Incarceration Case Study

The United States accounts for 5% of the world population, but our prison population makes up 25% of the world’s (Nagin, 2014). African Americans account for the largest percent of our prison population because they have the highest incarceration rate compared to other races. This essay will argue that African Americans are incarcerated at a higher rate than Caucasians. Proven by statistical data, there are grounds to establish that the racial disparity in incarceration rates is a social problem. To address this social problem, public policy should be implemented by the Federal Government.

As of 2015, 2.7% of adults in the United States were under correctional control, the lowest rate since 1994, however that is still roughly 6.7 million adults (Kaeble & Glaze, 2016). While the correctional population has declined, correctional facilities in the United States are still grossly overcrowded, with many facilities at or surpassing capacity. A report in 2010 by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation showed that on average, facilities were at 175% capacity (Brown, 2010). However, as of midnight on October 31st, 2017 the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported that their facilities, on average, were 132% occupied (Brown, 2017). Not only is prison overcrowding a burden on the facilities themselves, but also on the inmates. Prison overcrowding, that is, housing more inmates than the facility can humanely facilitate (Haney, 2006), places a strain on all resources throughout the correctional facility, including on the healthcare that’s offered, educational programs, and most dramatically on the physical space available to house inmates (Ekland-Olson, 1983).

Prison Overcrowding: Prisons have become warehouses of human beings as opposed to institutions meant to provide a means to engage in restitution by delinquent individuals in society. “One necessary condition for rising incarceration rates has been the massive expansion in prison construction and capacity, without which prison populations could not have grown so dramatically” (Guetzkow & Schoon, 2015). As more prisons are being built, more delinquents are being incarcerated in order to fill them. “Prison facilities are filled 38 percent beyond rated capacity, with overcrowding being particularly acute in higher-security institutions” (Rowland, 2013).

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 United States is the world’s leader in incarceration. It spends more resources on its prison system than any other nation and has the largest prison population in the world. Between 1980 and 2016, the number of inmates in U.S. state and federal prisons increased from 320,000 to more than 1.5 million. This corresponds to a change in the incarceration rate from 139 to 450 prisoners per 100,000 residents. Most lawmakers tend to believe that incarceration is a necessary construct needed to reform criminals to properly incorporate them into society. They insist imprisonment reduces crime rates through incapacitation and deterrence. Thus, it is not surprising that expenditures on corrections increased as states built new prisons,

America has one of the largest prison population and according to the bureau of the justice department. States and federal prisons held 1574700 inmates in December 2013.and it increased by 4300 inmates over the years end. More than two-thirds of prisoners were arrested within the first six months of release. These statistics show that prison as punishment alone do not work and some measures need to be but in place to decrease the population of inmates and recidivism. Prison should be used as both rehabilitation and punishment.

After touring both the Pendleton maximum security prison, and the Pendleton juvenile correctional facility I can say that while they both house inmates, the way they treat their inmates is totally different compared to one another. In Pendleton maximum facility, the staff would treat their inmates like any other criminal and hold them until it was time for them to be released, while in the Pendleton juvenile facility the staff called the inmates “students” while holding them until they believe the students are ready to behave when they are released. In this paper I want to explain how both facilities handles their inmates differently, the facilities themselves and their layouts, the rehabilitative programs available at both facilities, and how the security levels and the number of inmates assigned to the facilities effect how the treatment is implemented at each facility.

The United States accounts for 5% of the world population, but the nation’s prison population makes up 25% of the world’s (Nagin, 2014). African Americans comprise the largest percent of the United States prison population because they have the highest incarceration rate compared to other races. This essay will argue that African Americans are incarcerated at a higher rate than Caucasians. Proven by statistical data, there are grounds to establish that the racial disparity in incarceration rates is a social problem. To address this social problem, public policy should be implemented by the government at the state level.

