ipl-logo

Locked Up: Prison In America Analysis

788 Words4 Pages

In the documentary Locked Up: Prison in America the main problem that is discussed is that due to mass incarceration there is an overflow of prisoners and the state can not house them all. One of the main concerns is that a lot of these prisoners are being locked up for non-violent crimes and it costing the state millions of dollars to house them in these prisons. For example it was getting so out of hand that they were forces to let one of the inmates out six months early because they needed the space to house all of these inmates in an already over crowded facility. Even though all of the people being interviewed for this documentary were African American I do not think that race plays a part in whether or not some get locked up. If you commit a crime you have to do the time for it regardless the color of your skin. On the other had I think that economic class plays a bigger role in whether or not some one gets incarcerated. One man in the documentary was locked up for stealing but he mentioned that he had to do it or he would not of been able to eat that night. …show more content…

Some kids were just getting incarcerated for not going to school. The relationship between crime and deviance has started to become blurred in the eyes of the justice system. No one deserves to be incarcerated for being a deviant but if a crime is committed then they have to be punished for it. Other options than mass incarceration is to put the deviants in special programs to help them and if they do not follow these programs and do what they are told to then you can incarcerate them for violating the rules of their program. Mass incarceration has become a big problem in America with over two million people currently incarcerated, but non violent crimes can be dealt with in other ways and these people do not need to be immediately incarcerated once they do something

Show More
Related

  • Benjamin Jealous Research Paper

    871 Words  | 4 Pages

    When talking about prisons, race is always talked about because it’s assumed that more black people are in prison than white people. When in all actuality, it’s pretty close to even between white and black prisoners. When the police crews were told to surprise certain neighborhoods, majority of the neighborhoods were black. On the flip side, as a police officer it must have been functional to assume the black neighborhoods would have more drug dealers because they’re black right? Overall, race does play a major factor in Mass Incarceration that simply will not change for many years to

    Read More

  • Race Neutral Policy Summary

    1293 Words  | 6 Pages

    Incarceration rates in the United States are extremely higher than other countries. According to Schlesinger in her article “The Failure of Race Neutral Policies: How Mandatory Terms and Sentencing Enhancements Contribute to Mass Racialized Incarceration” there are, “Currently, one and a half million people are incarcerated in either state or federal prisons” (Schlesinger). This number is very high compared to other countries. A large majority of the people incarcerated are African Americans.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Nation Of Jails By Lory

    536 Words  | 3 Pages

    A Nation of Jailers The story A Nation of Jailers is by Loury. At the beginning of the essay the author talks about the racial disparity which have been remain for black and Hispanic men. Many people have become a Nation of Jailers. The author talks about there are lot of prisoners around the world.

    Read More

  • How To Dismantle The 'New Jim Crow'?

    599 Words  | 3 Pages

    In every country, criminals are punished differently such that some are sentenced to prison, others the public becomes the judge and the jury while for the case of the United States we usually have a trial to prove that they are not guilty and if they are indeed guilty then they will be just sentenced them to jail. In the article “How to Dismantle the “New Jim Crow”? it states how the number of inmates have increased since the late 1960’s. In some cases, the prisons are filled with minority race within the community for example; the African American, Latinos, and many more that’s why they call it the new Jim Crow. With this kind of treatment of the minority, some people have different reasons as to why the minority race is the one that is mostly

    Read More

  • Locked Up In America Analysis

    589 Words  | 3 Pages

    The justice system in the United States of America is not fair. Michelle Alexander writes a great article “Locked Up In America” describing how people gets into the justice system and how their life is when coming out of jail. People that are convicted of any crime they are labeled as criminals and felons. Criminals does not get properly punished for their crimes if they did they wouldn’t be so many people going in and out of jail. The justice system should have different ways of punishing a person according to the crime they commit, just by putting them in jail and assuming that is going to change them is not a good way of going about that.

    Read More

  • Prison Reform Movement Analysis

    1372 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the first half of the nineteenth century, America saw a new era of popular politics that disregarded the traditional leadership role of the more affluent members of society (Faragher 431). White manhood suffrage had become universal, and more people were becoming involved in politics. With this development of mass politics came a country-wide debate over what a democracy should look like in the first half of the nineteenth century. While some (mainly free white adult males) were content, others continued to be excluded from the political process and were regularly ignored by politicians. In protest, groups began to organize reform movements to expand the reach of democracy, pushing for things such as free public education, a more effective

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration Analysis

    975 Words  | 4 Pages

    They’re more black young men in prison than in colleges and universities across america. Thats sad to even read and type. We need more black men out there in the world to help save the world. Each person can add their own contribution, one step at a time if the judges, cops, and other higher officials would let them be great. These people do not give black African American the time or the day for opportunity or improvement.

