This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution.
There has been an exceedingly high increase in the population in federal prisons. “The Federal prison population has grown by 750 percent since 1980 and our Federal prisons are approximately 30 percent over capacity” (). We are overflowing our prison cells with criminals of all degrees. We need Smarter Sentencing to keep people from have long drawn out sentences and crowding up our cells for people who actually need to be there for that amount of time. Over capacitated cells are actually ridiculous.
Prison Overcrowding in America In our country today, we account for roughly five percent of the world’s population, yet we hold over twenty-five percent of the globe’s inmate population. According to John Irwin, we currently imprison more people for lesser crimes than any other country in the world. In 1987 alone, our prison population rested steadily at just 500,000 incarcerated inmates in the U.S. Although in the past twenty-seven years, the American prison population has actually quadruped to almost 2.4 million (Pratt, 2009).
America makes up a total of five percent of the world’s population, but our incarcerated population makes up twenty-five percent of the world’s incarcerated population. I learned this statistic one day prior to our lecture on drugs in my pre-law class while discussing criminal law. The War on Drugs agenda pushed by President Nixon has created barriers for people who are incarcerated because of mandatory minimums in prisons and then the difficulty of rebuilding your life once out. This means that because of a minor drug offense someone can be in prison for a lengthy time leading to overcrowding in prisons and more money for outsourced prison companies who make a profit off of prison labor and the system itself. Before this lecture, I had the very simple view of “Do not commit crimes and you will not get arrested.”
In general, the United States has 2.3 million people imprisoned in over 6,000 correctional facilities, with over 1,000,000 drug arrests made every year (Wagner, 2017). Washington state alone has 36,000 people jailed (Wagner, 2017). Although our rate is lower than the national average, there is still progress to be made. I, for one, do not believe that mass incarceration is the way to fix our country. President Nixon
They shouldn’t force prisoners to stay in their dirty, 10x10 feet cell for twenty three hours a day, everyday. They should allow more “social” events such as adding a game night or something. I believe adding something new that is social will help them fix their social issues, and hopefully tunnel some inmates thoughts away from violence. Prisons should also teach inmates the laws and rules in society to keep them safe. They should be taught to respect the laws in a civil society.
The United States has five percent of the world 's population, yet holds twenty-five percent of the world 's prisoners. In 2013, there were 1.57 million inmates who had sentences longer than a year, and there were enough inmates to produce a GDP equivalent to 133 nations. With those statistics in mind, do you think there should be a change? Today I am here to protect those Americans in prison who are in need for reformation. There 're many reasons for a reformed prison, one being to protect human rights.
There are many problems in the correctional system in the United States. One of the main problem is that prisons are overcrowded. These prisons have been overcrowded for a very long time. Prisons are overcrowded, understaffed, and underfunded. One solution to this problem is placing offenders with minor offenses on house arrest.
Americans broken prisons as people say need to be fixed, but how. Personally, I believe the problem is the people in the prisons. Putting someone in a time out boxed is very effective for three year old, as for adults it depend on how reasonable the person is. Through my eyes, American’s prison are not as effective as they once were because we have people who go in and out of jail their whole life, people don’t care about the and lastly crazy people need to be in there for life but a released by their judgement. The first issue I will address is the fact that most people go in and out of prison for the same thing or similar crimes.
I believe that the the abolition of private prisons would be the best course of action to take. It is completely unconstitutional, from my perspective, to allow enterprises to make a profit off of prisoners, who are, in reality, just people who have made a mistake. It is a given that there are exceptions to this, but as Representative Ellison stated, “Incarceration should be about rehabilitation, not profit.” The fact that nothing has been done due to the clutch these corporations have on legislators is terrifying to me, and taking a stance against them would be sending a message to all wealthy businesses across the U.S., making it clear that the government can not be bought out. In a cost-benefit analysis, as the Justice is Not for Sale Act provides, it is much more fiscally responsible to invest in the rehabilitation of inmates than it is to hire private prisons.
Through each resource we have covered different perspectives and solutions for mass incarceration. There is not one finite cause of mass incarceration, but a culmination of issues like the war on drugs, prison-industrial complex, and increase felony charges. Reforming the law and looking at cases individuality can help put checks on district attorneys and prosecutors. Educating the public can be one of the best methods to reduce the rate of incarceration, but until then the issue will remain
Thesis: It is very important for the sake of Americans tax dollars that we change the way that prisons are run and increase the productivity of inmates so when they are released from jail they are ready to be a productive member in society and have the confidence to achieve new goals. Introduction: Day after day, millions of inmates sit in jail doing nothing productive with their lives. We are paying to house inmates that may not even have a good reason to be there. For example, drug offenders are being kept with murderers and other violent offenders.
It is easy to see the incarceration rates rising while turning on any news station or reading any newspaper. Crime is prevalent throughout the United States, and our prison systems continue to grow in size without any real sign of slowing down. Overpopulation of our prison system is slowing becoming a reality, if it has not already. According to the Population Reference Bureau since 2002, the United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world. There are many reasons why in the United States there are about of about 500 prisoners per 100,000 people, or about 1.6 million prisoners in 2010.
As I mentioned above, since the War on Drugs era, the prison population has increased at an alarming rate. Overcriminalization has most of the responsibility for this problem. Along with the overcrowding of prisons, the obstacle of overcriminalization also brings sentencing reform to the table. It puts citizens that had no criminal intent in their actions and non-violent offenders in prison for unjust lengths of time. Serving
There has always been a system to contribute to the prosperity of a society, whether that be an economic system, educational system, social systems and many more. Although these are to help the country there are also flaws in them. One system in society that has major flaws in the prison system. The prison system has failed many Americans and strayed away from its main goal which was to help inmates to not become victims of recidivism. Prisons need to find a way to help inmates become stable enough to go back into society.