One of the points we take pride in as Americans is being the land of the free. While we like to hold this idea up as a reason we are a great country, we currently house over 20% of the world’s prison population, while only having 5% of the world’s population according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) web site. This means that 1 out of every 110 adults is currently incarcerated. Between the years of 1978 and 2014 the prison population has risen a staggering 408%, and will most likely continue to grow. These numbers indicate that prison is not very successful, and likely does not achieve the results sought. In addition to a lack of positive affect, prison disproportionately targets minorities and the poor.
Many people try to justify the use of the prison system by claiming it is a deterrent for crime and for repeat offenders. This is a noble thought, but the National Institute of Justice followed over 400,000 prisoners over 30 states and found that within five years 76.6% of them were back in prison. Sadly, 56.7% of these were back in prison within the first year. The reality is that we use prison purely as a form of punishment, and do nothing to help prisoners improve their lives. In fact, many prisoners live with the label of a felon and they begin to believe they can never do more than be that label. They become a self-fulfilling prophecy like the labeling theory would suggest.
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice released a bulletin detailing the demographics of the prison system. Of the male population, non-Hispanic blacks made up 37% of the population, followed by 32% who are non-Hispanic whites and 22% who are Hispanic. 3% of the entire black male population within the United States is currently incarcerated, compared to only one half percent of white males. As for the female population, 49% were white and 22% were black. To put this in perspective, black females are imprisoned at over twice the rate of white females at 113 per 100,000 versus 51 per 100,000. The rate of minority incarceration is ridiculously higher than for whites. It also has been shown that minorities more often than not receive higher sentences for the same crimes.
The other issue within our justice system is how it favors those with money. For instance, when a person gets arrested, they are often given a bail amount. A rich person can afford to pay bail, while a poor person cannot. This means the poor person will be stuck in jail until their trial whether they are innocent or guilty. Also, poor people cannot afford expensive lawyers, and are therefore stuck with public defenders who are overworked and stretched too thin. They do not get the excellent defense that rich people can purchase, so end up with longer and more severe sentences even though the poor can hardly afford to have more against them.
The current set-up of our incarceration system is sadly lacking the means to improve society. It is unfairly biased towards minorities and set up to punish the poor for being poor. The system clearly does not deter criminals or rehabilitate them. Instead it creates a revolving door where those who enter leave with a permanent label that sets them aside from the rest of society, making it hard to find gainful employment and housing. It is far past time the incarceration system receives a major change so as to become more effective and beneficial to society.
Works Cited
American Civil Liberties Union. (2011). The Prison Crisis. [online] Available at: https://www.aclu.org/prison-crisis [Accessed 1 May 2016].
National Institute of Justice. (2016). Recidivism | National Institute of Justice. [online] Available at: http://www.nij.gov/topics/corrections/recidivism/Pages/welcome.aspx [Accessed 1 May 2016].
U.S. Department of Justice. (2013). Prisoners in 2013. [online] Available at : http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p13.pdf [Accessed 1 May 2016].
