...Nick Smith Mrs. Relyea Ethics 16 October 2016 Mass Incarceration In the U.S. Incarceration in America is a seriously flawed system. Now, crime is bad; bad things happen to good people, and that’s terrible, something should be done about it. This is not always done properly in the U.S. These wars on crime, wars on drugs, they are wars on people; the smart political move is to appear tough on crime because crime is scary, so we increased minimum sentences, we arrested more people, we sent more of them to prison. That's how we looked tough on crime, but the results are in: it's bad policy. It's cruel, it's shortsighted, and to continue this policy of mass incarceration would be foolish. The dehumanization of prisoners and the turn to for-profit prisons has created economic problems in our country and has created massive rifts in today’s society....
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...Mass incarceration is the term used to describe the disproportionate number of adults and youth sentenced to prison in the United States. With the occurrence of programs that help give the convicted second chances like diversion programs and drug courts, crime rates are still very high and some use this as an opportunity to do more crime. Yet, some use this as an opportunity to change their old behavior and grow as new people. When taking into consideration whom mass incarceration affects the most, it is people of color. Mass incarceration creates a disadvantage to multiple generations due to unemployment and loss of family ties; by implementing diversion programs and laws to keep more out of jail, these programs help lessen the disadvantages....
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...this number is closer to 2,220,300. You might be wondering why many websites and people say this. This is because many people do not want to believe that Mass Incarceration exists. Mass Incarceration is a term used by historians and others to describe the massive increase in incarceration rates during the past forty to forty five years. There are currently 1.3 million people locked up in state prisons, with 630,000 of them being locked up in local jails. Most people currently in custody are facing charges for non-violent drug offenses. Some of those people are also first time offenders. Thirty Four thousand people locked up in local jails are under the age of twentyone....
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...The Mass incarceration of people of color and felony disenfranchisement is a tool that is being utilized to continue on with legalized slavery. Through Mass incarceration and felony disenfranchisement it is easier to control people of color and legally discriminate against those who have been convicted of felonies by implementing laws that enable them to be productive citizens upon their return to society. The United States has a very dark history or oppressing the minority, this has been done through many practices such as slavery, Jim Crow laws etc. Although America has made strides in certain areas regarding equal quality of living for all, America still has ways to go. The oppressive was and discriminatory nature of America continues as...
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...Reflection of the incarcerated In society, the impact and consequences of mass incarceration and the impact that affects their children cannot be ignored. Mass incarceration extends far beyond the individuals behind bars. One aspect that cannot be ignored is the huge effect it has on their children. Children of incarcerated parents often face a myriad of challenges, including emotional distress, financial instability, and disruptions in their education and social lives. These consequences not only affect the immediate well-being of the children, but can have long-lasting implications on their future generation and their opportunities. Topics and my thoughts on what I focused on. Children of incarcerated parents often face emotional and psychological...
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...Prospective Claims: Michelle Alexander discusses how mass incarceration has ruined and dismantled many lives of young African Americans. The problem she discusses so passionately in her book is a relevant problem in our society today. Ever since Ronald Reagan’s presidency and forward, campaigns have been targeting crime and especially rug related crimes. While it is clear that many of these young African Americans are going to prison due to drug related crimes, stopping the war on drugs altogether is not the solution. Although stopping the drug war may seem efficient for stopping the incarceration of young blacks in the present, it does not guarantee that these same people will not commit other crimes. The cost for stopping the drug war is allowing drug usage and distribution to run rampant which can cause the society and the neighborhoods around the areas to become unsafe. Alexander discusses how there is no way around this issue and dismantling the system of mass incarceration is the only resolution; however if these poor neighborhoods were funded with government money, drug abuse can potentially become lower or even be stopped. Alexander is also discussing how a handful of reforms cannot be a solution to the problem. She argues that all the financial grants that are given to police departments for drug arrests and racial profiling should be halted. She believes that by halting the funding and supplies of mass incarceration are only scratching the surface of social reform. She...
