Speech Essay On Incarceration

1722 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What effect does prison have on people

My purpose here today is to speak as expert witness on behalf of the defendant Samuel Banner. Although defendant Banner is being charged with the crime of drug possession, I propose that all criminal charges against him be dropped. As a civil rights advocate I have done research pertaining to the effects that criminal charges and incarceration have on disadvantaged members of society. The results of these implications are more damaging on the individuals, their families and their community than the actual crimes that have been committed. In fact, many of these crimes are non-violent and have only been pursued in this aggressive manner over the last twenty years. Incarceration is supposed to be a form of punishment and rehabilitation to reacclimate …show more content…

We are here today to decide whether or not he should be sent to jail for this offense. But before we make this decision we should examine the damaging effects incarceration is likely to have on Mr. Banner’s life. (Devah pager quotes here) Being sentenced to prison will negatively impact Samuel Banner’s future. Today he is 20 years old and has only a GED as a certificate of education. He has yet to complete college which can significantly change his potential earnings in life. This does not mean that he does not intend to enroll in college, he simply has not done so as of yet. Let us propose he does receive sentencing and is hauled off to prison. In that moment he now has the mark of a criminal, and is automatically excluded from many of the opportunities he is afforded today. If he becomes a ward of the state, his criminal record will prevent him from receiving federal Pell Grants in the future placing a large barrier in front of a college education. This criminal record (Devah pager quote) will disqualify him from obtaining certain licensure in varying fields of work that can be quite lucrative. He will no longer be able to check the “no” box on even an entry-level job application, which will significantly reduce his odds of employment. (DEVAH PAHER) also reminds us that people who have stable and reliable income are less inclined to participate in criminal activity, therefore if he does not have access to a steady job because of his new “credentials”, he is likely to commit more crime. This is not to mention the impact his absence will have on his immediate friends and family members who are going to be alienated from him for the duration of his

Show More
Related

  • Incarceration Vs Rehabilitation Essay

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no good law-enforcement reason … Although incarceration has a role to play in our justice system, widespread incarceration at the federal, state and local levels is both ineffective and unsustainable. . . We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate – not merely to convict, warehouse and forget"(Holder). Former Attorney General Eric Holder does not dispute that prisons play an important role in the justice system. He believes that along with punishing the inmate’s prisons should provide them with rehabilitation. With the already overpopulated prison system across the US there should be alternative for lesser nonviolent offences.

    Read More

  • America's War on Drugs - The Prison Industrial Complex

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    After viewing the documentary: America's War on Drugs - The Prison Industrial Complex, it is clear that the Criminal Justice System is in desperate need of reconstruction and repair with policies such as the mandatory minimum sentencing act which has proven to be unsuccessful and unjust in its efforts to deter 'criminals from committing illegal acts' as seen with the increase of incarcerations of the American people and the devastating effect it has had on those in prison and the family members of those incarcerated.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Mass Incarceration

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    Drug policies stemming from the War on Drugs are to blame, more specifically, the mandatory minimum sentencing mandates on petty drug charges that have imprisoned millions of non-violent offenders in the last three decades. Since this declaration of war, the percentage of drug arrests that result in prison sentences (rather than probation, dismissal, or community service) has quadrupled, resulting in an unprecedented prison-building boom (Wyler, 2014). There are three main reasons mandatory minimum sentencing laws must be reformed: (1) They impose unduly harsh punishments on relatively low level offenders, leading to the mass incarceration epidemic. (2) They have proven to be cost ineffective fiscally and in crime and drug use reduction. (3) They perpetuate a racially segregated criminal justice system that destroys communities and discourages trust

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Mandatory Minimums

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    Currently there are 80,000 drug offenders in federal prison, making up a little over 60 percent of the prisons’ population (Stewart 113-114). 94 percent of the drug offenders were sentenced under one of the four mandatory minimum statutes passed by Congress between 1984 and 1990 in an attempt to reduce drug use in the United States. Even further, it was in 1998 that “57 percent of drug defendants entering federal prison were first offenders, and 88 percent of them had no weapons.” On average, these 80,000 prisoners are sentenced to approximately 6 and ½ years in prison (Stewart 113-114). And it is due to the prohibition of mitigating circumstances that leads to these situations. The United States’ prisons are overcrowded. New York Times reported that despite the United States only is home to less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the country provides approximately one quarter of the world’s prisoners (Liptak). Yet some will insist that Todd must have been guilty in someway or another, or maybe he was simply an innocent who fell through the inevitable cracks in the system. On the contrary, that is the exact problem with mandatory sentencing, it’s setup allows people to not only slip through cracks, but to land face first and watch their life

