Locked Up In America Analysis

They have more opportunities because they have not been locked in a cell for a number of years. Instead in restorative justice the offender is required to do things like community service and communicating with the victim of their crime. Giving offenders more options after they have committed a crime can help them get back on their feet because they would have a better chance of getting a job. They would have a better chance of getting a job because they wouldn’t be out of a job as long as if they were in jail for years. Also hopefully by the offender not spending years in jail and doing things like community service they learn their lesson and will be less likely to commit another crime in the future compared to someone who spent years in jail.

The american prison system is flawed and should be changed because it is very expensive to keep it running the way it is, the prison system is helping gangs grow and it can be fixed it is possible. I believe that it needs to change so that cities will have more tax money to fix other things and the people who don't deserve to get released won't be.

Alexander explains how discretion is granted at almost every stage of the legal system, especially regarding the discretion that prosecutors have, jury selection and policing. Also, many of those arrested either get no legal representation or are given public defenders who are too overworked to truly dedicate their time, and rarely go to trial due to the pressures of guilty plea bargains. To add to the misfortune, arrestees are not told how a guilty plea will negatively damage the rest of their life, due to debt, denial of public assistance, loss of voting rights, and the social label of being a felon. Innocent family members are punished sometimes too, for if they are caught housing a criminal they can face losing their home, food stamps, and welfare. Alexander makes it clear that convicted criminals aren’t the only ones being affected by the vicious consequences of the legal system, but that their families are

In March 2008, U.S Congress passed the Second Chance Act. It was passed to reduce the number of people returned to jail after parole release, not because of a crime committed, but because of small violations or other reasons. It was put in place to help the paroles live a better life. It also put in place new services and programs to help paroles get their life in order. Programs like Reentry courts, Educating and Training people for jobs while they are in prison, mentoring programs to adults and teens getting out of jail, drug treatment, alternatives to jail time and other programs to ensure that people who are in the system get a ‘second chance’ in life.

As of 2008 over 5.3 million Americans were denied the right to vote due to felony disenfranchisement laws. The United states is among the most punitive nations in the world when it comes to denying the right to vote and this has consequently caused voting rights to be a controversial issue for years now. Disenfranchisement can be linked back to centuries ago, in western countries, felony disenfranchisement can be traced back to ancient greek and roman traditions and was commonly used as a part of the punishment that was put on those convicted of “infamous” crimes and was a part of their civil deaths. Although, many people like myself believe that the limits that are being put on felons

After a trial is done and the sentence is revealed, the criminal of the case at hand will be sent to prison. At prison, the convict has a high chance of becoming a victim themselves. They often will find themselves victimized by the other inmates. Whether or not criminals deserve to become victims while in the penitentiary is up to debate. There is a belief that prisoners are put in jail for a reason and they deserve to be harmed by other criminals while locked up.

As our society has grown in a multitude of ways, it has remained the same concerning the systematic treatment of minority groups, especially African American people. Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, writes about how America has encouraged and allowed the rebirth of a new caste system through implementation of mass incarceration (2011). The creation of this new system, only backed the critical race theory that argues white racism is constructed socially and historically in America (Simba 2015). She outlines that slavery and Jim Crow laws have been redesigned into the war on drugs which has allowed the police to target communities of color and therefore keep blacks in a position of inferiority. Many factors come into play

People often are guilty of letting things that are out of sight be out of their mind, but human rights should not be something overlooked. The imprisoned mentally ill has been often overlooked and there voices are not heard as they struggle everyday in inhumane conditions. The eight amendment states that no cruel and unusual punishments is to be inflicted upon the prisoners. Is the United Sates prison systems treating mentally ill prisoners according to the eight amendment? The largest prison rates belong to the United states and of those imprisoned, around the world, they are ten times more likely to be suffering from a mental illness (Mills, 2007). One fourth of the prisoners suffer from major depression and one fifth suffer psychosis

In most cases, felons are the result of failed social structures to begin with. It is form of discrimination. Felons should be allowed to vote on issues that affect their society. If they are born citizens of the United States, then they have the right to vote and should be able to vote after serving their punishment. A right is NOT a privilege and therefore should not be taken away, unless the crime committed relates to or specifically abuses that particular right. For example, if you commit armed robbery, you abused your right to bear arms, therefore resulting in your 'right to bear arms' to be suspended. Corporate criminals and politicians constantly break the law and even violate our constitution are usually never brought to justice, but

After reading Picking Cotton by Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson-Cannino in Professor Morton’s class last semester, I became interested in the concept of eyewitness misidentification and bad forensic science leading to wrongful convictions. After further research I chose to take up an internship with the New England Innocence Project for this Spring semester. Since the inception of the first Innocence Project in 1992, 337 people across the United States have been exonerated on the basis of new strides made in forensic science capabilities, this is only a fraction where there have been 1,744 total exonerations between the Innocence Project combined with other groups (University of Michigan). The statistics of why this happens are overwhelming:

After learning about the privileges felons lose and reading this section in Michelle Alexander’s book, I cannot imagine what I would do if I were to be convicted and labelled a felon. Once being released, I would basically have to start all over and possibly, never get back to where I was at when I was first found guilty.

In the qualitative analysis of Murray (2012), parents are both an affirmative agent of socialization and of social control. While a parent is incarcerated they are either unable to maintain their influence at all towards to their children, or can only act in a restricted capacity. By means of parent are the role models to all children. If a parent is incarcerated it could change the perception of the chid to their parents.

Does it make sense to lock up 2.4 million people on any given day, giving the U.S the highest incarceration rate in the world. More people are going to jail, this implies that people are taken to prison everyday for many facilities and many go for no reason. People go to jail and get treated the worst way as possible. This is a reason why the prison system needs to be changed. Inmates need to be treated better. The government treats prisoners as if they are nothing in this world. The U.S prison system needs to be reformed by building new and better prisons and making it more humane and fair.

Most of these people have had to suffer mistreatment, injustice, or simply did not get a fair trial in court. Many people believe only bad human beings go to jail and they get what they deserve. In reality, these human beings do not deserve targeting simply because they are black or Latino. They deserve fair trials and better treatment just like everybody else. One thing that affected my thinking, even more, was something a student said: “These jails needed to be full no matter if people are innocent or guilty of petty crimes or no crime at all.” This made me doubt our justice system not just because I knew this kind of targeting of people is unfair but also the fact that putting an innocent human being in jail to get mistreated undermines and is the opposite of what Article 1 states about

In the United States criminals are not permitted to vote in any kind of elections. Once prisoners get incarcerated they lose their self-determination and some of their rights. Prisoners are citizens too and even though they may have committed a felony, they are still citizens of their country. Some people think prisoners should not have the right to vote, but there are many others that think they should. I think they should be allowed to vote because they still are citizens and still have some rights. In the United States, there is an estimated number of two million people in prison, those inmates do not get to cast a vote in any elections (Lecture notes 2017). Prisoners should be able to have a say so in who run their country they live in, but they don’t think and it’s not fair. Imagine two million people not being able to vote because of their rap sheet.