...The United States in number one is prison population, because the prison system is broken, and the only way it can be repaired is for it to be torn down. The broken nature comes from racial bias, and life sentences for non-violent crimes, while certain violent crimes occur with impunity. Then, the prison system breeds those inside for recidivism, rather than prolonged freedom. In 1993, South Africa under the apartheid system imprisoned 851 black men, while in 2010, the United States, imprisoned 4,347 black men; that means black men are imprisoned at about five times the rate they were imprisoned under an apartheid system. Due to this, the America is an apartheid state, where guilt is deemed by the coloration of skin, rather than the true culpability. There is the issue of people serving life sentences for non-violent crimes, and many of them are also black. There are over 3,000 people in prison for non-violent crimes, and some of the crimes are as simple as shoplifting a jacket, and selling marijuana....
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...Prison Overcrowding in the United States First, we need to discuss the causes of prison overcrowding before we dive into potential solutions. The main obvious cause is fluctuating crime rates, the increase in the crime rates, in the United States leads more people to being locked up in prison, causing prison populations to sky rocket. Another main cause is changes to the laws, when changes are made, making the penalties higher, it causes people who might just go to jail for their crime, to end up in the prison system. Another serious issue that the United States prison system has is its return rate, with high lapses of criminals in today’s society the U.S has a 60% return rate. This rate cannot be tolerated, we as a society need to do something...
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...America’s Increasing Prison Population In the United States of America, we currently have approximately 2.2 million people in our jails and prisons and we incarcerate our citizens at a rate that is greater than any other country. Our number of incarcerated have increased 500% during the past thirty years. (The Sentencing Project) As of 2005, we had 737 people incarcerated for every 100,000 citizens in the United States, whereas the rest of world only put 166 people in jail for the same 100,000 people. (International Centre for Prison Studies 2007) It is obvious that something we do in the United States is having a direct impact on these burgeoning imprisonment numbers. The increase in the prison population really started to dramatically...
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...Key Issues In Our Prison Population The United States is currently in a recession that is affecting middle and lower class American in many ways. Jobs are being cut down, gas prices are not constant, and the money that America once had is rapidly vanishing. One issue in particular has much to do with our prison population in Texas and every other state. As of June 30, 2009 there are 2,297,500 people including women incarcerated in the United States of America (Sabol, 2009). The US is 5 percent of the world's population and shockingly has 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Over the last 30 years, the US criminal justice system experienced the second largest increase in government investment, health care being the first. Last year, as state budget shortfalls emerged, 31 states cut education budgets while increasing money for incarceration (Rooks, 2010). This causes problems for states including Texas at the local, state, and federal. Drugs are an issue in every country in the world, but here in the United States we make it a primary issue, which is why we have so many people incarcerated. Drug offenses, account for two-thirds of the federal inmate population. This is virtually affecting the poor and minorities in our society. Because of this, money for incarceration increases and cuts down education budgets, thus also affecting our students who will be the future of our country. Policy makers in Washington D.C. must address these issues if they want the future of America...
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...Prison Overcrowding in the US Name: Institutional Affiliation: Prison Overcrowding in the US Introduction Prison overcrowding in the US is a serious problem that has remained elusive for many decades. The problem of prison overcrowding emerged since the invention of prison as correctional facilities in the 19th century and until now; it is still troubling the authorities. Overcrowding in modern prisons is multidimensional problem. Various reasons are blamed for the challenge but they significantly differ from one nation to the other. Causes of prison overcrowding are not limited to the bounds of criminal justice but stretch to other facets of authorities including social welfare plans, availability and ease of access to health services, formal education and job opportunities. Debates on how to handle this issue on political platforms is an enough illustration of the problems political leaders undergo in looking for a lasting solution challenged by increased pressure from court orders and rigorous financial crisis. It is therefore evident that it is much easier to have overcrowded prisons than it is to develop and implement effective and efficient ways to manage overcrowding in prisons. Overcrowding in prisons is a broad problem that is centered on issues of policies and crime research. These issues involve criminal sentencing, the role of correctional facilities and sentences, accommodation of prisoners with access to health care and rehabilitation services and causes of crimes...
