• Home Page
  • Essay On Overpopulation In The Prison System

Essay On Overpopulation In The Prison System

Improved Essays
Show More
Are certain laws and their punishments in the United States to strict and is it leading to overpopulation in our jails and prison system? This has been a popular subject for many years. Every one is entitled to there own beliefs , But I myself believe that certain laws along with there punishments are to strict. I also believe that this is a big cause for over population in our prison system. Our country has the most crowded prison system in the world. We have more people incarcerated then some countries have in there entire population.

In the state of Alabama which is one the hardest and strictest on drug charges. If you are caught with any type of drug under 2.2 pounds and charged for it is a class A misdemeanor. A class A misdemeanor is the highest misdemeanor charge. The maximum sentence for this is 1 year in jail and up to a $6,000 fine. It doesn’t just have to be drug charge though class a misdemeanors range from public nudity to first degree trespassing. So if you commit these crimes twice in no matter what time period. The second time you commit any of the crimes above you are automatically charged with a felony. Now I …show more content…
So its good for them every time somebody goes to jail or prison. But its ruining the economy for the tax payers who have to foot the bill. The prison system is all about making money and it doesn’t matter how many lives are ruined over petty crimes and how much of the tax payers money is spent. The people who run the system are just looking to get rich. They don’t care the guy who just got one to many speeding tickets and is going to lose his job because he is going to jail . All they care about is there maximum profit and if that means taking some to jail or ruining somebodies life over a speeding ticket or a minor drug possession they will. The prison system is not here to make the world a better place its here merely for profit to get the guys running the operation

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    13th By Ava Duvernay: Documentary Analysis
    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages

    13th By Ava Duvernay: Documentary Analysis

    The prison population has skyrocketed from 357,292 in 1970 to 2,306,200 in 2014 thanks to the war on drugs and war on people who use them. These numbers have only started to decrease in recent years because Americans had to learn the hard way that putting drug addicts into prison with other drug addicts and drugs dealers instead of rehab and counseling to treat their addiction was not an effective way to stop drug usage and sales. Of course this was never intended to stop drugs. It was intended to fill prisons because of companies like the CCA who make money off of having people in their prisons. Other companies like Victoria’s Secret make money off of prisoner’s labor.…

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Race To Incarcerate Rhetorical Analysis
    • 2271 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Race To Incarcerate Rhetorical Analysis

    Prison Population: The growing business “They speak about school system being used to feed young people into youth detention, jails, and prisons where those bodies are suddenly worth a fortune. People say that the criminal justice system does not work” (Bonnie Kerness). America has captured and controlled the population by putting our people in prisons while private prison companies like Corrections Corporations of America and The GEO group celebrate the fact that they gain more money as the rate of incarcerated raises and according to Online paralegal degree, “2.3 million people living behind bars in the United States, ”. Moreover this affects mainly people who are economically disadvantaged. According to the book “Race to Incarcerate” by Marc Mauer, Mauer argues that America has used prison to punish the people and a racial disparity in our justice system is happening.…

    • 2271 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Mandatory Minimums
    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Mandatory Minimums

    With a total prison population of 2,217,000 people as of 2013, the United States continues to have the highest prison rate in the world (Institute for Criminal Policy Research). In light of these numbers, it is clear to many that the United States is in need of some kind of reform in the way it responds to crime and carries out justice, however, there is much disagreement on what aspects of our criminal policies need to be reformed and in what way. Many factors play a role in the enormous prison rates in the United States, however, some of these factors raise concerns not only about the prison populations, but also bring up questions regarding economics, ethics, and the overall effectiveness of the United State’s current criminal justice policies.…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Pros And Cons Of Mass Incarceration
    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Pros And Cons Of Mass Incarceration

    Mass incarceration is a term used to describe the increase in the number of incarcerated people in the United States over the past forty years. The number of people getting put in prison in the United States started to increase since the beginning of War on Drugs in 1982. “US is home to 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world's prisoners”, states the documentary 13th. There are currently more people in jail for a drug offense than the number of people in jail in 1980. The number of people incarcerated went from 40,900 in 1980 to 469,545 in 2015.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Overcrowding In Prison
    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Overcrowding In Prison

    Haney 2006, found that overcrowding results in correctional administrators implementing policies and procedures that may enable instead of relieving problems that may occur within a prison environment. Unfortunately this trend is evident between mentally ill offenders, because they often face the difficult task of adjusting and conforming to correctional policies. Furthermore, when a prison is also facing overcrowding it can intensify these problems. Thus, considering that mentally disabled inmates tend to become irate and violent in overcrowded prisons, it has become routine to place these individuals in solitary confinement to separate them from others within the facility (Ball, 2014). But while the Supreme Court condemns long term solitary…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Mass Incarceration Research Paper
    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Mass Incarceration Research Paper

