The Lack Of Reintegration Programs And Mass Incarceration Of African Americans

The incarceration rates have grown tremendously since the last time someone can remember. The largest jailer in the world is the United States. Philadelphia, however, has the nation’s highest incarceration rates. Surprisingly, 60% of them are still awaiting trial but 72% of them are black. Research has show’s that mass incarceration rates goes hand in hand with segregated cities.

Our group chose the topic of mass incarceration because it is extremely relevant in this day and age. There are hundreds of thousands of American citizens that have been incarcerated for a variety of crimes. When mass incarceration was first introduced it was unknowingly supporting the “War on Drugs”, which we will go into more detail in the paper. The war on drugs inevitably became a war on people. The penalties of carrying different types of drugs became more severe, and those who were caught by the police were minority groups especially young African American men. The consequences of mass incarceration occur in more than just a jail cell. Once prisoners are released, it is extremely difficult to become employed once there is a conviction following your name. Even as supporters of The Black Lives Matter Movement protested against the unfair treatment of African Americans, those who resisted against authorities were imprisoned. Throughout this paper we will see the sociological perspective of mass incarceration on todays society.

Overall, the United States prison system and society’s view of African Americans needs to change. People need to make sure that the mistakes society has made in the past do not repeat themselves. In order to fix many of the existing problems it is important to focus on reforming the prison system. Doing so would prevent many future cases of injustice and racial

The United States accounts for 5% of the world population, but our prison population makes up 25% of the world’s (Nagin, 2014). African Americans account for the largest percent of our prison population because they have the highest incarceration rate compared to other races. This essay will argue that African Americans are incarcerated at a higher rate than Caucasians. Proven by statistical data, there are grounds to establish that the racial disparity in incarceration rates is a social problem. To address this social problem, public policy should be implemented by the Federal Government.

Many jail cells and prisons hold more African Americans than colleges and universities. This is a major problem for younger men and women that have to witness this because if this is all they are exposed to then this will be all they know. It does not only affect younger children or teenagers but close family members, wives, and parents. The mass incarceration of African Americans is becoming the norm for our men and women because the ¨white man¨ or the government is subliminally fighting to oppress African Americans and hold them back from any chance of prosperity that they have.

"Local faith-based and community organizations (FBCO) reentry programs can provide ex-prisoners with the compassion and services they need to thrive in the communities they are returning to. Placing ex-prisoners in steady employment that matches their abilities and needs is an important effort that helps ensure the safety of America’s streets and the successful integration of ex-prisoners into America’s communities. Recidivism is a vicious cycle of crime, prison, more crime, re-imprisonment, and so on. Statistics show that more than two-thirds of released prisoners will be charged with new crimes within three years following their release, and over half will be reincarcerated. According to criminal justice experts, an attachment to the labor force through stable employment, in concert with family and community

America has the highest prevalence of jailing its citizens. Nearly 2.3 million Americans are behind bars or nearly one percent of the adult population at any given time (Campbell, Vogel, & Williams, 2015). As of 2014, African Americans make up 34% of the incarcerated population. As a result, a disproportionate amount of African American youth will experience a parent’s incarceration. Research has shown that children of incarcerated parents experience emotional problems, socioeconomic problems, and cognitive disturbances (Miller, 2007). In this paper, I will discuss the impact of mass incarceration in the African American community and its effect on African American children.

In today’s society, discrimination is an issue that is considered to be a thing of the past. In a country with such diversity it is hard to believe that people living in the “land of the free” face issues of racism. This paper will focus specifically on the social problem of mass incarceration of minority groups and how the criminal justice system targets these groups. Although this social problem can be linked to specifically African Americans, the impacts of mass incarceration can be felt by almost everyone. I have chosen three articles that focus on how the criminal justice system is masking mass imprisonment a major problem in minority communities.

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).

The trend of African American males between the ages of 25 and 29 has seen a dramatic increase of incarceration. Attention has been focusing on areas of housing, education, and healthcare but the most prominent problem for African American males is the increase in the incarceration rate. African American males between the ages of 25 and 29 incarceration rate has been thought, by many, to be caused by economic factors such as under employment or unemployment, poor housing, lack of education, and lack of healthcare. Yet, others believe it is due to the imbalance of minorities within the criminal justice system, such as judges, lawyers, and lawmakers.

Mass Incarceration in the United States has been a large topic of choice because rapid growth in the prison and jail populations, the long sentences the inmates face, and the inability for some inmates to incorporate themselves back into society. Since the 1970’s the U.S. prison population quadrupled from 158 to 635 people per 100,000, causing the U.S. to gain the title of country with the highest incarceration rate. (Massoglia, Firebaugh, & Warner, 2013, p. 142; Muller, 2012) As the growth of the U.S prison and jail population rapidly increased, so did the growth of the three major contributors to that population – African Americans, Hispanics, and whites – with African American and

Recent sociological studies have focused on pressing social issues such as urban crime and mass incarceration, and examining the invisible link between urban crime, poverty and race. Research indicates that mass incarceration has always worked to the detriment of African Americans, especially the low-income earners (Western, 2006). The aftermath of this trend is that the employment prospects of former felons are significantly diminished (Pager, 2007). Felon disfranchisement in turn distorts the local and national politics of the county (Uggen, 2006). This paper focuses on addressing the contemporary trends and ramifications of mass incarceration of African Americans, and elucidating on the criminal justice policy and the factors contributing to the intangible but real racial divide.

Mass incarceration is a large-scale problem that has emerged in recent decades. The reason for this lies in new laws and policies that crackdown on drug-related offenses. Since these policies have taken effect, the percent of people in prisons and jails has grown by 500% (The Sentencing Project). The 2015 population of inmates in either prison or jail was 2,173,800, this makes the United States the world leader in number of incarcerated people (The Sentencing Project). However, the rise in jail and prison populations has not spanned equally among races. The population of prisoners in 2015 was 1,476,847, with 523,000 of those prisoners being African American (The Sentencing Project). African Americans make up 13% of the population in the United

The criminal justice system accepts responsibility for making our neighborhoods and cities safe for all. The repercussions of removing people from their families and communities and then depositing them back later, without any assistance or substantial rehabilitation, are grave.9 Men and women who have served extensive prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are not only left with little or no social support but also clearly marked by the criminal justice system as potentially threatening repeat offenders. Although mass incarceration policies have recently received a great deal of attention (due to incarceration becoming prohibitively costly), failure to address the legacy of racism passed down by our forefathers and its ties to economic oppression will only result in the continued reinvention of Jim

strengthening re-entry programs in federal prisons designed to reduce recidivism and enhance reintegration into the workforce after