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...In this paper, I will discuss reducing rates of recidivism. Not everyone agrees that the United States’ incarceration rate is an issue that needs to be solved. Even though, the United States (US) has more inmates than any other country in the world with 2,239,751 inmates at the end of 2011, reflecting twenty-five percent of the world’s imprisoned (Kelly, P., 2015 and Walmsley, R. 2013). As funding for prison systems become burdensome for governments sometimes, alternative methods are sought, or despite all odds, the system continues. The consensus of public opinion may never fully support reducing prison populations. One aspect that effects incarceration rates that can be perhaps universally agreed upon are the reduction of recidivism rates....
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...institutions which label people into social categories such as the educational system and the formal labor market. The three articles discussed below explore the different faces of inequality in society. These articles are Incarceration and Stratification (2010), The Mark of Criminal Record (2003) and The Black-White Test Score Gap (2004). The overarching theme that will be pointed out below is inequality face by black people in the United States. These articles show inequalities face by black people in three different landscapes: incarceration cells, employment, and education. This paper included the role of media in the proliferation of racial inequality between white and black people. Lastly, this paper also presented the missing gaps on literature and how should we address the problem of racial inequality. Summary Inequality is present in incarceration cells. Wakefield and Uggen (2010) claimed that incarceration became a powerful “engine of social inequality that plays a massive and racialized part in the contemporary stratification system” (Wakefield and Uggen, 2010, p. 388). The study conducted by Wakefield and Uggen (2010) covers the scope of imprisonment and the process of selection into prison. The authors then proceed by giving the implications of incarceration in different aspects of their lives such as education, labor market, health, family and civic life. The method used by the author is through graphs and statistics from different institutions. They looked at the percentage...
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...The American Criminal Justice System: The Social and Cultural Considerations Introduction The American criminal justice system, the largest in the world, with 2.3M people incarcerated (Prison Policy Initiative 2016) has a significant impact on many aspects of American society when viewed through the social and cultural lens including the psychological impact of incarceration, varying treatment based on race, and post-incarceration results. Based on the analysis of various positions of experts in the field, it is clear that certain policy reforms in the existing system would be beneficial for the incarcerated and the broader society. When comparing the scale of incarceration and other related metrics in the United States...
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...There is no doubt incarceration is to reduce crime; but is giving longer prison sentences the best course to reduce crime? In recent years, many argue there are better alternatives. Before reaching my own verdict, both views are to be discussed. The first field upon which people argue is the effectiveness of lengthening imprisonment. Retributivists argue that longer incarceration deters people from committing crimes (the 'chastening' effect). Harsher punishment is said to prevent offence in the first place, as would-be offenders will fear more. It is also claimed to chasten recidivists. This, however, assumes that all criminals, would-be or already one, weigh the anticipated costs and benefits before committing crimes. Those against sentence enhancement questions: do criminals consider the consequences? Research has shown they care less about the future than normal people. A report from the National Research Council on mass incarceration in the US and other numerous reports and papers have found lengthy prison sentences ineffective as a crime control measure....
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...Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," reports there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War. Statistics reported in 2006, by the U.S .Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics support this claim, which show that Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation’s 2 million prison and jail inmates, while Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent. The disproportionate ratio of blacks to whites who are incarcerated is especially great in Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota – greater than 10-to-1 (USJB, 2006). Why this structural inequality towards African Americans is happening, why it matters, and suggestions to rectify this, are issues that are discussed in this paper. Why is this happening? Since 1970, the U.S. has experienced a large and rapid increase in the rate at which people, regardless of race, are housed in federal and state correctional facilities (Snyder, 2011). This rapid growth in the prison population has been attributed in a large part to the rate at which individuals are incarcerated for drug offenses, especially minorities (Snyder, 2011). Between1995 and 2003, the number of people in state and federal prisons incarcerated for drug offenses increased by 21 percent, from 280,182 to 337...
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...Minority Inmates in American Prisons Noreen Harman ENG122: English Composition II Instructor January Pearson July 7, 2014 There is a disparate rate of minorities in the American prison system currently. I will present evidence from scholarly resources proving that the reason why the minority population is so high is due to racial profiling. The judicial system imposes stricter and longer prison terms on minorities because of their culture. Blacks are about eight times more likely to go to prison than whites, which dwarfs black-white disparities in, for example, unemployment rates (2-to -1 disparity), infant mortality (2-to -1 disparity), and out of wedlock births (3-to-1 disparity). L.J. Geo (2010). African American and Hispanic offenders were more likely than whites to be sentenced to prison, especially if they were male, young and unemployed, S. Spohn (2000). Even though there may be a high rate of minority crimes being committed, I believe the reason for having so many minorities in prison is due to the current judicial system stereo typing. In the article Rethinking Drug Courts: Restorative Justice as a Response to Racial Injustice, it talks about the rate of drug crimes committed by minority and longer sentences imposed to blacks and Hispanics. Drug court offers offenders the opportunity to not do time in prison and get court supervised treatment instead. This is beneficial to the families of minorities so they can keep working and providing...
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...Alternatives to Incarceration Abstract Our country continues to search alternatives to the overcrowded prisons bulging at the seams. Citizens are crying for a relief on taxation in funding these prisons. The criminal justice system has searched for years for ideas to limit incarceration. Some alternative programs have withstood the test of time, some continue to build a name for themselves, and others have just come onto the scene. This paper will focus on three alternative programs to placing adults in prisons. These programs include military services, intensive supervision programs (ISP’s), and Restorative Justice programs. Each provides some type of benefit to criminals, corrections department, and society. Alternatives to Incarceration Our country seems to have gone in various directions trying to find a successful justice system to work in punishing crimes. We went from a rehabilitation system, to no tolerance policies in the 1980’s. Overcrowded prisons forced officials to let prisoners out early in the 90’s. Taxpayers wanted something done with crime in their communities, but didn’t know which way to turn. A faulty criminal justice system has been blamed in such that it had, “Inadequate or ineffective rehabilitation programs, lack of drug treatment, insufficient funding for resettlement after prison, and other . . . policies. . . .”, (Sherman & Strang, 2007, p. 12). Crimes continue to be a major concern within American society, yet our only response...
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...The first time that I began writing the English academic essay is three years ago. In order to apply for universities in America, I should take the SAT test. In the test, the hardest part for me is writing. At that time, I realized that writing is never easy for an international student. It is a big challenge to write an academic paper by using the second language. The argument, thesis, word choices and grammar always bother me. However, I know that writing is the most important skill for a college student, so I never stop practicing and improving it. I took a writing class 20C and 39A in my first year. Both of them helped me a lot to improve writing skills. Last quarter, I took 39B, which was my first time to know rhetorical writing. When I take writing 39C this quarter, I learn deeply about the rhetorical and research...
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...America has become one of the most diverse and wealthiest countries in the world. Although the United States is wealthy, not all individuals have benefited from that wealth. Throughout society, African American communities have become marginalized, with areas of poverty, high crime rates, discrimination and few opportunities for advancement. These areas are often locations where racial and cultural minorities live. Racial disparities exist within the criminal justice system and have shown many problems of inequality between the white and black race. In addition to having inequality within the criminal justice system, the criminals also have impacted their family members in different ways due to being incarcerated. The media has misrepresented African Americans by emphasizing African Americans participating in crimes while ignoring crimes committed by whites. People in society are assuming that only black people commit crimes, which is unfair because the incidences of people committing crimes are about equal between the races. Racial disparity favors white people over black people in the criminal justice system. Therefore, society must reevaluate the way society portrays who commits crimes, and where they are committed. Throughout many decades of history, black people had been discriminated against and treated as second class citizens in American society, even though they participated equally in the workforce. Discrimination has happened from slavery until present times. For...
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