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…
In the United States, the government preaches equality for all, while in upholding a system that discriminates against almost everyone that is not white, or not male. Packing prisons in the United States is second nature, since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the populations in prisons have increase at least 400%. And when talking about the prison system in the U.S., there has to be a conversation about race, because the prison system systematically targets people of color. U.S. soil bleeds racism, from the countries racist words about refugees to the color of skin dictating your pay. There is nothing number one about a country with a broken and racially biased criminal justice system, with racism directed at refugees of war because of their…
Prisons are already filled beyond maximum capacity, and we continue to keep incarcerating more people. What can be done to end the problem of prison overcrowding and maintain the safety of the public? I chose this topic because I wanted to shine a light on what I consider to be an injustice. I believe that the criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul. When I chose this topic, I wasn’t fully aware of the mandatory sentencing guidelines or how harsh they were. I always believed that judges had more leeway in deciding sentencing. Originally, I hadn’t even considered the possibility of criminal corporal punishment, because I believed it was cruel and something that other less civilized countries would do, not America. I believe that the prison overcrowding problem can be resolved by changing our laws regarding nonviolent offenders, abolishing the mandatory sentencing guidelines and using alternative solutions that do not involve incarceration.…
First focusing on the state of California prison, they were forced back in 2011 to release about 3,000 inmates. An article wrote by Derek Gilna says “A government study revealed that overcrowding in the federal prison system worsened over the five-year period from 2006 through 2011, affecting facilities of all security levels.” California has the three-strikes laws, as an offender if you were caught three times committing the same crime the third time you are sentence to be in jail for a longer period of time. This might sound like a good plan until you have offenders that are serving five to ten years for petty theft, prostitution, reckless driving or trespassing. These are petty crime that can be handle with charges and probations. Yet, in…
From the mid-1980s drug offenses increased primarily due to the pressure put on by the war on drugs (Neubauer & Fradella, 2014). This has contributed to overcrowding of prisons across America. In order to ease the overcrowding in prisons, rehabilitation through court sentenced drug treatment programs is a practical and economical alternative. Assigning offenders to applicable drug treatment programs would decrease overcrowding caused by drug offenses, lower recidivism rates, and provide savings for the criminal justice system.…
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?…
One of the chief factors contributing to the ‘crisis’ in prison is the overcrowding of prisoners. Indeterminate sentences and increased use of long determinate sentences are key drivers behind the near doubling of prison numbers; almost doubling from 1993 9% to 2014 17%. Bromley Briefing Prison Factfile (2015) reveals cost of our ‘addiction to imprisonment’ in wasted time, money and lives. High security prisons are not filled to capacity, whereas local prisons are concentrated with overcrowding. The majority of these prisoners in local prisons are that of on remand and short term sentences. In October 2006, 62% of prisons were overcrowded, 12 prisons containing more than half as many as they should (Cavadino and Dignan, p.17). As a result of…
According to the NAACP, between 1980 and 2008, the amount of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons have more than quadrupled from 500,000 to roughly over 2.3 million people. The United States consist of 5% of the world population and have 25% of the world prisoners (NAACP). “Combining the number of people in prison and jail with those under parole or probation supervision, 1 in every 31 adults, or 3.2 percent of the population is under some form of correctional control” (NAACP). Statistics from 2007 data show that the prisons are made up of 93% males and 7% females (Prison Population Statistics).…
In the past, and still occuring now, people with mental disabilities were often thrown into jail for the wrong reasons or while in jail were treated inhumanly. It states in the journal Prisons of the Mind: Social Value and Economic Inefficiency in the Criminal Justice Response to Mental Illness, “statistics show that between 30 and 40 percent of mentally ill individuals in the jails...had no criminal charges pending against them, while jails report frequently holding people with mental illnesses simply because there is no other place to put them,” this means that many people who need help and assistance for their illness are often thrown into a prison and neglected because that is easiest for the people in charge, rather than seeking out help…
Incarceration rates have dramatically increased in the United States than in anywhere else in the world. In fact, according to “Incarceration nation,” America has about 707,000 incarcerated people compared to Russia, who has about 474,000 people. Not only has this caused a problem inside the prison walls, it has also increased economic situations for stakeholders.The recent increase in incarceration rates has had negative effects on the United States economy by causing an increase in expenditure on prisons that could be better used for education. This increase in incarceration rates has also led to overcrowding in prisons, leading to unsuitable conditions for prisoners and prison workers.…
The American prison system is an incredibly expensive part of our economy, with incarceration costs going up each year. A 2014 data collection of state correctional expenditures estimated that the economic costs of administering overcrowded prison systems are over 48 billion dollars each year (Kyckelhahn 2014). This money is coming from American taxpayer dollars and goes towards all of the prison staff wages, electricity, water, food, security, and more. By reducing the number of prisoners incarcerated, the cost of prison administration would also go down. Despite all of the money being spent on prisons in our nation, there is no evidentiary support to show that incarceration actually prevents crime. In fact it is thought to be the opposite.…
The major issue in the United States corrections system is the over-crowding of are prisons. The United States Prison System and department of corrections have become an everlasting part of our justice system, but for various reasons confinement may be causing more harm than good. Although most would say that prisoners who have found themselves in the penal system are nothing but animals who are getting what they deserve. The fact stands that they are human beings who are still by law covered under the constitution. True inmates do not have full Constitutional rights like your everyday tax payers, however; they are still protected under the laws of prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment outlined in the Constitution. In the United…
Private companies running a prison can be less costly than if governments were to run the prison. This because of lower labor cost. Public service employees earn more money than private employees. Private companies claim that because the contracts with governments can be terminated, they have a greater incentive to provide better service, which means that private prisons are safer, have better living conditions, and rehabilitate prisoners back into society more effectively.…
Prison crowding and unnecessary prison costs are a major issue in the United States. It is not worth spending billions a year on prisons. There are better ways to deal with offenders than sending them to prison. The great majority of inmates in prisons are non-violent drug offenders. These offenders should not be imprisoned. Instead, alternatives such as therapy and rehabilitation may be used as a way of decreasing prison population. By offering alternatives, government and taxpayers’ money including valuable prison space will be saved. Essentially, the justice system will be saving lives. Evidence and research shows it is preferable and effective to offer treatment instead of prison time to addicts. By not sending the addicted drug offender…
Throughout history prison has and continues to reach high rates in population. The increase in prison population has different possible causes. These causes range from strict drug laws prohibiting repeat offender’s more time in prison. Parole violations land some of the worse offender’s back in prison for longer lengths of time. Sex offenders would be more likely to go back and repeat the same crime or even murder their victims. Therefore the offender could get a life sentence for a worse crime.…