Incarceration Causes And Consequences

The article talks about how a man named, Rodney Roberts was incarcerated for kidnapping and rape, which he said that he didn't commit. Roberts states, “Seventeen years I was gone. I had to understand and process the changes to society, the technology, the cultural changes, the geographical changes” (Roberts). Once you are free from jail, you have to realize that things in the community are not going to be the same anymore. You are going to come across things that you are not use to anymore, but think about if this would happen while in jail.

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.

The United States’ ever-expanding prison and jail population has brought about many questions regarding the side-effects of mass incarceration, namely involving the effects on the children and families from which those incarcerated are removed. Regardless of the perspectives on the appropriate position of incarceration in the criminal justice system, imprisonment disrupts many positive and nurturing relationships between parents and their children. In fact, more than 1.7 million children have a parent who is incarcerated in a state or federal prison as of 2007 (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008). These youths are at risk for developing behavior and school problems in addition to insecure attachment relationships. Parental incarceration, which may also be coupled with economic disadvantage and inconsistent living arrangements (Geller, Garfinkel, Cooper, & Mincy, 2009) can be an extremely difficult experience for children. It should come as no surprise that families with children suffer economic strain and instability when a parent is imprisoned, considering how each parent in today’s world typically needs to set aside time to earn an income to support their family, and most are unable to support their homes on one income. While it may be considered intrusive to some to intervene in the lives of children and families with incarcerated parents, research has suggested that there are positive societal benefits to intervening in the lives of incarcerated parents and their

The judicial system has negatively impacted the African American population with mass incarceration, especially for African American women. African American women are being incarcerated at all time high, and there should be a national outcry for these women. When women are incarcerated, she is labeled and stigmatized by their incarceration. Society views incarcerated women as deviant who has gone against social norms. However, research and data has shown that more men are imprisoned, but women serve longer sentences for the same charge. Incarceration is time for self-learning, self-evaluating and self-caring to become a changed person than before entering prison. This is the purpose of incarceration force an individual to

Mass incarceration has been a problem in America for many years. Prisoners have been charged for wide range of reasons, but drug convictions is one of the highest. The first half of the novel suggest that the mass incarceration impacts the people of color. There are more colored people present in the prisons than white people. This shows that there is a distortion because white people do the same crime as the colored, but they are less likely to get jail time for it. The New Jim Crow suggests that the system is corrupted because colored people are pleading guilty because they fear of making situations worse. This causes more jail time for lesser degree crimes. On the other hand, white people are most likely manage to get away from incarceration.

The vast societal effects from mass incarceration have caused an increasingly alienated population to form in the U.S., which can be broadly classified in the dual areas of lasting effects and impacts to the family unit. First, the lasting effects of high incarceration rates are that they impact the rights of the convict, particularly African Americans. For example, noted civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander posits that the long term effects of mass incarceration operate to deny black Americans the future right to volte, the ability to obtain public benefits, the possibility to sit on juries, and ultimately the opportunity to secure gainful employment (Steiker, 2011), Moreover, professor Alexander argues that this mass incarceration together with the prior Jim Crow laws and the past practice of slaery in the U.S. operate to ensure that black Americans remain s subordinate class of citizens defined primarily by their race (Steiker, 2011).

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

2 million people fill the prisons and jails in the U.S. The U.S. locks up more people than any other nation and 2.3 million people are confined in a correctional facility. This is what mass incarceration is. After slavery ended the system began to support the guilty and rich rather than the innocent and poor. African Americans were also arrested for minor crimes as simple as looking at white men or women in the eyes could led them to getting arrested. Plea bargains created a frightening sigma in regard to fighting for their innocence. The lasting effect of mass incarceration begins with the idea with war on drugs. A rise in recreational drug use in the 1960s led to President Nixon’s focus on targeting substance abuse. After he declared the

Mass incarceration alludes to the investigation which ought to be clarified as exceedingly elevated pace of imprisonment among African Americans men and Latino males from troubling neighborhoods. Many will say it’s from poor families and when they take the males, it weakens the family even more. One of the main reasons for mass incarceration is to have control of the system and African American’s after slavery was annihilated. One main issue about mass incarceration would be that if an African American student drops out of high school they are more likely to end up in prison rather than a white individual.

