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The Pros And Cons Of Prisons

740 Words3 Pages

In this last decade crime has been decreasing by large numbers in some areas, while staying steady in other parts of the country. Nevertheless, the number of individuals going to prison for drug offences has skyrocket. The prison system is a current disaster and is currently affecting millions of citizens in the United States. I choose this social problem, because the number of people affected by prisons and the ridiculous mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences is scary, insane and problematic. I would like to find out what caused this epidemic to happen. I would also like to learn more about how much money we spend on prisons than on education, as well as getting more details on how families are affected by this problematic prison system.

Why did we allow it to get this far? What brought us here in the first place? Prisons been here for a very long time as well as drugs and crimes, but it was not until the 1980’s that the main focus turn into the “war on drugs”. They started to build more prisons and make laws harsher on drugs, because the government saw evil in drugs and …show more content…

Not all drugs were the root of evil or classified the same, but due to race issues the focus was drugs were making certain race groups act a certain way against the government. On 1986 the Anti-drug Abuse Act was passed. (An Act to strengthen Federal efforts to encourage foreign cooperation in eradicating illicit drug crops and in halting international drug traffic, to improve enforcement of Federal drug laws and enhance interdiction of illicit drug shipments, to provide strong Federal leadership in establishing effective drug abuse prevention and education programs, to expand Federal support for drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation efforts, and for other purposes.) This act made

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