How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration

Theory: Social disorganization, a lack of education and resources causes community social controls have broken down causing a criminal culture to emerge. By providing an education and allocating the proper resources to inmates to re-enter these communities, you are combatting the forces that keep communities disorganized. Offenders will learn new ways and have better resources and will not look to re-emerge into the criminal culture they came from.

There is no question that mass incarceration is a worldwide epidemic that needs to be discussed and addressed. America has five percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prison population (Just Leadership USA, 2017) Various policies dated back centuries helped to create this problem of mass incarceration (Just Leadership USA, 2017). Today there are 2.3 million Americans incarcerated throughout the state, local, and federal jails (Just Leadership USA, 2017). New York City (NYC) houses approximately 10,000 inmates per year; 43.7% of these inmates are diagnosed with having a mental health disability (New York City Department of Corrections, 2017). 54% of the inmates on Rikers Island are arrested for a minor offense and should be able to fight their cases from home; however, in many instances the family members are of low socio-economic status and unable to post bail (New York City Department of Corrections, 2017). Minor offenses include loitering, jumping the turnstiles, unnecessary Parole / Probation violations, and trespassing. In many instances, it is the mentally ill and homeless individuals who are arrested for trespassing as they elect to sleep in the subways instead of taking residency in a shelter. Moreover, many of these offenses does not have to result in an arrest. Police officers have the autonym to let some of these individuals go with a warning, desk ticket, and/or summons.

Throughout this whole term we have learned numerous roles of the criminal justice profession. How on a macro level law enforcement has made points to serve and protect, all the way down to the micro level of society. Men and women risk their lives every day to make sure that the law is obeyed, and their community is still held together. In the following paper you will see how the criminal justice profession helps on an individual and societal level. But what does each level mean you may ask, well let’s break it down a little. Individual need is person to person with the law, where societal is in the community of the law enforcement. The first individual need are assaults in and around bars. "The proliferation of bars in many communities

Why prisoners need to go to the prison? I can never forget the scene in The Shawshank Redemption, which Brooks Halten finally committed to suicide when he was released after 50 years life incarceration. The form of mass incarceration, prison, is supposed to be the place where prisoners can rehabilitate in order to return into society. Ex-offenders aren’t eligible for public welfare such as Medicaid and public housing (Stevenson, 2012). They are legally discriminated against when applying for appropriate jobs (Stevenson, 2012). So the issue rises: prisoners rehabilitate for what? To be thrown back into economy without jobs? To go back into communities without hope? If modern mass incarceration isn’t primarily concerning with rehabilitating prisoners, what is its purpose? Why the prisons are continuing in expansion? Whose interests do prisons serve?

The mass incarceration in the United States, has grown hand in hand with the well-disguised scheme of racialized social control that worked similarly to Jim Crow institutions.  Howard Zinn describes social-economic structures that justified slavery, also prevented a class movement between poor whites and slaves that would threaten the power of the elite. The birth of white privilege and segregation of African Americans aided in creating Jim Crow policies and in the criminal justice and political spheres. American society is still systematized around preserving and safeguarding white privilege. The uneven path America took toward emancipation, freedom and partial radical equality resulted in the failure to pay black soldiers equally, the migration of freed blacks from southern states and the highly racist attitudes whites held toward blacks. Therefore “white privilege simply confers dominance, gives permission to control, and blank check” to pass and implement laws that would benefit one group over the other”.

Within the Criminal Justice system, comes a structure of both practices as well as organizations that main role is to uphold not only social jurisdiction, but to discourage and diminish criminal activity. The Criminal Justice system also sanctions those who violate the laws of the land with penalties and reintegration of the criminals into society. In the United States, our policy has been guided by the 1967 President 's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, which issued a ground-breaking report 'The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society ' (President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice [Presidents Commission], 1967).

