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Failure Of Incarceration In Prisons

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Incarceration: Flip or Flop African Americans make up almost 15% of the population in the United States, yet they make up 40% of the population of incarcerated individuals. This is only one of several features that produces the corruption and failure of our system of punishment. According to a survey conducted in Grand Rapids, out of 25 people surveyed 20 of them knew someone who had been incarcerated (Poeder). One of the people surveyed that also was incarcerated themselves, replied that the system was “setup to fail” (Poeder). The United States has only about 5% of the population of the world yet we have a quarter of the world's ratio of people in cages. During this essay I will prove that our system of imprisonment is a disturbing, silent …show more content…

According to NAACP (National Association for the Advancement for Colored People) “Together, African American and Hispanics comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population.” (Criminal Justice Fact). These inappropriate numbers of ethnicity is a disturbing, racist failure that we live in every single day. The next feature is the overpopulation of incarcerated individuals inside prisons. Ever since the “War on Drugs” the population of people behind bars has skyrocketed to the point where prisons are becoming overcrowded. According to AFSC;
“But beginning in the 1970s, a number of political and economic factors gave rise to the prison boom, which was to bring the nation to the age of mass incarceration, which in turn would have far reaching and sometimes devastating impacts on those affected… According to the Bureau for Justice Statistics, the number of adult federal and state prison inmates increased from 139 per 100,000 residents in 1980 to 502 per 100,000 in 2009 — an increase of 261 percent.” (The Growing Problems).
This increase is also bad for citizens, having more individuals serving their sentences costs more to taxpayers. According to American Legislative Exchange …show more content…

Government Accountability Office (GAO), warned that the growing population of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) threatens to result in increasingly negative effects for prisoners, staff and the prison system’s infrastructure.” (Gilna). Overcrowding in prisons is becoming more common and less unacceptable.
Another reason why our system is failing, is that we have private prisons that profit from crime by housing prisoners. Private prison systems like the CCA actually spend money corrupting the government so they can have more profit. Here is what ThinkProgress found out about this corruption;
“According to JPI, the private prison industry uses three strategies to influence public policy: lobbying, direct campaign contributions, and networking. The three main companies have contributed $835,514 to federal candidates and over $6 million to state politicians. They have also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on direct lobbying efforts. CCA has spent over $900,000 on federal lobbying and GEO spent anywhere from $120,000 to $199,992 in Florida alone during a short three-month span this year.”

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