In our society, there are many stereotypes for every race and ethnicity, but one of the most prevalent throughout most cultures, even among African Americans, is that most black men are criminals. This is something that, although I understand is not true, has become so ingrained in our society that it made me act differently unintentionally. Even if only in insignificant situation, such as keeping a watchful eye on my belongings when a black person was around or by simply being fearful when a black man was walking behind me, I knew my actions were prejudiced. It’s difficult to break a stereotype when statistics seem to prove it correct. The documentary The 13th and Michelle Alexander describe how mass incarceration, partly resulting from the

The hype around globalization and the negative impact of the social media have obscured discussion on the most immediate and pressing issues that need immediate attention in the U.S justice system. The number of incarceration in the United States beginning 1970 has swollen to all time higher (Walker et al., 2012). According to Binswanger et al. (2012), American judicial system has imprisoned 2.3 million of its populace, and these are more than any other country in the world. Davis (2007) mentioned ironically that the U.S jails a quarter of the world prisoners albeit it contains merely 5% of the global population. These statistics are mind boggling for a country that has opted to teach the world fairness, justice and equality.

At any given time, there are approximately 2 million American citizens incarcerated and nearly 700,000 inmates returning to their communities each year. (Petitt & Western, 2004; Western, 2001). Since most prisoners are eventually released, mass incarceration has in turn produced a steep rise in the number of individuals reentering society and undergoing the process of social and economic reintegration. (Travis, 2005). During the period between 1982 and 2007, the number of Americans incarcerated in jails and prisons increased by 274% (Pew Center on the States, 2009). In addition to the increase of the individuals incarcerated, there is an even larger amount of individuals under community supervision, with a recent study finding that one in every 48 American adults are either on probation or parole on any given day (Glaze & Bonczar, 2011). Recent statistics show that the percentage of parolees re-incarcerated after release currently stands at 32% (Maruschak and Parks, 2012).

According to the graph shown above, federal and state combined in 1939 increased to a high of 137. After this period the imprisonments rate remained stable until 1972; when the rate rapidly increased annually by 6 to 8 percent through 2000. Years later, the rate of incarceration reached the peak of 506 per 100,000 people in 2007 and 2008. In 2012, “the imprisonment rate of 471 per 100,000 was still 4.3 times the historical average of 110 per 100,000. If the numbers in jail are added, the incarceration rate totaled 767 per 100,000 in 2007 and 707 per 100,000 in 2012” (Glaze and Herberman, 2013). In other words, the tremendous growth of the penal population is an astounding number of people behind bars. The U.S prisons and jails, by 2012, held

The major cause of mass incarceration in the United States is Bail. Recently there are several reforms that were passed, and there are several proposals under consideration to fix this issue. A lot of people that are incarcerated toady committed low offense charges. Hence, we need a fairer, and more effective justice system so that more people could walk free rather than being locked up. With that said, bail is used today as an entrapment, which opposed its original purpose. Most importantly, of the people that are in jail, 60 percent haven’t been convicted of anything. As we can see, mass incarceration makes our country worsted off, and we need to do something about it.

Adjusting to life after incarceration can be a very long and difficult process to overcome. There are many obstacles people face when returning home for the first time in years. Most people generally come home to nothing and have to try to make a life out of it. As an ex-con you face stigma, lack of opportunities and the constant risk of recidivism. Recidivism is the ongoing cycle of incarceration. You continue to be in and out of prison because you cannot successfully re-transition into society. This topic is worth investigating because recidivism is a current problem in the United States and it usually takes place because the justice system fails to prepare their inmates for what life will be like. Rehabilitation is key and because there is a lack of that there is a lack of success in offenders returning home. Young adults should be aware of recidivism because they can easily be sucked into the system and this can happen to them. They can find themselves in a position where they end up in prison and fall victim to recidivism. Questions that will guide this research include: