There was not a database or a generated list of individuals who were cleared …show more content…
Researchers on mass incarceration reveals that more than 2.2 million individuals are currently incarcerated in United States correctional facilities and in the past forty years, has increased 500% (Rakoff 2015). However, with an imperfect criminal justice, there are innocent individuals being convicted within the United States criminal justice system everyday. A plethora of research has been conducted on offenders, ex-offenders, as well has victims. Sociologically, exonerations are uncharted territory as the data pool is a minute population for analysis. According to the Innocence Project, there have been 330 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States. An increasing number of exonerations are due to the evolution of DNA testing. Project data reveals that 34 of the 329, which is 10 percent of the DNA-based exonerees were arrested as minors. 32 out of that 34, which is 94 percent are people of color. More specifically, 30 of them (88%) are black. Even though some were as young as 14 when the crime occurred, all were tried in adult court. The are disproportionate figures that continue to grow deeper. Of the 83 DNA-based exonerees who were arrested when they were younger than 21, 70 (84%) are people of color; 62 (75%) are …show more content…
These individuals possess a need to be “fixed” because society has defined them deviant. Troubled persons industries works to bring people viewed as a threat to themselves or to others into the stream of "adjusted" citizens. For example, criminal behavior ultimately leads to correctional institutions. Prisoners have been defined as deviant members of society for centuries, costing America billions of dollars to house. However, organizations such as the Innocence Project shine a light on prisoners that is not often captured, and that is innocent prisoners. Louisiana and Mississippi have the highest incarceration rates in the United States and organizations like the Innocence Project exist because there are thousands of innocent individuals existing in the American criminal justice system. The troubling reality is the reason why
Innocence Project's nationwide work provides social problem work to free innocent prisoners, expose injustices and prevent wrongful convictions throughout the United States. The matriculation of individuals into state penitentiaries continues to stigmatize offenders as well as ex