For the past forty years, two-thirds of released convicts are rearrested for a serious crime they have not committed before and more than half of released prisoners are re-incarcerated over a three year period which has led to former convicts making up 20% of all adult arrests (Petersilia). The high incarceration rate ruins American…
Laughter, let downs, memories, and regrets are all aspects of life itself. Explaining these aspects is the hardest part. When is laughter present? When are let downs expected? Where can memories lead? How do these all affect someone in the long run? The poem “Schoolsville” does a great job of representing life itself. It points towards life in general and explains the comical, serious and memorable, then poignant parts of life.…
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…
The purpose of the artwork is to show that African American men and women are overrepresented in the prison population. The piece represents the silencing of the incarcerated men, who were stripped of many rights. The Artist uses tar to symbolize the silencing of these individuals. Titus Kaphar also wants to shed light on the fact that so many African American children have fathers in the penitentiary system. He personally experienced not being able to find his father because the prison systems are overflowing with black men. Any of those men could be his father and he wanted to express to his audience the injustices of the penitentiary.…
Nationally ninety-seven percent in jail today will be released and return to their community. Between sixty and seventy-five percent of ex-cons are jobless up to a year after being released. This is a deciding factor to recidivism. Recidivism is the most fundamental concept that pertains to…
I totally agree with your post. I believe when we look at the disparity of inmates in prison show us the real fact of our correctional system. In term of racism is this country, it has gradually decreased and in the current society people are segregated by class and that fact will never change no matter how many time we debate about that topic. Because if we look at other countries, where there is no racial discrimination exists, there is a bias towards the rich and the poor, but apparently will never change, because it is the divide line in every…
There are roughly 700, 000 inmates released from prisons across the United States each year. Approximately two-thirds of those released are re-arrested and more than half are re-incarcerated three years after their original release (Cook, Kang, Braga, Ludwig, & O’Brien, 2014). According to Miller and Miller (2010), “Re-entry is a general programmatic orientation to offender success more so than a specific treatment modality or intervention” (p. 894). Suggesting a need for successful re-entry programs to reduce the recidivism rate and assist ex-offenders with re-entering back into the free society and following the laws. Past research has shown that re-entry is difficult and the majority of paroles or recently released inmates return back to…
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.…
In the documentary, one of the professionals interviewed talked about how it may easier for some inmates to live in prisons than it is for them to reintegrate. Two of the major challenges that most inmates, especially the mentally ill, face are homelessness and joblessness. After they are released from prison, many inmates find it hard to get past the stigma associated with being a convicted felon. When you combine this challenge, with the fact that some of these inmates face mental health issues, you can see why recidivism rates are high.…
The incarceration rates are merely based off of the crime committed, not racial bias in the criminal justice system. Conversely different crimes have different punishment rates, so not everybody is going to get the same type of punishment. It may seem that a white man may get a lenient sentence compared to a black and his crime, but there are different factors that go into making someone's punishment. After reading “Is the Criminal Justice System Racist? By Heather Mac Donald a certain quote made me unsure about the criminal Justice system being unbiased. It states “...About one in 33 black men was in prison, compared to one in 205 white men and one in 79 Hispanic men.” As it may seem that our criminal Justice system is horribly biased against…
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?…
In modern America, prisons have become a controversial topic that is prevalent throughout various forms of media, political debates, and social discussions. During the numerous debates of the 2016 presidential primaries, politicians argued about how the prison population has grown rapidly to approximately two million people. In news programs and newspapers, there are extensive reports about the quality of the conditions in various prisons. In several popular television shows and movies, there are diverse sets of characters who struggle to survive daily life in prison. Although there are several conversations about prisons, an aspect that is frequently forgotten is the rights of current and former prisoners. Because of certain laws, when an individual is convicted of a crime, he or she loses…
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.…
African Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at more than 5 times the rate of whites on average. For example in Oklahoma has the highest incarceration rate for African-Americans. Approximately 4.6% of all African-American males in Oklahoma are incarcerated compared to of only 0.9% white males. In California 1 out of every 22 African-American adult male is in state prison. The racial disparity is greatest in the category of drug arrests and indicates institutional discrimination against African-Americans. It is hypothesized in some of the literature that for less serious crimes police may exhibit greater discretion at the point of arrest and judges may deviate from the constraints of the law which allows other factors to enter into their…
Across the country, 70-80% of youth are rearrested with two to three years after release from residential corrections programs and up to 72% of those released are found guilty of a new offenses within two…