a barrier to rehabilitation, if anything it just puts a huge strain financially and it could possibly make people never want go back to jail. Lastly whether or not they paid taxes in the past, shouldn 't matter, what matters is if they pay taxes after their incarceration maybe that way the government can get some money back from an inmates ' previous
article he focuses on the impact of mass incarceration on African American families and the challenges that they faced. He also includes the 1965 report “The Negro Family”. He also talked about different stories and victims, he gives data tables and graphs, and also digs up information from history. Coates article is 84 pages long so I am sure he had a lot to get off of his chest. Coates stated, “Family breakdown” “flows from centuries of oppression and persecution of the negro man.
Like it is mentioned in the movie 13th “The so called war on drugs was a war on communities of color”. So, now black people are being arrested much more than White people even though the drug use is close to the same as Angela F. Chan points out in her article for the Huffington Post. “Even though Black people use drugs at the same rate as White people, they are incarcerated for drug crimes at 20 to 50 times the rate of White people in some states”. A law that was passed during the war on drugs was mandatory sentencing.
Bernie Sanders, a prominent social justice defender and U.S. presidential candidate, tweeted “Mass incarceration harms our society, pulls families apart. #JusticeNot4Sale Act will begin to turn that around,” introducing his initiative to rehabilitate America’s criminal justice system and reduce the nation’s prison population. In an interview with NBC, Sanders discussed the overwhelming disparity in the African American prison population relative to other ethnic groups. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, African Americans make up 13% of the United States population, and account for 60% of those in prisons. One in every 15 African American men are incarcerated, compared to every one and 106 white men.
Several peculiar institutions have had the ability to effectively control, confine, and define blacks in America’s history. Systems included chattel slavery, which was the turning point of the plantation economy, the Jim Crow era legally upheld segregation and discrimination, and the mechanism of ghettos which are comprised of minorities, parallel to the collective proletarianization and urbanization of blacks. Lastly but not least, the carceral apparatus has helped to perpetuate a social and economic hierarchy, due to the subjugation of minorities, within the US directly affecting life outcomes of those who are directly and indirectly affected. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, they are about 2.3 million people in jail, which
Additionally, the impact of reforming incarceration policies should not be overstated, for the impact might not be on the incarceration rate of drug offenders but in the drug-related arrests. Also, reforming drug and sentencing policies will promote an engaging cohesion within the community that will result a healthy mitigating society, for Robert D Crutchfield and Gregory A. Weeks author of "The Effects Of Mass Incarceration On Communities Of Color. " quotes “When residential areas, and even commercial districts, are cohesive and individuals are engaged with each other, people can participate in the kinds of social life that make crime less likely”. In continuation, institutions increases poverty within those closely connected to convicted offender, which increases poverty, for according to Michael Mitchell and Michael Leachman authors of “Changing priorities: state criminal justice reforms and investments in education.”
The Stanford Prison Study Analysis One of the most well known classic psychology experiments of all time is the Stanford Prison Study. The study was chiefly conducted by Philip Zimbardo. The study is very well known because do to the outcome of the behaviors of people, the experiment was never able to be completed. The experiment began on a early August morning when a mass number of people were arrested for Armed Robbery and Burglary in Palo Alto, California (Zimbardo, 2015).
Being involved in the criminal justice system conveys a negative social status. In these communities, even though the experience of incarceration is widespread, it is still stigmatizing, and incarceration is not discussed openly. Residents noted that the label “offender” becomes a master status and affects the lives of ex-offenders in many ways. For instance, ex-offenders find it difficult to get good jobs and housing.
TITLE OR PURPOSE An effort to retroactivly change the current system of corrections in revielence to non-violent drug offenses. MAJOR AREAS TO BE AFFECTED The largest area to be affected is the present system of sentencing that has been set up for non-violent drug offenses by the Department of Justice and the Department of Corrections. JUSTIFICATION Today, the average federal prison is overcrowed by 36 percent.
The first steps to the incarceration process are intake and booking. When rules and standards are unclear confusion sets in. Some staff members and inmates take advantage of lack of clarity by dominance in an oppressive manner and some will cower from responsibility’s and become victimized by the stronger. Intake and booking process is to have a safe and smooth operation of the jail. Mo matter how many times an inmate has been in custody the inmate has rights.
In Europe prior to the 1600s and 1700s incarceration was mainly used as a means of detaining suspects and citizens for various reasons (Bohm & Haley, 2001). Citizens were incarcerated as a means to coerce payments, contain the spread of disease as well as to teach religious beliefs, in some cases, to change one’s beliefs. Suspects were incarcerated while awaiting trial, punishment, or death. Slaves were also incarcerated during this time as a form of punishment. Individuals endured punishments, that would be considered cruel and unusual in modern society, like being hanged, stoned, as well as beheaded just to list a few (Bohm & Haley, 2001).