Persuasive Essay On Incarceration

It is a well known problem in the United States today and is even a part of heated debates in the current election; the incarceration rates have skyrocketed in the past year and crime rates have not gone down. Crime, in fact, has also been at an all time high. This is not a worldwide issue, however, and it is obvious we as a country need to make a change in system.
The incarceration rate is known to be an issue, but few know how much of a problem it is. The prisons now hold over two million people (Libal). The numbers of people held in jails at both the state and federal level have more than doubled from 1985-2007. America is now incarcerating the greatest percentage of its population worldwide. This is not a statistic to be proud of as a nation; we house five percent of the total population of the world and twenty five percent of the total prison population. The U.S. should not be leading the world in incarceration, it should be leading in education, focusing on innovation and health. This is more important to …show more content…
Just over thirty thousand dollars per year is spent on each inmate and the numbers only go up from there. In 2012 New York paid over one hundred and sixty thousand dollars per inmate (Sylvester). Comparing these numbers to those the government puts towards children in college, or public schooling is simply disappointing. As a country we spend more money putting juveniles in jail than giving them an education ("The Annual Cost of Juvenile Incarceration”). The economy also suffers a loss when past offenders are denied jobs. These employment losses cost the country almost two million workers resulting in a loss of sixty billion dollars annually (Sylvester). The question then becomes whether or not incarcerating so many people is worth the