Incarceration Of The United States

Many people are in prison today because of unjust sentencing legislation such as mandatory sentencing laws, which “... often make no distinction between, say, armed

In the United States, more than 2 million Americans are behind bars (Wagner, Rabuy). The massive amount of incarecerated in the United States has brought on massive spending by the government both federally and locally in order to house so much growing prison population. In fact, during the past 30 plus years the spending on prisons and pennial system has grown three times as much as spending on public education (Wikipedia).

America has one of the largest prison population and according to the bureau of the justice department. States and federal prisons held 1574700 inmates in December 2013.and it increased by 4300 inmates over the years end. More than two-thirds of prisoners were arrested within the first six months of release. These statistics show that prison as punishment alone do not work and some measures need to be but in place to decrease the population of inmates and recidivism. Prison should be used as both rehabilitation and punishment.

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.

Today, the United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, but home to 25 percent of the world’s prison population. We hold over 2.3 million people in our prisons--that’s 1 in every 31 American adults. America is spending way too much of its resources on over-incarceration when we could be spending it on creating jobs and providing education to those who would otherwise get lost in the criminal justice system. America has reached the point to where there are more prisons than colleges in the country.

Preview and Thesis: We, the United States of America are the world leaders in incarceration, but sadly, according to the webpage Federal Bureau of Prisons, under the section titled “Inmate offenses”, 46.2 percent are behind bars due to

Current trends show that incarceration numbers continue to grow higher each year. The United States rate of incarceration is the leading nation in rates of incarceration. Other countries have much lower percentages than the U.S. does. There a implications because of inmates reentering the prison system within three years after being released. In 1994 51.8% of inmates that had been released were back in the prison system (U.S. prison populations: Trends and implications, n.d.). Other implications

Once upon a time, Americans could proudly say that America was the land of freedom and opportunity. As the Pledge of Allegiance states, “One nation under God, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” However, under the current criminal justice system, more and more people lose their liberties because of the crimes they have committed. According to Roy Walmsley, a consultant of the United Nations and Associate of the International Center for prison studies, “In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represent about 4.4 percent of the world 's population, it houses

Have you ever questioned about the justice in the United States? Stevenson states that, “Today we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The prison population has increased from 300,000 people in the early 1970s to 2.3 million people today” (15). United States is a modern country that doesn’t serve justice to her citizen? 2.3 million prisoners are just embarrassing the whole country. You might want to know how bad the justice system is and how the heck cause 2.3 million prisoners to be in prison. Our system is defined by an error; which serve justice to the rich and injustice to the poor. It’s common to know that poor and color people are more likely to be convicted if they commit a small crime. We created a system like “Three strikes and you’re out” to show how strong we can be, and as the result of that, we have created the mass incarceration that no other countries can’t do. We are no better than a beast. We condemned the poor because we know they are helpless and we condemned the color people because of racial bias. What does justice really stand for? The justice should be changed in order to prevent mass incarceration in the future and focus on a fairness when it comes to trial.

Once upon a time, Americans could proudly say that America was the land of freedom and opportunity. As the Pledge of Allegiance states, “One nation under God, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” However, under the current criminal justice system, more and more people lose their liberties because of the crimes they have committed. According to Roy Walmsley, a consultant of the United Nations and Associate of the International Center for prison studies, “In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represent about 4.4 percent of the world 's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world 's prisoners.” These people are not only prisoners, but they are also parents, sons, and daughters - the loved ones of families. The number of people that have been incarcerated also represents the number of families that have been shattered.

Our incarceration system once pursued two firm yet opposing goals: retribution and rehabilitation. The Age of Enlightenment spurred an influx of imprisonment ideologies that soon congealed into a justifiable approach towards criminals. Jails, workhouses, and prisons aimed to reintegrate lawbreakers back into society but not before they were punished. The precarious balance between such contradictory motives unfortunately proved impossible. When did this system, once considered virtuous and just, become the hallmark of inequality? On September 27th, 2015, Pope Francis reflected upon this fact during a visit to a Philadelphia jail, “It is painful when we see prison systems, which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities.” This moving sentiment resonated with the American population, the majority failing to realize that one third of the world 's female prison population is incarcerated in the United States. If the magnitude of that figure does not astound you, maybe the fact that every 1 in 15 American prisoners are black, while only 1 in 106 prisoners are white, will. These statistics, reported by Harper’s Index, quantify the blatant corruption of the American incarceration system and the institutionalized racism America has sustained throughout it’s short life in places where we may not have suspected.

Another problematic issue people argue about is that prison reform can help with the amount of money being wasted on prison facilities. The article

There is a prison problem in America. 2.3 million offenders were incarcerated in the United States in 2008. The estimated annual cost to house these offenders was 75 billion dollars. Due to the rapid growth in the imprisoned population, significant overcrowding has confirmed that the current populations have reached an all-time high of 108 percent of capacity in the penal system. The United States incarcerates more people at a higher percentage rate than any other country. In fact, Oregon, Vermont, Michigan, Connecticut, and Delaware currently spend more on their prison systems than on higher education. Over the past 23 years, nationwide prison spending has increased six-times faster than spending on higher education. While the costs of mass

German Lopez in the article of Vox writes, “The murder rate increased by 8 percent over 2015, while the violent crime rate, including rape and robbery, increased by more than 3 percent. The property crime rate, however, decreased- by about 2 percent.” With this being said, the crime rates in America are increasing each and every year. Whether we realize it or not, crime is involved in our communities every day, and unfortunately, they are slightly increasing as well. Since there is so much crime going on, the rates of people entering jail are also skyrocketing. Alexander Michelle wrote, “ In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners.” This quote blows my mind because of the horrific percentages of Americans being incarcerated in the USA. Since this fact interests me so much, I decided to argue that jails should only be housed for those who have created crimes at a more harmful level.

“From 1973 to 2009 the state and federal prison population Rose from 200,000 to 1 and a half million for the men and women serving prison time for felonies. Another 700,000 are held local jails. close to 25% of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons although the United States contains only about 5% of the world's population”. (Jeremy Travis, Western, and Redburn).