Causes Of Incarceration

When you think of mass incarceration it is imperative to look at the causes that affect minorities. One major thing that produced an increase in mass incarceration is the war on drugs. The war on drugs has impacted minorities in a major way. The war on drugs pushed policymakers to structure laws that were targeting underprivileged individual mainly minorities group. In addition, “The deinstitutionalisation of people with mental illnesses, and punitive sentencing policies such as three-strike laws (mandating life imprisonment for third offences of even relatively minor felonies) and mandatory minimum sentences for specific offence, even for some first0time offenders undoubtedly helped to both launch mass incarceration and keep it going” (Wilderman, & Wang, 2017, p. 1466). The war on drugs came during a time when crack cocaine became widespread in the black community. The popularity of crack cocaine became prevalent and accessible for many low-income individuals. Therefore, the high rate of crime that was induced by the crack epidemic forced many jobs to leave the communities. However, the structuring of laws put more emphasis on crack cocaine than powder cocaine. Not to mention, crack cocaine is prevalent in minority communities, and powder cocaine is present in the majority community. According to Martensen (2012), “Not only does this deny accessible goods and services to local residents, it likewise decreases the local job opportunities available for community members” (p. 214). Consequently, many African American called on the police to take action against the same people that looked just like them. Crutchfield, & Weeks (2015) states, “Some of the changes during this period of increased incarceration that disadvantaged people of color coming into the justice system were implemented with the help and support of African American political leadership” (p. 109). Therefore, lawmakers had to come up with a solution to address the issue. Law-makers created laws that put emphasis on arresting drug dealers for selling drugs. These small-time drug dealers were becoming a hazard to the community. However, the laws begin to cause harm to all that looked brown or black whether

31,928 incarcerated in Maryland prisons and jails (The Sentencing Project, n.d.). More than 2.3 million people incarcerated nationwide (Peter Wagner, Bernadette Rabuy, 2017). The United States makes up about 5% of the world’s population but has 21% of the world’s prisoners (NAACP, n.d.) – quite astonishing statistics considering that forty years ago, there were only about 350,000 people in prison (Alexander, Michelle, 2014). This phenomenon is called mass incarceration. Mass incarceration is an ongoing issue created by the War on Drugs, crime, and institutionalized racism.

Research Question No. 1 - Did Three Strikes You're Out contribute to the problem of mass incarceration and overcrowded jails and prisons?

The United States of America has the largest prison population in the world. The United States incarcerates six hundred ninety-three people per one hundred thousand people and boasts an incarceration rate that is almost five times higher than most other countries (Wagner & Walsh, 2016). The incarceration rate within the U.S. is significantly higher than the incarceration rates of other countries due to the prevalence of institutional racism within the American criminal justice system. While the criminal justice system unjustly targets minority individuals, African Americans and Hispanics are especially targeted (Brennan & Spohn, 2009). African Americans and Hispanics account for a minority of the U.S. population but make up the majority of the U.S. prison population. Despite comprising only 13.6% of the U.S. population (Rastogi, Johnson, Hoeffel, and Drewery, 2011), African Americans account for 37.8% of all prisoners in the U.S. (Inmate Race, 2017). Hispanics are also targeted by the criminal justice system at abnormally high rates. Hispanics make up

America is experiencing a social phenomenon commonly referred to as mass incarceration, in which the rate of incarceration has increased by, “...has grown by 700 percent.(Goffman)” in the last 40 years. Mass incarceration is difficult to digest in totality due to its immense nature, nuance and variety of answers with the essence of ‘could be right’. In order to decipher the complex puzzle of mass incarceration, we must establish borders to manifest clarifying order in the overwhelming clutter of data. Theory will assist in demonstrating how the general and specific facts of issues, in this case mass incarceration, relate by essentially declaring the philosophical frame of the interpretation. In order to gain a nuanced understanding of America’s mass incarceration, three relatively distinct theories will be applied: conflict theory, structural functionalism and symbolic interactionism. These theories are categorized by two approaches of sociological investigation- macrosociological, which emphasizes the analysis of social systems and populations on a large scale, and micro sociological, which emphasizes the impact individuals have on social structure.

The prison boom has produced mass incarceration, a level of imprisonment so large that it has made an experience on an entire social group. The prison boom started in the 1970s after the civil rights movement. The numbers of incarceration rose immediately for African Americans, due to the tension that still remained between the whites and people of dark color. There were poorer neighborhoods, school desegregation, advancement in voting rights, and protection from discrimination all soon came to an end with the prison boom. Mass incarceration exist because racial disparities exist, the justice system is ineffective, and it has made an impact on collateral damage.

As incarceration rates rise, health-related outcomes do as well. From 1970 to 2014, the U.S. prison population has risen 700% (Vera Institute of Justice) and by 2001, one in three Black men are sent to prison during their lifetime (Bonczar 5). Before disregarding prison health, it is important to first consider the implications on all of society. If we took better care of our prisoners, the entire U.S. population would be healthier. According to epidemiological studies conducted by the Population Studies Center, if the rate of U.S. incarceration in 1973 remained the same, there would be a 7.8% reduction in infant mortality by 2003 (Wildeman 2). 50% of all prisoners suffer from diagnosable mental illnesses (James and Glaze 1). Some of the most

The Cause of Mass Incarceration mass incarceration is a big problem in the United States, it has affected our country multiple ways whether it gives our country a bad reputation with the highest number of incarcerated in the world, or it gives us a bad image and makes seem as if the United States is a dangerous and terrible place to live in. The rate of incarcerated has increased from 300,000 prisoners in the early 1970’s to 2.3 million today. Some of the causes of mass incarceration involve the war on drugs and racial discrimination. The war on drugs is a big factor in mass incarceration, as it is said in ACL.org, “Drug arrests now account for a quarter of the people locked up in America” This means that more than half a million people are in prison due to use or possession of drugs. Another big factor to consider for a cause of mass incarceration is racial discrimination according to ACL.org “One in three black men can expect to be incarcerated in his lifetime. Compare that to one in six Latino males and one in 17 white males.” This a very big difference between the three different races blacks having the highest probability of being incarcerated compared to whites. These are not the only factors of mass incarceration in our judicial system, there are many more flaws in our judicial system that has caused it to overflow prisons throughout the states. Therefore, what is the biggest flaw in our criminal justice system? That is causing the majority of incarcerations in the U.S.

     The idea of sentencing a criminal for a period of time in a prison isn't working, so prisons should focus more on changing their rehabilitation programs. Life in prison should be like the outside world as much as possible, given the fact of imprisonment. Prisoners would be less prepared if the prison environment is artificial and abnormal compared to the outside world they will have to encounter later on. A prisoner also needs to keep family ties. Research in

America has been a land for the free since it became a dream place for people to come and have a successful life. In this case, America hasn’t been as grateful to people. They have more people in jail than any other country in the world and it’s still increasing. This main cause called mass incarceration brought America to the leading country that is incarcerating people at a high rate mainly sending those of color behind bars as said in web source A.C.L.U. This brings a lot of issues into a great nation such as the U.S.A. in a place where people should be proud to live in and represent. The topic of mass incarceration hasn’t been a major issue that politician’s really talk about. As well as the politician’s the people haven’t taken much actions to change it. Mass incarceration brings many troubles for America to deal with besides the other countless issues it has as a nation. The causes of mass incarceration are many, but the main important are overcrowded prisons, discrimination to criminals after jail, and imprisoning many people for long time periods based on small offenses that they have done. The causes of mass incarceration continue to affect the nation greatly as there are more people going behind bars at a high rate. Since the 1980’s there has been an increase of incarceration. It all started with the use of cocaine in the 1980’s that made “Policies that greatly excaberated racial disperities in incarceration rates… President Ronald Reagan officially announced the

There are many people who are critical of the US‘s prison sysetm; the idea of locking up those who commit crimes against a society simply to keep them from doing harm. Many say that more rehabilatation is necessary to improve these individuals and, therefore, society as a whole. What are some ways of doing this? Do you agree/disagree with this view and why? Is the prison system currently in place the best option for society? 2 pages, double spaced, 12pt. font.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Does this mean that we have more crime and that our nation is more dangerous than other countries, or is this even an issue? Maybe we are just better at keeping our criminal off the streets. Although, by keeping those criminals locked away, are we creating other issues?

Before enrolling in this class, I was unaware of the topic that would be introduced to us. Many of my friends have taken this class in the past and recommended that I check each course to see which topic the class focuses on. Instead, I neglected their words of advice and dove into the class blind. Although I was unaware of the topic to be introduced, once I heard it being about mass incarceration, I was somewhat relieved. The class I took as a prerequisite to Writing 39C was Writing 37 and the topic was about racial conflict in the past. Upon hearing the topic in our first session, my mind instantly linked together the racial conflict I had prior knowledge about to the racial profiling that was an incentive to the mass incarceration. Connecting these two broadened my view on the "New Jim Crow" and allowed me insight on where I wanted to start my research and how to branch off from it.

With the population of the United States prisons growing every day we need to evaluate if they are doing any good. Personally, I believe that we need to keep our prison system, but we need to take steps in reforming them rather than abolish them altogether. The United States has the highest number of incarcerated people than any other country in the world. We must sit down and look at other countries and see what they are doing different than the United States. In this paper, we will first look at what the prison system in America is like and what we can do to improve upon our prison system. Then, we will also look at the Finland prison systems and see if we can learn anything from them, since they have one of the lowest incarceration and crime rate in the world. We will then look at reforming our prison system or abolishing it. Finally, we will investigate other punishment alternatives other than the prison system that we could use.

Mass incarceration is a term that is used to define the “substantial increase in the number of incarcerated people in the United States’ prisons over the past forty years.” (The Atlantic, 2017) Although America contains about 5% of the world’s population, it holds 25% of the world’s prisoners. When compared to America, the prison populations of oppressive countries, like Russia, are basically nothing. The politics of this “land of the free” in the 80s and 90s led to the dramatic increase in incarceration rates and, by the end of 2010, more than two million people were imprisoned. The US seems to focus more on getting people into prison than on keeping them out.