The Incarceration Of Prison Policy - 913 Words

Imagine spending 23 hours a day locked in a tiny concrete cell, smaller than some closets. There is no human contact, no windows to look outside, and hardly anything to stimulate your senses. The other 1 hour you will spend in recreation, which is nothing more than a cage outside, barely larger than your room. There is no space to run, no view of the outside world. You’ll never even see a blade of grass during your stay. This is solitary confinement, something many say is a sentence worse than death. In the United States today, there are over 80,000 prisoners currently in solitary confinement. It was originally proposed as a rehabilitative means, however, it has been proven to cause more damage than anything, ultimately provoking more violence and causing mental deterioration. Some prisoners may even end up spending an entire life sentence in solitary confinement, which defeats the purpose of rehabilitation. It is often viewed as a mere act of torture. According to the Prison Policy Organization, â€Å"An estimated 56 percent of state prisoners, 45 percent of federal prisoners, and 64 percent of jail inmates have a mental health problem† (Mental). Most inmates need help, not to just be locked away and kept apart from the world. Many can, and will with the correct treatment, function as a safe member of the community. As a society, we have come a long way in the area of mental health and have become more humane in the way we deal with societal issues, such as crime, and shouldShow MoreRelatedThe Incarceration Of Prison Policy1418 Words   |  6 PagesGenerally, prison policy might lack saliency among most individuals. Prison policy seems to have that pattern where it is significant to some and not to others; that is also relevant in states because of their variety in issues. Prison legislation is like most legislation relevant to whom it affects. In this situation we see that prison overcrowding bothers a majority of inmates, some of the courts, a nd the states. Inmates do not vote, so it is understandable that congress lacks interest. In mostRead MoreThe Incarceration Of The Prison Policy Institute1369 Words   |  6 Pages Attention TIA Credibility Thesis/ Topic statement INTRODUCTION I. According to the prison policy Institute there are currently 2.4 million Americans incarcerated in the United States with nearly 40% of that number being drug related offenses. Further the United states only makes up five percent of the worlds population, but we make up 25% of the worlds prison population and if you factor in the 40% of that 25% being drug offenders you can see that nearly a tenth of the worlds incarcerated areRead MoreMass Incarceration802 Words   |  4 PagesAlexander identifies the racialized mass incarceration problem that we have in our criminal justice system. Reading the book, you can see that mass incarceration is a social problem. This means that the problem can follow the six stages of the policy process. If I were a claimsmaker, I could assert that mass incarceration is a problem by following the six stages. In the claimsmaking stage, I would claim that the War on Drugs creates the racialized mass incarceration in our society today. To show thatRead MoreRacial Disparities Of Mass Incarceration1572 Words   |  7 PagesRacial disparities in mass incarceration Introduction Mass Incarceration in the United States has been a large topic of choice because rapid growth in the prison and jail populations, the long sentences the inmates face, and the inability for some inmates to incorporate themselves back into society. Since the 1970’s the U.S. prison population quadrupled from 158 to 635 people per 100,000, causing the U.S. to gain the title of country with the highest incarceration rate. (Massoglia, Firebaugh, Read MoreMass Incarceration : A Major Problem Within The United States1695 Words   |  7 PagesMass incarceration has recently become a major problem within the United States. Although crime rates have dropped since the 1990s, incarceration rates have soared. This trend is largely associated with increased enforcement of drug-related crimes. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, this problem involves racial discrepancies when regarding these mass incarcerations. Incarcerations appear to be the most prominent throughout urban areas and t he south, which happen to be the areas where AfricanRead MoreMass Incarceration : A New Form Of Slavery Essay1555 Words   |  7 PagesMass Incarceration: A New Form of Slavery in the United States Lorena P. Ambriz History 12A Abstract Starting in the 1970s, the rising rate of imprisonment came to be known as Mass Incarceration. What was once an average of 100 people getting imprisoned for every 100,000 adults, prior to the 1970s, has now grown to become more than 600 individuals per every 100,000 adults imprisoned. With only five present of the total world population, The United States holds an astonishing 25 percent of theRead MoreThe Lack Of Reintegration Programs And Mass Incarceration Of African Americans912 Words   |  4 Pagesreintegration programs and mass incarceration of African Americans in the United. Mass incarceration amongst African Americans has had a catastrophic impact on families and communities and continues to create a cycle of discrimination, which makes its nearly impossible as a race to progress. Because of the soaring incarceration rate in the United States, many prisons are over populated and lack resources and support to help inmates succeed once released from prisons. Since there is an insufficiencyRead MoreAmerican Incarceration : Where We Are, And What Can Be Done?1518 Words   |  7 PagesYasir Choudhury Dr. Joà £o Vargas UGS 303 Mass Incarceration 5 October 2015 American Incarceration: Where We Are, and What Can be Done From its early inception as a necessary aspect of modern society to its broken state that can be seen today, the American penal system has changed radically in recent history from an institution that performed the duty of safeguarding the public from those too dangerous to be left unsupervised to a business model concerned more with generating a profit for shareholdersRead MoreThe Sentencing Policies For Crimes1357 Words   |  6 PagesWhen America changed the sentencing policies for crimes, primarily drug crimes, in America, the effect this change would have in the poor communities were impossible to imagine. The policies which were changed to get tougher on drug crimes on the federal level followed with mass incarceration in the prison system. This was especially true with young African American males in largely poor communities. So these policies not only created a mass incarceration but also racially targeted certain raceRead MoreMass Incarceration And Its Effects On The Unit ed States Essay1264 Words   |  6 PagesMass incarceration is a major problem in the United States. Since the tough on crime movement that began to emphasize more punishment and creating new policies such as; three strikes law, truth-in sentencing laws, mandatory sentencing, and determinate sentencing, our prisons and jails have become overcrowded. The three strikes law increases the prison sentence of an offender convicted of three felonies or serious crime. Usually the punishment ranges from a minimum of 25 years to life in prison. The