Incarceration Of The United States - 3014 Words

The United States of America is phrased by many, as being â€Å"the land of the free.† Yet, the Unites States currently has the highest per capita prison population than any other country. The United States makes up only 5% of the world’s population and of that 5%, 25% of our overall nation’s population is currently incarcerated. A few factors that attribute to our high rates of incarceration include, sentencing laws: such as mandatory- minimum sentencing, lack of initial deterrence from crime, the war on drugs and the presence of recidivism. With our ever growing incarceration rates and the cost of housing individual offenders averaging $22,000 a criminal justice agenda. Recidivism refers to a person s relapse into criminal behavior resulting in rearrests, reconviction or return to prison with or without a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner s release (National Institute of Justice.) Many programs have been implemented in our prison s ystem to help reduce the recidivism rates. Programs such as educational/ vocational programming, reentry programs, substance abuse programs and subsidized employment are among many programs in which have been proven effective. Yet, due to costs deficits, the clock is ticking to find evidence based programs to invest in. So, the question currently being sought after is, which method is most effective in reducing recidivism rates? In the United States the justice system and prison system play various, but overallShow MoreRelatedThe Incarceration Of The United States1519 Words   |  7 Pagesin recent decades, violent crimes in the United States of America have been on a steady decline, however, the number of people in the United States under some form of correctional control is reaching towering heights and reaching record proportions. In the last thirty years, the incarceration rates in the United States has skyrocketed; the numbers roughly quadrupled from around five hundred thousand to more than 2 million people. (NAACP)In a speech on criminal justice at Columbia University, HillaryRead MoreThe Incarceration Of The United States980 Words   |  4 PagesHave you ever questioned about the justice in the United States? Stevenson states that, â€Å"Today we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The prison population has increased from 300,000 people in the early 1970s to 2.3 million people t oday† (15). United States is a modern country that doesn’t serve justice to her citizen? 2.3 million prisoners are just embarrassing the whole country. You might want to know how bad the justice system is and how the heck cause 2.3 million prisoners toRead MoreIncarceration Of The United States Essay2335 Words   |  10 PagesEven though the United States makes up just 5% of the world’s population, it houses 25% of the world’s prison population† (Walmsley, 2009). The United States prides itself in being a worldwide leader in just about every category; however, being the world leader in incarceration rights might not be something the United States would be proud about. Incarceration rates in the United States have grown at alarming rates in the past forty years specifically and it has resulted in major overcrowding issuesRead MoreThe Incarceration Of The United States979 Words   |  4 PagesHave you ever question about the justice in the United Sta tes? Stevenson states that, â€Å"Today we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The prison population has increased from 300,000 people in the early 1970s to 2.3 million people today† (15). Is United States is a modern country that doesn’t serve justice to her citizen? 2.3 million of prisoners are just embarrassing the whole country. You might want to know how bad the justice system is and how the heck cause 2.3 million prisonersRead MoreIncarceration Of The United States1113 Words   |  5 Pages The United States of America has more people incarcerated than any other country on earth, a whopping 2,220,300 adults are currently locked behind bars. We have 500,000 more citizens locked up than China, a country 5 times our population run by an authoritarian government. From 1990 - 2000 the prison population increased by 1,000,000. The main reason for incarceration as a punishment in this country is rehabilitation, or so we have been told. In recent years an industry has developed that revolvesRead MoreThe Incarceration Of The United States1044 Words   |  5 PagesOverview The United States has the highest prison population in the world, with over two million incarcerated (World Prison Brief, 2016), of whom many are juveniles. It is well documented that youths who enter this system are more likely to suffer a host of negative health and lifestyle outcomes, such as alcohol/drug abuse, high school dropout, and mental health problems. Such phenomena occur in stark contrast with the aims of the US juvenile justice system, which supposedly intends to help offendingRead MoreIncarceration Of The United States1957 Words   |  8 Pages Incarceration has been a pending issue amongst western civilization’s history for some time and today continues to raise a wide range of important questions. Incarceration of individuals have become a tremendous tax payer concern along with the incarceration of the drug war, convictions of street gangs, and the rest of the individuals who have broken the law and harmed other innocent individuals. However, the question is always a concern of men incarceration and hardly addressed of women beingRead MoreThe Incarceration Of The United States2529 Words   |  11 PagesSince 2002, The United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world, and many of those imprisoned within the U.S. will be released and rearrested within three years (Langan Levin, 2002). Unfortunately, research has been mixed shown that the time spent in prison does not successfully rehabilitate most inmates, and the majority of criminals return to a life of crime almost immediately. Most experts be lieve that many prisoners will learn more and better ways to commit crimes while theyRead MoreIncarceration Of The United States1745 Words   |  7 PagesThere are over two million people in the United States behind bars. Incarceration in the US is one of the main forms of punishment that leads nothing after for people when getting out. Every state, city, country, all have laws we citizens obey and go by to do best for our country, but what happens someone violates the law? According to Google’s definition of a felony, it says that felony means, â€Å"a crime, typically one involving violence, regarded as more serious than a misdemeanor, and usually punishableRead MoreIncarceration Of The United States1774 Words   |  8 PagesCurrently the United States holds the leading position for having the largest prison population in the world. Considering this, the cost of re-incarcerating offenders after their release remains notably high to U.S Americans and our society. Recidivi sm is known as the reimprisonment of an individual that is released from prison but then later returns for being convicted of a new crime. However, there is essential data that proves the drastic reduction in recidivism through academic and vocational