Essay On Mass Incarceration

Words: 924
Pages: 4
Open Document
Mass Incarceration
Mass Incarceration is a growing problem within the United States and leads. America is responsible for 25 percent of the world's prisoners, even though America is responsible for 5 percent of the world’s population. This makes America the country that possesses the largest prison population in the World. Many factors that contribute to the problem of Mass Incarceration. Drug offenses along with mandatory minimum sentencing contribute greatly to the overcrowding of prisons. Racial inequality is also debated as being a factor that contributed to mass incarceration. The lives of prisoners are very negatively affected by the problems of Mass Incarceration and prison overcrowding, Mass incarceration is an awful trait of America and has the ability to ruin thousands of lives, therefore reform is needed to fix the problem mass incarceration causes.
One of the biggest contributors to the problem of mass incarceration are drug offenses and mandatory minimum sentencing laws. There are more people incarcerated for drug …show more content…
Many people are unable to support themselves after release due to their crime history. Although many people deserve to be in prison and serve long sentences, many are also undeserving, People are incarcerated over minor crimes such as minor drug offenses and due to mandatory minimums are sentenced unfairly. Racial discrimination is also present as a factor in mass incarceration as there are many racial disparities in who is incarcerated. Thee evidence presented on how the judicial system handles convicts is enough to show what is the reason for mass incarceration. The issue of mass incarceration and prison overcrowding is a major problem and is one that must be resolved, as it allows for many convicted citizens to be treated unfairly. Criminals are people too and are often convicted of very minor crimes; they must treated with fairness when it comes to being
Show More

Related Documents: Essay On Mass Incarceration

Essay about Incarceration and Mass Imprisonment

Nick Loredo Professor Sutton Soc 172 June 8, 2011 Essay (topic #2) In the United States there is in extremely high rate of incarceration and mass imprisonment. Policies and ideas for change are being brought to the table on a daily basis. Is it worth it? Is the question that we always have to ask ourselves and will justice truly be served at the end of the day. Well throughout this course I have found that there is never a true solution to crime rates in general only ideas to decrease…

Words 1072 - Pages 5

Mass Incarceration The Whole Pie Summary

In Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy’s essay called “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie”, they try to show how the criminal justice system works and they also demand changes to how the American justice operates. Wagner and Rabuy describe that the American criminal justice system has more than 2.3 million people in state prisons, federal prisons, juvenile facilities, local jails, military prisons, immigration facilities, and civil commitment centers. Wagner and Rabuy introduce their readers to the…

Words 268 - Pages 2

Black Mass Incarceration Research Paper

Black mass incarceration has been an issue for African Americans communities and all over the world. In the United States African Americans are label as criminals by the history of their family and what they wear and by stereotypes. They are too many African Americans in jail such as that In Maryland whose prison population is 72 percent of African Americans and it tops the nation. There is a least 1 in 20 adult black males in prison in eleven states and In Wisconsin, there is 2,542 African Americans…

Words 1101 - Pages 5

Alexander The New Jim Crow Analysis

use criminal punishment as a way for social control for certain ethnic groups in particularly lower-class communities. Justice itself is not present in certain areas, and crime is sometimes totally justified on a person's upbringing. In the short essays, “The New Jim Crow” by Michella Alexander, depicts how contemporary America has continuously disadvantaged the black man through systematic injustice and how America has used its jail system as a new, under examined form of social control. Michelle's…

Words 844 - Pages 4

Nixon's Tough-On-Crime Policy

Margaret Thatcher significantly contributed to introducing tough-on-crime policies during the 1980s, emphasizing a conservative approach to law and order. Through the use of comparative research methods, this essay will explore the differing reasons for the extreme increase in incarceration rates within…

Words 1405 - Pages 6

Carceral Feminist Analysis

Have they. Criminal feminism aims to tackle gender-based violence and inequality through the criminal justice system. This essay will examine whether the means of carceral feminism are effective in delivering justice and resolving gendered violence. There has been growing criticism of the punitive policies advocated due to their role in contributing to mass incarceration and their adverse effects on promoting equality. This alliance between feminists and the carceral state has reinforced racial…

Words 1993 - Pages 8

Essay on the prison industrial complex

the worlds population, but incarcerates twenty five percent of the worlds prisoners; Since 1978 the number of prisoners in the US has tripled (Schlosser, 1998). 
The increase of incarceration can be traced back to the abolition of slavery. The development of war on drugs and rigid sentencing guidelines lead to an incarceration binge, in which African Americans were disproportionally represented. Furthermore, the vast increase in prison population meant prisons were becoming dangerously overcrowded;…

Words 2803 - Pages 12

Henry David Thoreau's Case For Political Disengagement

Henry David Thoreau writing “Resistance to Civil Government” in a moment of anger helped in its creation. He refused to pay poll tax which led to him being incarcerated. I believe there could have been different reasons why Thoreau wrote this essay. But mainly the reason was to express his displeasure towards slavery in the United States. He felt that he should have been able to do as he pleased. He wanted to influence people to do what he did, to speak up on the wrongdoing of the American government…

Words 1702 - Pages 7

Oppression And Political Change Rhetorical Analysis

Prompt #2: On Oppression and Political Change Social hierarchies have become increasingly apparent with the development of class divisions. There are the rulers and the rulers, the powerful and the powerless, and the elites and the commoners. However, when the reigning authority oppresses the average citizen, who should induce corrective political change? Moreover, who are the most effective actors for this task? Famous authors Max Weber, Henry David Thoreau, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s dogmas…

Words 1361 - Pages 6

War On Drug Final Essay

Annick Minsa Professor Nicole zaza English 1302 18 February 2015 There’s no Justice in the War on Drugs Milton Friedman (1912-2006), leading conservative economist was the author of multiple writings and winner of a Nobel Prize in economics. In his essay, he criticized the “war on drugs” and explained how at different levels the effect of that war negatively affects the society. His writing is divided in a succession of subtitles where he enumerates the points that sustain his argumentation. In his…

Words 815 - Pages 4