Essay On Recidivism In The United States

Recidivism Rates in the United States: Why We Need To Lower Them The United States is the land of free. There are 316.1 million people living in this so-called great country. Within that population, eleven million had been incarcerated in July of 2011. Doesn’t sound as free as you thought does it? The United States has been incarcerating criminals at a very high rate for a very long period. These rates have never lowered throughout the modern history of the nation. The reason for this? Greed. People want money, and the government treats federal prisons as a type of business that can potentially help society. This must end because it is solely done to take advantage of these prisons and not accomplish the true meaning of what a jail sentence is initially supposed to be. Prisons are made to keep criminals. Criminals are meant to be punished, taught a lesson, and return to the world as a better person. This is the downright standard that should be embedded …show more content…
They cannot get jobs that easily, they cannot vote, they have a harder time receiving an education, etc. If you go to prison, you never come back. It is this idea of dehumanizing people who have gone to prison. Granted, there are people who deserve to be kept in prison for their crimes, however, when a person was simply dealing drugs to keep the food on the table for his family and children, the reality of the matter starts to speak. With this huge penalty, it makes it harder for criminals to return to their lives. The government should support these types of people. They need to understand the difference between a drug dealer and a murderer. They both get the same amount of time in jail, yet the crime committed cannot be compared at all. Murdering someone is a very different story rather than keeping a bunch of leaves in your backyard and not harming anyone