Prison And Jail Similarities

Prisons where essentially build to accommodate a number of prisoners but over the years it has reach over capacity. Today in the United States there are approximately 193,468 federal inmates that consisting of the Bureau of Prisons Custody, private managed facilities and other facilities. The inmates ages range from 18- 65 with the median age being in their late 30’s. This number is counting both male and female population with male being 93.3% of inmates and females being 6.7%. The number of inmates has steadily increase since 1980 with only having approximately less than 50,000 but today the number has gone more up. Drug offenses are the highest number for inmate’s imprisonment, the next highest offense would be weapons, explosives and arson; immigration and miscellaneous fall next in lines. The number for the other offenses such as robbery, extortion, fraud, bribery, burglary, larceny, property offenses and other offenses are lower. Overcrowding prison has become problematic as the prison population continue to increase leading to proper care and attention for prisoners.

The United States’ prison population is currently number one in the world. As a nation that proclaims freedom for citizens, the United States houses more than one million more persons than Russian and almost one million more persons than China. Currently, the United States makes up five percent of the world’s population and imprisons twenty-five percent of the world’s inmate population. Drug offenders who committed no act of violence make up a large portion of the inmates in the United States. County, State, and Federal prisons are so over populated that the private sector has opened up corporate facilities to house convicted persons. The cost each year to hold a person rises, placing larger financial demands on the judicial system. The Judicial System of the United States should reevaluate the sentencing guidelines for non-violent drug offenders to alleviate the high number of people in the prison system.

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.

Longer sentences has been a major cause of mass incarceration. Thus, changing how governments respond to all crime, not just drug crime, is critical to reducing the size of prison

prisons. One you are arrested, jail is usually the first place that law enforcement officers

Another downside to the incarceration method of dealing with drug offenders is the fact that a social inequality is formed once they are released from prison. Former inmates are treated less than normal non convict citizens making it hard for them to find decent housing, sufficient paying jobs, and people in which to form meaningful relations with. A lack of these things can bring them back to a performing criminal acts, going farther than just substance abuse in order to make a living that they can’t do with a legitimate job. Another major impact that mass incarceration is having on society in the United States is in the political sector as felons are often stripped of their voting rights. Of course this can be seen as negative or positive depending on your political views, but the fact remains that with a large amount of the population being unable to vote outcomes in elections could be much different (Moroney).

Tougher sentencing is not likely to reduce illegal drug use or serious crime associated with drugs (Alexander, 2010; Mauer, 2009; Whitford & Yates, 2009). Despite that, politicians and law enforcement personnel continue to advocate for stronger sentences for those who take or sell drugs of any kind. The jails and prisons across the United States are filling up with drug offenders, and some believe that there are better uses for those jail cells and that there are many crimes that are more severe and significant. These are the crimes that should be provided with tougher sentencing guidelines, but yet illegal drug use is still a serious crime and should not go unpunished. What should be done, and how should changes be made? Those are tough questions that have to be explored and that do not have any easy answers for those who make the laws and those who enforce them. Drug incarceration has been on the rise, with mixed results. According to King (2008), "overall, between 1980 and 2003, the number of drug offenders in prison or jail increased by 1100% from 41,100 in 1980 to 493,800 in 2003, with a remarkable rise in arrests concentrated in African American communities."

The United States incarcerates more people, per capita, than any other nation in the entire world. State and local prisons and jails account for about 80% of incarcerations. Although crime rates have decreased since the 1990s, incarceration rates have soared. According to a recent Prison Policy Initiative publication, approximately 2.3 million people are currently “locked up” in the United States. Of these 2.3 million people, 1 in 5 are locked up for a drug related offense. Statistics show that prisoners and felons imprisoned for drug related crimes are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. The mass incarceration issue in the United States derives from the many arrests associated with these “offenses” regarding drugs and the war on drugs.

