The Pros And Cons Of Prisons In Tennessee

The main part of this research paper is the reforms for the conditions of prison and make prison a better place for prisoner and make an alternative for incarceration.

The United States prisons around the whole country are overcrowded due to the War on Drugs and the 3x law. Many prisoners have been arrested for drug

These tactic was utilized by the United States to combat alcohol and drug abuse. Conservatives believe that the experience of prison, along with harsh sentences and punishments for minor crimes, serves to discourage prisoner who are released from breaking the law once again. In 2017, 1 in every 5 people in prison were locked up for a drug offense. 6.7 million people were under correctional supervision as of 2015. 3.7 million are on probation, 2.3 million are in correctional facilities, and 840,000 are on parole. 70 percent of people who in local jails are not convicted of any crime. What drives mass incarceration is state policy, as the number of people incarcerated by state prisons is over 1,250,000. People in local jails are about 750,000, and people in federal prisons are less than 250,000. The War on Drugs also contributed massively to high incarceration rates. New York, who has mostly ended their War on Drugs, have seen incarceration numbers plummet. In Oklahoma however, drug offenders share about 30 percent of their prison population. Ending the War on Drugs will not end mass incarceration alone. The federal government and a handful of states have successfully reduced their incarcerated populations by reforming their drug policies, and these can also work with other policies as

The growing dilemma of aging prisoners is a very important thing that needs to be fixed. Those prisoners have been in jail for a really long time for crimes that they committed a long time ago. They are old now and they already passed the age of offending and now they would not do anything bad. Not only is it sad and inhumane to keep them there for that long but it also cost a lot of money keeping them there. Why does it cost so much? Well, it cost so much because as they grow older they also get weaker and sick. When they grow old they need much more care than before and they also need a lot of medicine. They also have a lot of health and mental problems. Some prisoners even have dementia and they do not even remember the crimes that they committed a long time ago. Some prisons

Within that statistic, most of the imprisoned are non-violent offenders. The problem starts with Arizona’s mandatory imprisonment laws. Research highlights that, “under Arizona's mandatory sentencing system, non-violent offenders make up the majority of state prisoners” (Greene). However, the mandatory sentencing does not just affect Arizona’s population. All across America, mandatory sentencing laws are forcing people to be put into prisons without a second thought. These laws were initiated in the 1970’s and put into action in the 1980’s. Ronald Reagan made these laws after initiating a war on the production, sale, and usage of illegal drugs. These laws insist on 5 years in prison for the first drug related felony, 10 years for the next felony sentencing, and 25 to life for the third felony. A process known as the three strikes rule. This campaign for the war on drugs has dragged out into current times. The placement of so many people into prisons for general, popular, frequent non-violent crimes has lead to such an extravagant number of people inside the walls used to punish people of horrific

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.

In 1972, former President Richard Nixon made his infamous statements regarding crime and drug abuse. In this speech, he declared a war on crime and drugs and intended to decrease the number of people using drugs and the amount of crimes that were committed. Since this declaration, incarceration rates in the U.S. have gone up by 500%, even though the amount of crime happening has gone down. One of the reasons why I feel our rates have risen, is because sometimes, we put people in jail when they don’t need to be there in the first place. 46.3% of prisoners are in jail

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.

Over the past 40 years U.S. incarceration has grown at an extraordinary rate, with the United States’ prison population increasing from 320,000 inmates in 1980 to nearly 2.3 million inmates in 2013. The growth in prison population is in part due to society’s shift toward tough on crime policies including determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing laws, and mandatory minimums. These tough on crime policies resulted in more individuals committing less serious crimes being sentenced to serve time and longer prison sentences.

With the economy in the turmoil that it is in America cannot continue to support these sentencing guidelines. The Mandatory Article Sentencing declares that the laws are becoming a huge drain on the Justice Bureau’s budget, and in 2012 the United States had far beyond more people incarcerated than any other country. Most of these prisoners are low-level drug offenders sentenced under mandatory sentencing guidelines with a cost draining on American taxpayers $6.8 billion a year, as of 2012. These costs do not seem to have a ceiling and continue eating up about twenty-five percent of the federal justice system’s yearly budget.

state prisons. This number fell in recent years owing to the pressure from SCOTUS and

Many inmates are admitted to prison for parole violations rather then new charges. In result, policymakers might ease back on rules for parole violations. Minor misdemeanors such as not attending meetings or drug tests would have different consequences then jail time. Lawmakers are also discussing alternatives for low level drug offenders Such as drug treatment courts. The government should not have to spend more than $50,000 a year to keep people in prison. In 2013, almost 700,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession. The cost of putting drug users in prison does not outweigh the benefits. Some individuals are also convicted of non-violent crimes. Lying to a federal official is considered a felon which can result in imprisonment. Finding alternate consequences for these non-violent crimes can reduce prison population. The Department of Justice provides $27.4 billion to fund enforcement needs and prisons. Some of this money could be used to fund education in the United States. Government grants only cover so much of a student’s tuition. I know many individuals in my community that don’t want to enroll in a university because it is too

The problem does not seem to be slowing down either. Congress continually passes new criminal offenses. The same conduct passes through the floor on a regular basis, but comes out with more guidelines on the previous laws. From 2000 to 2007. Congress enacted 452 new criminal offenses. That’s a new offense every week. There is no way that all of those offenses enacted, did not umbrella another. Congress probably means well, at least I like to think that. At what point do they realize that they are making countless vague or broad law?

The purpose of this literature review is to prove that drug court programs are an effective alternative to incarceration for people struggling with substance abuse issues. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics seventeen percent of prisoners at the state level were incarcerated due to drug related crimes. Eighteen percent of federal cases were related to drugs (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004). According to Lutze and Van Wormer the drug court model was formulated in response to the revolving cycle involved with substance addiction and crime. This model incorporated many different aspects of the judicial system such as judges, lawyers, probation officers, and social workers as well as traditional substance abuse treatment concepts.

When discussing prison reform, success is often difficult to measure. One measure of success that the government uses is the recidivism rate. If the rate is lower it means that more inmates are adjusting to life outside of prison. If the rate is higher, like it is now, then prisoners are struggling to gain a footing in society and are going back to prison. As a current measure of success, a recidivism rate that is upwards of fifty percent in most states shows that prison reform and the prison system is failing. There are some proven ways to lower the recidivism rate by properly preparing inmates for reentry. One of these ways is through educational or job training programs.