The Importance Of Prisons In Prisones

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.

Although we would like to believe the world is not as racially charged in 2013 as it was in the 1960s, a look in our penal system would show that minorities are still arrested and incarcerated at a higher rate than whites. The United States has experienced a rise in its prison population over the last 40 years and our incarceration rate is nearly 5 times higher than any other country. Even though 13% of the US population are African American males, they make up 38% of the prison population. Contributing factors to these numbers are mandatory minimum sentences, high crime and poverty areas, and lack of rehabilitative resources within our system (p.77-78).

Imprisonment is more common in some social groups than others and makes it easier for racial groups to fall into that stereotype. It becomes more widely expected for groups such as Black males and even Hispanics when they live in the low income communities. At some point one in three Black males and one in six Hispanics will be incarcerated at some point in their life (Berg, & DeLisi, 2006). Nationwide, African American men are confined at 9.6 times the rate of White men.

In prisons today, rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution are all elements that provide a justice to society. Prisons effectively do their part in seeing that one if not more of these elements are met and successfully done. If it were not for these elements, than what would a prison be good for? It is highly debated upon whether or not these elements are done properly. It is a fact that these are and a fact that throughout the remainder of time these will be a successful part of prison life.

Law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. This confinement, whether before or after a criminal conviction, is called incarceration.

Mass incarceration is a real problem that is currently affecting minority groups across America. Even though the U.S. is a country where everyone is equal to the eyes of the law no matter their race, it seems that is not the case anymore. Throughout, its history the U.S. government has taken advantage of minority groups and has manipulated its laws in order cast out those who aren’t considered worthy enough to belong to the American society. The time has come to put a stop to this discriminatory government and the time has come for the judicial system to change its laws and policies to give an equal opportunity to any human being. Race shouldn't define your future or the probabilities of someone going to prison. Everyone should be given an

The role of the penal system in America is to uphold the rule of law by imposing punishment such as probation or prison time (depending on the crime) for people who violate the law. Few fail to realize the statistical makeup of the penal system, which includes factors such as race, gender, and criminal offense. After researching data on mass incarceration, it came to my attention that the criminal justice system, we want to protect us, is doing more harm than good. Mass incarceration is a form of racial injustice and economic inequality within America.

The United States currently has the highest incarcerated population in the world with 2.2 million adults incarcerated in 2014 (Kaeble, Glaze, Tsoutis, & Minton, 2016). African American males represent a disproportionate amount of the incarcerated population, which is defined by those confined in either prison or jail (Crutchfield & Weeks, 2015). Although, African-Americans account for roughly 13% of the United States population, they comprised 37% of the male prison population (Carson, 2015; U.S. Census Bureau, 2016) and 35.4% of the male jail population within the United States in 2014 (Minton & Zeng, 2015). The imprisonment of over 750,000 African American males constitutes a social issue because it targets a historically oppressed minority causing rippling social and economic effects throughout the country.

The United States prison system is having a terrible time. In 2000 the US inmate population reached a record of two million. which means that 1 person in 140 in the United States was imprisoned. Over the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of inmates tripled, and the United States locked up mor people per capita than almost any other country, almost tying up with Russia for this dubious distinction. Incarceration rates are six times those of Briton and 17 time those of Japan. The rising numbers have made prisons a growth industry, California builds a new prison every year to keep up with the demand. The burden of imprisonment falls disproportionately on racial minorities. In California for example, a young black man is 5 times as likely

Race has always influenced the administration of justice in the United States. American prisons were meant to rehabilitate inmates by isolating them, removing them from their criminal environment, and allowing them time to meditate on their misdeeds, so that prisoners decide to improve themselves when faced with re-integration. According to Reid, “due to severe overcrowding, lack of rehabilitative programs while in jail, and the length of sentences, true rehabilitation and reintegration for inmates is nearly impossible” (255). Along with lack of rehabilitative programs, laws barring offenders from jobs do not improve the situation. Reid states, “Criminals learn better how to commit crimes, but not how to be productive in the free world or how to abandon their selfishness” (258).

There is a racial connection between the United States criminal justice system and the overrepresentation of black men in the United States prison system. There are over 2 million people in the U.S. prison system exceeding that of any other nation and represents 25% of the world’s prisoners (The Sentencing Project, 2016). According to Prison Policy Initiative, African American communities are the most impacted with African American men representing nearly 40% of all U.S. prisoners, though African Americans represent less than 13% of the U.S. population (Wagner & Rabuy, 2016). In fact, African American males are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white males (The

Today, one in every 100 U.S. residents are incarcerated, and this rate is even more stark for people of color; one in 15 black men age 18 and over was incarcerated in 2008, compared to one in 54 white men and one in 36 Hispanic men.142 A DOJ study found that if incarceration rates remain unchanged, 6.6 percent of U.S. residents born in 2001 will go to prison at some time during their lifetime.143 People of color are most likely to spend time in prison: one in three African-American men born in this year is expected to go to prison; one in six Hispanic men will go to prison; and one in 17 white men will spend time in prison. The incarceration rate of people sentenced to more than a year of prison more than tripled over the past 30 years, growing

here is a serious problem with our justice system. It is not a secret that people are judged by the color of their skin, ethnicity and in some cases by religious beliefs. I strongly believe that race affects how an individual is perceived/ treated and it plays an important role in the American criminal justice. Unfortunately, race plays an important role in the American criminal justice system, also this issue exists in other countries and societies. The American justice system is not an exception of this wrongdoing. For instance, minorities, such as African Americans and Latinos, are often prosecuted differently than Caucasians offenders. Verdicts not only tend to be much harsher, but are also accompanied by longer-term sentences. According to the article titled, “Justice is harsher in America than in any other rich country. Between 2.3m and 2.4 m Americans are behind bars, roughly one in every 100 adults.” where for the most part, the majority of inmates are minorities (Too Many Laws, Too Many Prisoners). “The incarceration rates disproportionately impact men of color: 1 in every 15 African American men and 1 in every 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men” ([infographic] Combating Mass Incarceration – The Facts). The question is, why have minorities have become the majority of the American prison population?

According to Frank Schmalleger “On January 1, 2013, the nation’s state and federal prisons held 1,571,013 inmates, of which 1,512,391 were serving sentences of a year or more. Slightly more than 7% (or 108,866) of those imprisoned were women” (Schmalleger, p. 429). After further examination of prison statistics based on race a huge disparity was evident between blacks and whites in prison. “ Whereas only and estimated 1,001 white men are imprisoned in the United States for every 100,000 white men in their late 20s, figures show and incarcerations rate of 6,927 black men for every 100,000 black men of the same age—seven times greater than the figure for whites” (Schmallager, p. 430).

Some trends of the incarcerated in the United States include gender, race, age and marital status. ( Bohm & Haley, 2012.). There are more black males age 25-44 who are unmarried than any other statistic shown. To break it down further the race of the most incarcerated individuals in state prisons are black but in federal prisons are white. However, in federal or state prisons the most common prisoner is a male. Also in both state and federal prisons the median age for Smost criminals is between 25-44 and of those who have never been married. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates with criminals serving the longest sentences in the nation. However, increases in the United States population contribute to high incarceration