Abuse and Victimization in US Prisons

Throughout history into today, there have been many problems with our prison system. Prisons are overcrowded, underfunded, rape rates are off the charts, and we as Americans have no idea how to fix it. We need to have shorter sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners back to where they can function in society. Many prisoners barely have a high school education and do not receive further education in jail. Guards need to pay more attention to the well being of the inmates and start to notice signs of abuse and address them. These are just a few of the many problems in our prison systems that need to be addressed.

America has a major problem with overcrowding in its prisons, and action needs to be taken. Since 1970, the inmate population in the United States has increased over 700%, far greater than the general population as a whole. This has led to declining quality of life within the prison system including 8th Amendment violations and it represents a needless drain on state finances. There is simply no value in keeping non-violent convicts in the prison system, sometimes for years. The costs are high, and there is very little benefit to America. The justice system needs to be overhauled to relieve the massive crowding in US prisons.

In both Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard” by Shane Bauer, there is a large amount of evidence to prove that prisoners aren’t treated well in state and private prisons. And that those prisoners are abused by the prisons staff. If given the chance, I believe both Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Bauer would reform prisons greatly by, making staff treat prisoners humanely, giving better medical support, and taking care of abusive staff. Some, if not all, prisons treat their inmates like they are less then animals and go to the point that they don’t care of an inmate dies. It’s easy to get sick in prison, and most sicknesses can be treated fairly easily, but certain prisons barely give any medical attention to inmates.

The subject of prison evokes fearful and violent images seen in movies or on television; outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water that are intended to repulse people and deter them from committing crimes and ending up in such a position. Unfortunately, the reality of the American prison system is just as troubling as the dated stereotypes surrounding it. Despite its success in keeping dangerous offenders off the streets, the modern prison system fails in fulfilling its original design of restoring criminals to being productive members of society. It has proven to be an inefficient and ineffective system by focusing on punishment over rehabilitation, leading to issues such as overcrowding, wasting taxpayers’ money and a high recidivism rate.

Before we began researching this topic, I thought that the American incarceration system was working well. However, I had some previous knowledge, from news articles saying that many of our prisons were overcrowded and many have poor living conditions. Additionally, I did see the occasional new story on a prisoner bringing to the press the poor conditions they went through while in prison. So when we decided to look into this topic, I was interested in learning about

Oppression is commonly defined as a prolonged unjust treatment or control. It's where one group dominates another or when one team has unfair advantages and power over another. We live in a society where people of a particular race are denied opportunities and equality. Because of social inequalities, specific groups of people are discriminated against, mistreated and oppressed. This oppression happens because of the inequalities of the system that assists the upper classes at the price of lower levels. Most of these individuals are minorities like myself are in the lower class which are also communities of color. Minorities will not benefit from these systems if those privileged keep making the rules. The social class is set up in a way where it's impossible or challenging to climb the social ladder through exploitation in our institutions.We live in a society where people of a particular race are denied opportunities and equality because of social inequalities, specific groups of people are discriminated against, mistreated and oppressed as I experienced

The Unites States of America’s prison system is a flawed mess. To open the eyes of our government we must first take a stand against unlawful government decisions, and show support for the greater good of society. What are our own tax-dollars paying for, what are the flaws in the justice/prison system, why is overcrowding in prisons causing tension, and what are ways our society and government can rebuild the system that has been destroyed over the years? Most criminals in prisons are not a danger to our society because they commit crimes just to use jail as a shelter, causing the overcrowding of prisons and wasting away of what we really should be paying for.

The U.S. prison system is a highly effective saftey system with over 1700 prisoner acress the U.S. and about 2.2 million prisoners that were incarecated in just 2013 alone. Thus may sound excessive but as Edmnd Burke once said "All that is neccessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing." The U.S. prison system definitely doesnt do nothing. Prisons across the nation not only serve as places where evil is fairly and adequately punished but, as a place for rehabilitation, and example of an efficacious crime control strategy and detterent to future offenders. Prison systems in the U.S. are very sccessful in keeping our society as safe as possible.

