Incarceration has not always been the main form of “punishment” when it comes to doing an injustice to society. In fact, in the early 1600’s common forms of punishments for doing wrong in society included social rejection, corporal punishment, forced labor etc. (“Prison History.”). It had not been until the 18th century where it had been determined that incarceration could actually be a form of punishment correlating with a set amount of time in which an individual had to serve dependent on the severity of his actions. The logic behind incarceration is to restrict a person of his liberty as retribution for the crime he has committed (Prison History.”) Prisons that were created in the 18th century gained their recognition because of their high goals in perfecting society. But, the truth is as people were focusing on perfecting society prisons soon became overcrowded, dirty, and most of all dangerous. By the late 19th century many more people had become aware of the poor prison conditions which had led to a “reformatory” movement. The reformatory movement was put into place as a means of rehabilitation for inmates (“Prison History.”) Prisons would now offer programs to reform inmates into model citizens by offering counseling, education, and opportunities to gain skills needed for working in a civilian world. However, with the growing amount of inmates each year prisons are still becoming overcrowded. Because prisons are so overcrowded there are not enough resources being spent on achieving the rehabilitation of inmates and reintegrating them into society in order for them to survive in the civilian world once released from prison (“Prison History.”)
The two main types of incarceration include short-term, which is used for minor crimes and offenses, and long-term incarceration which are major crimes that involve major rehabilitation. Short-term incarceration is exactly how it sounds, it is a form of confinement that lasts for only a short period of time. It is reserved for the minor crimes that are committed in order to give the correct punishment to the guilty offender. These short-term incarceration places house current and future inmates. The short-term punishments include the obvious such as more jail time, but it could also mean other forms of punishment such as house arrest, parole, work release programs, rehab, and also probation. These punishments are meant to confine the offender
In the wake of President Obama’s election, the United States seems to be progressing towards a post-racial society. However, the rates of mass incarceration of black males in America deem this to be otherwise. Understanding mass incarceration as a modern racial caste system will reveal the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy America. The history of social control in the United States dates back to the first racial caste systems: slavery and the Jim Crow Laws. Although these caste systems were outlawed by the 13th amendment and Civil Rights Act respectively, they are given new life and tailored to the needs of the time.In other words, racial caste in America has not ended but has merely been redesigned in the shape of mass incarceration. Once again, the fact that more than half of the young black men in many large American cities are under the control of the criminal justice system show evidence of a new racial caste system at work. The structure of the criminal justice system brings a disproportionate number of young black males into prisons, relegating them to a permanent second-class status, and ensuring there chances of freedom are slim. Even when minorities are released from prisons, they are discriminated against and most usually end up back in prisons . The role of race in criminal justice system is set up to discriminate, arrest, and imprison a mass number of minority men. From stopping, searching, and arresting, to plea bargaining and sentencing it is apparent that in every phases of the criminal justice system race plays a huge factor. Race and structure of Criminal Justice System, also, inhibit the integration of ex offenders into society and instead of freedom, relea...
Alexander (2010) suggests mass incarceration as a system of racialized social control that functions in the same way Jim Crow did. She describes how people that have been incarcer...
Although we would like to believe the world is not as racially charged in 2013 as it was in the 1960s, a look in our penal system would show that minorities are still arrested and incarcerated at a higher rate than whites. The United States has experienced a rise in its prison population over the last 40 years and our incarceration rate is nearly 5 times higher than any other country. Even though 13% of the US population are African American males, they make up 38% of the prison population. Contributing factors to these numbers are mandatory minimum sentences, high crime and poverty areas, and lack of rehabilitative resources within our system (p.77-78).
In the 21 first Century, the United States still has an extremely large number of individuals in the penal system. To this day, the American country still contains the highest prison population rate in the world. Although mass incarceration rates are extremely high, decreases in this number have been made. Since the first time since the 1970s, the imprisoned population has declined about 3 percent. This small step seemingly exemplifies how a vast majority of individuals who becoming aware of these issues and performing actions to decrease these numbers. In the Chapter 13 of James Kilgore’s Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time, he asserts how individuals who oppose mass incarceration
In her book, Motor City, Sherri Jefferson examines the 40-year history of the “War on Drugs” in America, which has created prisoners and casualties of war. As an advocate for victims of sex trafficking, Jefferson also exams the role of being SOLD in America; the impact of sex, organ, labor, and drug trafficking. These examinations provide a lens into to understanding mass incarceration.
