Crime And Incarceration : A Negative Topic On Society Essay

Over the past few decades, the United States has witnessed a huge surge in the number of individuals in jail and in prison. Evidence suggests the mass imprisonment policy from the last 40 years was a horrible catastrophe. Putting more people in prison not only ruined lives, it disrupted families, prevented ex-prisoners to find housing, to get an education, or even a good job. Regrettably, the United States has a higher 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 increasing exponentially. The expense produced by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. Although people are incarcerated for a number of 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. By researching mass incarceration, I hope to get society to understand that incarcerating an individual not only effects the family, but we will look at the long term consequences on society and how the United States can remain safe and, at the same time, undo much of the damage that results from large-scale imprisonment.

No matter how you look at it, the prison system within the US holds too many people without valid reason. The last decade has seen a lot of states cut down on crime while also cutting down on their prison populations. In the years between 1999 and 2012, for example, both New York and New Jersey cut their prison populations by 30%, and crime rates fell “faster than they did nationally.”

Incarceration rates have increased from 400,000 people in 1975 to 2.1 million in 2003; a fivefold increase, making the United States a leader in rates compared to other nations (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). These numbers bear a great burden on individuals, families, and communities in various ways. First, with 700,000 individuals being released from prison annually comes difficulty in reentering society both socially and economically; difficulty finding work, education, strained relationships, and social stigma (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). Second, the increasing rates of incarceration are disproportionately and unfairly impacting minorities, specifically African-Americans, and poor urban communities (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). A New York Times article by Furman and Holtz-Eakin (2016) states that $80 billion dollars--$600 per household--is spent on corrections annually, or a 1,700 percent increase in the federal prison budget in just thirty years. These increases have a deep historical background, many complex and interweaving factors, and require urgent reform.

Mass incarceration is the greatest moral and racial injustice of our time. There are 2.2 million people that are imprisoned. 39% of prisoners should not be in prison. People who commit crimes should not go to prison, unless such crime is severe and harsher punishment is needed to be placed. "As a society, we have chosen to prioritize the public safety of our citizens over programs designed to enhance the personal growth of inmates."- Quarts - Allison Schrager The only rational purpose for a prison is to restrain those who are violent, while we help them to change their behavior and return to the community. Prison is meant to give offenders punishment for their actions but to also help them understand why their actions isn’t righteous. Rehabilitation programs in prison are the alternative to a lengthy sentence. It helps build the character and skills so that prisoners can be able to function as citizens in society. Unfortunately, that is not what’s happening in prison as of today. The system is very broken and certain crimes that have been committed should not result to incarceration because there are other alternatives that best suit the consequences of the crime.

The United States faces excessive mass incarceration. We have the largest prison population in the world and the second highest incarceration rate per-capita (1 in 100 citizens is behind bars). While you are certainly familiar with these statistics, I would like to emphasize that using incarceration as the primary response to social problems, as is happening today in the United States, impacts the incarcerated, their families and neighborhoods, as well as costing Maryland taxpayers millions of dollars annually.

Incarceration rates in the United States, and closer to home – in Ohio, have been rising at astonishing rates over the last 20 years. Rising incarceration rates stem from increased sentencing of non-violent crimes, little attention to rehabilitation within most prison walls, and extremely high recidivism rates. The problem of the increasing prison population touches many areas of our society – from reduced workforce to increased state funding for prisons to the adverse effects on children growing up in single-parent households – but has received little public or political attention. Looking at this issue from a social capital standpoint it is important to understand that “social capital keeps bad things from happening to good kids” and then applying this to communities with many families affected by having a member in the penal system (Putnam 296). The rate of recidivism is also increasingly high and an area that must be addressed to move forward in a productive way to ending this problem. When looking at data provided by Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the current penal population is almost 50,000 individuals (49,789 as of 11/13/2012) (DRC). The average cost of keeping a non-violent offender in prison is approximately $26,000 per year (CEPR). Calculations based on these estimates show that incarceration is costing Ohio approximately $1.3 billion each year. With such a financial burden on Ohio, it is time that this issue was taken seriously and actively

In the 1980’s and 90’s at a time when crime was in decline throughout the United States poor neighborhoods saw the beginning of what would soon become the great tragedy of mass incarceration. The topic of drugs had become a media sensation and political parties battled on which side could be the “toughest” to solve the pestering issue. Images of African Americans hooked on crack aired across televisions, newspapers and tabloids nationwide. Though crime rates were down, government used the media blast to gain funding of over two billion dollars to fund the DEA and local police forces in sweeps that would fill American prisons in numbers unprecedented in world history. Targeting poor and mostly African American neighborhoods, arrests made during this era conjure memories of Jim Crow racism and Convict Leasing leaving many of the convicts or even merely accused marred in an infinite loop of struggle inside and out of the prison system.

Today, the United States has more people incarcerated than ever before. More than 2 million people in the United States alone are in prison, three times the amount than before there were sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimums (Bernick and Larkin). “The Federal Bureau of Prisons is overcrowded, operating at nearly 40 percent over capacity and housing a large population of non-violent drug offenders, at a significant cost to taxpayer” (Bernick and Larkin). Every year taxpayers are paying to keep inmates incarcerated. The average cost to keep one inmate in prison for a year is around $29,000. In state prisons alone, taxpayers spend over $50 billion dollars

As of 2015, America’s jail system has been depriving people of their liberty and incarcerating those who should not be in jail. This has resulted in out-of-control government spending issues. These are funds that could be used for other things. Spending that is related to constructing and operating jails has increased by 235 percent over the past few decades. Arrests that have led to jail time have increased from 51 percent to 95 percent. This is becoming a larger threat as the way is paved for future generations. Not only does this cause issues concerning funding, but it causes other issues that can lead to more serious problems.

In 2010, state and federal prisons spent 80 million dollars collectively on incarceration. (Office of the Attorney General, 2014). Mandatory minimum sentencing generally doesn’t target the money spent on mandatory minimum sentencing would be better spent directed towards more serious criminal offenses or towards rehabilitative programs to prevent recidivism. The U.S. accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, yet it has 25% of the world’s prison population, making it the world’s largest jailer (American Civil Liberties Union). Extending the length of prison stays doesn’t necessarily mean lower crime rates. Prisoners are expensive. In 2005, the average operating cost per prisoner was $23,876 (PEW Charitable Trusts, 2008). Prisoners require beds, food, medical and dental care, and mental health services which all come out of taxpayer dollars. It is much cheaper to provide rehabilitative services to prevent recidivism to nonviolent drug offenders than to incarcerate them for extended periods of time. Overpopulation in prisons also leads to overtime costs for officers to fulfill staff vacancies. In 2006, at least $25,000 was made by 15% of the corrections workforce in California (PEW Charitable Trusts, 2008). Some states have cut spending on higher education and funneled more money towards fighting the War on Drugs. In 2007, five states spent more money on corrections

In the United States, the prison institutions, and county jail’s population numbers are growing rapidly. Offenders are receiving lesser sentencing and more federal funding disbursed to reentry and reintegration programs to reduce the cost of incarceration and to reduce recidivism. A recent Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) study of 40 states found that in 2011 the average annual total cost per inmate was $31,286, and the number of incarcerated people have quadrupled reaching 1.4 million in 2010 (Center on Sentencing and Corrections, Vera Institute of Justice, 2013, p.128). The criminal justice system has found alternative ways to deal with the overcrowding and cost of incarceration. I believe that community based programs benefit the government,

Throughout our nation’s history it has taken numerous approaches to dealing with crime, but during the past several years the premise of incarceration has taken precedent. Subsequently, with the premise of incarceration as the answer to reducing crime, the imprisonment rate increased exponentially, but the crime rate showed no significant decrease. In fact, the overall impact of the mass incarceration is an increase in the amount of funding required to deal with the overflow of inmates. Hence, the important question is, does incarceration work, and what are its important factors?

In the U.S, five percent of the population is behind bars (Collier). State spending on corrections is estimated at $52 billion a year with most spent on prisons (“The Potential of Community Corrections to Improve Safety and Reduce Incarceration”). The reason for the U.S. prison population increase is because we are sending people to prison for more time and also because of drugs and we have focused on drug dealing and drug possession (Neyfakh). The U.S. Justice System imprisons a lot of people who could have been held accountable in the community like people with addictions or mental illnesses that don’t have access to treatment in their community (“For Immediate Release: How to…”) Although changing the prison system may be controversial

Introduction: In today's societies, the government and criminal justice systems very much related to ethics because they both establish and carry out definite rights and duties. They also attempt to prevent and/or hold anyone accountable that deviates from these standards. (Wright 2012)

The court system, the corrections system and law enforcement authorities have to work as partners to make this a reality. Time in jail is appropriate for violent offenders; however, less serious offenders who commit non-violent crimes are better served by community based corrections program such as parole and probation. Money needs to be redirected as an investment into public safety by allocating enough dollars for both the prison system and the community-based corrections system. Community-corrections is guided by the viewpoint that it is a partnership between social services and law enforcement (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2009). The “1 in 31” report by The Pew Charitable Trust set up this framework for an effective corrections system in the 21st century: 1) sort offenders by risk to public safety, 2) base intervention programs on science, 3) harness technology, 4) impose swift and certain sanctions, 5) create incentives for success and, 6) measure progress. States that have implemented policies that reflect these guidelines include Arizona, Kansas, Hawaii, Florida and many