Life After Inaccuracies Of Life In Prison

African-American men are imprisoned at a higher rate than white men in the United States (Nellis, 2016). More than forty percent of prison inmates have current or past mental health issues (Bronson & Berzofsky, 2017). Research findings also suggest that many black American men do not get mental health treatment when it is needed (Woodward, Taylor & Chatters, 2011). These facts combined suggest that underlying some “criminal behaviors is a need for mental health services and/or community support that the traditional criminal courts are not equipped to handle” (Prior & Jones, 2017, p. 58).

Overall, the United States prison system and society’s view of African Americans needs to change. People need to make sure that the mistakes society has made in the past do not repeat themselves. In order to fix many of the existing problems it is important to focus on reforming the prison system. Doing so would prevent many future cases of injustice and racial

Alexander’s main premises focuses on the large majority of African American men imprisoned today, as she reflects on the direct result of it that “young black men today may be just as likely to suffer discrimination in employment, housing, public benefits. And jury service as a black man in the Jim Crow era- discrimination that is perfectly legal, because it is based on one’s criminal record.” (Alexander, 181) Alexander points out not only how a significant portion of black men are ending up in prison, but how when released they face discrimination because of their criminal record making them unable to rehabilitate their lives and putting them back into the ghetto. Discrimination is a main factor which puts people of color in the penal system, and a main factor which when getting out keeps them from changing their lifestyle for the better.

All societal groups are affected by the issue of imprisonment, but it is a far more likely occurrence among marginalized cultural groups, particularly African Americans. As the United States celebrates the nation's triumph over race with the selection of Barack Obama as the first African American male president, a majority of young black males in major American cities are locked behind bars, or categorized felons for life (Alexander, 2010, p. 1). Bonczar and Beck (1997) report that:

The problem to be address in this paper is the lack of reintegration programs and mass incarceration of African Americans in the United. Mass incarceration amongst African Americans has had a catastrophic impact on families and communities and continues to create a cycle of discrimination, which makes its nearly impossible as a race to progress. Because of the soaring incarceration rate in the United States, many prisons are over populated and lack resources and support to help inmates succeed once released from prisons. Since there is an insufficiency in resources, many of these men enter back into society in need of education and little job experience making it difficult to find a job, creating many of them to reoffend. Of all men released from prison 81.1% are unskilled or possessed no skills, 18.9% are semi-skilled or skilled workers with the average reading level being slightly below 8th grade and 42.5% having less than a 12th grade education. In the first three years of release, 73% of African Americans are rearrested. This is a critical issue that needs to be addressed by appropriate programs that focus on poverty, homeslessness, unemployment, substance abuse, and poor medical and mental health. The first step in the right direction is creating a policy that addresses those needs with a reintegration program through job readiness, education and health management. Reintegration programs will improve families, communities, and job opportunities. If

In 2011, I spent time serving in prisons with a church organization who’s goal was to change the systemic problems within the prison system. This caused me to examine all aspects of inequality and oppression that disproportionately affects people of color.

Mass incarceration is colossal in the United States but more common in the black community. Black men are in prison than in college. Black men are locked up every day for crimes and then seem to be forgotten. They are forced to plead guilty and take plea deals for a reduced sentence, instead of the risk of taking it to trial and be given a significant sentence. Being behind the walls of a prison for a long period can have some disadvantages which may lead to suicide or suicidal thoughts. Long periods of incarceration can also affect the chances of receiving a good job which may provide good benefits. That is why in some prisons do have job training, which prepares an inmate for employment after incarceration. I plan to discuss the similarities

Once a prisoner is released they do have a hard time on the outside, because the world on the outside might have changed, well depending how long they were in prison. Many offenders find it hard to adjust to the outside world because of new technology, sometimes jobs require someone to know how to use a tablet or computer, but if they have been locked up they wouldn’t know how to use it. African Americans who are uneducated and poor are unable to follow gender roles, economic activity, and have good public behavior (Alexander, 213).

America’s prison system is not broken. Since, its conception, a little before the nineteenth century, the dominant white social class has maintained its racial, and social prejudice through the enslavement of the prison industrial complex. You see, to them it is working just fine. From the police force deemed to “serve and protect,”’ to the predominately elected all white male prosecutors, to the continuing construction of more jail houses, and to the failed “War on Drugs” America’s “Home of the Free” is governed, and ran by the same white men, who have the same agenda. Sadly, this is not new information, and there seems to be no end in sight. Instead, prison enslavement in America continues to grow at an alarming rate.

In America, people are sent to prison with the goal for the convict to be punished, to prevent them from doing bad things again, and to deter others from breaking the law. Each year, millions of people are released from prison, but roughly two-thirds of the prisoners who were released reoffend within three years of leaving prison, often with a more serious and violent offense. This can be attributed to the ineffective correction style that America has adopted: punishment. American prisons have focused more on punishment than correcting the character, attitudes, and or behavior of the convicted offender and this has held an adverse effect on one’s incorporation into society after incarceration. The treatment of prisoners while they are

Although isolated a community thrives behind razored wire. What is thriving is an important concern “given that about 95 out of every 100 incarcerated people eventually rejoin society” (Gorgol & Sponsler, 2011). One of the purposes of prisons is to take criminals off the street and keep communities safer. However, what happens after a criminal's sentence is completed and they return to society? Higher education is changing the landscape within the prison.There are approximately 95 out of every 100 prisoners who will eventually return to society (Gorgol & Sponsler, 2011). What kind of individual a prison churns out is an important part of the

The first point of the article is that too many people (6 million) are in prisons in this country. These people are not productive, are in a state of “watchful paranoia – anxiety and boredom and fear mixed into an enveloping fog,” where they are locked in small cells, see no one, fear being raped, and all at the expense of the states, costing more than higher education. From 1980 until 2010 the number of those imprisoned has tripled, most of the imprisoned are poor and many are black, “more black men in the grip of the criminal justice system… then were in slavery.”

The population of young African-American prisoners incarcerated in state prisons is five times more than whites (Nellis,14). In 2014, the average rate of black male prisoners was 1,408 per 100,000 population, and as of 2017 there has been no sign that this rate is decreasing. This group of young black men comes mostly from poor backgrounds where there is limited education, unstable family systems, and often an exposure to violence. Thus, they are more likely to commit various types of crimes. Moreover, “[black males] are incarcerated not solely because of their crime, but also because of racially disparate policies, beliefs, and practices, rendering these collateral consequences all the more troubling” (Nellis,3). Living behind bars is difficult for all individuals, but it is even worse for black prisoners since they receive condemnation from the outside world and also unfair treatment inside prisons. Because there is no privacy in prisons, inmates eat, sleep, work and follow orders from not only the authorities but also from other dominant inmates. In order to survive behind bars, black male prisoners establish their own subculture, which is based on such features as hierarchy, language, behavior, and role of race. Prison subculture is a reality that is little known by the general public, and even the government and criminal justice authorities have only a meager knowledge of it. This research is an exploration of prison subculture, which consists of a particular language

The phrase “once a criminal always a criminal” is a phrase that has plagued our African American men in this society for many years. There has been a long debate for many years on whether we can rehabilitate prisoners so when they they return to our society they are new men. But the question remains do we give theses prisoners the means to survive once they are out of the system. Or do we judge them denying them jobs and the rights of every other American once they have serve their time. About 600,000 individuals are released from prison each year to return to their communities. This is about 1600 people a day.() These inmates are released into society with little resources and with prison term becoming longer and longer, many inmates go in one decade and are released in another. Life changes so quickly for us on the outside sometimes it is hard for us to even catch up. Picture being locked away for over 10 years are then being released into a world that you know nothing about anymore. Research has been found to show that recidivism usually takes place within 2 months of an immates relase from prison.

Antiblack racism still exists. This is an unfortunate fact, but a true one. It does not exist in terms of segregation, Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, or slavery anymore, but there are still numerous examples of racism in the world. One example, which may come as a surprise, is found in the United States justice system. But how could a nation who stands behind freedom and equality have a corrupt system of justice for its citizens? While not all parts of the system contradict themselves, prison institutions are a profound example of racism in the justice system. A multitude of examples exist, but the best ones come from current and ex-convicts as they are living the example and telling the story, as well as civil rights advocates who work to analyze these situations and offer ideas for reform. Works such as Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis, Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver, The Essential Etheridge Knight by Etheridge Knight, and Bastards of the Reagan Era by Reginald Dwayne Betts are only a few examples of novels and poetry that expose the racist inclinations of the United States prison system. Written by esteemed scholars and academics, current and ex-convicts, all authors detail the struggle and need for racial reform in the nation’s prison system.