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...Checkpoint: Prison Population The article called U.S. PRISON POPULATION HITS ALL-TIME HIGH I found to be very interesting and informative. I happened to learn a lot from this article. This particular article talked about a couple important aspects that have to do with the population in our jails and prison’s all over the country. The main point that this article makes is that the increasing population of the prison and jail system is not due to more crimes being committed but the change in the mandatory sentencing that were set in place in the 1980’s. Another thing that this article talked about is how the population of the jails and prisons break down into race and sex. According to (Munoz, 2009) Angela Munoz the jail and prison ratios in 200l were as follows: “black males accounted for about a third of all state and federal prison inmates. More than 10 percent of all black men in the U.S. between the ages of 25 and 29 were in prison, compared to just over two percent of Hispanic males and 1.2 percent of white men in that age group.” The article also compared the United States to Canada with how many people were going to jail and being imprisoned. For instance Canada imprisons 116 people out of every 100,000 and the United States imprisons 702 per 100,000. The article talks about how our country and certain states are paying the costs for the increased rates of population in prisons. The main way the country is paying for the increased population is by paying $40 Billion...
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...Why is the Incarceration Rate in the US so high? The United States has about 300 million residents, about 5 percent of the total world’s population, but the prisons in the United States account for 25 percent of the world’s inmates. This statistic gives the United States the highest incarceration rate in the world with 743 of every 100,000 people behind bars (Levin 2013). On the other hand, Canada, our northern neighbor only has 113 per 100,000 of its citizens in prison (Levin 2013). So the question is, what really is behind the high incarceration rate in the United States? The difference is substantial and cannot be ignored; the incarceration rate in the U.S. is nearly 6.5 times larger. This is a staggering statistic and begins to raise some valid concerns, could it be that the United States court system is structured in a way that unfairly treats criminals? Or could it be that people in the United States just commit more crimes per capita than the rest of the world? The latter doesn’t seem like a plausible explanation, the United States and Canada are so similar it almost seems unrealistic to assume that the crime disparity could be so wide. That leaves us with the idea that the United States court systems unfairly treats criminals or just treats criminals harsher than any other developed country in the world. This thought is certainly very frightening and should be a concern for every United States citizen. Even though most people are good, law-abiding citizens, sometimes...
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...Fyodor Dostoevsky stated that, “You can judge a society by how well it treats its prisoners”. Many prison systems in the world seem rather harsh. North America has received much criticism for having 76.6% of their ex-prisoners re-arrested within 5 years. Whereas Norway has a much superior rate, only 20% of ex-prisoners continue to be arrested within 5 years. This illustrates how the prison system of the United States is corrupt. For instance, the United States has nearly 5% of the world’s population, but nearly a quarter of that 5% is serving time in prison. The society of the United States can truly be judged, and blamed for many ex-prisoners being re-arrested, considering the annual wage of an American citizen drops an average of 40% after...
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...In today's society, the prisons of America appear to cause more problems than assistance. The country penal system is expensive, overcrowded, and some argue that it is ineffective as well as inefficient. The cost to build, staff, and support these facilities increases dramatically each year. Prisons, which were created to be humane correctional facilities, are currently filled with violence, hostility, and a communal fear. These institutions are meant to control crime by deterrence, incapacitating criminals. This may protect society from potentially dangerous individuals, but these institutions' level of accomplishment is askew. The financial burden attached to the building, maintaining, and staffing of prisons constantly plagues the penal system. During the late 1960s, New York built prisons at a price of $2 million each. Since then, prices have risen dramatically. In 1990, each prisoner required $15,496 to support (“Bureau of Justice Statistics”). A prison containing 2,000 inmates amounts to over $31 million to operate on an annual basis. The United States spends an estimated $60 billion each year on corrections (Prisons in the United States). The operation price is synonymous with the level of security, ranging from the supermax, containing serial killers, to the minimum security, containing drug offenders. Violence is not confined to outside prison walls. In 2005 alone, federal and state prisons reported 885 incidents of sexual violence. Of the aforementioned...
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...all been taught about the possibility of being sent to jail or prison for any crimes we commit. While not all crimes end with incarceration, it is common knowledge that there will be some form of punishment for any crimes that we may commit. When it comes to punishment for crimes, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world when compared to the rates of other countries. The current incarceration rate in the United States is more than four times than the world average with some Individual states imprisoning up to six times more people than individual counties with a comparable population (National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 2012). The Incarceration rate for countries with populations comparable to that of the United States is around 100 prisoners for every 100,00 people, however, The United States has a rate that is about 500 per every 100,000 people (Population Reference Bureau, 2012). The jail population within the United States is made up of mostly Males making up more than 90 percent of the population while females make up 10 percent of the population but that number is also steadily rising. The number of women that have been incarcerated has seen a dramatic increase rising from a little over 15,000 in 1980 to close to 118,000 in 2010 (The Sentencing Project, 2012). Many view prison as a place to impose punishments for those to have committed crimes but the original philosophy of prison was to rehabilitate those offenders to prepare them for life...
