Reason For Mass Incarceration

In America, the private prison industry was made for necessary profit based off of the management of prisons by large, private companies. In David Shapiro’s insightful report “Banking on Bondage”, he discusses the logistics of the United States prison system, saying “In America, our criminal justice system should keep us safe, operate fairly, and be cost-effective”. Today, the United States imprisons more people than any other nation in the world, including Russia, China, and Iran. Alongside the issues of private prisons, the increasingly apparent problem of mass incarceration has stripped record numbers of American citizens of their freedom, has a minimal effect on public

In 1971, 1 out of 12 Americans were incarcerated. Since that time, the prisoner ratio has exponentially increased; today, that ratio is 1 out of 51. With that number continuing to rise, many problems result out of it. Prison overcrowding is a growing problem in the United States. The number of people being taken in has regressive effects on the purpose behind imprisonment. Though the prisoners are not there for a comfortable and enjoyable stay, ethical rights are being ignored. How can a someone carry out their sentence rightfully if the focus is taken away from them and put on the judgment of the courts and justice system? Prison overcrowding is without a doubt problematic and inhumane. The mandatory sentencing laws, lack of attention on

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.

The United States incarcerates a greater percentage of the population than any country in the world (CBS, 2012). According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 2.3 million adults were incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013. There are an additional 820,000 people on parole and 3.8 million people on probation (Wagner & Rabuy, 2016)

Abstract: This paper provides an introduction to the social impact of the collateral consequences (the families left behind) of mass incarceration. The reading will include thoughts from sociological perspectives and empirical studies that focus on the consequences incarceration and re-entry have on the striving family left behind. Partners and families of felons suffer from the system in place that punishes, rather than “corrects,” criminal behavior. Collateral Consequences Patience Kabwasa Prof. Laura Howe Soc 231-C21 May 1, 2014 Collateral Consequences The effects of incarceration are many. In fact as defined by Badger Lawyer a website dedicated to answer legal questions for the general public, “Collateral consequences are the effects of

In the article, Unwinding Mass Incarceration by Stefan Lobuglio and Anne Piehl, they argue that unwinding the mass incarceration “well neither be cheap nor easy, and to be done responsibly will require a new infrastructure of coordinated community-based facilities and services that can meet evidence-based incarceration needs while also ensuring public safety.” Hence, their argument is clean-cut with evidence in the article to back up their argument of unwinding the mass incarceration. Similarly, a solid fill of a concluding statement upon the unwinding of the mass incarceration as stated in the article, “requires much more than stopping current practices or reversing course by mass commutations and early release programs.”

Beside restorative justice, mass incarceration acts as another solution to decrease the amount of crime, yet it should be limited. There has been a longstanding debate over the effectiveness of correctional institutions. Some argue that incarceration deters offenders while others argue that the experience of being incarcerated causes individuals to continue in their life of crime. According to Bruce Western, a professor of sociology and director of the Malcolm Wiener Center, the drastically increase amount of incarceration resulted from problems such as harming prisoners, families, and social groups. He indicates, “Black are seven times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, and large racial disparities can be seen for all age groups and

Mass incarceration is the way that the United States has locked up millions of people over the last forty years using unnecessary and disproportionate policies. Contrary to popular belief, this is racially fueled as most of these policies saw to it that blacks and latinos be locked up for longer than their white peers and for smaller crimes. These racist roots within the system can be traced back to when the first slave ship arrived in the US. But our first major prison boom was seen after the American Civil war. I know that the Civil War was far more than forty years ago. I may not be a mathematician but I do know that much. When I say "mass incarceration", I'm talking about the more modern idea of mass incarceration. The difference here

In an interview with Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, she claims that mass incarceration is a new version of the Jim Crow laws that were initially enacted in the nineteenth and twentieth century. These laws were set into place in order to enforce segregation between black and white citizens. Jim Crow was supposed to have ended in the 1964 with the Civil Rights Act, however Alexander believes that current society has been using “the war on drugs” as a tactic to discriminate against black people thus continuing the ideas of the racial segregation. Though congress may have passed the Civils Right Act, that has not stopped society from racial profiling each other and discriminating as they see fit. Black citizens continue to face

Over the decades, mass incarceration has become an important topic that people want to discuss due to the increasing number of mass incarceration. However, most of the people who are incarceration are people of color. This eventually leads to scholars concluding that there is a relationship between mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery. The reason is that people of color are the individuals who are overrepresented in prison compared to whites. If you think about it, slavery is over and African Americans are no longer mistreated; however, that is not the case as African Americans continue to face oppression from the government and police force. The relationship of mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery is that people who committed felon were stripped of their rights like the slaves. It is similar to the way slaves were treated before the 13th Amendment and the Civil Rights Movement. Even though the 13th Amendment was passed, many individuals found a loophole, which was a person who committed a crime could not have the same rights as everyone. This eventually causes people to arrest people of color regardless of whether or not they committed a crime.

The justice system in America caused mass incarceration to become overpopulated from the 1970s to 2000. The reason being people were sentenced for more minor crimes which resulted in prisons to become overcrowded. Based on the book Lock In by John Pfaff, the three main reasons causing mass incarceration in America were; long sentences, war and drugs, and prosecutors. Pfaff mentions that most people are in prison for non- violent drug offendes. According to Lock In by John Pfaff, "there are 200,000 people make up only about 16 percent of state prisoners, but that number almost

Amidst the ever-occurring tragedies that now seem to be part of our daily routine lies an ongoing affliction that tends to go unnoticed. Although it has been increasing drastically in the last few decades, substance abuse continues to fly under the radar of the average American citizen. Yet, for many of us, it is an unavoidable sight. As citizens of Seattle, we need to find a way to reach out to those that need our help.

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

First, there is a long list of negatives that the prison system in America brings. The prison system is filled with crime, hate, and negativity almost as much as the free world is. When in prison, we see that those who were in gangs are still in gangs and that those who were not, are likely to join during their sentence. Naturally the prisons are filled with criminals who not only bring with them a record of past wrong but also an attitude of anger and or survival when they walk behind the walls of prison. This attitude of anger fueled by the thought of survival keeps most from ever experiencing renewal or change when behind bars. While in the world they were criminals running from the law and while in prison

With the topic that I have chosen to do my paper it somewhat difficult getting information on the different causes of mass incarceration and thus reentry, and also to find ways to prevent this from happening over and over again. It seems as if today’s society would like to just see individuals that mess up and commit a crime, but rather lock them away instead of just finding ways to help rehabilitate them. Yes, it is very important to hold every person accountable for their actions and stupid “mistakes” that they make.