Mass Incarceration Research Paper

Mass Incarceration in the United States: The Impact of Cultural Taboos on
Sentencing
Brett Huser
Front Range Community College

Abstract
Non-violent crime and the given sentencing tend to be multi-faceted paradoxes that originated in cultural prejudices deeply rooted within American culture regarding minorities. The link between what is good and what is bad can be seen in the decisions made in certain policies, such as the war on drugs. These policies tend to be prejudice towards certain demographics and dehumanize those who are imprisoned. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world; for every one hundred legal adults, one is an inmate (Tierney, 2013). According to Cox (2015), “The …show more content…
Tierney (2012), a writer from the New York Times who has been releasing multiple articles focusing on mass incarceration in the United States, sheds light on the overbearing consequences sentencing has in poverty stricken areas, “When sociologists look for causes of child poverty and juvenile delinquency, they link these problems to the incarceration of parents and the resulting economic and emotional strains on families,” (p. 3). The families being torn apart due to a nonviolent crime of a parent reflects a staggering rate of the incarceration rate of minorities (Tierney, 2012). The areas in the United States that have a high level of arrests for non-violent crime show that the arrests have an adverse effect; even a potential short-term reduction in crime rarely benefits the crime level long-term (Tierney, 2012). In fact, areas of the country that have high rates of arrests for non-violent crime show increased crime rates within a year or two (Tierney, 2012). These increases in non-violent crime often double or triple (Tierney, 2012). Tierney (2012) reflects on the families of prisoners, specifically minority demographics, which have been hurt by the incarceration of parents. Many children of incarcerated parents struggle academically and have disheartening prospects of a career if they even graduate high school (Tierney, 2012). The prospects of a good paying job are already …show more content…
According to Tierney (2013) in another article written for the New York Times, the inaction of state and federal governments has caused increased sentences for non-violent crimes and a rapidly growing prison population, “Half a million people are now in prison or jail for drug offenses, about ten times the number in 1980,” (p. 3). The prison population is around 1.3 million people, 650,000 of those prisoners are there for nonviolent crime (Tierney, 2013). Nonviolent crime tends to be connected to illegal drugs, making the policies regarding drugs useless. The rates of mass incarceration have not shown to reduce non-violent crimes, especially the use of illegal drugs (Tierney, 2013). The effects of long sentences on non-violent crime continue to leave communities in shambles by devastating economic opportunities of those imprisoned and their families having to compensate for a loss of income (Tierney,

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