Mass Incarceration is a nationwide epidemic that affects predominately the African – American and Latino population. America has five percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s prison population. Various policies dated back centuries helped to create this problem of mass incarceration. In 1971, our prison population was approximately 500,000 but after President Nixon proclaimed drug abuse was “public enemy number one” the prison population slowly began to increase. Nixon’s policy was aimed to target blacks and hippies. His goal was to have the public affiliate blacks with crack/cocaine and hippies with marijuana. In 1982, Ronald Reagan declared war on drugs which increased our prison population by another 500,000.
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His goal to address mass incarceration is by effectively changing policies that affect the incarcerated population and the Just Leadership USA organization has already successfully reformed policies across the nation. The Close Rikers Movement resonated with me because its goal is to address mass incarceration on a local level by closing Rikers and building smaller jails outside of Rikers. Reasons that the movement is pushing to close Rikers include, but are not limited to their belief that mass incarceration must be addressed on a national level as well as a local level. Additionally, Rikers is located too far away from families who want to visit their loved ones. The commute for someone to visit their loved one could take all day. Studies have shown that recidivism amongst inmates is reduced when they have strong family support. The movement is also interested in closing Rikers because many inmates are detainees just waiting to find out what will happen with their court cases. Non-violent offenders are usually sitting in jail with small amounts of bail that their families cannot afford to pay. The goal of the movement is to have non-violent offenders fight their cases from home while the violent offenders remain incarcerated. If successful, the …show more content…
The Just Leadership USA foundation commended the Obama Administration for criticizing the previous war on drugs policies and how these policies destroyed black families and communities which were a major contributing factor to mass incarceration. In an effort to address this crisis, the Obama Administration announced plans to expand clemency as a part of their decarceration initiative. The initiative is a step in the right direction but it does little to correct the years of devastating damaged already done by previous administrations as mentioned by the Just Leadership USA (2016). Additionally, the Just Leadership USA foundation worked with Mayor Bloomberg, Bill DeBlasio, and Governor Cuomo on awareness, decarceration initiatives, and policy
His goal to address mass incarceration is by effectively changing policies that affect the incarcerated population and the Just Leadership USA organization has already successfully reformed policies across the nation. The Close Rikers Movement resonated with me because its goal is to address mass incarceration on a local level by closing Rikers and building smaller jails outside of Rikers. Reasons that the movement is pushing to close Rikers include, but are not limited to their belief that mass incarceration must be addressed on a national level as well as a local level. Additionally, Rikers is located too far away from families who want to visit their loved ones. The commute for someone to visit their loved one could take all day. Studies have shown that recidivism amongst inmates is reduced when they have strong family support. The movement is also interested in closing Rikers because many inmates are detainees just waiting to find out what will happen with their court cases. Non-violent offenders are usually sitting in jail with small amounts of bail that their families cannot afford to pay. The goal of the movement is to have non-violent offenders fight their cases from home while the violent offenders remain incarcerated. If successful, the …show more content…
The Just Leadership USA foundation commended the Obama Administration for criticizing the previous war on drugs policies and how these policies destroyed black families and communities which were a major contributing factor to mass incarceration. In an effort to address this crisis, the Obama Administration announced plans to expand clemency as a part of their decarceration initiative. The initiative is a step in the right direction but it does little to correct the years of devastating damaged already done by previous administrations as mentioned by the Just Leadership USA (2016). Additionally, the Just Leadership USA foundation worked with Mayor Bloomberg, Bill DeBlasio, and Governor Cuomo on awareness, decarceration initiatives, and policy