American Prison System Research Paper

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MD. Islam P.J.Teel Engl-101-47017 10 May 2014 The American Prison System The American prison system mostly dedicated to ensuring that our nation’s prisons, jail, and other places of detention comply with the constitution, domestic law, international law, and international human rights principles, and to ending the policies that have given. The United State is the highest incarceration rate in the world. We promote a fair and effective criminal justice system in which incarnation is used only as a last resort, and its purpose to prepare for release and a productive, law-abiding life at the earliest possible time. The problem lies in the difference between having a system in the place and enforcing law followed by the constitution and protecting…show more content…
In the 1940s, prison food used to be good, offering a wide variety of options. Today, they call it “shit on a shingle.” The reality is not much worse. State budget cuts and the trend to privatize prisons and prison services have substantially cut food variety and quality. Incentives to cut costs exist at the institutional and individual level. Some state law allows law enforcement personal to pocket leftover funds after feeding prisoners provided they can still provide for their basic needs. The incentive to cut on quality and quantity resulted in the arrest and sentencing some of the law enforcement personal and the judge concluded that they had failed to provide “a nutritionally adequate diet.” Even when food isn’t rotten, that doesn’t mean it is particularly appetizing. Occasionally, the food tastes so bad that it has been considered unconstitutional in some states. Sickness and hunger are a common and increasingly accepted part being a prisoner in America. In addition to stale and rotten food, serving are often extremely small. (The legal definitions of prisoner’s…show more content…
African Americans in particular are over represented in prison; though they are 13 percent of the population, they made up 38 percent of the population of state prisons in 2011. The crimes that landed them there are not too different from their White and Hispanic. Eighteen percent of African Americans in states prisons were convicted of drug crimes, compared to 15 percent of Whites and 17 percent of Hispanics. That doesn’t mean that Whites and African American use drugs at similar rates, and African Americans are much likely to be arrested for it-isn’t true, because it is. But African American is also more likely to arrested for other crimes. Hispanic and African American are slightly more likely than Whites to be convicted of violent crimes, while Whites are more likely to be convicted of property crimes like burglary, larceny, and car theft. But the leading violent crime that lands African Americans in the prison is robbery, while the leading violent crime for Whites is rape or sexual assault, and Hispanic are mostly for gang and drug related crimes. (The American
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