Prison Populations In America

Many people are in prison today because of unjust sentencing legislation such as mandatory sentencing laws, which “... often make no distinction between, say, armed

Why has there been a massive growth of the prison industry in America since the 1970's?

In the United States, more than 2 million Americans are behind bars (Wagner, Rabuy). The massive amount of incarecerated in the United States has brought on massive spending by the government both federally and locally in order to house so much growing prison population. In fact, during the past 30 plus years the spending on prisons and pennial system has grown three times as much as spending on public education (Wikipedia).

The main argument within this article was that America has a poor approach to incarceration and is ultimately an expensive failure. However, the article provided many points on how our justice system could be improved upon. For example, they could change the harsh sentencing rules, crimes that are currently felonies (drugs), and the rehabilitation programs. All of these things would help to lower the incarceration rate which would ultimately lower overcrowding within our jails and prisons. Though these tools may take time to be put in place they would have highly beneficial outcomes.

Incarceration should not be the only form of punishment in the United States just like it is not in most developed nations. I agree with Dr. Bryant’s week three statements about the word discretion being used as camouflage for discrimination. The stakeholders in the criminal justice system used huge amount of discretion when performing their duties. In this case, the law enforcement officers, prosecutors, defenders, judges etc. The police officer can decide when making an arrest to handcuff the accused, send the accused to the community based service program or gave the accused a ride to his or her parent and warn the accused not to do it again. It all depends on how the officer chooses to use the discretion at his disposal. Indiscriminate

From the article titled “The Punishment Imperative : The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America” by Todd Clear, and Natasha Frost, it goes into full detail on why the incarceration rate is failing. America incarcerates way more people that far exceeds the rate of our top allies. “With just under ten million people incarcerated in prisons and jails worldwide, America incarcerated more than one-fifth of the world’s total prison population.” (The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America, Page 17) The United States now is in the lead in the world of incarceration, that beats countries like Russia, Rwanda, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Cuba, and the country has four times the rate of European nations. Maintaining the prisons came with a staggering price. In 2006, jurisdictions would spend around $68 billion on correctional supervision. They went from spending from $9 billion in 1982 to an 660 percent increase of $68 billion in 2006. Around the same time period, direct judicial expenditures has increased by 503 percent and the policing expenditures increased by 420 percent. The huge majority of the correctional dollars, with was around 90 percent, went to stabilize mass incarceration. “With a national average annual price tag of almost $29,000 per person per year of incarceration, it cost taxpayers at least ten times more to incarcerate a person than it would have cost to maintain him or her under supervision in the community.” (The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America, Page 21) In general, this is an issue because the taxpayers are forced to pay a lot of money to maintain a person in prison. Locking up a serious violent offender is justified, however, for thousands of lower-level inmates, it costs taxpayers more than preventing

Jails depend on three main resources for operation which include the public, the local government, and the sheriff. Within the local power structure jails must compete for scarce resources with schools, hospitals, parks and other more popular facilities (Mays and Thompson, 1991). Prisons are maintained by the states or the federal government. Running a prison can be costly, so the logic behind prison fees is that

The United States (US) incarcerates its citizens at the highest rate in the world, 707 US citizens per 100,000 are incarcerated, a rate 5 -10 times higher than other western democracies (National Research Council, 2014). From the 1930s to the 1970s the number of incarcerated citizens in the US remained relatively stable, 161 citizens per 100,00 were incarcerated in 1972 (Hindelang, 1977). However since the 1970s the population of America’s prison system has increased by 700% (ACLU, 2011), and there are now currently over 2.2 million incarcerated Americans. Because of this rapid increase to an unprecedented level US incarceration levels have been widely discussed across academic literature. Not only are current US incarceration levels internationally unique and unprecedented, they are unique and unprecedented within the history of the US itself. This makes the US incarceration levels best suited to a single case analysis, as there is a high level of internal historical change to compare across. It is widely accepted that the rise in US incarceration levels are due to ‘the war on drugs’ - tough on crime law enforcement strategies introduced in the 1970s to combat illegal drug activity. However, there are differing theories as to how these historic policies continue to impact incarceration levels today. In this essay I will argue that the war on drugs is one of many mechanisms employed to continually discriminate against the black minority in America. I will analyse

