Analysis Of The Caging Of America By Adam Gopnik

The article The Caging of America by Adam Gopnik was published in 2005 and explains that mass incarceration can be divided into two theories, the Northern and the Southern. The Northern theory “focused on the inheritance of the notorious Eastern State Penitentiary and its ‘reformist’ tradition” (Gopnik, 2012). William J. Stuntz, who was a criminal justice scholar and professor at Harvard University, believed that the Enlightenment Era played a role in the prison system and shaped what it is today. He states that “the scandal of our prisons derives from the Enlightenment Eras procedural nature of American Justice” (Gopnik, 2012). More so, Stuntz did not approve of the Bill of Rights which he described as inferior to The French Declaration of

It is clear that we have not embraced the theory of rehabilitation because we still use prisons to “warehouse” offenders. The concern with “warehousing” is that the offender will more than likely end up back in prison. We have learned that recidivism is a major concern facing society today because offenders have little chance of employment, no funds or housing, and often time’s very little support from family or friends. I stand behind rehabilitation for offenders because I feel like it is the only way to truly stop crime. In

Last semester, I enrolled in the Organized Crime course here at St. John’s University and the professor was an active member of the New York Police Department. He taught us that a key factor to policing is maintaining a presence. Throughout the class he mentioned an area in Staten Island that is ravished with drug use, and how increased and noticeable police presence in the area allowing the drug users and sellers to know they are “on the spot”. An increased police presence benefits the safety and reassurance of the residents as well as allows for deterrence and accountability for the criminals. As far as stop-and-frisk it has since been deemed unconstitutional since the publication of this article. However, some people still feel that it should be reinstated, me being one of them and President Donald Trump being another. During the first presidential debate President Trump was quoted as saying that stop-and-frisk worked very well in New York City and that it “bought the crime rate way down and you take the gun away from criminals who shouldn’t be having it” (Shabad,