Mass Incarceration In The Criminal Justice System

The United States Criminal Justice System has many problems, but one of the most prominent problems deals with the issues surrounding mass incarceration. Mass incarceration in itself deals with a multitude of problems. The main problem that I am going to focus on is the incarceration of low level offenders. In the United States 1 in 5 incarcerated individuals are locked up for a drug offense (Wagner 2017). In the 1980s and 1990s political figures across America declared a “war on drugs”. During this time period Americans believed that the nation’s number one problem was drug abuse. The crack cocaine epidemic was in full effect during this time, and the main users were young poor African Americans. As the war on drugs gained popularity, policing agencies arrested more and more users resulting in increasing incarceration rates. The “war on drugs” resulted in locking drug users up to keep them off of the streets instead of assisting the users in turning their lives around. Law makers and policy makers of this time were unware that being tough on crime is different than being tough on criminals (“A Brief History..”) …show more content…
This poses an issue as many of these individuals are low level drug offenders. In prison, these individuals become institutionalized. They often receive no help or guidance for what to do once released from prison. Our criminal justice system releases criminals and then expects them to immediately become functioning units of society. Because of this, our system ultimately sets the criminals up to complete more crimes once released which is why recidivism rates are so high. Convicted criminals struggle to obtain jobs that hold higher prestige that the food service industry. With only 5 percent of convicted criminals spending their entire lives in prison, why is the United States justice system so focused on