Injustice In The Prison System Essay

Injustice in The Prison System

“Today we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world,” (Stevenson). The prison population in the U.S. has grown extremely fast over the past three decades. With almost “six million people on probation or parole,” it is clear that there is a problem with our prison system (Stevenson). I believe the prison system in the United States is outdated and unjust because of unfair sentencing, racial discrimination, and the privation of the prison system. Under the current prison system, many offenders of nonviolent crimes are getting much longer sentences than actually necessary. Many of these nonviolent crimes are drug crimes, such as dealing. “There are more than a half-million people in state or federal prisons for drug offense today today, up from 41,000 in 1980,” this rapid increase in incarceration for drug offenses highlights the injustice of our prison

It is expensive to run prisons in general, spending by the federal government has risen from “$6.9 billion in 1980 to $80 billion,” (Stevenson) Private building companies and service companies have done nothing to help the cost. They spend “millions to persuade state and local government to create new crimes, impose harsher sentences, and keep more people locked up,” (Stevenson). The private businesses within the prison system could be one of the causes of the unfair sentences. These businesses have turned the prison system into a business that makes “mass incarceration a money-making windfall for a few and …costly…for the rest of us,” (Stevenson). Another downside of these private prisons is that many state governments have needed to “shift funds from public services…to pay for incarceration,” (Stevenson). Private prisons have not only contributed to the growing prison population, they have turned the prison system into business for their own profit, regardless of the cost on