Recommended: Prison Litigation Reform Act 1996 Analysis
This is just one manifestation of America’s culture of incarceration. The United States has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners and only five percent of the world’s population. The prison population in the
In the article "American Slavery, Reinvented" by Whitney Benns is an analysis of states forcing their prisoners into full days of servitude to rehabilitate themselves, however, there has been some debate that this form of rehabilitation is cruel. Prison labor is a practice that many states are using on the incarcerated. Once the prisoners are medically cleared, they are forced to work in directed areas or face punishments such as solitary confinement and denying the inmates from family visits. There are multiple theories to justify why prison labor is being enforced that Benns focuses on in her article. Additionally, she believes the prisons found a way to bring back a depressing moment in American history.
Final Essay America, the home of the free, but how free are we really? Incarceration rates over the past 30 years have soared, and currently 25% of all inmates in the world lie behind the bars of American prisons. (Approximately 716 per 100,000 peoples). Whether justified or not, our country locks up more people per year than any other country. Cases such as that of Tamir Rice, and Steven Avery exemplify both spectrums of the exploitation of our judiciary system.
Madrid v. Gomez exposed in detail of the mental deterioration in prisoners of and of abusive behavior by prison officers. Simon argues that most importantly, the case was the first to correctly identify the constitutional significance of mass incarceration’s failure to reckon with biological and psychological consequences of its practices and the consequent threat to human dignity. In other words, not only does Supermax incarceration legally take away a prisoners liberty, but it also denies them pure human existence and biological existence.
Annotated Bibliography Bower, Alicia. " Constitutionally Crowded: Brown v. Plata and How the Supreme Court Pushed Back to Keep Prison Reform Litigation Alive." Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 45.2 (2012): 555-67. Academic Search Complete. Web.
The Jail and The New Jim Crow both describe how our justice system is generally based on people’s conceptions of things, and how our own justice system is creating a new way of discriminating people by labeling, incarcerating the same disreputables and lower class that have come to be labeled as the rabble class. In chapter two, of The New Jim Crow, supporting the claim that our justice system has created a new way of segregating people; Michelle Alexander describes how the process of mass incarceration actually works and how at the end the people that we usually find being arrested, sent to jail, and later on sent to prison, are the same low class persons’ with no knowledge and resources. These people commit petty crimes that cost them their
In the article “Even Prisoners Must Have Hope”, Richard Stratton (the author) talks about his thoughts on the federal prison system in America. Stratton himself had served 8 years in jail for smuggling marijuana. He strongly advises not to make the prisons even worse than they already are. The harsh conditions and other peoples’ vengeful attitudes toward criminals only make the violence and crime continue. According to Stratton, instead of improving the harsh conditions and trying to rehabilitate and help prisoners that could lead to peace, our society inflicts more pain and punishment, enforcing a violent cycle.
Despite the odds being against him, Robin Woods broke free of a cyclical prison system run on neglect and prejudice. He used books and self-education to rise above the expectations he and the people around him had placed on his life. Robin Woods was set up for failure, as both a child and adult, by the education and justice systems. Robin’s story is one of resilience, determination, and self-reliance.
Many people, before reading this article, might not have been aware of the rapid increase of incarceration rates and the overcrowding issue. This appeals to the reader’s sense of logic by stating that the vast majority of them are nonviolent because it shows them that that is where the overcrowding issue resides. This gets the readers thinking that alternative ways of dealing with nonviolent offenders might be necessary to solving the issue in the criminal justice system. Zuckerman makes the reader understand that reforming the prison system is a reasonable solution to the many problems generated by non-violent offenders being imprisoned. Not only does the author make the reader aware of the issue, but he provides a logical solution for it.
Mass Incarceration: Transforming an Unconstitutional System. Guild Notes, 40(4), 12. Brad Broussard in his article, Mass
It is often difficult for people to question the standards of modern-day society, especially the prejudiced norms present in the United States. A particular establishment historically justified is prisons, which many deem an acceptable punishment for crime. However, criticisms have surfaced about their foundations and operations in contemporary times. Political activist Angela Davis wrote an argumentative composition, Are Prisons Obsolete, which considers the cruciality of imprisonment and questions the societal need for institutions made especially for punishment. At the core of her consideration of abolishing incarnation institutions, Davis suggests her readers are to humanize their perceptions of those who have been ostracized in society for their wrongdoings by analyzing the concept of freedom and absolute liberties, as reviewing our preconceived notions of the relationship between criminality and human rights enable us to think of more suitable methods of
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.
The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues written by Angela Davis explains her personal experiences growing up in Birmingham, Alabama during a time of racial segregation, capitalism and an unjust prison system. With the use of her personal experience and scholarly research, activist Davis investigates the institutionalized biases that support the criminal justice system in order to identify potential reforms that could result in a more just and equal society. In the chapter “The Prison Industrial Complex”, Davis highlights the relationship between the criminal justice system and people of color/immigrants. Several issues are addressed such as fear of crime and the reality of prisons, creation of public enemies, conditions which produce the prison industrial complex, structural connections and
Felon Disenfranchisement has emerged as popular and topic in recent political agendas. Felon Disenfranchisement is defined as, “The removing of a felon’s civil liberties while incarcerated and/or past their prison sentence” (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2016). Generally, disenfranchisement is seen as a retributive form of punishment. Arguably, the rights that are removed from felons during disenfranchisement are seen as essential to the American Identity. Supporters argue that people that break the law should not partake in the process of it and argue that the potential loss of these basic American civil liberties can provide deterrence.
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.
