The Comparison Between Prison and Slavery by John Dewar Gleissner The fairly new term, "mass incarceration," means that the U.S. has 2.2 million prisoners, more than any country in the world. A greater percentage of the U.S. population is in prison than in any other nation. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population and almost 25% of the world's prisoners. The entire U.S. correctional population, including those on probation, on parole and awaiting trial, is about 7.3 million Americans. These eye-popping numbers came about for many reasons: mandatory minimum sentences, three-strikes legislation, illegal drugs, gangs, immorality in all its modern forms, the war on drugs, the decline of marriage and families, high rates of recidivism, incarceration of the mentally ill, the decline of capital punishment, problems with the criminal justice system and all the forces pushing tough crime policies.
However, some experts believe the rates have declined because the baby boomer generations are aging, so the percentage of young adults has declined. Some believe that the tougher or harsher sentences for crimes are a cause and there is evidence of this based on the increased prison populations. According to "Where Have All The Burglars Gone?" (2013), "Could more criminals being locked up be the answer? The number of people behind bars has grown substantially in many countries over the past 20 years.” (para.
Bob Henry Mrs. Patterson English 1123 p25 October 31, 2012 “Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: a Lesson in the Power of Situation,” is about a prison experiment designed to prove how good people can do bad things when face with a certain situation. In the experiment Philip G. Zimbardo brings 24 physically and mentally healthy college students with no criminal history to participate in his experiment. These participants were assigned to either play a prisoner or a guard and were paid 15 dollars a day just to be in the experiment for 2 weeks. Before the two weeks were even over Zimbardo had to call the experiment to an end, due to extreme street and zombielike attitude and posture in the prisoners. To some the experiment seemed like a complete failure but in reality Zimbardo proved his point within six days of his experiment.
Some people get trigger-happy when it comes to tense situations. Because of this, criminals are killed more often by citizens than by law enforcement (Huntwork). Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of injury (Ruben). There are more gun related fatalities in the United States than in the worlds thirty-six other richest nations. Murders by firearm rates are 17.5 times higher than in twenty-two other populous high-income nations combined.
Even DOSA (Drug Offender Sentencing Act) which says they get half time upon completion of drug counseling, most inmates are unable to complete. However, due to budget cut this leaves inmates or the state to pay for the costs which cost even more than doing it inside the institution. Recidivism, which means to recommit crime, is over 90 percent for drugs offenders even with treatment. Without treatment or education offenders are committing more crime and most of the inmates are going back to prisons. If there are more good programs that would work for these inmate and guide them throughout, each individual should have the responsibility to complete the program and earn something from it.
According to official statistics, there are some significant ethnic differences in the likelihood of being involved in the criminal justice system. Black people, and to a lesser extent Asians are over represented in the sample. For example black people make up just 12.8% of the population, but 11% of the prison population and Asians make up 4.7% of the population, but 6% of the prison population. By contrast, white people are under-represented at all stages of the criminal justice process. The Ministry of Justice states that members of the black communities are seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched , three and a half times more likely to be arrested, and five times more like to be sent to prison.
Incarceration costs are much higher, normally running around $18,100 per year per inmate, with another $43,756 needed just to build a new cell block. With the information provided I believe the theory of the non-traditional approach of the electronic monitoring is a good way to go to help save money and help local cities on their debts as well. These are in my personal opinion a great approach to the system. The second NON traditional approach with the prison system I’d like to address is the MRT which is a focus on changing how inmates think and make decisions. Counselors hold group sessions twice weekly with 8 to 15 clients per group so that it’s more of a personal feel for the inmates they can better focus on the topics and not feel as pressured.
Students come to ISU because they have a scholarship or because it’s one of the cheapest university’s to attend in the state of Indiana. Indiana State University has a retention rate of 40%. Why is this? Some students transfer to another university because they only attend Indiana State University so they can get their grades up and another reason is, students just drop out because their grades are horrible before they even enter ISU’s campus.Where’s the pride? I have lived in Terre Haute for 23 years and have seen a limited amount of school pride.
62% of local jail inmates are awaiting trial. The cost of medical care for inmates grows by 10% annually. High rates of incarceration are due to sentence length. The United States incarcerates a large number of non-violent and victimless offenders. 50% of all prisoners are non-violent offenders, and 20% are drug related offenders.
The difference between the numbers of criminals who reoffended considering the length of their time in jail is 7.2%. These numbers are so small, that instead of justifying the prison system, it works against it. There are other arguments against jails. Jails are expensive, since they support a large number of socially incapable individuals for many years. Furthermore, far too many institutions are overcrowded.