American Prison System Essay

The Penitentiary System in The United States
Introduction:
It seems that prison causes more problems than fixing them nowadays. American Prisons are considered to be very large institutions that are mainly composed of black American and other people of color; blacks, Hispanic and a bit of white people. It is weird since 60% of the American Population is white. Each year new rules are implemented to make inmates life harder than before. The majority of them are mainly people of color. These inmates struggled from numerous of problems such as drug use, sex abuse and other very important problems. According to a study, in 2001, Blacks have been incarcerated at a rate of 6 times more than white people. A recent study done by the US government
has shown that an new born afro American child has 33% of chance to end up in jail or in civil court. How could it be possible since whites represent the largest community in USA? Such institution have been created to protect the citizens and to create peace outside the prison walls. It is hard to believe that they are fear against Non White American Citizens. As Jerome Miller puts it, “discrimination clearly plays a role in who gets a criminal record, who stays in jail, and who goes to prison” (Miller, 1996, p.56).
In this research paper, we will show that the US penitentiary system is a quiet complex system but isn’t as flawless as it seems; it has numerous weaknesses.
One of them is that it is a racist institution. * How do the Prison department works? * What is the information about those communities? * What are the reasons behind racism? Why People of colour are most targeted by police?

Problems inside the US Penitentiary
system:

Apart from the fact that there is a huge discrimination In the US penitentiary system, there are numerous other problems inside it. Let start by the use of drugs. This use has destroyed American families. According to a recent statistic study of the American Civil Liberties Union, the numbers of inmates that are using drugs inside the prison have increased by more than 14%. Some of the prisoners are former addicts and have been arrested for drug offense. The most serious offense for 237,000 sentenced prisoners in state facilities at the end of 2010 was a conviction involving illegal drugs. (p9, 2012)

This problem can be considered the less understandable since nobody knows how the drug is entered inside the prison. The fact is that in many state penitentiary systems, visitors are the one’s responsible for bringing drugs inside it. With the help of corrupt police officers, they find way to slip small pieces of hash; they either use a book, an envelope or even food bags. “The prison wall is not a boundary anymore,” said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Therefore, if the War on Drugs were terminated, the main factor keeping race-based resentment a core element in the American social fabric would no longer exist. America would be a better place for all." (p1,2011). Automatically the government blames people of color as the responsible of these unethical behaviors.

Health care is also a very important problem inside a prison.
Inmates aren’t well fed, haven’t enough spaces for private staff such as toilet, shower; everything is in groups. Blacks and other people of color aren’t treated the same way in some cases. Also, epidemics might spread more easily and prisoners might suffer from it. Hygiene is vital but no one cares about it. Also, talking about canteen, the food is bland and without any taste. Even if prisoners are inside these correctional walls, it doesn’t mean that they need to be fed like animals. We are all humans and we do not deserve to endure this while serving the giving sentence. For the medical care, yet a doctor is available inside the walls but the treatment provided isn’t efficient. The treatment provided for non-white citizen is completely inexistent. Yes in 1994, to answer to the reform of increasing the access of inmate care, the government is sending the ill inmates to public hospitals. It is done in extreme
emergency.
In addition, sex abuse between inmates is also a problematic. Old prisoners tend to abuse the new ones and do whatever they want a do with them. Officers do not pay attention about this; they are careless. This behavior will automatically lead to a stereotype, which is, people of color are dangerous. Which is completely unfair and wrong. In every ethnic group, there are good and bad people. It doesn’t mean anything when you hear that blacks or Hispanics rhyme with non-education and primitive.
Violence can also be considered as a big issue inside prison walls. Federal and state prisons stated that they are more than 10181 attacks between inmates each year. Also they reported that more than 60 murders happened during the same period. The fear of being attacked can lead to serious illnesses such as psychotropic stress, Asthma, indigestion. Inmates do not deserve to the threated that way. They should normally be as a community to get stronger and to facilitate their life.

Sources: 1. Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J., "Prisoners in 2011" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, Dec. 2012), NCJ239808, Table 9, p. 9. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/p11.pdf - See more at: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Race_and_Prison#sthash.W3dBKUGW.PCY730pU.dpuf 2. McWhorter, John, "How the War on Drugs Is Destroying Black America," Cato's Letter (Washington, DC: The Cato Institute, Winter 2011), p. 1.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/catosletter/catosletterv9n1.pdf