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Jail overpopulation
The strengths and shortcomings of our prison system
Effects of overcrowded prisons
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Jail overpopulation
The strengths and shortcomings of our prison system
Effects of overcrowded prisons
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In “Are Prisons Obsolete,” Angela Davis, an American activist who served 16 months in prison before being acquitted, argues that today's prison systems fail to address the root causes of crime. Despite their intended purpose, prisons lack the structure needed to rehabilitate inmates. We become so quick to assume that imprisoning criminals leads to a safer environment. As prisons continue to expand and their inmate population rises, they become embedded in society's norms without the consent of the people or critical examination of their effectiveness. Davis argues for reform, noting that the current system has serious flaws in addressing criminal behavior, as she believes crime will continue to persist and keep growing exponentially within
This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution.
INTRODUCTION The United States incarcerates a greater percentage of the population than any country in the world (CBS, 2012). According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 2.3 million adults were incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013. There are an additional 820,000 people on parole and 3.8 million people on probation (Wagner & Rabuy, 2016) Jail and prison differ primarily in regards to the length of stay for inmates.
This article, written by Alfred Blumstein, focuses on the issue of prison population. Blumstein indicates that the dramatic rise is not a result of one sole factor, but rather a result of several. These several factors include imprisonment policies becoming increasingly politicized, the changing of the age composition of the country’s population most likely due to the baby boom after World War II, and the extreme overrepresentation of blacks in prisons. Blumstein states that this overrepresentation cannot be completely due to racial discrimination by authorities, but most likely due to blacks’ “differential involvement in those kinds of crime for which prison sentences are often imposed” (Blumstein, 1988, p. 231). Finally, Blumstein proposes three approaches to alleviate the issue of prison overcrowding.
Those who find themselves sentenced to time in a penitentiary, jail, or prison are at risk of either being broken or strengthened by the time they spend behind bars. There is a great debate of whether or not the prison system in the United States is positive or negative. The following will briefly highlight the positives, negatives, and possible alternatives for our nation's prison system. First, there is a long list of negatives that the prison system in America brings. The prison system is filled with crime, hate, and negativity almost as much as the free world is.
The United States has a larger 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 growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several 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. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.
Thesis: It is very important for the sake of Americans tax dollars that we change the way that prisons are run and increase the productivity of inmates so when they are released from jail they are ready to be a productive member in society and have the confidence to achieve new goals. Introduction: Day after day, millions of inmates sit in jail doing nothing productive with their lives. We are paying to house inmates that may not even have a good reason to be there. For example, drug offenders are being kept with murderers and other violent offenders.
It is easy to see the incarceration rates rising while turning on any news station or reading any newspaper. Crime is prevalent throughout the United States, and our prison systems continue to grow in size without any real sign of slowing down. Overpopulation of our prison system is slowing becoming a reality, if it has not already. According to the Population Reference Bureau since 2002, the United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world. There are many reasons why in the United States there are about of about 500 prisoners per 100,000 people, or about 1.6 million prisoners in 2010.
“Over two million men, women, and juveniles in the Unites States live behind bars” (ACLU). The current situation in the United States’ prison system is not an ideal one and there is little being done to fix it. Incarcerating that many people has many consequences to our economy and mostly our society. Being a developed nation, we should not have so much people in prison. The United States imprisons more people than any other nation on earth and that is a sign that the prison system is broken and defective.
Over the years budget crises have forced many states to re-examine budgets, starting with the cost of maintaining their prison and jail systems. The United States has the largest prison population with about two million prisoners. To try and make a plan for the large population and some budget cuts, politicians want to change some of the parole policies and are trying to get some of the criminal laws revised for some drug offenders and white collar criminals. Due to the fact that the politicians are undecided the have put work release programs and strict parole release into effect. Prison is a place for people who break the law should be detained, but if the prisoner has twelve months or less until their release date, and show that they have been
Over 2 million people are currently being held in United States prisons, and while the U.S. may only hold 5% of the world’s population, it houses 25% of its prisoners. In the past few years, America’s prison system has fallen under public scrutiny for it’s rising incarceration rate and poor statistics. Many Americans have recently taken notice of the country’s disproportionate prisoner ratio, realized it’s the worst on the planet, and called for the immediate reformation of the failing system. The war on drugs and racial profiling are some of the largest concerns, and many people, some ordinary citizens and others important government figures, are attempting to bring change to one of the country 's lowest aspects.
Furthermore, during the past three decades the United States prison population has increased sixfold. Research has found that the growth is not caused by more crime but by policies that send inmates to prison for longer periods of time. One of the consequences of this is the increase of older inmates in prisons. Unless dramatic changes come to sentencing and the parole policies the number of older prisoners could soar over 400,000 by 2030 posing a tremendous threat to state and federal budgets.
There has been a huge increase in the amount of prisons built in the United States over recent decades, and a continually growing number of incarcerated criminals. This has led to less criminals being out on the street, and in return less violent crimes have been committed (Haq, 2010). While more criminals being in prison has helped decrease crime rates, there has also been several negative effects. An article from the American Legislative Exchange Council tiled “Prison Overcrowding Threatens Public Safety and State Budgets” discusses some of the downfalls of the United States prison systems. For example, many prisons are becoming overcrowded, and the constant need for more prison space and security is becoming a major financial issue (Williams,
The United States has been experiencing a drastic increase in crime. The correctional system that is currently in place in our country must be realigned so that the issues can be dealt with. Penitentiary administrators and police departments are experiencing a great deal of challenges such as insufficient staff, low morale, and a very bad public image in many communities across the country. This paper will propose an adequate and effective plan to reformat the current dysfunctional system and strengthen the dissemination of limited resources. The population of inmates in the prison system will also be addressed.
INTRODUCTION Crime and punishment grip the public imagination. The media regularly bombards us with the latest news on crime statistics while our air waves are saturated by pundits debating how crimes should be punished. Moreover, crime and punishment affect us. Today, approximately seven million Americans are either in prison or on probation or parole. Nearly 60 million Americans have criminal record.