Mass incarceration is the essential approach target of detainment. The United States imprisons more of its people than any nation on Earth, and by a considerable margin. Criminals attract little empathy and have no political capital. Many consequential factors are present when correlated with mass incarceration. Families are torn because of the incarceration of a loved one. Upon, examination the intergenerational consequences, economic effect, socio-economic status of African-American men and women, advancement of the technological incarceration and rehabilitation are dilemmas that are not brought up as much in mass media.
Prisons have been part of our criminal justice system for very long. “Few people find life without the death penalty difficult to imagine” (Davis 9). Since sentences within prisons have always been around, society has made us think that prison is the only punishment for criminals. In these excerpts it is stated “… more than two million people (out of a total of 9 million) now inhabit U.S prisons, jails, youth facilities, and immigrant detention centers” (Davis 10). This is a shocking fact because two million people are being oppressed by the law. Two million out of nine million is a huge number that inhabits prisons of one single country. More and more people are incarcerated every year and the numbers keep growing. Mass incarceration during
Prisons seem like they are popping up everywhere in the U.S. One of the reason for this is an increase in incarceration. History shows that mass incarceration was a big problem back in the 70’s and 80’s when there was a war on drugs. This led to prisons becoming overcrowded and more prisons had to be built to be able to house all those inmates. For-profit prisons are going to want to see this trend continue. A for-profit prison is where inmates are housed in a correctional institution that is run by government organizations. Private prisons have their benefits such as bringing new ideas to help with the rehabilitation of prisoners. Rehabilitation
Evidence overwhelmingly shows that glaring racial disparities do exist in patterns of incarceration throughout the country. The racial group that has been consistently the most disproportionately affected is the African American community: while they make up only about thirteen percent of the United States population, they make up approximately half of the nation’s incarcerated population (Yates 1001). This indicates that external factors are likely at play. Previous research suggests three common theories for why this disparity may exist. The first is that African Americans break the law more often and commit more serious crimes than their white counterparts (Yates 1002). The second theory is that racial discrimination against African Americans on the part of criminal justice actors causes the disparity (Yates 1002). The third main theory is an economic one, that states that African Americans are more likely to become incarcerated since they are more likely to live in low-income communities that face high levels of poverty and unemployment (Yates 1002). Racial disparities in incarceration rates are complex phenomena, however, and cannot be attributed to any single factor (Yates
SLAM! The cell door closes and locks. In this paper, I will talk about the impact of the mass incarceration on society and why it is a bad thing for our country. I will also talk about the opposing argument for mass incarceration. Finally, I will explain why we need to stop it all before it’s too late. This system perpetuates racism. Mass incarceration is a terrible system that has many innocent people in jail and many more people afraid of anyone with a black skin color.
America has the largest incarceration rate in the world. There is an extreme amount of overpopulated and overcrowded prisons in the U.S to date. Over the last two decades we have completely quadrupled the number of inmates across America. More than 40 million Americans live in poverty. For every 100,000 of those U.S. citizens, there are 716 of them behind bars. In other countries like Norway for example the number is much lower. To reduce to population of inmates in America something must change. Providing inmates with Drug Rehabilitation Programs, minimum wage jobs and job training, opportunities for higher educations and a seamless transition back into normal society, these countries are breaking the cycle of reincarceration and preventing
The United States focused on incarceration as a central feature on criminal justice in the 1820’s. Why were prison systems necessary? One would conclude that the U.S. prison system is effective in deterring crime and carries out all those ideals stated by the Majesty’s Prison Service in England; however, those ideals are not met . The United States prison system is not effective in deterring crime due to its use as a treatment facility center, the negative impact of increased amount of money spent on prisons, and the harshness of punishments neither benefit the criminal nor the United States.
Mass incarceration is a consequence of criminalization that negatively impacts the solidarity of communities. When civilians see all the incarceration in their communities they become distressed and agitated. They find this act unfair and want justice so they become violent in their own ways. This is very common in African Americans wanting justice and it becomes an unhealthy pattern that becomes the governments problem because essentially everything connects to each other and falls in place coordinating with each other. “Human Rights Watch reported in 2000 that, in seven states, African Americans constitute 80 to 90 percent all of drug offenders sent to prison (Alexander, 99). This quote used from the book proves African Americans commit more offenses to be incarcerated and is becomes unsustainable when the statistics show these percentages and makes people assume that black people are the only ones committing these crimes. A great example of this would-be neighbors calling 911 on every little situation to occur instead of talking to the neighbor beforehand. They just assume there is chaos and would rather get the police involved instead of attempting to resolve the situation