Since the topic of this paper has been clearly been stated one of the first questions that may come to mind would probably be how did all of this come about. This change in our country didn’t occur immediately but was the product of a long time of planning and manipulation of state African Americans had been left. One of the first tools used keep black people from learning was the creation of the black codes. These were laws in put in place to keep African Americans in positions of menial labor and farm work. One of the biggest codes of the black codes was the vagrancy laws that were put in place mostly in the southern regions of the

Intertwined this environment with over policing, and typical failures from other societal structures and you have your so called criminal. There are places where we can benefit from have diversion programs and early intervention with these youth. The idea have been recently revisited due to the massive failure of using punitive ideologies as a deterrent for crime, and the current disappointment in the mass incarceration push. This is where organizations such as The Link have the biggest impact. Ground level assistance, low risk offenders and working relationships with the local law enforcement agencies. With networking webs on the community grounds as well as the judicial branch through programs such as the Juvenile Supervision Center become essential parts of the criminal justice system, and the minority

Aker’s social learning theory is evident in Anderson’s research in Code of the Street. Aker explains that the social learning theory attributes learning criminal behavior through the engagement of peers. This theory can be practical in understanding the “code of the streets” of minorities in urban communities. Modern society has put a label on crime in that it is inappropriate and that people should not participate in it. However, those in disadvantaged communities who abide by the code of the street allow the denotation of crime to change in their attempts to survive in such conditions. Anderson states, “Children growing up in these circumstances learn early in life that this [criminal activities] is the way things are” (Anderson 134). This mindset is common to those in minority urban communities that portray the code of the street in terms of crime in the eyes of the

Social learning and social control principles recognize that criminal careers may develop through criminogenic influences of individuals over the course of their lives (pg. 192). The concept of age definition recognizes that certain forms of behavior and some experiences are more appropriate in certain parts of the life cycle than in others. Theorist constantly search for continuity between children or adolescents and adult lifestyles. Researchers explore pathways to delinquency, antisocial behaviors, and trajectories and transitions (pg. 193). The life course also highlights the development of criminal careers through (1) activation, (2) aggravation,

getting rid of the criminals. But, he can also be seen as a villain due to his cold blooded behavior in eliminating criminals. The Punisher’s biggest belief is that the law is unreliable and criminals cannot be changed. But, is the Punisher a hero or villain?

As already covered in the literature review, studies on the relationship between incarceration policy and crime reduction is yet to be clear for utilization by policymakers. In most cases, researchers agree that increased incarceration may perhaps have a positive effect on the reduction of crime rates. However, it is the scale of this action that has a limiting scope attached to it when empirical studies are carried. For instance, Stemen (2007) observes that a 10 percent increase in incarceration may lead to about 2 to 4 percent reduction in crime.

Tonya it is believed that society influences a person to become criminal. In some instances people learn criminal behavior from the people who are around them. Deviant behavior violates the social norms. People who use drugs are expected to be criminals because they are vulnerable to the circumstance in which they find themselves in. Drug abusers may engage in crime to seek revenge against those who they think did them wrong or they might commit an act of crime to make themselves feel better. What it boils down to is money, all people are encouraged to work hard but many people are prevented from getting the money they need through legal channels, such as work. As a consequence, these individuals experience hardships and they may attempt to

As crime continues to occur, criminologists begin to define new theories to explain our seemingly naturalistic tendencies on what mental processes take place for an individual to actually partake in criminal activity. The symbolic interactionist perspective defines itself by its strong beliefs in the fact that criminals are defined by their social processes. The social process theory states that criminality is a function of people’s interactions with various groups, organizations and processes in society. For example, an individual’s connection with family, school, friends, religion and media would all be main factors in determining how their criminal structure within their personality came

Prison overcrowding occurs when the number of inmates incarcerated exceeds the capacity in that system. In the United States, this has become problematic, especially in state prisons. Criminal behavior and a variety of policies cause prison overcrowding, and it harms personnel, inmates, and taxpayers.