Studies show that men are more likely to forcibly abused, however women are more likely to persuaded to participate in sexual activity. In regard to inmate-on-inmate abuse in prison, males are 16% more likely than females who are at 6% to have been victimized over eleven or more times, to have been bribed and offered protection, or threatened with harm. Females are less likely to report incidents that involve multiple perpetrators such as incidents initiated by gang.

Jail overcrowding is one of the largest issues in the United states, mainly due to our popularity amongst the world with being the number one country of most incarcerations. As prestigious as that may sound, it is obviously not. The United States is infamously known for the amount of criminal conduct which then causes more incarcerations and leads to more and more prisons being built thus the one thing the U.S leads every country in, jail overcrowding. Jails were originally built and meant for rehabilitation, somewhere along the line is seems as though our correctional systems have lost sight of that. In actuality, it seems as though our entire law enforcement has lost sight of what’s right and what’s wrong. We have far too many people being

Most U.S. prisons today are more focused on punishment than rehabilitation. After all, a prison in America is not a pleasant place to be. The environment of most prisons is tough and violent which can lead inmates to develop aggressive behaviors. A study called the Stanford Prison Experiment showed that prisoners without any mental illness can end up developing one during their time in prison (Benson). In addition, every year, around 217,000 prisoners in America are raped (McElwee). The conditions inside prisons can be damaging to inmates in all sorts of ways.

Today, in America, some prisoners are living worse than some third world countries are for little crimes such as thief. Overcrowded prisons can literally be defined as placing more prisoners in a prison facility than the prison was built to maintain. Every prison has a recommended capacity for which they are to hold prisoners, since there is such an increase in offenders going to prison, these capacities are being ignored and the population of these prisons are significantly increased, making them overcrowded. Too many prisoners and not enough room. This country needs to spend more money to build new prisons. New prisons cost too much to build. There are more prisoners than the guards can control safely. Because of overcrowding some state prisons are sends their inmates down to local prisons. Some prison inmates are sleeping in hallways, storage rooms and even lavatories. Due to overcrowding some prisons are producing conditions so unhealthy it is against the constitution. Because the new prisons won’t be built for a while some prisons are doing the only thing they can, freeing inmates early. Another reason for overcrowding is that more people are going to jail for smaller, less offensive crimes. Because the number of people in prison, the educational programs are limited. Before the inmate was placed near his or her program but now they are placed where ever there is a bed. Some prisons are placing inmate wherever there can. Some prisoners need special education that is not

The steps being taken to meet prisoners’ needs falls short of what they needs to be done. They are not on forced medication, therefore they do not get the medication they need to have everyday to get better. They have therapy and group therapy sessions. Only when they

When the word prison is mentioned my thoughts automatically jump to one word: broken. I believe that the prison is broken because it is outdated and an overused tool designed to prevent criminals from reoffending. However, it has turned into the opposite, a breeding ground for turning first time offenders into repeat offenders that often escalate the level of their crimes instead of stopping. The environment is a volatile volcano that is begging to erupt and destroy everything in its path. Having the prisoners confined in diminutive cages virtually twenty-four hours a day can lead to dormant inmates who have nothing but time to waste. It really brings to live the old saying, “Idle hands do the devil’s work.” Prison staffs are hired to manage the captives of the environment;

Imagine sharing a closet-sized room with another person? This is the unfortunate reality of many prisoners today incarcerated in the United States prison system. In all of the jails and prisons most of them are overcrowded which is a tremendous problem for the inmates as well as the staff. It is very dangerous having the jail overcrowded because there is health and safety issues. The administration should make more room in prisons such as more buildings for cells, in order to make it more suitable for the inmates as well as the staff. It is also costing states a ton of money to take care of the prisoners. While prisoners have committed violations against laws, the overcrowding in prisons result in human rights violations as they are not afforded the proper treatment that they should be given in prison. Then, prisoners should be provided with all the basic needs and be assure of a level of safety which is lacking due to the shortage of trained guards available in most prisons today. Overcrowding in prisons is a major problem in today's society it is growing more and more as time goes on.