Mass Incarceration Research Paper

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Ashanti Lopez
Mr. Knox
AP English Language & Composition
14 January 2015
Mass Incarceration
On December 7th of 1989, a man named Carlos DeLuna, was wrongfully executed for a murder he did not commit (Cohen). The 8th Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights states,
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Carlos never had the opportunity to prove his innocence before being executed by lethal injection. Prior to being executed, Carlos had spent some time in prison, which had cost time and money. He was another person to add to the mass of people under correctional supervision at the time. Mass incarceration is a significant issue in the U.S. because
incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation in the world" (Schoenfeld) and inmates cost money to maintain. So many people ended up in prison because people are being jailed for profit and are being charged with ridiculous sentences (Whitehead). Prison populations can be reduced with leniency on non­violent crimes and "eliminate mandatory minimum sentences" (Gupta). Are these the reasons why America, with only 5% of the world 's population, has about 25% of the world 's prison population?
For starters, what is mass incarceration? Mass incarceration is the imprisonment of a large amount of people. This is most significant in the country we live in because, as said before,
"the U.S. incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation in the world" (Schoenfeld).
The United States ' imprisonment rate is almost 50% higher than Russia 's and incarcerates 5 times

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as much as Canada, which has a population of 35.1 million people. Also, most of the
Leniency on non­violent crimes will reduce population immensely, “nearly half of all prisoners in state prisons are locked up for nonviolent offenses” (Sledge).
To reduce prison population, limiting mandatory minimum sentences is also an option.
“mandatory minimum sentencing means a person convicted of a crime must be imprisoned for a minimum term, as opposed to leaving the length of punishment up to judges” ( US Legal).
People won’t have to serve time in jail for two weeks or one day, that’ll have no purpose in the future. Some people may challenge the fact that mass incarceration is morally wrong and argue that jail and prison keep repeat offenders off the street partially for them to learn their lesson and set an example for the rest of society. It is true that, in order for society to feel safe, certain people, especially unstable individuals who might do harm to society, must be detained; it is unjust to put the safety of people at risk. All police departments go by the motto, “to serve