The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison Summary

Jeffery Reiman author of our reading “The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Prison” assigned his students an interesting assignment. At the end of their semester, the students were asked to create a correctional system that could sustain a stable and visible class of criminals. Not one that would prevent crime. Basically, almost all of the student’s proposals portrayed the correctional system we have today. In this final reaction paper, I will address how Reiman’s student’s proposals were criminogenic. I will use the the student’s proposals as examples and elaborate on them. Then, I will incorporate the the three theories we have learned throughout the semester. The theories are Strain theory, Labeling theory and Social Bond theory. Finally, I will explain how the policies of our criminal justice system disproportionately affect communities of color. In order to find out how Reiman’s students proposals are criminogenic we need to know what it means. Criminogenic is causing or likely to cause criminal behavior. In other words, how do the student’s proposals cause criminal behavior rather than reduce or prevent it. There are many characteristics that are similar when our correctional system and their proposals are compared. Reiman provided five of the student’s proposals so I will go over each one and explain how it is criminogenic. The first proposal was “Have laws on the books against drug use, prostitution, and gambling (Crimes that have no unwilling victims)”. …show more content…
This proposal is criminogenic because having stricter laws on crimes of this sort may cause crime rates to go even higher. There are other countries that have legalized certain drugs and it has lowered the rate of crime and helped with the addiction of these drugs. Instead of locking these “addicts” up giving them a criminal record, these countries have legalized it and provide them with a support group or people they can relate too. This connects to our extra credit assignment; it wasn’t the chemicals in the drug that was causing people to become addicted. The theory that connected to this situation was Social Bond theory. It was the setting they lived in or the people they associated themselves with that caused it. The second proposal was “Give police, prosecutors, and judges broad discretion to decide who gets arrested, who gets charged, and who gets sentenced to prison.” It is unclear if this would be criminogenic but this proposal would definitely change the race and nature of the individuals being arrested and charged. …show more content…
(Extra Credit) This proposal will cause racial chaos in our society because majority of police, prosecutors, and judges are white. Let’s face it, it is clear that colored people or people of other minority groups are treated differently in our correctional system based on the labeling theory. People of color do not catch the same breaks as the white. The reaction from our society and correctional system are completely different when it involves a white man assaulting a black man vice versa. Race is not the only component that can skew their decision. Appearance can also affect they way an individual is treated in our criminal justice system because of the norms our society creates and that is not fair. The third proposal is “Make the prison experience not only painful but demeaning as well. To place them in an enforced childhood characterized by no privacy and no control