Reflection Paper On Poverty Simulation

Minorities in these urban areas have a hard time finding employment that could support their family efficiently. Most end up dropping out of school and join or are forced to join gangs. They are more likely to turn to crime as a means of survival which increases their chances of building a criminal history. This type of criminal activity also ties back into the Three Strikes Law (Nicosia, MacDonald, & Arkes. 2013) which states that the offender will be incarcerated on their third offense, no matter how minor the charge. The lack of rehabilitative resources in the criminal justice system leads to repeat offenders also. Although it should not be the responsibility of those in society who are doing the right thing to pay for services for those who are incarcerated, we are doing ourselves an injustice if we don’t. If we are not providing rehabilitative classes, vocational/job training, or some type of counseling while prisoners are incarcerated, we are defeating the purpose of locking them up. Criminal justice referrals account for almost 37% of drug treatment admissions (Nicosia, MacDonald, & Arkes. 2013. p. 78). If we don’t address the issues that got them incarcerated in the first place, they will turn back to the only life they know that provided fast money. I

The collateral consequences of mass incarceration are effects in an inmate’s community, social life, employment, wages, and family life. The separation of an inmate from their family causes many struggles to occur in the household such as the inability to become financially stable for their partners, a loss of connection with their partner and children, living with a social stigma, and divorce or separation. Even after an inmate gets out of prison, their life is still impacted from being incarcerated. Because of the stigma that comes with being incarcerated, “ex-offenders” find it hard to either find a job, maintain a job, or get a job with a decent amount of pay. These consequences contribute to inequality through establishing a type of status on an individual. By becoming an inmate or even before they are imprisoned, inmates’ deal with Lower-class family issues and stigmas that stick with them for life.

Incarceration rates have increased from 400,000 people in 1975 to 2.1 million in 2003; a fivefold increase, making the United States a leader in rates compared to other nations (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). These numbers bear a great burden on individuals, families, and communities in various ways. First, with 700,000 individuals being released from prison annually comes difficulty in reentering society both socially and economically; difficulty finding work, education, strained relationships, and social stigma (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). Second, the increasing rates of incarceration are disproportionately and unfairly impacting minorities, specifically African-Americans, and poor urban communities (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). A New York Times article by Furman and Holtz-Eakin (2016) states that $80 billion dollars--$600 per household--is spent on corrections annually, or a 1,700 percent increase in the federal prison budget in just thirty years. These increases have a deep historical background, many complex and interweaving factors, and require urgent reform.

Barman Donalds article talks about a family that is suffering from poverty due to a father with a crack addiction problem and the naiborhood they live in the father is currently incarcerated for crack. Londa is a mother of three children and has a broken leg and has tried multiple times to fix their situation. This article gives an example of a real family and how all that is and what could be done to improve their situation. Further more in depth the article emphasizes more on where the criminal system has many flaws and how so much money is put into prisons incarcerating people on the daily as well as yearly. There is a great amount of research that proves how incarcerating people is not only a bad way to come about to some crimes. To some family’s there situation worsens in poverty due to perhaps a person that is accused for a crime and is then imprisoned waiting for something to happen their family is out in the world struggling to keep up with the bills and expenses. In most cases they have to pay large amounts of money to get people out of prison bails or other fees. Thus, perhaps the ones incarcerated are the money makers in a family worsen a families situation economically as well as mentally mainly the children due to this they will grow up without a father or a mother. In many occasions people in city’s or neighborhoods where

In a TED talk presented by Michelle Alexander, she talks about how society is still segregated by the Jim Crow laws even if it is not completely apparent. Specifically, Alexander talks about the issues with our prison system and how it segregates our society even more. In addition to talking about the segregation of our society she takes the time to talk about how convicted criminals have an extremely difficult time transitioning back into society. She talks about the individual struggles that they go through. Alexander states, “ The reality is that when you're released from prison, people who are released from prison typically have little or no money at all. They need to find a place to sleep, but if they try to get access to public housing, they find often that they're barred from public housing because of

The United States prison system perpetuates racial and class prejudice and oppresses offenders through extended sentencing and extending the punishment of felons after their sentencing is done. The purpose of this oppression has become the profit motive of those who invest in prisons in a similar way to how they invest in businesses. To better the American people, a prison system that educates and rehabilitates prisoners is necessary.

