Persuasive Essay On Life In Prison

Mass incarceration is an issue that defines us as a society. Today, the United States of America makes up about five percent of the world’s population and has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. Also, one of every one hundred adults are locked up, and one in every thirty-seven adults in the United States is under some form of correctional supervision: in addition, African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites. Young black people went through many difficulties; however, they are still called super predators by Hillary Clinton. One of many difficulties is the African slavery, although it was over a century ago, it left a scar and a horrible memory in everyone's mind. All the phenomenons that occurred in our country during the last century gathered thoughts and escalated the problem of mass incarceration which made the people including the police look differently at African American people. I am against the mass incarceration issue. Opposing Donald Trump, I think we should reduce the number of people behind bars with cautions, because It is a complex subject that has many causes and effects in the long term to the people inside and outside the prison.

Over the past few decades, America has developed an obsession with incarceration. Since the early 70s, crime rates have remained stable, but as of 2006 the rate of incarceration has increased nearly 500% (Hallett 2006) and has only continued to increase since. Anti- crime rhetoric has led to more public fear than ever “even though the crime rates suggest that public safety has improved over the years” (Patten 2017) This increase in arrests is fueled mainly by “the war on drugs” and strict control of immigration. The war on drugs (Coined by Richard Nixon and spearheaded by Ronald Reagan) (Patten 2017) causes thousands of arrests each year, and targets minority communities (African Americans get arrested 8 times more frequently than white offenders for drug crimes). While anti-immigration laws target mainly Mexican

To begin with, life imprisonment is a more humane option. When given a death penalty, the prisoner is left with no other options but to die. As a result, the person

The death penalty is something many people face each day . There is approximately 1,188 people that were executed in the U.S from 1977 through 2009 . There are many ways on how to execute someone, but primarily we use the lethal injection. The way people are trailed and put on the death penalty, is because of the involvement with first degree of murder, or other crimes. Proponents say that the death penalty is an important tool for preserving law and order. They also argue a term “an eye for an eye” which means that it helps the families grieving, and ensure that they don’t release back to the public for future tragedy. The people against the death penalty say that it is wrong to take a human life, and has no effect on crime. Many of the death row inmates prefer death over life in prison. They say that many death row inmates have been volunteering for their executions. Over 75 inmates have volunteered for their death sentence. This is called a state-assisted suicide. Many inmates said that they would rather gamble on being executed than having life parole. Many inmates say that they spend over a decade awaiting execution. Some prisoners have been in death row for 20 years. They usually are isolated from other prisoners and spend as much as 23 hours alone in their cells. The two punishments they receive other than the death penalty is the living conditions they live in prison. They are usually in a state where they would be executed and,

Today, it seems almost incomprehensible that so many people with serious mental illnesses reside in prisons instead of receiving treatment. Over a century and a half ago, reform advocates like Dorothea Dix campaigned for prison reform, urging lawmakers to house the mentally ill in hospitals rather than in prisons. The efforts undertaken by Dix and other like-minded reformers were successful: from around 1870 to 1970, most of the United States’ mentally ill population was housed in hospitals rather than in prisons. Considering reformers made great strides in improving this situation over a century and a half ago. Granted, mental hospitals in the late 19th and early 20th century were often badly run and critically flawed, but rather than pushing for reform of these hospitals, many politicians lobbied for them to close their doors, switching instead to a community-based system for treating the mentally ill. Although deinstitutionalization was originally understood as a humane way to offer more suitable services to the mentally ill in community-based settings, some politicians seized upon it as a way to save money by shutting down institutions without providing any meaningful treatment alternatives. This callousness has created a one-way road to prison for massive numbers of impaired individuals and the inhumane warehousing of thousands of mentally ill people. Nevertheless, there are things that can be done to lower the rate mentally ill persons are being incarcerated. Such

Youth incarceration is a growing dilemma in the United States that populates facilities as well as ruins lives at an alarming rate. As a society we cannot expect our kids to be the future of this nation when we are placing them in facilities where they become victims of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that is far worse for them than adults. Michelle Alexander is a professor at Ohio State University and a graduate of Standford Law school. She states in her award-winning book, The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness "Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted once being placed into a facility" (Alexander,123).  Adolescents being detained causes many problems that are much more detrimental to them than adults. Some of them will now have exposure to drugs and gangs. Others will become victims of sexual abuse from other older inmates or staff members and risk transmitting sexual diseases. Most young juveniles have a mental illness that has not been treated or they become suicidal when staying in a facility.  These young people are still adapting to their environment and should not be treated as adults.  They are unable to grow and develop when we are punishing them like adults and trapping them in the US justice system.  The families of these children will now suffer knowing what their child faces in these facilities. As a nation we cannot consider ourselves civilized when we are placing these young people in facilities that punish them like adults.

Prison holds Millions of Americans everyday. Whether it be for theft, murder, or drugs, the morals of these people imprisoned have been corrupted and they have chosen to break the law. American citizens have always been faced with these questions: Is the death penalty morally right to execute? Is death penalty breaking the eighth Amendment? Depending on the person, they may agree with these questions or disagree. Even though times in America have changed tremendously, The death penalty should still be used as form of punishment and the crimes for life sentences should be reduced.

