How Does Public Influence Prisons

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Sydney Honeycutt Dr. Fairfield PPUB-400 1 May 2024 Prisons in the United States: The Public Influence versus The Political Influence Prisons in the United States are both uniquely public and political spheres. Public influence grossly maintains stereotypes of how prisons should be run and what effective punishment means for incarcerated individuals. Political influence, on the other hand, is completely focused on earning money, rather than protecting the rights of the incarcerated. Because of this lack of political advocacy for the people, the main accomplishment of prisons is founded on how much money political parties can earn. This, alongside racist systemic beliefs in the practice of police officers, is creating a system that encourages mass incarceration in the United States. There is no political pressure to stop …show more content…
Media can be a useful and productive tool in the realm of portraying problems that need to be solved within prison systems. Unfortunately, this is uncommon because to engage the viewer audience, the producers tend to focus on violent crimes that hurt the portrayal of who people in prison are. Advocating for change is not a popular form of maintaining a media presence. America is in a new era of mass media, and most people can constantly intake new media at the palm of their hand. Whether that is in the form of news articles, podcasts, social media, or television, it is clear that the popular portrayal of prison culture directly influences how the public feels about incarcerated individuals and the necessity of prisons. As examined by Journalist Karen Smith, media “dedicated solely to true crime has inundated the population with a never-ending plethora of prison culture, told from the perspective of the creators and rarely in the form of pure reality”. There is no requirement for the media to be truthful or to