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Prison Reform

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over the past several decades, the number of prison inmates has grown exponentially. In 1980, prison population had numbers around half a million inmates. A graph of statistics gathered from the U.S. Bureau of Justice shows that between 1980 and 2010, the prison population grew almost five times, topping out at nearly 2.5 million. According to an article in The New York Times, the average time spent in jail by prisoners released in 2009 increased by 36% compared to prisoners released in 1990. Many people, such as those at Human Rights Watch, believe that the increase of these numbers has been because of tough-on-crime laws, causing prisons to be filled with non-violent offenders. This rise in crime rates, prison population, and recidivism, has led politicians as well as ordinary citizens to call for prison reform.

    Read More

  • Essay On Prison Overcrowding

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    The number of Americans that are in prison has elevated to levels that have never been seen before. Prisons in the US have always been crowded ever since the first prison was invented (Jacobs and Angelos 101). The first prison in the US was the Walnut Street Jail that was built in Philadelphia in 1773, and later closed in the 1830’s due to overcrowding and dirty conditions (Jacobs and Angelos 101). The prison system in modern US history has faced many downfalls due to prison overcrowding. Many private prison owners argue that the more inmates in a prison the more money they could make. In my opinion the argument of making more money from inmates in prisons is completely unconstitutional. If the private prisons are only interested in making

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Mass Incarceration

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mass incarceration has put a large eye-sore of a target on the United States’ back. It is hurting our economy and putting us into more debt. It has considerable social consequences on children and ex-felons. Many of these incarcerations can be due to the “War on Drugs”. We should contract the use of incarceration.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Private Prisons

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prisons have been around for decades. Keeping housed, those of our society who have been convicted

    Read More

  • Alternatives to Incarceration

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    For county jails, the problem of cost and recidivism is exacerbated by budgetary constraints and various state mandates. Due to the inability of incarceration to satisfy long-term criminal justice objectives and the very high expenditures associated with the sanction, policy makers at various levels of government have sought to identify appropriate alternatives (Luna-Firebaugh, 2003, p.51-66). I. Alternatives to incarceration give courts more options. For example, it’s ridiculous that the majority of the growth in our prison populations in this country is due to people being slamming in jail just because they were caught using drugs. So much of the crime on the streets of our country is drug-related.

    Read More

  • Essay On Alternatives To Incarceration

    405 Words  | 1 Pages

    An “alternative to incarceration” is any kind of punishment other than time in prison or jail that

    Read More

  • Marijuana Prohibition: Origins and Modern Impact

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prohibition: the act of forbidding or outlawing something. When you hear prohibition you often think of the 1913 prohibition and the 18 and 21 amendments. Often we don 't think of prohibition in the terms of marijuana. Original propaganda was formed by the director of Bureau of Narcotics Harry J. Anslinger whose persistent actions and manipulation lead to the rise of the prohibition. Harry spread the belief that marijuana was a devil’s weed that would make you go insane and on a killing frenzy; inevitably you would go to jail. With such a frightening menace to society the Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937 with no scientific study, public debate, or political objection (Grass). We all know this fear mongering was untrue. Now in modern times

    Read More

  • Incarceration Argumentative Essay

    473 Words  | 1 Pages

    The United States has been known world-wide for entertainment surrounding the police, judiciary, and incarceration systems. These shows and movies are filled with violence - and at the end, the “bad guys” (criminals) always lose to the “good guys” (law enforcement). But this poses the question: should criminals be treated badly due to their offenses? It is common sense that when one breaks the law, they should be punished for it. However, do the crimes committed take away the humanity of the convict? Prisoners are still citizens of the United States and therefore have rights. America’s Incarceration System continues to fail to meet the needs and rights of prisoners due to issues such as overcrowding, lack of health care, discrimination, and sexual assault.

    Read More

  • Adult Prison Essay

    1551 Words  | 4 Pages

    for youngsters who have a long history of convictions for less serious felonies for which the juvenile court disposition has not been effective” (qtd. in Katel).

    Read More

  • Essay On Family Incarceration

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    Parental incarceration can affect many aspects of a child’s life, including emotional and behavioral well-being, family stability and financial circumstances. The growing number of children with an incarcerated parent represents one of the most significant collateral consequences of the record prison population in the U.S. Children who have an incarcerated parent require support from local, state, and federal systems to serve their needs. Kids pay both the apparent and hidden costs while their loved one serves out sentences in jail or prison.

    Read More

More about Speech Essay On Incarceration

Open Document