In our society, a stigma is put on anything related to crime or incarceration. I don't a have direct relationship with incarceration and the pressure it puts on families, but I have witnessed the negative perspective and preconceptions that are set when talking about incarceration. As a society, we speak of the families or children that have been impacted by incarceration as if they are the ones that have committed the crime. I have been guilty of this prejudice as well. I've automatically assumed the that families impacted and children know the implication of their parent's or spouse's crime and should have the ability to cope with incarceration. However, I now realize that because of this stigma of incarceration, it often impacts those involved in their capacity to deal, to find resources to help with the financial stressors and their overall mental health. To better improve the over the health of the families, the state and the federal government have implemented resources and policies that can better help families understand their unique situation and the resources available to them. The research has to lead me to gain a perspective on incarceration and its impact, giving me a perspective and the resources to help families

The Prison Industrial Complex has created a system of force free labor that strips prisoners of their political, economic, and social rights, ultimately relegating them to second-class citizenship, inside and outside of the prison walls. Denying former enslaved people citizenship was essential to the formation of the original union and hundreds of years later, America remains a nonegalitarian society. Not only are those incarcerated barred from suffrage, as throughout much of US history for African Americans, but they also endure legalized discrimination in housing, education, public welfare and employment. Though there has been a change in language and people are no longer explicitly discriminatory or prejudiced based on race, they remain so on criminality and income, both significant indicators of race in this country. This is most evident once persons are released from prison. Not only can they be returned to prison for the most minor infractions, like missing a parole meeting or associating with the wrong crowd, but they also face great adversity when trying to get back into the workforce or readjust to normal life. It is no secret that having a history of incarceration impedes future economic success, and Pew data finds that incarceration reduced subsequent wages by eleven percent, cut annual employment by nine weeks, and reduced yearly earnings by forty percent (Khalek, 2001). This all in addition to the psychological harm and the damage to family home units prisons

This reflection was supposed to address my experience and thoughts about the Poverty Simulation. However, I did not attend due to personal reasons. Instead, I will use this reflection to discuss my thoughts about the UAB CFAR (Center for AIDS Research) Behavioral and Community Sciences Core Seminar.

Poverty is not easily defined, because it plays out in many different ways. To be in poverty, one is generally making at most three times the amount of money they would need to sustain themselves and their family members living a minimalist lifestyle. These families tend to eat cheaper food, use public transport, have less access to good educational institutions, are exposed to harmful environments, and have less access to healthcare, among many other things. Through the lenses of conflict theory and functionalism, one can begin to understand why poverty so affects many aspects many people’s lives in ways that carry them through adulthood, and sometimes pervades later generations of their families.

Nonetheless, the US increased correctional funding by 50 billion dollars and increased the staff count by half a million, thus making jails and prison the country's third largest employer behind large corporation such as: Manpower, Incorporated, and Walmart (Frampton et al., 2008: 24). The incarceration binge, gave rise to “for profit” private prisons that captured seven percent of the market, which offered more beds than other country’s prisons combined. Hence, the criminalization of poverty of those trapped at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder has been correlated to organizations and programs that are entrusted to assist the poor. However, rather than implement poverty policy, so called government budgetary constraints have converged toward the commodification of incarceration. As such, states now consign large portions of its inmates to private institutions, and subcontract specialized firms to handle the large influx of prisoners, largely revolving inmate offenders; parolees failing to complete the terms of parole make up a third of persons admitted to state penitentiaries every year, and makes parole an appendage of prison, namely extending the prisons reach beyond its walls (Wacquant, 2001: 113). In this way, prisoners, largely, poor minorities are the profitable engine of the prison industrial complex, of which symbiotic relationship between prison and the ghetto is easily

Today’s prison population shows that an overwhelming majority of prisoners are the product of social breakdown. Prisoners are far more likely to have lived in poverty, to come from broken families, to be unemployed and in considerable debt and to be experiencing an addiction. Deprivation is an important factor that leads to crime. Poverty doesn’t cause crime but there is an obvious direct relationship between them. Effects of deprivation can impact on

Another theory that relates to poverty is the conflict theory. Conflict theory is a paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change and emphasizes a materialistic view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change (Ferris & Stein, 2008, 2010). The theory was originally brought on by Karl Marx, and was later adapted and further developed by other theorists; for example, Max Weber. Looking at poverty through the lens of the conflict theory, we

or the same criminal behavior, the poor are more likely to be arrested; if arrested, they are more likely to be charged; if charged, more likely to be convicted; if convicted, more likely to be sentenced to prison; and if sentenced, more likely to be given longer prison terms than members of the middle and upper classes.1 In other words, the image of the criminal population one sees in our nation’s jails and prisons is distorted by the shape of the criminal justice system itself. It is the face of evil reflected in a carnival mirror, but it is no laughing matter.

Poverty is a massive issue today, it surrounds all of life’s experiences, and it impacts on the future for people everywhere, and on health everywhere in society. Poverty is not just related to unemployment or