Preview

3 Million People In Prison Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1207 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
3 Million People In Prison Analysis
I have been wanting to watch this documentary for a couple weeks now because everyone keeps saying how good it is and it really is. I learned several interesting things and there were things that I didn’t really agree to.
I found it odd that we have 5 % of the world’s population but 25 % of people are here in the United States in prison. In 1972 we went from 300,000 people in prison in the U.S to 2.3 million in Prison which means within the last 44 years around one million seven hundred thousand people have been or are still in jail. That’s a big number considering it’s only been 44 years. Because of that number we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. We are supposed to be the land of the free and supposedly the greatest country in the world but yet our prison
…show more content…
I’m not saying they should get away with it but the only person they are hurting and only if they aren’t drug dealers is themselves. If that person is by himself or herself and they are doing drugs and getting high then why should that person have to go to jail it seems like that person needs help. It would be so different if that person had kids and were neglecting them or was driving under the influence then yes they should go to jail. In the time Reagan was president which was for about 8 years the prison Population went from 513,900 in 1980 to 759,100 in 1985 to 1,179,200. Which means around the time he left the job 665,300 people went to jail during his War on Drugs campaign. Then came Clinton’s 1994 Crime bill where lots of money was used to build prisons to keep criminals off the streets and gave Police more advantages to arrest more people who they thought were big time drug dealers and gave the officers more range which people are kind of saying is why the officers we see today are like this

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Stern’s (2006) book, “Creating Criminals: Prisons and People in a Market Society”, gives us the black and white truth about important topics that are not usually talked about in the media, nor acknowledged by most in American society. The author explains that she is in no way defending criminals with her literature, rather researching and informing society about the ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system and the market society. She argues that many policies go in favor towards those who have money, leaving people who don’t have money behind, which ultimately leads to creating criminals. She explains the dangers of overcrowded prisons, who are the people more likely to be imprisoned, and the role of a market society within…

    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Politics and government is the focus point in America that shapes the lives of every citizen in America. Jails and Prison in the United States should be equally as important to the American people as the government. “Race and American Incarcerate machine” is the topic I chose among the list of topics that was suggested. When research my question I thought about different American race percent that were getting locked up and the different kind times they were getting with the same crime. After going over and over looking for answers I came up with a question is: Is it true that the United States have the highest incarceration and are the different races given the same amount of consequence. America is only 5% of the worldś population, but locks up 25% of the worldś prisoners. An estimate of about 3 to 7 million people a year pass through jails in the United States. A trip to jail can drastically affect the lives of an American and this is the most disturbing experience one can endure with the criminal justice system. In the…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People website claims that “Today, the US is 5% of the World Population and has 25% of world prisoners.” In fact, the United States of America has the highest incarceration rate than any developed countries in the world. America puts herself to shame to the rest of the world, despite ironically calling her the Land of the Free. The phenomenon of “Prison Industrial Complex” can be traced back to the mid-1970s when the politics around prison had a complete transformation. Nelson Rockefeller, the governor of New York until 1973 who later served as the vice president under Gerald Ford, advocated for enhanced sentencing for drug dealers as a tactic to attract more voters.…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States accounts for 5% of the world population but has nearly 22% of world prison population. This means that nearly 2 million people are incarcerated, and 1 in 3 black men will go to prison or jail if this trend continues (Amnesty International). Mass Incarceration has been one of the major debate recently in Politics. The politician has been debating on a method to reduce the prison population, and to do that they need to find the cause of it and the different contribution. In recent year, there has been a cut in funding for many states rehabilitation, education and other programs because the costs to accommodate an inmate is escalating upward. At the same time, laws are put in place that put disadvantaged people within the criminal…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Since the 1970s the rate of incarceration in the United States has quadrupled, after having been relatively flat over the prior half-century.”-Anthony Zurcher. The rate of prison incarcerations has increased so much over the years; the government can’t afford to incarcerate that many people. Karen Thomas’s article “Time to Invest in Schools, Note Prisons” shows that United States incarcerates too many criminals violent and non-violent. Joan Petersilia said in her article “Beyond the Prison Bubble” that, the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any free nation. This also supports the idea that The United States incarcerates too many people.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First Off, the United States has more people locked up behind bars more than any other nation and for smaller crimes. The article states that the United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 20th century African Americans were rapidly entering the prison world for no justified reason other than racial discrimination. According to DuVernay, as time passed by, The United States prison population number began to increase to about 300,000 by the year of 1972 and it became the highest in the world. She also stated that, “Should a little country with 5% of the world’s population having 25% of the world's prisoners? One out of four humans beings with their hands on bar, shackled, in the world are locked up here in the land of the free”. This indicated that a country that contains a small percentage of the human population, turns out to have a greater quantity (one-fourth) due to the number of African Americans incarcerated.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Everyday 2,220,300 inmates live their lives in prisons throughout the United States. That’s 0.91% of the adult population, or 1 in 110 (Glaze 2013). What if you were next? The thought would scare anyone and the flaws in the system pose a threat to low income individuals and minorities. The sole purpose of the Justice System is to deliver justice for all, by only convicting and sentencing the guilty, while preventing offenders from reoffending. The system was designed to protect the innocent. What if that was not the case? In fact, Out of the 733,000 people held in local jails at this time, 2/3 of them have not been convicted and many are there simply…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    While it has been observed and recorded that crime rates have gone down in the last thirty years, the correlation between increasing the number of prisoners and less crime is not significant (Kelly, 2015). This is due to the fact that more and more non-violent offenders have been imprisoned for minor drug related offenses that have only been interpreted as major offenses by poor policy regulation (Kelly, 2015). This only means that tax payers are progressively increasing the amount of money they pay for nothing other than a false sense of…

