Argumentative Essay On Incarceration

Gone, but Not Gone According to 2014 statistics, about 40% of the United States’ African - American population is incarcerated. Meaning, 40% of African – American homes are missing a vital member of their family. I was part of that 40% with a loved one incarcerated. Up until that point of my life, I always thought incarceration was the attempt to rehabilitate the offender. Never did I stop to think that someone else’s incarceration would have so much of an impact in my own life. For three years I thought I was speaking motivational words and encouragement to someone else, but in reality they were words being spoken to myself. My boyfriend’s incarceration may have been the worst thing that has ever happened to him, but it turned out to be …show more content…
I lay in bed next to my boyfriend, as I did every night and every morning, in a sound sleep. I had no knowledge of the plotting and planning that was taking place right on the other side of my front door. I heard a loud and unfamiliar male voice in the distance. I thought it was a dream until this loud and unfamiliar male voice got louder. Out of habit, the first thing I did was look to my left at the clock on the nightstand, it read 6:42 a.m. “Ma’am, I am not going to ask you again. Get up, put your hands up and come out of the room slowly.” I jerked my head towards the direction the voice seemed to be coming from and to my surprise I was met by the end of a rifle that was being controlled by the man with this unfamiliar voice. Although I could see the rifle right in my face, I still did not understand what was going on and why these men were in my bedroom and more importantly where was my …show more content…
A rush of embarrassment filled me as I was standing there, in front of what I now know to be the SWAT team, in only my birthday suit. A female officer grabbed me by my arm, escorted me out of the bedroom into my hallway and laid me on my belly next to my boyfriend. We looked at each other, and right then and there the tears rolled down my cheeks. He had a look on his face that I had not seen before, he had a look of defeat mixed with guilt. For the first time since I met him, he was powerless. We mouthed the words “I love you” over and over again to one another as they picked him up and placed the handcuffs on him.
The officers allowed to me to grab a sweat suit and some shoes before they escorted me out of my home and onto the front yard. I felt a part of me die every time I seen them rip pictures off the walls or slice the couch cushions. They were completely destroying our home and the life we were building. I stood there full of tears and disbelief watching them take him away in the back of an unmarked police car. This had to be a joke, this was not happening to us. Everything was just fine yesterday. How could things change so drastically in less than 24