The City That Became Safe Summary

This article is based on imprisonment and the basic reality of American prisons is not that of the lock and key but that of the lock and clock, so it states. The scale and the brutality of the prisons are the moral scandal of American life. The United States is known to have the highest rate of incarceration per capital to other countries. Many people are trapped for many years in prison, sometimes even for life due to being caught with the procession of marijuana or for committing some brutal crimes.
Just like the article stated, around fifty thousand men wake up every day to be found in solitary confinement. The world believes that prisons allow their prisoners to have daily activities, such as allowing them to read freely or watch television

Many people believe that the reason is because of the high rate of citizens we currently have imprisoned. However according to Franking E Zimring that certainly is not the reason behind low crime rates. Zimring wrote in his book, “The City That Became Safe,” that it was rather small acts that had caused the crime rate to be lowered down to forty percent of what it originally was. Small acts of social engineering, designed simply to stop crimes from happening and helped stop crime. The small acts consisted of setting policemen in areas that were known to have a large amount of crimes, which was called, “hot – spot police.” Another small act that police took into play was a program of, “stop and frisk” which can better be described as trying to catch the more dangerous criminals rather than focusing on the less violent ones. Zimring believes that a “light” program of stop-and-frisk could be less alienting and just as effective. He believed in trying to catch more violent criminals rather than putting more focus on the less harmful ones. An example is marijuana use. You could simply be at the wrong place and the wrong time, and if could easily get pulled over while being in the procession of marijuana. Just because of that you can end up spending the rest of your life imprisoned. You will be locked up with other prisoners that have committed worse crimes such as brutal murders, and have the exact same sentence as you. In all honestly do you truly feel like you deserve the same treatment as the other inmates that have done