Overcrowded Prisons

Millions upon millions if Americans have been sent to prison without a victim ever claiming damages. It is important to look at the burden this mass level of incarceration places upon our society. Viewing the statistics, demonstrates just how the destructive mass of incarceration of victimless crimes have been high not only in women but in men as well. Drug offenses are self-explanatory as being victimless, but so are public order offenses, which also follows the victimless crimes. Public order crimes are those that are crimes against the society one is within, in the United States, such as prostitution, immigration, drunk in public, drug use and abuse. According to 2006 statistics, one in thirty-six Hispanic men are behind bars, as are one in fifteen black men. If we limit the data to black males between the ages of twenty to thirty-four, that would determine that one in nine are behind bars. Keep in mind that eight-six percent of those men are behind bars for victimless crimes, meaning they have not stolen any property or harmed anyone directly by their actions. Drug offenders have represented the most substantial source of growth in recent decades, starting with forty thousand inmates in 1980 to four hundred and fifty thousand inmates today. Despite the fact that the number of persons in prison today for drug offenses is more than ten times the number in 1980, drug use rates remain substantial, with data indicating a general increase over the past few years. During a period, when the number of persons in prison for drug law violations was growing at a rate faster than other offense types, the underlying behavior appears to have experienced little impact. Due to todays new consciousness about the unfairness and effectiveness of harsh crack cocaine mandatory sentences has emerged among policy makers and the United States Sentencing Commission. These unfair sentencing laws, have a dramatic effect on the cause of overcrowding in prisons for decades.