The Pros And Cons Of Incarceration

Since 2002, the United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world. Although prison populations are increasing in some parts of the world, the natural rate of incarceration for countries comparable to the United States tends to stay around 100 prisoners per 100,000 population. The U.S. rate is 500 prisoners per 100,000 residents, or about 1.6 million prisoners in 2010, according to the latest available data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Prison is a place used for internment of convicted criminals. Not including the death penalty, a sentence to prison is the harshest punishment inflicted on criminals in the United States. On the federal level, imprisonment or incarceration is managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a federal
agency within the department of justice. State prisons are supervised by a state agency such as a department of corrections. Confinement in prison, also known as a penitentiary or correctional facility, is the punishment that courts most commonly impose for serious crimes, such as felonies( Legal Dictionary).
Jail is usually the first place a person is taken after being arrested by police officers. Most cities have at least one jail, and persons are taken directly there after they are arrested; in less populated areas, arrestees may be taken first to a police station and later to the nearest jail. Many jails are also used for the short-term incarceration of persons convicted of minor crimes. Men make up almost all of the prison and state population, the number is at 90%, and they have an imprisonment rate 14 times higher than the rate for women. According to Tyjen Tsai and Paola Scommegna who wrote,“U.S Has the Highest Incarceration rate,” there is an increased number of minorities in prison and jail compared to whites, “Latinos were incarcerated at 1,258 per 100,000, and white men were incarcerated at 459 per 100,000. Since 2007”(Tsia, Scommegna), however, the incarceration rate in the United States has tapered slightly and the 2010 prison population saw a decline—of 0.3 percent—for the first time since 1972, according to the
BJS.
“Blacks, particularly young black males, make up a disproportionate share of the U.S. prison population. In 2008, young black men (ages 18-34) were at least six times more likely to be incarcerated than young white men”(Tsia, Scommegna). Racial profiling isn’t just an idea in our legal system, but a fact, and as the time goes on without this being corrected many people of color are incarcerated, killed, and or beat without probable cause, an example of this would be the stop and frisk laws that are used in New York City and Chicago.
According to “The Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Cost Taxpayers”, by Christian Henrichson and Ruth Delaney, the cost of prisons was $39 billion in fiscal year 2010, $5.4 billion more than what their corrections budgets reflect. “States’ costs outside their corrections departments ranged from less than 1 percent of total prison costs in Arizona to as much as 34 percent in Connecticut” (Henrichson, Delaney).
The amount of money it cost the families of in prisoned relatives is astounding. According to Daniel Wanger, who wrote, “Meet the Prison Bankers Who Profit From the Inmates,” “JPay ( a private company that handles all deposits into inmates accounts) and other prison bankers collect tens of millions of dollars every year from inmates’ families in fees for basic financial services. To make payments, some forego medical care, skip utility bills and limit contact with their imprisoned relatives, the Center for Public Integrity found in a six-month investigation.” Inmates receive as little as 12 cents and hour for work, wages that have not increased for years. But the price they pay for food, and clothing continues to raise. By having an electronic toll booth outside the prison door, poor families are exploited. “JPay streamlines the flow of cash into prisons, making it easier for corrections agencies to take a cut. Prisons do so directly, by deducting fees and charges before the money hits an inmate’s account. They also allow phone and commissary vendors to charge marked-up prices, then collect a share of the profits generated by these contractors”(Wanger).
JPay handled nearly 7 million transactions in 2013, generating well over $50 million in revenue. It expects to transfer more than $1 billion this year. “JPay’s rapid rise stems in part from the generous deal it offers many prison systems. They pay nothing to have JPay take over handling financial transfers. And for every payment it accepts in these states — prisoners typically receive about one per month — the company sends between 50 cents and $2.50 back to the prison operator. These profit-sharing arrangements, which vendors offer as deal-sweeteners in contract negotiations, are known in the industry as “commissions.”’(Wanger).
A story that exemplifies how these families are used by this system by Daniel Wanger explained how the cost is inflated and made even more difficult for these families to deal and cope with loved ones in jail or prison, “Negative account balances discourage cash-strapped people from helping relatives, says, Linda Dolan, 58, a manager for a defense contractor in California. Last year, when her son was sentenced to 20 days in jail in St. Lucie County, Florida, for reckless driving, Linda wanted to buy him a second pair of underwear and socks. But the county’s intake fee and daily “rent” already had put the account about $70 in the red. Linda and her husband both were out of work and couldn’t afford to pay $100 for a pair of underwear. ‘If relatives are putting money on somebody’s books while they’re an inmate, it’s to help them buy necessities,’ Linda says. ‘I didn’t think it was right that the county was stealing the money’’’ (Wanger). JPay and other prison vendors create a system in which families are paying to send the money, and inmates are paying again to spend it.
With the high rates of minority going into prisons and jails everyday, and the insane prices put on the families and inmates does it rehabilitate? Once released from prison, inmates have a 57% chance of going back to prison. The reasons are, not being able to find employment, housing, pay back prison fines, or having no outside support. Many employers refuse to higher convicts, and less likely to higher black or latino convicts, making it nearly impossible for these people to be a functional citizen. With these in place barriers on newly free people, they end up back in prison or jail just to have food, water, shelter, clean clothes, and a place to sleep.
From the articles, statistics and information on the prisons systems money handling, the prison systems make more money when prisoners are under their care, and set up the system for the prisoners to have a difficult time going back into society, which in the end, makes them go back to prison. If the point of the prison systems is to rehabilitate inmates it is extremely ineffective and we need to find another way, but, if the point of prison systems is to always have an abundant flow of prisoners and make billions of dollars off them, then the system works beautifully.