As the amount of nonviolent drug offenders increases, so does the amount of prisoners in jail. With only 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States has 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. Between 1980 and 2013, the amount of people in federal prison for drug offenses has increased from 4,749 to 100,026, and the total federal prison population as increased almost 790 percent. To manage the sharp increase in the inmate population in recent years, the bureau that manages the federal prisons has resorted to putting two or three bunks in a cell, and converting recreational spaces into sleeping quarters. As the prisons become increasingly overcrowded, it hinders correction officers’ ability to do there job and ensure that inmates are kept nonviolent and facilities are in safe conditions. Without the proper supervision of law enforcement, prisons become extremely dangerous for both inmates and officers. And as the number of inmates rises, so does the cost to house all of them. According to the National Institute of Justice, the cost of building a prison ranges from $60,000 to $75,000 per inmate, with the average prison’s operating cost being about $60 per day per inmate. Where does this money to house prisoners come from you may ask? The answer is simple: the federal budget, which is largely funded by you, the average taxpayer. Along with the issue of increasing prison-housing costs, the rehabilitation programs available to inmates are usually the first

The United States of America has more people incarcerated than any other country on earth, a whopping 2,220,300 adults are currently locked behind bars. We have 500,000 more citizens locked up than China, a country 5 times our population run by an authoritarian government. From 1990 - 2000 the prison population increased by 1,000,000. The main reason for incarceration as a punishment in this country is rehabilitation, or so we have been told. In recent years an industry has developed that revolves around high incarceration rates and lengthy sentences, needless to say business is booming. The for-profit prison industry now makes millions off the backs of American inmates their families and every American taxpayer. The two largest

Currently the United States holds the leading position for having the largest prison population in the world. Considering this, the cost of re-incarcerating offenders after their release remains notably high to U.S Americans and our society. Recidivism is known as the reimprisonment of an individual that is released from prison but then later returns for being convicted of a new crime. However, there is essential data that proves the drastic reduction in recidivism through academic and vocational studies. Each year, it cost twice as much to provide a room and food for inmates than it would just to educate these prisoners.

Incarceration has been a pending issue amongst western civilization’s history for some time and today continues to raise a wide range of important questions. Incarceration of individuals have become a tremendous tax payer concern along with the incarceration of the drug war, convictions of street gangs, and the rest of the individuals who have broken the law and harmed other innocent individuals. However, the question is always a concern of men incarceration and hardly addressed of women being incarcerated. Not to say that what men can do women can do better, but studies have shown a drastic increase in women becoming incarcerated throughout a range of years. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures research on Children Of Incarcerated Parents by Steve Christian, a study by national survey had reported in August 2008, that during that time, the number of children with a mother in prison increased by 131 percent, from 63,900 to 147,400 (Christian, 2009). Society has always drawn its focus on convicts constantly trying to pin a wrong on an individual’s plate of life, but has never become curious to ask why an individual has become incarcerated and whom it has affected. The drastic increase of women becoming incarcerated have come from numerous of backgrounds in which their choices have led to affect their children as well as their children’s development and in addition affected their own development.

There are over 2million people incarcerated today in the United States and Statistics show that the rates every

For several decades there has been a considerable increase incarceration rate in state and federal prisons. This is due to the public demanding more castigatory laws along with harsher sentencing policies. In the United State there 2.3 million people are incarcerated in prisons and jails which make the United States the lead in the incarceration rate (Wright, 2010). Truth in sentencing law made it essential that offenders serve a significant portion of the prison sentenced handed down by the court before he or she can be considered or eligible for release. Policies implemented before reduced the quantity of time an offender served on a sentence, such as parole board release, goodtime, and earned-time are constrained or get rid of under

Privatizing prisons may be one way for the prison population to get back under control. Prisons are overcrowded and need extra money to house inmates or to build a new prison. The issue of a serious need for space needs to be addressed. “As a national average, it costs roughly $20,000 per year to keep an inmate in prison. There are approximately 650,000 inmates in state and local prisons, double the number five years ago. This costs taxpayers an estimated $18 billion each year. More than two thirds of the states are facing serious overcrowding problems, and many are operating at least 50 percent over capacity. (Joel, 1988)” Private prisons may be for profit, but if they can solve the issue of cost then it may be a