inmates and the use of drugs, such as how is it easier for an inmate whom is

Incarceration is the state in which a person is confined within a prison, this can be known as imprisonment. Imprisonment within the United States is mostly due to the illegal use of drugs. Drug Offenses are the most common cause of incarceration, an astounding forty-six percent, compared to the second most common causes. These causes include the illegal handling, and usage of weapons, explosives, and arson; these Offenses only hold a lightly rounded total of seventeen percent. The list of Offenses continuing from there decrease in percentage rates, the list contains the following in order from greatest to least amount of cases; Immigration, Sex Offenses, Extortion, Fraud, Bribery, Burglary, Larceny, Property Offenses, Robbery, Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses, Miscellaneous, Courts or Corrections, Banking and Insurance, Counterfeit, Embezzlement, Continuing Criminal Enterprise, then National Security Risks. Ages of those incarcerated have a range from the beginning of adolescence to the elderly. The security system of prisons is separated into five main categories; Minimum, Low, Medium, High, and Unclassified. Minimum and low-security levels are for common offenses such as theft. Medium and high classifications are for homicide and national security risks. Unclassified is for those who have not yet been assigned an area of security.

Have you heard the phrase "prisons are over populated!"? Statistics show 21.2% of low level drug offenders, that are incarcerated, do not have any current or prior violence in their records, no involvement in sophisticated criminal activity and no prior commitment. (USDOJ) Could this be the problem of prisons being over populated? There are many factors that need to be considered when looking for other possible methods of dealing with non-violent drug offenders. Some lawmakers believe the only way to deal with these offenders is to lock them up for long periods of time, while other feel the solution lies within treatment facilities and expanded social programs. With both sides having valid points we must then evaluate what is the

The criminal justice system has many flaws that many people believe It is broken. The first step of fixing the system is by acknowledging that the system is broken. According to the documentary Fixing the System, the increase of incarceration is due to nonviolent drug offenses. There are more drug offenses than for homicide, aggravated assault, kidnapping, immigration, sex offenses, etc., combined. The cost for incarceration has dramatically increased as people kept getting incarceration due to the nonviolent drug offenses. President George W. Bush decided that building more prisons and jails was the best way to teach the lesson of war on drugs. Although incarcerating individuals’ due drugs wasn’t helping get rid of the problem because they

The amount of people in prison is usually proportional to the amount of crime being committed. In the case of America however, non-drug related crime has remained constant, or even decreased since 1971 when the war began. There has been an increase of prisoners though, as forty years ago, thirty-eight thousand people were imprisoned for breaking drug-related laws while today, that number is over two million (Swanson). The cause of this influx of prisoners are unjustly harsh drug possession laws, some of which can land people in jail for very long periods of time. One such law is California’s three-strikes law. This law states that any felon that has committed three crimes that required a state level imprisonment shall be sentenced to a minimum of twenty-five years in jail, with a maximum of life. This law might be a great idea to keep murderers and rapists in jail, but it was found that more twenty-five-to-life sentences were meted out for possession of marijuana than for murder, rape, and kidnapping combined (Patten). Our prisons have become so overpopulated, the U.S. has more people in prison for drug-related crimes than the entire E.U. (European Union) has prisoners. This is despite the fact that the population of the U.S. is forty percent smaller than that of the E.U. (Patten). One solution to keep prison populations low would to be to issue a fine

Prisons and jails hold some similar characteristics but are completely different models in which they serve in the criminal justice system. Some of the types of crimes that America faces today are: violent crimes, property, white collar or organized crime, and public order crimes (Worrall, 2008). The criminal justice system sets the regulations and policies of how an offender will be held accountable for their inappropriate actions. The criminal justice system is a process that takes time and money from society. The following information will briefly discuss the main purposes for the jail and prison systems, which will focus on the length of sentencing, funding sources, and private sector ownership. Let’s begin by explaining the length of

When it comes to prison overcrowding, many factors cause it to occur. Part of the overcrowding can be attributed both to specific policies. For instance, the “War on Drugs” has enacted harsher penalties for drug violations, directly increasing the number incarcerated. Part of this policy includes mandatory sentences, which indirectly affect the overcrowding. More people are incarcerated for longer periods, leading to conditions so inhumane that in 2011, the Supreme Court declared one prison violated the Eighth Amendment. While policies are partially responsible for overcrowding in prisons, criminal behavior also needs to be taken into account. The USA has one of the highest recidivism rates in the world—within five years of release from state prison, law enforcement rearrests 76.6% of inmates.. Many are arrested for violating parole, and some go on to commit entirely new crimes. Apparently, there is little motivation to staying out of prison, what with the minimal rehabilitation programs and general stigma laid on criminals in the work force. This makes the prison system, in itself, ineffectual, and the attempts to decrease inmate population similarly pointless.