    We are set up like targets and they are just waiting to get us. With a mass majority of the crimes that people are convicted for are drug related crimes and not violent…

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Arguments Against Overcrowding Prisons
    • 2582 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Arguments Against Overcrowding Prisons

    As of today the United States has a total of 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 942 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. Territories. Overcrowding prisons and not enough staff are becoming a serious issue in America. Everyday more citizens are committing crimes that lead them in either prison or jails. And overcrowding prisons lead to having four to five inmates to a cell, which being that close to other criminals can cause violent behavior. It can also cause lack of privacy, which can cause mental health problems and possibly even increase suicide rates and self-harm.…

    • 2582 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Private Prison Benefits
    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Private Prison Benefits

    Which leads to a cycle of people locked up for non-violent crimes who are then subjected to violent murders that are left in a situation which they learn to adapt to survive in turn increasing their recidivism rate. As the President calls for a change in the way the judicial system imprison offenders we are staring down overcrowding in almost every state. At the root of the problem states are forced to contract with private prisons to relieve overcrowding quickly. Profit is the main goal for any capitalism business this applies to private prison corporations as well. When profit is the focus of a prison wages, training and staffing suffer leaving those behind the fences in a delicate situation that is primed to claim lives.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Crime In Prison
    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Crime In Prison

    There are many reasons for the amount of prisoners, but one reason in particular stands out: the strict sentences…

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Mass Incarceration In America
    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Mass Incarceration In America

    A Caged Country: Mass Incarceration in America Mass incarceration is an indication of the downfall of America because too many people are carelessly thrown into jails and prisons, it prohibits progress amongst “minority” communities, and hinders the country’s economy by increasing unnecessary debt. Although some are opposed to limiting mass incarceration because they believe it may hinder public safety, it is not the most effective route to reaching public safety. Mass incarceration has only become a major issue in the United States within the past 40 years. Once one is in the hands of the legal system you are forced to work for the prison, which is considered a legal form of slavery. For this reason, many believe that the rise in incarcerated…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Essay On Mass Incarceration
    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Essay On Mass Incarceration

    Mass Incarceration After the thirteenth amendment was passed in 1865 abolishing slavery, racial tension was still at an all-time high. The idea that white people were still superior to any other race specifically African Americans, this made things even more difficult. Due to this racial tension Jim Crow laws were created.…

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Effects Of Overcrowding In Prisons
    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Effects Of Overcrowding In Prisons

    Why is overcrowding in prisons becoming such a huge problem? The overcrowding of prisons became problematic starting in the early 1980’s as the federal and state laws over sentencing policies shifted into having stricter punishments for criminal activities (BOOK, pg. #). The increase in the length of sentencing for prisoners are causing prisons to become dramatically overcrowded as prisoners are forced into remain in the prison system for a long period of time even though there are new prisoners continuing to enter through the system (article What can we do about prison overcrowding). The prison population as whole has rapidly increased to forty-one percent since 2000, even though the rate of correctional officers within the prison has only…

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Prison Population Problem
    • 1992 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Prison Population Problem

    A major problem in today’s society is the re-offending rate of prisoners each and every year coming out of the prison system. This not only is a growing trend in the United States, but a trend that we as a society need to look at and fix. According to an article in USA today: “the Pew Center on the States found that slightly more than four in 10 offenders return to prison within three years, a collective rate that has remained largely unchanged in years, despite huge increases in prison spending that now costs states $52 billion annually.” (Johnson).…

    • 1992 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Essay On Prison Overcrowding
    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Essay On Prison Overcrowding

    Prison Overcrowding Name: Sepehr Sadrameli Instructor: Dr.Dionne Peniston Course: Courts Systems & Practices Fall 2016 Identification of the problem Prison overcrowding is a common problem in different countries throughout the world including the United States. It refers to a phenomenon that occurs when demand for prison spaces in a particular jurisdiction exceeds the capacity of the institutions (Hough, Allen & Solomon, 2008). Prison overcrowding occurs when courts in a country when the rate of incarceration exceeds the rate at which the justice system releases prisoners, or the prisoners die thus freeing up space for new entrants.…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Prison Overcrowding Essay
    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Prison Overcrowding Essay

    Prison overcrowdings have been and is one of the main key component factors of poor prison circumstances around the globe. Since 1981, prisons and jails have a huge continuous increase despite the decrease in both crime rates as well as the number of people arrested. It has been the biggest problem faced by the prison systems; its effects can become life threating making prisons are unable to prevent proper functions. “Prison overcrowding, is the aggressive “tough on crime" approach taken by policymakers, criminal justice administrators, as well as the courts since the mid-1990s. A series of laws aimed at increasing penalties and reducing the discrepancy between the court-imposed prison term and the actual time served by an inmate has lengthened…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings