Economic Situation Of The United States

According to statistical data found in the Bureau for Justice Records, there are a number of problems that most prisons in the country face. The records indicate that the number of adult federal and state inmates increased from `139% in `1980 to 260% (Walker, 1999). As a natural default, the United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. This in itself brings about one of the major problems that are faced in modern incarceration which is overcrowding in most prison facilities. The number of offenders in the country has increased rapidly over time while the country prison system has not really been able to cope with this rapid increase. Prisons intended for one or two inmates are now crowded with more than fifty individuals. Because of this most prisons are overcrowded and most of the facilities available are unable to cater for the needs of all the prisoners (Siegel, 2009).

As prisons grow in size, governments look for new methods to aid in cutting costs and increase efficiency. Over the last decade government run institutions have been replaced with privately funded, for-profit prisons. Although it is cheaper for governments to run contract based institutions this mass industrialization of the prison system has seen many issues with corruption, decreases in efficiency and even mistreatment and exploitation of incarcerated individuals. The prison system should remain under government control and in this essay I will discuss the faults and errors of for-profit institutions and why this system should not be overseen by private corporations.

A nation’s economy plays a vital role in how a nation operates. The United States economy faces a large variety of problems in this paper; we will focus on 4 major economic problems, unemployment, inequality, federal debt, and the financial/credit market. All four issues are interconnected in some way with deep social and economic implications. These issues were emphasized during the Great Recession that hit the U.S. economy in 2007.In the following paper, we will look at each of the four topics individually as well as look at how each plays a significant role in one another’s overall impact on the U.S. economy as well as individuals in the United States. The United States plays a crucial role in the world economy, meaning that every issue and difficulty faced the United States economy has implications far outside the U.S., understanding how these issues relate to one another sheds insight into just how connected every area of the economy actually is.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). “One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world” (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the

The prisons in America seem to cause more problems than assistance in today's society. The country's penal system is overcrowded, expensive, and some argue that is ineffective as well as inefficient. The costs to staff and support these facilities increase dramatically every year. Prisons, which are supposed to be correctional facilities, are currently filled with violence and hostility. These institutions are created to control crime by deterrence, incapacitating criminals, which protects society from potentially dangerous criminals, but it is hard to tell if this is being accomplished.

In the US, the number of incarcerated people in the prison systems cumulatively will form the fourth largest city in the US by population. This serves to underline the importance of addressing the issues that affect the prisoners and the other employees of these correctional services. The first issue that is affecting the success of the correctional services provided by the prison services is the congestion in the prisons. Most of the prisons in the United States were built a long time ago and with the increased population of imprisoned offenders, their capacity to handle prisoners has been greatly overstretched. An example of overstretched prison facilities is in the state of California where the state has been forced to transfer its prisoners

Prison reforms are necessary to better the conditions for prisoners to enable the creation of an efficient and reliable correctional system. In reforming the prison system, it is essential for alternatives to incarceration to be explored (UNODC). There has been a sizeable escalation in the number of individuals serving prison sentences in American prisons. In fact, America has the world’s highest number of incarceration cases with over 2.2 million Americans in prison. The increased number of inmates has resulted in unprecedented congestion in prisons. Further, the available funds from state governments have been significantly outstretched by the expanded penal system.

Within this paper, you will find a comprehensive review of the United States prison system, and why it needs to analyzed to better support and reform the people of this country. I plan to persuade the other side (politicians and society) into seeing that the way the prison system is now, is not ethical nor economical and it must change. We have one of the world’s largest prison population, but also a very high rate of recidivism. Recidivism is when the prisoners continuously return to prison without being reformed. They return for the same things that they were doing before. So, this leads us to ask what exactly are we doing wrong? When this happens, we as a nation must continuously pay to house and feed these inmates. The purpose of a prison needs to be examined so we can decide if we really are reforming our inmates, or just continuing a vicious cycle. What is the true purpose of prison besides just holding them in a cell? There must be more we can do for these hopeless members of society.

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

The American Penal System has become a laughing stock to many citizens who view the system as lacking and useless. The correctional facilities have become overpopulated and are housing more repeat offenders than ever in American history. To find out what could be the cause of this, the focus need to be put on the training of the officers which provide security, the management of the facilities and the legislature which make the rules for governing such an enormous body of people. The training of people, who will be guarding the all offenders, especially those with mental challenges, required in-depth training, which correctional officers do not receive. Correction is the punishment intended to reform, improve or rehabilitate (Corrections.2014).

Glaze, L. E., & Kaeble, D. (2016). Correctional Populations in the United States, 2010 (NCJ 236319). Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus10.pdf

With the population of the United States prisons growing every day we need to evaluate if they are doing any good. Personally, I believe that we need to keep our prison system, but we need to take steps in reforming them rather than abolish them altogether. The United States has the highest number of incarcerated people than any other country in the world. We must sit down and look at other countries and see what they are doing different than the United States. In this paper, we will first look at what the prison system in America is like and what we can do to improve upon our prison system. Then, we will also look at the Finland prison systems and see if we can learn anything from them, since they have one of the lowest incarceration and crime rate in the world. We will then look at reforming our prison system or abolishing it. Finally, we will investigate other punishment alternatives other than the prison system that we could use.

These measures were taken to ensure public safety but are now posing a problem for our correctional facilities. Overcrowding and budgets are among the problems brought about by these measures. Both the state and federal correctional population throughout the United States have steadily seen significant increases in their population, every year for the past decades. Based on the census found on the Bureau of Justice website, the data collected between June 30th 2000 to December 30th 2005 showed that prisoners held in custody between federal and state prisons increased by 10%. (“Bureau of Justice Statistics”, p.1 -2)

Overall, correctional facilities still have a long way to go to be suitable for all inmates; however, in recent years there have been many advancements towards the improvement of the American correctional

The United States is currently experiencing a slow recovery from the recession of 2008-09. The current unemployment rate is 7.7%, which is the lowest level since December of 2008 (BLS, 2012). However, this rate is believed to higher than the rate that would occur if the economy was operating at peak efficiency, and it is also believed that there are structural issues still underpinning this performance. For example, the number of Americans who have exited the work force as the result of prolonged unemployment is believed to be higher than usual. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO, 2012) notes that long-term unemployment of greater than 26 weeks is at a much higher rate than normal, which will have adverse long-run effects on the economy, since workers with long-term unemployment often find their career paths derailed.