    • 1677 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In, “Beyond the Prison Bubble,” published in the Wilson Quarterly in the winter 2011, Joan Petersilia shows different choices about the imprisonment systems. The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any free nation (para.1). The crime rate over a thirty year span had grown by five times since 1960 to 1990. There are more people of color or Hispanics in federal and state institutions then there are of any other nationality. The prison system is growing more than ever; the growth in twenty years has been about 21 new prisons. Mass imprisonment has reduced crime but, has not helped the inmate to gradually return back to society with skills or education. But the offenders leaving prison now are more likely to have fairly long criminal records, lengthy histories of alcohol and drug abuse, significant periods of unemployment and homelessness, and physical or mental disability (par.12).…

    • 259 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Contraband In Prisons

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The United States Prison System has been around for hundreds of years. They house some of the United States’ worst people. This would include individuals convicted of crimes such as murder to the lowest crime of petit theft. Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, the U.S. has put the spotlight on terrorism worldwide. Most people in society do not realize that the U.S. Prison System could be one of the biggest breeding grounds for terrorism and terrorism recruiting. In addition to that, the introduction of contraband has been an ongoing battle.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander’s argument that Mass Incarceration is, metaphorically, the new Jim Crow is extremely useful because it sheds light on the difficult problem a system of racial and social control that is prevalent in the United States today. Although I agree with Alexander generally, I cannot accept her overriding assumption that Mass Incarceration is the only system of oppression contributing to the new system of oppression that has been emerging since the so-called end of the Jim Crow Era. I believe that the topic of Racial Housing Segregation and Discrimination is of equal importance to the issue of systematic racism as Mass Incarceration. While the Legal Segregation has been abolished, Racial Housing Segregation still…

    • 1378 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Lowering Incarceration

    • 2094 Words
    • 9 Pages

    When thinking of how America is leading the world the number of incarcerated citizens per capita does not come to mind. America is considered to be the greatest country in the world. It is known for its fight for freedom and its triumph in maintaining it. Because of this many Americans take pride in the country they have been apart of shaping just as they should. However, in recent years problems have arisen that have taken some of its beauty away. One of those is the shocking amount of people who are imprisoned. There are several causes for the sudden overpopulation in Americas jails but a problem like this is not only one that is embarrassing to our country but is also one that could possibly be eased with a few minor changes to the United States jail system. In order for there to be a positive change incarceration must be brought to light as an issue instead of being ignored and neglected as it has been in the past.…

    • 2094 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Overpopulation In Prison

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When society hears the words “convict” or “felon”, thoughts often take a negative route. Most of society would not want to affiliate themselves with an ex-inmate because of the stigma. People affiliate ex-inmates with people who will not better themselves, who will not gain proper employment, and who will end up back in prison. Negative thoughts on such a topic are natural since it is true in the United States; most individuals in prison will reoffend and find themselves back in prison. With prisons in the United States becoming over populated, should there be different efforts adopted by more facilities to help individuals become functioning members of society?…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    incarceration rate in the world and more prisoners than any other country in the world; with 5%…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics