Mass Incarceration Analysis

The Detriment of Mass Incarceration The United States of America is seen as one of the most developed countries in the world. However, when it comes to dealing with incarceration in the U.S., the great superpower is seen as primitive and regressive. The reason many people share this perspective is that nearly 3% of the U.S.’s population is imprisoned. That is far more than our progressive counterparts, such as Denmark, Sweden, and France. But why is that? Is it because many Americans believe that harsh punishment is the only way to go? Or maybe it’s because Americans are inherently violent, and, therefore, are justly imprisoned because of their actions?
The truth is big corporations, politicians, and lobbyist organizations, all in the United …show more content…
Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan took office and, in 1984, introduce mandatory minimums. Reagan implemented these minimums to counteract the growing crack epidemic of the 1980s. Although Reagan’s mandatory minimums did lower the use of crack and other illicit substances by a small margin, mandatory minimums had significantly affected communities of color. Because of the mandatory minimums, family members from urban communities were being imprisoned for long periods of time, which, consequently, left many children to grow without a father figure. As Pat Nolan, from the movie 13th, had mentioned, mandatory minimums are like a “...scythe cutting into black communities. Literally cutting off men from their families. Literally, just huge chunks, just disappearing into our prisons and for a really long time”. What Nolan was trying to get was that mandatory minimums were tearing families of color apart and separating them extremely long times because of the minimums. Furthermore, this left children to grow up without a mother or father or sometimes both. This absences of a parental figure, consequently, leads many children to develop unhealthy disorders, such as depression. This further added to the generational trauma experienced in communities of …show more content…
The reason is that private lobbying groups, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), influence government to back their rapacious agenda. The reason why private prisons contribute to mass incarceration is that, according to the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU), “...private prisons business model depends on high rates of incarceration”. Which means, in short, that in order to maintain a profitable business, or in this case prison, there has to be a high rate of

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