Problems With Mass Incarceration

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In recent years, mass incarceration and the rampant problems of the criminal justice system and the prison industrial complex have become mainstream, hot-button issues. There has been much dialogue about both why incarceration rates have skyrocketed and how the government can go about fixing the problem. However, very little real progress has been made. As of now, the United States of America is home to roughly a quarter of the world’s prisoners but only 5% of the world’s population. This is the highest rate of incarceration in the world. In addition to the problem of incarceration rates being too high, there is also the issue of systematic racial prejudices contributing to significant discrepancies in incarceration rates amongst individual …show more content…
The logical question to ask next is “how did this happen?” The answer is not simple or straightforward. It is complex, layered, and involves centuries of context and dozens of influential politicians and corporations that have all contributed in part to the problems facing America today with regards to mass incarceration. Presidents like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagen, Bill Clinton, and our current president Donald Trump have all played a part in causing this problem, but it isn’t just presidents that have wielded influence. From less powerful politicians like former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to policymaking groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to private institutions such as CoreCivic (formerly known as the Corrections Corporation of America), influence and the causes behind the problem of mass incarceration have come from many parties and in many different ways. While mass incarceration both seems like and definitely is a daunting problem to solve, it is not one without reasonable policy recommendations that could make a positive …show more content…
Any legitimate argument regarding these issues must address the 13th amendment, which reads as follows. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” (“Thirteenth Amendment, Encyclopedia Brittanica). Most interpretations of the 13th amendment lead to the conclusion that this is where slavery was officially abolished in the United States of America. However, the phrase “except as a punishment for crime” makes this conclusion extremely naive. For minority communities, this phrase has proved to be extremely damaging from the creation of this amendment in 1865 all the way to 2018. This phrase is a loophole, allowing the government to legally enslave anyone they deem to be criminals. In the 19th century, the government used this loophole to arrest blacks en masse so that they could fill their prisons and reap the economic benefits of once again having free labor, just like they did when slavery was legal. In the government’s eyes, this was necessary. Slavery was a massive economic system, and when it was abolished the southern economy suffered greatly. So, in order
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