Mass Incarceration During The United States - 1322 Words

Monroe Craver Mrs. Gallos English 3 Honors 30 March 2017 Mass Incarceration in the United States There are too many people in prison in our country and any people in prison today are non-violent drug offenders. The American war on drugs has targeted people in poverty and minorities, who are more likely to be involved in drug use. This has created a pattern of crime and incarceration and â€Å"...[a] connection between increased prison rates and lower crime is tenuous and small.† (Wyler). The prison system in our country today focuses on punishment for the inmates rather than rehabilitation for life after their release. People of color such as African-Americans and Hispanics are in prison at Craver 2 disproportionate rates†¦show more content†¦To put drug users in prison rather than giving them help only creates an awful cycle of abuse and over- populated prisons in America. Many people are in prison today because of unjust sentencing legislation such as mandatory sentencing laws, which â€Å"... often make no distinction between, say, armed Craver 2 assault and auto theft†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Gupta). The three- strikes law prevents repeat felony offenders from receiving anything other than a life sentence, even if the crimes committed are not at all related. Drug users who are arrested multiple times can spend their lives in prison for having an addiction. This does not drive the rate of crime down, but only inflates the prison population for longer periods of time. Lawmakers have the biggest opportunity to make a change in the prison problem in our country today. By ending jail time as a consequence for low- level offenses, establishing drug courts nationally, and changing policies such as mandatory minimum sentences and three- strike laws would greatly reduce the number of people who would enter prison in the future. Such an action would require effective parole programs, which are necessary for proper rehabilitation of prisoners. Some believe inmates who are still serving sentences for crimes they committed decadesShow MoreRelatedMass Incarceration Is Defined As The Imprisonment Of A Large Amount Of People1439 Words   |  6 PagesAt the simplest level, mass incarceration is defined as the imprisonment of a large amount of people. However, that does not tell the whole story. The majority of people incarcerated are minorities, and although mass incarceration began as a system of unjust racial and social control, today it continues for many political reasons including government grants, swaying voter opinion, and for-profit prison revenue. The United States incarcerates more people, per capita, than any other nation in theRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration Essay1401 Words   |  6 Pages Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, examines mass incarceration in the United States, why the criminal justice system works the way it does towards minorities, the detriments associated with mass incarceration as it relates to offenders, and much more. In the introduction of her book, Alexander immediately paints the harsh reality of mass incarceration with the story of Jarvious Cotton who is denied the right to vote among other rights becauseRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1370 Words   |  6 Pagesthe United States has not remained the same over time since its creation. Racism has shifted, changed, and shaped into unrecognizable ways that fit into the fabric of the American society to render it nearly invisible to the majority of Americans. M ichelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness shatters this dominantly held belief. The New Jim Crow makes a reader profoundly question whether the high rates of incarceration in the United States is anRead MoreMass Incarceration In Michelle Alexanders The New Jim Crow Laws1083 Words   |  5 PagesJim Crow laws were state and local laws that reinforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s (Urofsky). The laws mandated segregation of schools, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, and restaurants. In legal theory, blacks received â€Å"separate but equal† treatment under the law--in actuality, public facilities were nearly always inferior to those for whites, when they existed at all. In addition, blacksRead MoreIntro: Elia .Mass Incarceration Is An Important Topic Because1210 Words   |  5 PagesIntro: Elia Mass Incarceration is an important topic because it has a huge impact on the United States. Let alone the fact that the United States has the highest incarcerated population in the world with 716 out of 100,000 citizens behind bars. Another important topic is that a certain race and ethnicity are behind bars which are the African Americans and Latinos than whites. But African Americans are 1 in 3, Latinos are 1 in 6, and whites are 1 in 17 who will be in prison during their lifetimeRead MoreAmerican Incarceration : Where We Are, And What Can Be Done?1518 Words   |  7 PagesYasir Choudhury Dr. Joà £o Vargas UGS 303 Mass Incarceration 5 October 2015 American Incarceration: Where We Are, and What Can be Done From its early inception as a necessary aspect of modern society to its broken state that can be seen today, the American penal system has changed radically in recent history from an institution that performed the duty of safeguarding the public from those too dangerous to be left unsupervised to a business model concerned more with generating a profit for shareholdersRead MoreIs The Mass Incarceration Of Blacks The New Jim Crow?1540 Words   |  7 PagesIs the Mass Incarceration of Blacks the new Jim Crow? American has a legacy of the mistreatment and disenfranchisement of African Americans. The same bad treatment that many think only took place in the past is in fact still intact, it’s just presented in a new way. The mass incarceration of blacks in the Unites States can be attributed to the â€Å"racial hierarchy† that has always existed. The U.S contributes to about 5% of the worlds overall population, and about 25% of the worlds prison populationRead MoreThe Basis for Cridme Deterren ce in the United States964 Words   |  4 Pagesdeterrence in the United States is based on the exacting words of Beccaria, â€Å"†¦ a punishment†¦ should be public, immediate, and necessary, the least possible in the case given, proportioned to the crime, and determined by the laws. While this philosophy fulfills its intended goals, it also comes with far reaching consequences for criminal offenders and completely ignores the true goal of incarceration, to rehabilitate the offender for reintroduction into society. Mass incarceration as a means of criminalRead MoreThe Incarceration Rate Of The United States1543 Words   |  7 PagesAlternatives to Mass Incarceration Once upon a time, Americans could proudly say that America was the land of freedom and opportunity. As the Pledge of Allegiance states, â€Å"One nation under God, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.† However, under the current criminal justice system, more and more people lose their liberties because of the crimes they have committed. According to Roy Walmsley, a consultant of the United Nations and Associate of the International Center for prison studiesRead MoreThe War On Drugs And The United States1506 Words   |  7 Pagesthat the United States would eventually become the prison capital of the world, incarcerating, proportionally, more people than anywhere in the world. Today, beyond being a popular political talking point, mass incarceration has become a veritable crisis. The United States now has over 2 million citizens languishing in prisons -- far and away in the most in the globe, and a nearly 68% recidivism rate. Most Americans are quick to blame the di re state of mass incarceration in the United States today