The Incarceration Issue Within The United States
The United States is known as a prosperous nation, and being the “land of the free”, but what most people do not want to talk about, or do not realize, when speaking about the United States is the massive amount of prisoners the US has. In fact, we have the most prisoners by far. The US roughly makes up about 5% of the total population on earth, but accounts for nearly 25% of the world’s prison population (Scommegna, Tyjen Tsai and Paola. "U.S. Has World 's Highest Incarceration Rate."). There has been an upward trend of using harsh jail sentences as a deterrent to breaking the law since the 1980’s, and has overall proven ineffective. For this reason, we as a nation need to overhaul our obsolete …show more content…
Many people in the US are fearful of local crime around them, so politicians address this fear by promising to be tough on crime, and to lower the crime rates. The issue with this though, is that politicians are then pressured to lower the crime rates significantly, or face
being voted out of office, to someone who promises the same thing. This in turn creates a perpetual rise in the prison population, as the politicians are fighting for more votes. (More in depth/examples)
There are many solutions to the problem of mass incarceration within the United States. The nations of Norway, Finland, and Sweden all of respectable prison population rates of around 70 per 100,000 ("World Prison Population Rates per 100,000 of the National Population." ChartsBin.) , while also having relatively large civilian populations. They achieve this by actually attempting to better their inmates, instead of making the prison sentences so harsh that it’s intended to scare people away. UNFINISHED
Demographics of people in prison
2 more main causes for the incarceration issue within the
The United States is known as a prosperous nation, and being the “land of the free”, but what most people do not want to talk about, or do not realize, when speaking about the United States is the massive amount of prisoners the US has. In fact, we have the most prisoners by far. The US roughly makes up about 5% of the total population on earth, but accounts for nearly 25% of the world’s prison population (Scommegna, Tyjen Tsai and Paola. "U.S. Has World 's Highest Incarceration Rate."). There has been an upward trend of using harsh jail sentences as a deterrent to breaking the law since the 1980’s, and has overall proven ineffective. For this reason, we as a nation need to overhaul our obsolete …show more content…
Many people in the US are fearful of local crime around them, so politicians address this fear by promising to be tough on crime, and to lower the crime rates. The issue with this though, is that politicians are then pressured to lower the crime rates significantly, or face
being voted out of office, to someone who promises the same thing. This in turn creates a perpetual rise in the prison population, as the politicians are fighting for more votes. (More in depth/examples)
There are many solutions to the problem of mass incarceration within the United States. The nations of Norway, Finland, and Sweden all of respectable prison population rates of around 70 per 100,000 ("World Prison Population Rates per 100,000 of the National Population." ChartsBin.) , while also having relatively large civilian populations. They achieve this by actually attempting to better their inmates, instead of making the prison sentences so harsh that it’s intended to scare people away. UNFINISHED
Demographics of people in prison
2 more main causes for the incarceration issue within the