Cities with higher incarceration rates had increased socio-economic instability. Some neighborhoods decreased in population so severely that they became non-existent due to the mass incarceration rate. Because the government allowed the inmates to work for private industry for a fraction of what the standard wage was at the time, many free-laborers had difficulty finding gainful employment and had lost their ability to use collective bargaining. The free-labor loss of jobs associated with hiring inmates also increased poverty in urban areas which in turn increased crimes of

In 1973, New York State passed the first harshest statewide anti-drug law in the country. Named after New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the Rockefeller Drug laws required a mandatory lengthy prison sentences for all felony-level drug and possession offenses. The intent of lengthy prison sentence was meant to deter drug abuse and drug crimes. Between 1970s and 2000s, the Prison population tripled from 11 percent (12,579) in 1973 to almost 35 percent (70,154) in 2008 (DCJS, 2011; Feinblatt, Berman & Foxx, 2000). The overcrowding of prison in response to drug-related crime created a new opportunity for reformers to find alternative ways in treating drug offenders instead of placing them in prison. As drug courts began to grow exponentially during the 1990s, advocacy groups led the charge in coordinating efforts to lobby efforts in reforming the Rockefeller sentencing. In 2009, under Governor Paterson, the State legislature enacted legislation that shifted away from mass incarceration towards a public health model.

Bohn & Hanley (2011) expresses a clear dramatic increase in the number of people incarcerated in the United States since the early 1970’s, mostly because of drugs (pg. 365). Another notable fact reveals the increase of confinement is the rising charge in price per day to house prisoners; as well, keep jails and prison overcrowded to make more profit (Bohn & Hanley, 2011, pg.369). Although efforts to provide alternatives methods to long-term incarceration exists, the fact still remains that private sectors that own prisons and jails still depend on a high rate of imprisonment (Bohm & Hanley, 2011, pg. 370). Noticeably, the strategic approach taken is to build larger facilities to house more offenders, make more profit from their crimes and

In their study “Incarceration, Addiction and Harm Reduction: Inmates Experience Injecting Drugs in Prison” , Small, Kain, Laliberte, Schechter, O'shaughnessy and Spittal, (2005), examined the HIV risk which associated with intravenous drug use in British Columbia prisons. Small et. al (2005), garnered the information from twenty former male inmates who were recruited from a similar cohort study of injection users in Vancouver, Canada. These inmates had previously used drugs while incarcerated in British Columbia penal institutions. The intent of this study was to validate existing research and to add significant weight to the data that argues for policy change in the prison systems. Moreover to develop a study of types of intravenous drug users in prison who are at high risk for HIV/AIDS

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)

The incarceration of minority populations has always remained higher than non-minority populations throughout time. This literature review seeks to address the causes that are contributing to the increase in incarceration rates, and to answer the question of, how has history and social influences such as stereotypes, societal exclusion, and prejudices impacted minorities. The purpose of this literature review is to address the continued increase in higher incarceration rates, and to determine the causes of higher incarceration rates among minority groups. In doing so the review will follow, three common themes found among the research: (1) History and political, (2) societal acceptance of metanarratives perpetuated by politics, media and privileged

The judicial branch of government’s decisions established the legal standards for prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners. During the 1980s and 1990s, however the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress used their authority to force a deceleration of Federal judges’ involvement in correctional management. (Smith, 1997) Court decisions and legislation narrowed the definitions of prisoners’ rights, required greater judicial deference to correctional administrators, and limited both prisoners’ effective utilization of civil rights litigation and Federal judges’ remedial authority. (Smith, 1997) A number of states expanded community corrections programs, drug treatment, and other sentencing alternatives, partially as an attempt to control growth of prison expansion. Programs based on deterrence, incapacitation and increased control do not reduce future criminal activities of offenders and delinquents. Because of the many changes and upgrades to technology, correctional personnel, prison population, and the privatization of corrections will more than likely produce new issues that will attract judicial attention throughout the litigation process. Other developments have helped make considerations of policies to reduce prison