Thinking About Crime Summary

Jacoby claims that America uses too many crimes for someone to go to prison, “Commit murder; go to prison. Sell cocaine; go to prison. Kite checks; go to prison.” (Jacoby, 1997, P. 1) There is a lot more people, with misdemeanor cases, that does not need to be in prison and that it cost a lot of money for prisons to tend for an inmate. In 1997 Jacoby states that, “the price of keeping criminals in cages is appalling -- a common estimate is $30,000 per inmate per year.”

In “How to Lock up Fewer People,” Marc Mauer and David Cole argue that the prison system in the US needs to be improved. America’s incarceration rate is far too high, and it must be reduced. To make their argument, they use many facts and shocking statistics. The authors state the problem at hand, recognize the obstacles, and push for reform.

Matt Taibbi states, “Our prison population is now the biggest in the history of human civilization.” But how did America’s prison population become so unmanageable? Has anyone ever thought about what could possibly the reason to why these Americans are being placed into jail so often? Many believe that a bad family life, location of residence, and drugs hold a few of the answers to why an individual becomes involved in criminal activity. Looking at this situation from a psychological point of view, issues such as drug abuse and mental illness are often the issues that led to people to commit a crime, however these issues aren’t the only reasons to why people tend to commit a crime. The reasons to why people commit crimes are almost always depended on the individuals who commit the crime. For example, some people commit crimes because they think they cannot achieve success in their life through legal means, many others commit crimes based on their social environment and the people they associate with. Some people are influenced by the environment around them, especially the environment they grew up in. By understanding why a person commits a crime, one can develop ways to control crime which leads to a much safer

Is incarceration the best way to deal with criminals? In the article written by Michael K. Williams, “America’s Mass Incarceration Habit Needs a Serious Fix,” this issue, among others, are tackled. He shares a personal experience and startling statistics to outline the reality that is prison. Through the use of rhetorical appeal, we delve into the mind of the writer and learn why incarceration is not an invaluable tool for non-violent criminals. We also explore racial disparities and begin to see why prison should be discarded as a form of punishment for nonviolent offenses. I agree with the author, America’s addiction to throwing people in jail needs treatment.

“The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences” by Jeremy Travis,

In any given year now, incarceration rates has tripled with approximately 13 million people introduced to American jails in any given year. This increase in the prison population far outpaced the crime rate and the US population growth. Today, America has around 5% of the world’s population but a quarter of the world’s prison population.

Why are the incarcerations in the United States so high one might ask? In the United States around 1970 through 1985 the crime rate spike, this was not anything new to the American people at the time, but what was new was how the United States chose to respond to the crime wave. The United States respond with a series of tough crime tactics because the American public was becoming worried by the spike in violent crimes.

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

The United States prison population has grown seven-fold over the past forty years, and many Americans today tend to believe that the high levels of incarceration in our country stem from factors such as racism, socioeconomic differences, and drugs. While these factors have contributed to the incarceration rate present in our country today, I argue that the most important reason our country has such a high incarceration rate is the policy changes that have occurred since the 1970s. During this time, the United States has enacted policy changes that have produced an astounding rise in the use of imprisonment for social control. These policy changes were enacted in order to achieve greater consistency, certainty, and severity and include sentencing laws such as determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing, mandatory minimum sentencing, and three strikes laws (National Research Council 2014). Furthermore, I argue that mandatory sentencing has had the most significant effect on the incarceration rate.

In the world because some crimes are more severe than others, human beings decided that deprivation of liberty was the best form of punishment. The idea was to make prison a system for corrections, rather than detention alone. These ideas soon manifested in schools of philosophy and criminology were the notion was defended that punishment should be more lenient only at the cost of the greater good and aimed to change the behavior itself. Eventually these ideas gave birth to a new form of incarcerations designed to deter both rise in crime and to reform, based on self-reflection over the prisoner’s choices. Well then why are the incarcerations in the United States so high one might ask? In the United States

The United States is five percent of the world’s population and has twenty five percent of the world’s people incarcerated. This is the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Mass incarceration has been a problem in this country for decades. The war on drugs has increased the odds of incarceration and the length of sentences for non-violent offenders. Ninety five percent of prisoners have plead guilty and one out of five are serving sentences for drug related charges (REF).

In the past four decades, there has been a staggering increase in the United States prison population at the local and state level. Currently there are 2.2 million people in the nation’s prisons and jails that has added up to a 500% increase over 40 years (The sentencing project). The cause of this prison growth is a variety of laws and punitive sentencing policies that were initiated starting in the early 1970’s. Policies such as harsh drug penalties for non-violent crimes, Mandatory Minimum Maximum sentences and the Three Strikes law have all contributed to America’s current problem of mass incarceration.

Over the past few decades, the United States has witnessed a huge surge in the number of individuals in jail and in prison. Evidence suggests the mass imprisonment policy from the last 40 years was a horrible catastrophe. Putting more people in prison not only ruined lives, it disrupted families, prevented ex-prisoners to find housing, to get an education, or even a good job. Regrettably, the United States has a higher percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is increasing exponentially. The expense produced by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. Although people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. By researching mass incarceration, I hope to get society to understand that incarcerating an individual not only effects the family, but we will look at the long term consequences on society and how the United States can remain safe and, at the same time, undo much of the damage that results from large-scale imprisonment.

The prison population in the United states has increased 500% in thirty years. Since the 1970s social inequality has impacted the American prison system. America has 2.3 million people in prison which is “five times more than England and twelve times more than Japan.” We want to know why our prison population is growing and what are the core reasons. Has our society caused mass incarceration? Is it based on conflict theory or social stratification? Our research will include a comprehensive analysis of sentencing guidelines from the war on drugs , race, and poverty and respectively its impact on mass incarceration. “The United States has the dubious distinction of leading every other nation in both the largest total

The United States of America is a country home to a population of nearly 320 million people, far from the staggering 1.4 billion in China, or 1.3 billion in India. However, our country is leading in incarceration rates with a total of over 2.2 million incarcerated citizens, even over those countries with populations several times larger than ours. Many would be shocked that our “great” country is the home to so many “criminals”, but in actuality, many imprisoned citizens are victims of our judicial system. Overincarceration in the US is an issue that has plagued our society since the “War on Drugs” beginning in 1971. With beaming support from the country and government, president Richard Nixon introduced the policy that would place standard sentencing guidelines for many drug and cartel related crimes. These policies came to be known as “mandatory minimums”.