Incarceration Hypothesis

Although the United States composes a mere five percent of the world’s population, it holds twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners (13th 0:01-0:05). In recent years, mass incarceration, or the practice of arresting vast amounts of people, has become a relevant issue within the United States. As rising amounts of individuals, primarily minorities, are arrested, for both serious and petty crimes, government spending on jails and inmates has undergone a drastic increase as well. The large sum of money that has been directed toward correctional facilities has initiated a great amount of controversy, as many believe that it should be used to cover the rising cost of education instead. Since the majority of inmates are currently minorities,

“Every year, 641,000 people walk out of prison gates, but people go to jail over 11 million times each year” (Rabuy). Within the United States, the incarceration rate is extremely high. For those who are incarcerated the percentage of people with a mental illness is remarkably prominent. For some offenders, there is another route out there such as diversionary programs which have a positive outcome. Diversionary programs such as The Choice is Yours is a beneficial route for first-time nonviolent felony drug offenders.

In today’s world, families are dynamic and interdependent systems. The developmental processes of the children in the family are deeply affected by how the family system operates. However, a family’s structure does not determine whether it is a healthy family system or not. Today, families consist of single parents, stepparents, divorced parents, remarried parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. They are all able to contribute to a healthy functioning family system by meeting each family member’s needs and encouraging positive communication (Jamiolkowski, 2008). Unhealthy family systems have negative and possibly

The United States’ ever-expanding prison and jail population has brought about many questions regarding the side-effects of mass incarceration, namely involving the effects on the children and families from which those incarcerated are removed. Regardless of the perspectives on the appropriate position of incarceration in the criminal justice system, imprisonment disrupts many positive and nurturing relationships between parents and their children. In fact, more than 1.7 million children have a parent who is incarcerated in a state or federal prison as of 2007 (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008). These youths are at risk for developing behavior and school problems in addition to insecure attachment relationships. Parental incarceration, which may also be coupled with economic disadvantage and inconsistent living arrangements (Geller, Garfinkel, Cooper, & Mincy, 2009) can be an extremely difficult experience for children. It should come as no surprise that families with children suffer economic strain and instability when a parent is imprisoned, considering how each parent in today’s world typically needs to set aside time to earn an income to support their family, and most are unable to support their homes on one income. While it may be considered intrusive to some to intervene in the lives of children and families with incarcerated parents, research has suggested that there are positive societal benefits to intervening in the lives of incarcerated parents and their

The vast societal effects from mass incarceration have caused an increasingly alienated population to form in the U.S., which can be broadly classified in the dual areas of lasting effects and impacts to the family unit. First, the lasting effects of high incarceration rates are that they impact the rights of the convict, particularly African Americans. For example, noted civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander posits that the long term effects of mass incarceration operate to deny black Americans the future right to volte, the ability to obtain public benefits, the possibility to sit on juries, and ultimately the opportunity to secure gainful employment (Steiker, 2011), Moreover, professor Alexander argues that this mass incarceration together with the prior Jim Crow laws and the past practice of slaery in the U.S. operate to ensure that black Americans remain s subordinate class of citizens defined primarily by their race (Steiker, 2011).

At any given time, there are approximately 2 million American citizens incarcerated and nearly 700,000 inmates returning to their communities each year. (Petitt & Western, 2004; Western, 2001). Since most prisoners are eventually released, mass incarceration has in turn produced a steep rise in the number of individuals reentering society and undergoing the process of social and economic reintegration. (Travis, 2005). During the period between 1982 and 2007, the number of Americans incarcerated in jails and prisons increased by 274% (Pew Center on the States, 2009). In addition to the increase of the individuals incarcerated, there is an even larger amount of individuals under community supervision, with a recent study finding that one in every 48 American adults are either on probation or parole on any given day (Glaze & Bonczar, 2011). Recent statistics show that the percentage of parolees re-incarcerated after release currently stands at 32% (Maruschak and Parks, 2012).

Law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. This confinement, whether before or after a criminal conviction, is called incarceration.

There are over one hundred twenty correctional facilities within America continuously growing over time. Within these facilities, more than two million prisoners are kept for committing various crimes during their lifetime. Out of the many people detained in these prisons, African Americans make up a significant portion of this population. Specifically, African American males contribute to its high number of inhabitants. From this information, it can be inferred that many families are left without providers and support. With this in mind, many poor neighborhoods and African American families lacking one or more providers struggle to maintain stability with jobs, financial dependency and

Mass incarceration is a real problem that is currently affecting minority groups across America. Even though the U.S. is a country where everyone is equal to the eyes of the law no matter their race, it seems that is not the case anymore. Throughout, its history the U.S. government has taken advantage of minority groups and has manipulated its laws in order cast out those who aren’t considered worthy enough to belong to the American society. The time has come to put a stop to this discriminatory government and the time has come for the judicial system to change its laws and policies to give an equal opportunity to any human being. Race shouldn't define your future or the probabilities of someone going to prison. Everyone should be given an

As understood by sociologists and scholars mass incarceration is a wide term that describes the increased rate of imprisonment in the prisons of United States for the past four decades. Accounting about 5% of the population of the world, United States recently have rapidly accommodated one-quarter of world prisoners. With the population statistics, the large numbers of prisoners leaves everyone with endless questions that need urgency in answering. Why the large number in the prisons? What are the causes of imprisonment? Are the constitutional laws in United States so harsh on minor faults that should have alternative ways of dealing with? Is justice really followed to the letter completely? And most importantly, who constitutes for these prisoners?

Immorality, A subject that has become so common that we tend to just ignore it, or perhaps we don't even care anymore. Our own americans don't care about the safety and integrity we once had; within the current year there has been 3,228 murders by gun, 410 deaths due to domestic violence, and 9,495 deaths due to drunken driving. Currently as if May on average the death rate of murders by a firearm is ten per day, one die a day due to domestic violence, and drunken driving racks up twenty-six deaths per day. However, the thing to be feared of is that thirty-six americans die per day on average due to three easily avoidable actions. . Within barely four months of 2018 crimes and deaths have skyrocketed and with the current legal punishment system its slowed down some but its

Based on the U.S. Census Bureau, there are approximately 319 million people in the United States of America. Of the 319 million people, a little over thirteen percent are African-American, seventeen percent are Latino and Hispanic, and nearly sixty three percent are White, non-Hispanic. Although the white population is nearly triple of any other ethic population in the U.S., the incarceration statistics show numbers that are drastically different and are alarming to say the least.

America is experiencing a social phenomenon commonly referred to as mass incarceration, in which the rate of incarceration has increased by, “...has grown by 700 percent.(Goffman)” in the last 40 years. Mass incarceration is difficult to digest in totality due to its immense nature, nuance and variety of answers with the essence of ‘could be right’. In order to decipher the complex puzzle of mass incarceration, we must establish borders to manifest clarifying order in the overwhelming clutter of data. Theory will assist in demonstrating how the general and specific facts of issues, in this case mass incarceration, relate by essentially declaring the philosophical frame of the interpretation. In order to gain a nuanced understanding of America’s mass incarceration, three relatively distinct theories will be applied: conflict theory, structural functionalism and symbolic interactionism. These theories are categorized by two approaches of sociological investigation- macrosociological, which emphasizes the analysis of social systems and populations on a large scale, and micro sociological, which emphasizes the impact individuals have on social structure.

Currently as a nation we use severity as our biggest form of deterrence; our threat of imprisonment has grown dramatically over time. In 1985 the average release time for a conviction of robbery was 32 months and in 2002 it jumped to a minimum of 53 months (Incarceration and Crime). We focus heavily on severity and longer incarceration rates; the idea is that a 10% increase in incarceration would lead to a 1.6%-5.5% decrease in crime (Lieka 2006) but this is not true. Prison rates have increased tenfold since 1970 and yet the crime rates have not dropped near those percents.The leading argument against increase in incarceration uses other states as examples of how ineffective it is; for example Florida heavily focuses on imprisonment to reduce crime with no effect (Incarceration and Crime). This idea would be great and a good mode of deterrence if those who go to prison actually learn their lessons and mend their future ways. Also if the unwanted effects of prison were at least tolerable this might deter crime but sadly even after experiment and evidence it is not a well functioning theory. The cost of funding our mass incarceration does balance out the decrease in overall crime. Besides when we have a nation who is majority hard on crimes compared to other crimes we end up severely punishing people who probably would respond better to rehabilitation than jail.

Before enrolling in this class, I was unaware of the topic that would be introduced to us. Many of my friends have taken this class in the past and recommended that I check each course to see which topic the class focuses on. Instead, I neglected their words of advice and dove into the class blind. Although I was unaware of the topic to be introduced, once I heard it being about mass incarceration, I was somewhat relieved. The class I took as a prerequisite to Writing 39C was Writing 37 and the topic was about racial conflict in the past. Upon hearing the topic in our first session, my mind instantly linked together the racial conflict I had prior knowledge about to the racial profiling that was an incentive to the mass incarceration. Connecting these two broadened my view on the "New Jim Crow" and allowed me insight on where I wanted to start my research and how to branch off from it.