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...THE BUDGET COST AND EFFECTS OF PRISONS IN THE UNITED STATES Christina Adonia Turner June 15, 2013 Introduction to Public Administration TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Table Of Contents…………………………………………………………2 2. Executive Summary………………………………………………………..3 3. Scope and Statement of the Problem………………………………………4 4. Literature Review………………………………………………………….5 5. Methodology………………………………………………………………7 6. Analytical Results………………………………………………………....8 7. Discussion………………………………………………………………...10 8. Bibliography………………………………………………………………16 9. Appendix………………………………………………………………....17 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In summary, the cost of housing an incarcerated inmate does affect the budget of the United States. Whether, the inmate is sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty. The facts in this research paper leans heavily in favor of life imprisonment as a cheaper form of punishment verses an inmate being sentenced to death row. The judicial system and politicians have formed several alternatives to assist our country with the ability to lower the cost of housing an inmate in our prison system. For example, the United States detaining systems are concentrating more on issuing a fair sentence to nonviolent offenders, such as, substance abusers and prostitutes. They realize that the majority of the inmates are in need of drug rehabilitation and have a mental illness. Also, the research shows that women offenders are the most affected with drug addiction...
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...The State Prison System Brandon Heard CJA/204 04/28/2014 Instructor: Rudy Pichardo For decades, state prisons have been heavily populated to the point where there is not enough resources and staff to successfully manage and control the inmate population. Although there has been a decline in the population of state prisons over the last few years, there’s still a need to build more prisons and hire more correctional officers throughout the United States. According to a report published by Bureau of Justice (2014) “based on data collected by the end of 2012, describes the third consecutive year of decline of prison population in state prisons, but an increase in the number of federal prisoners. The U.S. prison population declined for the third consecutive year in 2012, from a high of 1,615,487 inmates in 2009 to 1,571,013 at yearend 2012. The U.S. imprisoned 27,770 fewer prisoners (down 1.7%) at yearend 2012 than at yearend 2011. The federal prison population increased by 1,453 prisoners in 2012 (up 0.7%), while the state prison population declined by 29,223 prisoners (down 2.1%).” (2014). From 2007 to 2011 Texas, California, and Florida had the highest amount of in-mates per state while North Dakota had the fewest (1,423). Statistics show that inmates that are released back into society and they have not committed any crimes within 4 years of being released, the chances of them going back to prison isn’t any hire than a regular citizen. State law officials are cracking...
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...A Look at Racial Disparity in the United States Prison System Micah O’Daniel Institutional Corrections 2/22/11 Racial inequality in the American criminal justice system has a strong effect of many realms of society such as the family life, and employment. Education and race seem to be the most decisive factors when deciding who goes to jail and what age cohort has the greatest percentage chance of incarceration. Going to prison no longer affects just the individual who committed the crime. Instead, the family and community left behind gain a new burden by one individual's actions. The United States still has a large disparity between Whites and Blacks and now a growing Hispanic population. This racial disparity in the educational system, job sector, and neighborhoods have all contributed to the booming prison population in the latter part of the 20th century which has only continued to widen in the 21st century. At the end of 2006, the Bureau of Justice released data that stated that there were 3,042 black male prisoners per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,261 Hispanic male prisoners per 100,000 Hispanic males, and 487 white male prisoners per 100,000 white males (USDOJ, 2008). The likelihood of black males going to prison in their lifetime is 16% compared to 2% of white males and 9% of Hispanic males (USDOJ, 2008). Other social factors can be linked to the racial inequality in the criminal justice system such as socioeconomic status, the environment...
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...the u.s The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations. Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences. The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London. China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.) San Marino, with a population of about 30,000, is at the end of the long list of 218 countries compiled by the center. It has a single prisoner. The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center...
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...Jail and Prisons Comparison Paper Jose Salmeron CJ234 July 8, 2014 University of Phoenix Jail and Prisons Comparison Paper Jails and prisons they are all the same. Actually a jail and a prison are different in many ways. A jail is considered the most misunderstood segment of the correctional system. Out of all the correctional components in the in the United States, a jail is the oldest. Jail house individuals who have just been arrested, awaiting sentence, or have been sentenced to only a few months. Throughout the history of corrections, jails have had a major role. Like jails state and federal prisons have had their own history as well. Although jails, stated and federal prisons all hold criminals, there are some similarities and differences between the three. Today the population of the correctional have grown since the first institutions were established. The original reason for a jail was to detain offenders, who were awaiting trial. As history has shown the role of jails have changed throughout time. Jails are the most underrated component of our criminal justice system. The role a jail has within the correctional system, can be considered the most important. Jails are correctional facilities that operated locally. Meaning a jail is ran by a city or the county. A jail serves a variety of functions, and also hold a variety of offenders. Individuals awaiting trial, sentencing, or pending arraignment, are held in a jail. Violators of bail, probation...
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