Mass Incarceration Thesis

Incarceration is immense in the United States. Since the 1980s, the United States has experienced a massive increase in incarceration. The overall rate has increased from 139 prisoners per hundred thousand US

The past quarter century has seen an enormous growth in the American incarceration rate. Importantly, some scholars have suggested that the rate of prison growth has little to do with the theme of crime itself, but it is the end result of particular U.S. policy choices. Clear (2007) posits that "these policy choices have had well-defined implications for the way prison populations have come to replicate a concentrated occurrence among specified subgroups in the United States population in particular young black men from deprived communities" (p. 49).

Throughout the last the couple of years in the United States African Americans have become synonymous with many of problems with the country. This includes the rising drug problem of our country, the increased violence on our streets, many of the gang-related activities that have become prevalent in our country. One of the biggest for African American’s is our involvement in our prison systems, our “mass incarceration. Mass incarceration is a term I use for a system that has been in place since the end of the civil war that took advantage of the economic problems of the country and lingering

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.

African American women are a disproportioned population that are faced with more social injustices and inequalities than any other group of women. There is an overrepresentation of African Americans in the judicial system that has broken down the “traditional” family unit. Research and data has proven that African Americans are overrepresented in the judicial system and has contributed to breaking down the “traditional” family unit. When black women are incarcerated or jailed, it leaves a devastating impact on her family and children. She lacks a supportive system that is pivotal during incarceration. Women who are incarcerated leave children behind, and rely on family members or foster care to provide care for the children. An intervention is needed to combat the overincarceration of women, especially black women. African Americans are disproportionate represented throughout the United States judicial system. The Bureau of Justice of Statistics have estimated that a black woman is at a greater

As previously stated, mass incarceration is an immense issue. To be more specific, it is even more catastrophic amongst African American males. African American males have been affected the most by America’s incarceration policies for decades now. Mass

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.

The United states has a mass incarceration problem with 1 out of 4 of the total population being incarcerated. With the highest incarceration rate in America makes up five percent of the world's population but holds twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners.The rate of incarceration has increased greatly over the last 50 years and continues to grow .The prison systems have become obstreperous, expensive, and destructive to society. African Americans account for fifty six percent of the people incarcerated. The discrimination of black men in the justice system has escalated in the last 50 years causing mass incarceration, broken family systems with distrust of the government, and increased mental health problems in the black community.

The problem to be address in this paper is the lack of reintegration programs and mass incarceration of African Americans in the United. Mass incarceration amongst African Americans has had a catastrophic impact on families and communities and continues to create a cycle of discrimination, which makes its nearly impossible as a race to progress. Because of the soaring incarceration rate in the United States, many prisons are over populated and lack resources and support to help inmates succeed once released from prisons. Since there is an insufficiency in resources, many of these men enter back into society in need of education and little job experience making it difficult to find a job, creating many of them to reoffend. Of all men released from prison 81.1% are unskilled or possessed no skills, 18.9% are semi-skilled or skilled workers with the average reading level being slightly below 8th grade and 42.5% having less than a 12th grade education. In the first three years of release, 73% of African Americans are rearrested. This is a critical issue that needs to be addressed by appropriate programs that focus on poverty, homeslessness, unemployment, substance abuse, and poor medical and mental health. The first step in the right direction is creating a policy that addresses those needs with a reintegration program through job readiness, education and health management. Reintegration programs will improve families, communities, and job opportunities. If

while the overall U.S. rate of incarceration is up very substantially, this shift has fallen with radically disproportionate severity on African Americans, particularly low-income and poorly educated blacks. Indeed, the result has been a sharp overrepresentation of blacks in jails and prisons. In 2007, black males constituted roughly 39 percent of incarcerated males in state, federal, and local prisons or jails, though representing only 12 percent of the total adult male population. White males, on the other hand, constituted just 36 percent of the male inmate population in 2007, well under their 65.6 percent of the total male population. The Hispanic population, which constitutes about 20 percent of the total inmate population, is also overrepresented but is much closer to its relative share of the total population of about 16 percent ( ).

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 has been an ongoing problem in America that became prevalent in the 1960s and still continues today. The reason this mass incarceration is such a crisis in our country is because it has been ripping apart the family and impacting all those involved. This epidemic affects those of every race, but more specifically, African Americans. Many researchers attribute this prison boom to police officers cracking down on crime, but only focusing on the inner city which is often times it is made up of a predominately black population. Because of this, America saw such a rise in the number of African American males in the system in at least some way; whether they were in prison, jail, or probation the numbers were astounding. When a father is removed from a home it impacts the family whether that is the wife, girlfriend, child or stepchild, it has proved to have some short and long term psychological affects on them. It is impossible to parent behind bars, so all the parenting is left up to the mother while the father is locked up. In addition, when a person goes to prison it leaves a mark on the inmate as well. Mass incarceration among African Americans is an ongoing problem impacting thousands of people, both directly and indirectly, and because of this, it is breaking apart the family structure and taking a psychological toll on the loved ones involved.

African-Americans are more likely than others to have social histories that include poverty, exposure to neighborhood violence, and exposure to crime-prone role models. For example, African-American children with no prior admissions to the juvenile justice system were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a public facility than white children with the same background that were charged with the same offense. A major study sponsored by the Department of Justice in the early 1980s noted that juvenile justice system processing appears to be counterproductive, placing minority children at a disproportionately greater risk of subsequent incarceration (Deadly Statistics: A Survey of Crime and Punishment, 2000). This writer?s grandmother retired after more than thirty years as a welfare social worker for Los Angeles County. She has stated on more than occasion that the government is the main reason that most black men are in jail awaiting the death penalty today. In the sixties and early seventies, she says that women on welfare were not allowed to have men in the home, even the father of the children. These fatherless generations of men seem more prone to crime,

Through their research on income inequality and predictions on criminology, Robert DeFina and Lance Hannon argue the reduction of poverty has been impeded by tougher laws on drugs, harsher treatment of parole violations and the legislation of mandatory sentencing. “Theoretically, the rise in imprisonment can affect various dimensions of poverty not only for the individuals imprisoned but also for their families and communities” (DeFina & Hannon, 2013, p. 563). Entering the Criminal Justice system establishes a disparity in wealth and social capital, creating a gateway into the vicious cycle of poverty. The ripple negative effects of incarceration do not end once parolees are integrated back into society, as labeling limits income and educational opportunities. Racial status hierarchies are created as mass incarceration has resulted in the disproportionate incarceration of low income, minority citizens.

The criminal justice system across the country is designed to punish and strive to rehabilitate those who have committed offenses against the law. Compared to some of the harshest regimes in the world, the United States has a harsh history of mass incarceration. American prisons maintain nearly 25 percent of the world’s prison population. Of the nearly 2.3 million incarcerated, 1 million are African Americans (NAACP). The poverty-stricken in America, especially those who are persons of color, face a greater risk of incarcerated for minor offenses than their white counterparts. People charged and or convicted of crimes are overwhelmingly poor. The Prison Policy Initiative finds that incarcerated people have a median annual income of $19,185 prior to their incarceration which is 41% less than that of non-incarcerated individuals of a similar age (“Prisons of Poverty”). Both race and socio-economic status plays a critical role in the inequality that takes place in the criminal justice systems.