Mass Incarceration Effects

Our group chose the topic of mass incarceration because it is extremely relevant in this day and age. There are hundreds of thousands of American citizens that have been incarcerated for a variety of crimes. When mass incarceration was first introduced it was unknowingly supporting the “War on Drugs”, which we will go into more detail in the paper. The war on drugs inevitably became a war on people. The penalties of carrying different types of drugs became more severe, and those who were caught by the police were minority groups especially young African American men. The consequences of mass incarceration occur in more than just a jail cell. Once prisoners are released, it is extremely difficult to become employed once there is a conviction following your name. Even as supporters of The Black Lives Matter Movement protested against the unfair treatment of African Americans, those who resisted against authorities were imprisoned. Throughout this paper we will see the sociological perspective of mass incarceration on todays society.

In his chapter on “Assessing the Prison Experiment,” he explained that the increase of crime rate is not the sole reason that mass incarceration occurs, and it was also because the courts and the legislature did indeed became “tougher” on offenders (Currie 14). Currie discussed the circumstances of the war on drugs, which was launched by President Richard Nixon. He indicates that the incarceration rate and sentence longevity were increased dramatically since the beginning of the war on drugs. Some of these offenders were given a sentence for more than ten years without the possibility of parole, which is taking away any chance of the prisoner being released before the completion of his or her sentence. Locking people up is a failed attempt to descend the crime rate, and the adoption of mandatory minimum sentencing law is the root of mass incarceration. The government should reconsider the current sentencing laws and reform the correctional system in order to solve the current mass incarceration problem. Furthermore, establishing more community-based programs for youth offenders and initiating early release programs are excellent alternatives to resolve the issue of mass incarceration from both long-term and short-term perspectives, respectively.

Mass incarceration is known as a net of laws, policies, and rules that equates to the American criminal justice system. This series of principles of our legal system works as an entrance to a lifelong position of lower status, with no hope of advancement. Mass incarceration follows those who are released from prison through exclusion and legalized discrimination, hidden within America. The New Jim Crow is a modernized version of the original Jim Crow Laws. It is a modern racial caste system designed to keep American black men and minorities oppressed with laws and regulations by incarceration. The system of mass incarceration is the “new Jim Crow” due to the way the U.S. criminal justice system uses the “War on Drugs” as the main means of allowing discrimination and repression. America currently holds the highest rate of incarceration in the world, and even more African American men imprisoned, although white men are more likely to commit drug crimes but not get arrested. The primary targets of the criminal justice system are men of color. Mass incarceration is a rigid, complex system of racial control that resembles Jim Crow.

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

Second, mass incarceration impacts society by aleinating the convict and his or her family in numerous ways. For example, Professor Gottschauk argues that mass incarceration negatively impacts the convict and the family unit in the following four areas: (1) Disturbance of free and fair elections; (2) Loss of the promise of the American dream; (3) Forfeiture of pensions, disability benefits, and veerans’ benefits; and (4) Failure to achieve future job potential in

Mass incarceration became a public policy issue in the United States in the 2000s. Now in 2016, there are still many questions about America’s incarceration rate, 698 prisoners per 100,000 people, which is only surpassed by Seychelle’s at 868 for every 100,000. They concern the phenomenon’s beginning, purpose, development, and essentially resolution. In her book published this year, assistant professor of history and African and African-American studies at Harvard Elizabeth Hinton challenges popular belief that mass incarceration originated from Reagan’s War on Drugs. Mass incarceration’s function as a modern racial caste system is discussed in a 2010 book by Michelle Alexander, an associate professor of law at Ohio State University, civil

Mass Incarceration is a predicament in the U.S. because in the land of the free, there are more than two million people in prison. Prisons are homes to the majority of twenty-two percent of the U.S. population. The U.S. has a massive incarceration rate, seven hundred and sixteen per every one hundred thousand. The U.S. makes five percent of the world’s population and the third country in which most people live in but number one incarcerating humans.

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).

Mass incarceration is a major problem in the United States. Since the tough on crime movement that began to emphasize more punishment and creating new policies such as; three strikes law, truth-in sentencing laws, mandatory sentencing, and determinate sentencing, our prisons and jails have become overcrowded. The three strikes law increases the prison sentence of an offender convicted of three felonies or serious crime. Usually the punishment ranges from a minimum of 25 years to life in prison. The truth-in sentencing laws require the offender to serve a substantial amount of their prison sentence (usually around 85 percent) before they are eligible for release on parole. The mandatory sentencing requires a minimum period of incarceration that the offender must serve regardless of the history of the offender or the nature of the circumstance. These get tough policies have implicated longer prison and jail sentences and has reduced the amount of discretion that the judges, parole/probation officers and prison and jail administrators. These actions have consequently increased the prison and jail population, which causes an increase in money spent on jails and prisons.

Mass incarceration is the inhumane process by which people are cornered into the criminal “justice” system and recognized as criminals and felons. Criminals in the United States tend to receive longer sentences than those in other countries, even when they commit the same crimes. Furthermore, once these individuals are released

Mass incarceration is a term primarily associated with the United States of America’s policy trends beginning around the 1970’s. During that time, there is a dramatic shift in the rhetoric regarding crime, causing a wave of policy changes that have set the course for the United States’ current 2.3 million people incarcerated. In California in 1976, then Governor Brown followed this trend and

Mass incarceration is a term used by historians and sociologists to describe the substantial increase in the number of incarcerated people in the United States' prisons over the past forty years. Mass incarceration comparatively and historically have extreme rates of imprisonment among young African Americans. The united states imprisons more of its people than any of its country in the world. It has became a giant industry in the US. Mass incarceration has has been going on for decades amongst blacks and Latinos. People like rapper Meek Mill, and Kalief Browder are just a few that were arrested for petty crimes and sent to solitary confinement and or/sent to prison for petty crimes.

Mass Incarceration is an important topic because it has a huge impact on the United States. Let alone the fact that the United States has the highest incarcerated population in the world with 716 out of 100,000 citizens behind bars. Another important topic is that a certain race and ethnicity are behind bars which are the African Americans and Latinos than whites. But African Americans are 1 in 3, Latinos are 1 in 6, and whites are 1 in 17 who will be in prison during their lifetime. A topic that is also important and affects the United States dramatically is the annual cost which is 81 billion. The main reason for people getting incarcerated is because of drugs, so 1 in 5 people are incarcerated for a drug offense. And

From birth I was born as a statistic and so were many others just like me. The others being, African-American males. According to the sentencingproject.org at birth 1 out of every 3 African American will spend time in jail or prison in their entire lifetime. Also they state that African-American males are incarcerated six times the rate of Caucasian males and two point five times the rate of Hispanic males. This is clearly a huge issue that is very rarely addressed within the media and in classroom discussions. So I have brought it upon myself to address the elephant in the room, the very very large one. With the trends and rates of mass incarceration it only poses fear and caution in a whole race. The fear of just becoming another statistic,

Mass incarceration is one of very many huge problems in the United States. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in many countries around the world. The drug war and racial profiling is a huge cause to mass incarceration. Some individuals believe that mass incarceration is not the blame for the war on drugs. The Jim Crow law was more than just a series of severe anti-black laws, it became a way of life. Michelle Alexander is an author who wrote The New Jim Crow, states that, "The mass incarceration of people of color is a big part of the reason that a black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery” (740). Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow covers many issues with the U.S criminal justice system. This period called Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system up in till mid-1960s. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were positioned to the status of second class citizens. The name Jim Crow is a fictional name that was term used for blacks. There is an enormous prison problem in the United States. More than 1 out of 100 Americans are behind bars and the U.S is the largest prison population in the world. An author name Michael Vitiello wrote an article about Mass Incarceration and says, “Its reduction in its prison population...the state's prison health care and mental health systems were so inadequate that the state was violating the prisoners' Eighth Amendment rights to be free from cruel and