Chaos. The sound of gunfire is overwhelming. Dirt and dust is everywhere. The heads of children are swimming with drugs; cocaine, alcohol, gunpowder. Small fingers meant for crayons and fingerpaint tighten on the triggers of lethal firearms. Brainwashed armies of humans under five feet kill innocent civilians, all in the name of power. If these children were forced to live in these terrible conditions every day, they shouldn’t be prosecuted. However, they shouldn’t be welcomed with open, understanding arms, and be immediately set free into society after their minds have been twisted by drugs and abuse, either. These situations are tricky, full of tangled opinions and hateful thoughts. Even so, without a doubt, rehabilitation is the answer. Immediate incarceration won’t solve the problem of these young immigrants, it will only further stuff America’s overcrowded prisons, making them full to bursting. The United States must turn to rehabilitation, not incarceration.

One out of every 100 Americans. This number could mean a lot of things, but in this case it means 1 out of every 100 Americans is incarcerated. While every system has its flaws, this statistic alone is a red flag that there are issues with the current criminal justice system in the United States. Some of the largest problems are the sheer number of incarcerated persons and the extreme growth of that number in recent years, as well as the noticeable differences in incarceration of people of color and white people. While there is no one solution that can solve all of these issues, there are many programs and alternatives that can ease several issues in the incarceration system concerning substance abuse and mental health.

The world that we live in today have people who commit unforgivable crime by hurting others and making society feel unsafe. Individuals who perform serial crimes towards our society must face some kind of punishment, determine by the court justice and the people. Unfortunately, the capital punishment made by people and those with authority take justice on their own hands intensively. It is surprising how preventing others to commit the same crimes or worse have been taken so far. Everything is making that person feel unsafe and without hope of any kind. We must be considerate and realized that we make mistake, but we need to learn from it and have another chance to make things right. Prison it is a way to punish and give a second chance to a person even if it is for the rest of their life. We must never take a life for another life, because we will be becoming a criminal as well. The wrongful acts of punishment in this society is to create deterrence, torture, and self satisfaction; instead of just putting criminals in jail without deciding if they should stay alive.

1. Being in prison for life is tough enough, life imprisonment breaks down one’s mental health which is more detrimental and serves more as a “payback” to the murderer.

Lifetime imprisonment and the death penalty are both punishments used for serious criminals who can be considered “a threat to society”. Life imprisonment can come with the option of possibility of parole throughout serving their sentencing or a life sentence without parole. The life sentence is a commonly used punishment between the two due to the fact in the United States of America only 31 of the 50 states still use the death penalty. The remaining states are left with a death penalty ban. Between the two punishments, the life sentence is the most practical and provides the most justice for the wronged compared to the death penalty that is very costly, inhumane but almost too easy and can and has put innocent lives at risk.

Prisons have many policies set in place to help aid inmates’ with adjusting to prison life. No matter what policies are set in place to help aid inmates they will always have a hard time especially for first timers. According to Frank Schmalleger and John Ortiz Smykla (2009) new inmates face major problems because of the loss of liberty, lack of material possessions, the depravation of materials and services, the lack of heterosexual relationships, and feeling unsecured. I think that inmates can be helped with the adjustment process by initiating and enforcing a program to deal with such issues. I think I would eliminate policies that are designed to make prison life unpleasant and concentrate more on policies that help inmates progress in their educational and rehabilitation programs. One policy that is very important to inmates is to feel safe in their prison environment. As a result there have been many debates on the rights of the inmates. I think the most important policy I would enforce is educational programs that will

The death penalty is something few people love. Death penalty involves a myriad of bureaucratic processes given that the judiciary must use long and complicated sessions to ensure no citizen is wrongly executed for the crimes they have not done. However, there are cases where even the innocent persons are not protected from mischievous executions and end up being executed for crimes they did not commit. Most people argue that death penalty is cruel while life imprisonment is inhumane but less cruel. There is also the possibility of parole in case of a life sentence. Apparently, life imprisonment is a better than death penalty given that it costs less, and the money saved can be channeled to some other important programs that improve the life of the citizens. The detention also reduces the possibility of the accused to reverse the mistake. Millions of dollars saved are advantageous in improving schools, infrastructure, police forces, strengthening public programs, improving mental health services, enabling drug treatment, and preventing child abuse. This piece of writing will argue why life imprisonment is better than death penalty.

My position respect Death penalty was tending to pro death. After my research my position changed based in process cost, constitutionality, morality and a better understanding about retribution. We as a part of the knowledge of law should be on both sides of the case to have a better point of view. In order, to have the right of taking the correct decision of life or death of an individual life. In conclusion, life in prison is a worse punishment than end it soon with the death penalty. Ernest Van Den Haag, PhD, in his article titled "For the Death Penalty," wrote the following: "Common sense tells us that the death penalty will deter murder... People fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death... life in prison is less feared." (Van Den Haag, 1983) I disagree with Van Den Haag, life in prison it is hard, these individuals fight