    Read More

  • Disparities In Prisons

    1642 Words  | 7 Pages

    Unfortunately, there are racial disparities in the United States in the legal system. Prison sentences imposed on African American males in the federal system are nearly 20 percent longer than white males convicted of similar crimes. The 1994 Crime Bill signed by President Clinton established mandatory minimum sentences. African American and Latino offenders sentenced in state and federal courts face greater odds of incarceration than white offenders who are in similar situations and receive longer sentences than whites in some jurisdictions. Research has shown that race plays a significant role in determination on which homicide cases resulted in death sentences.

    Read More

  • Racial Stereotypes In The Prison System

    657 Words  | 3 Pages

    The number of minorities in the prison system is quite startling. Minorities make up 60% of the population imprisoned. To support this allegation, 1 in 3 African American men will be imprisoned at least once in their lifetime thus creating a racial stereotype. Since 1 in 3 African Americans will be arrested and imprisoned in their lifetime, it creates a target for police officers as well as the public. Police officers will primarily be on the lookout for a colored male or female as oppose to a caucasian male or female.

    Read More

  • Black Men In The Criminal Justice System

    800 Words  | 4 Pages

    “African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population.” The majority group of this statistic are people who come from african american backgrounds. The fact that black people are to make up nearly half of the prison population alone, really conveys the rate at which they are being arrested. Black men are often victims of racial profiling by police. They are targeted by police officers, and security guards, and are accused of crimes unrelated to them, simply on the basis of their skin color.

    Read More

  • Jail Incarceration And Poverty

    229 Words  | 1 Pages

    There are a lot of things that influence African Americans lives, but jail incarceration and poverty seems to be at the root. I am mentioning poverty because unjust jail incarceration is linked adjacent to it. According to the State of Working America in a 2013 study, African Americans, poverty rates are the highest at 27%. According to the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, “African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population.”

    Read More

  • Race In Prison Essay

    1264 Words  | 6 Pages

    According to a report by The Sentencing Project, black Americans are incarcerated at a rate that is five times higher than white Americans. Furthermore, Hispanic Americans are incarcerated at a rate that is 1.4 times higher than white Americans. The report also found that black Americans make up 40% of the prison population despite only representing 13% of the overall population. One of the primary factors that determine a prison sentence is the severity of the crime committed.

    Read More

  • Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow Summary

    1075 Words  | 5 Pages

    The racial disparity can be accounted for through the mass incarceration of black offenders in terms of sentencing with mention of a racial caste in place, not allowing those of color to move from their position. As such, mass incarceration has led to prisons being filled with an overpopulation of those who are black than any other race. Interesting enough, it has been proven through surveys that those who are white are more likely to engage in drug crime rather than those who are black. I found this to be an interesting point to discuss as it raises the question as to just why are more people of color incarcerated at a growing rate than

    Read More

  • Race In The Prison System Essay

    965 Words  | 4 Pages

    People of all different races and ethnicities are locked behind bars because they have been convicted of committing a crime and they are paying for the consequences. When looking at the racial composition of a prison in the United States, it does not mimic the population. This is because some races and ethnicities are over represented in the correctional system in the U.S. (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). According Walker et al. (2018), African-Americans/Blacks make up less than fifteen percent of the U.S. population, while this race has around thirty-seven percent of the population in the correctional system today.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: The American Dream

    908 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Huffington Post says, “The U.S. incarcerates nearly seven times as many people, measured as a share of population, as Canada does. People of color are disproportionately represented in the American prison population and are typically punished more severely than white peers for the same crimes” (Daniel Marans). Racism against people of color has caused them to be represented poorly in society as potential criminals, especially black. MIT informs its viewers that “according to the United States census Bureau, blacks are twice as likely to be poor compared to other races, and eight times as likely to be imprisoned. Blacks are also three times more likely to be convicted of drug violations than whites.

    Read More

More about Locked Up: Prison In America Analysis

Open Document