Outcomes Of Mass Incarceration And The Need To Decrease It
The Unites States has the highest imprisonment rates in the world, according the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States incarcerates about 716 people for every 100,000 residents and that’s every year. Unfortunately, that’s far more than any other country. In fact, our rate of incarcerating prisoners is more than five times higher than most of the countries in the world. With those high rates that we have today these results the federal prisons and local jails are spending more tax payer’s money then ever before in United states history. This huge increase of numbers has done nothing to enhance public safety and to our society. Nearly fifty percent of incarcerated people released from prison are most likely to become repeat offenders within the three years span, according to federal statistics, and those who spend even two days in pretrial detention are significantly more likely to repeat the crime they committed after their cases has been decided. We're paying billions of dollars for a system to fail. One of the issues that the US is going through is overcrowded prisons. It’s one of the biggest issues in the US right now and it is growing every day. In total eighteen out of fifty states are experiencing overcrowding. Another issue that may be causing this is improper punishment systems, that is an enormous social issue for our government. Due to that fact that the United States is known for throwing the book at someone. The US has a strong projected increment “get-tough” policy that locks up offenders for longer sentences. The correction system had been through numerous stages of transformation, and the government has always been tough on crime. But this approach is not always the right thing to do because it has resulted in rising prison populations, which in my opinion it’s not greatest result because prisoners, physically and mentally, suffer the negative effects of it. But not only do the prisoners suffer but the law enforcement officers that work in the prisons have it the hardest because they see this everyday and sometimes the overcrowded really stresses the officers out.
There are so many ways in how to decrease this issue. One of them is which I truly believe and support. That one factor is rehabilitation, instead of imprisonment. We should use tax payer’s money in programs in which those with not serious offences can have the opportunity to change their whole image. I believe that’s one of the true key factors that can reduce the crime rate. Rehabilitation should not just be a goal, but the goal, of imprisonment. It makes zero sense to believe that stripping away that inmates’ respect, dignity and their freedom is right way to justify the treatment by their own conviction of criminality. Those methods are proven that those inmates will not be able to produce people capable of contributing in a positive way to society once released. In fact, there is a program that is sponsored by Tulane University called Project Return, that is currently run by ex-convicts and only for ex-convicts. For ninety days a recently released convicts can receive education, counseling, vocational training and job placement assistance. The average cost of the program is about two thousand dollars per inmate. Now let’s compare that with the average cost of an incarcerated inmate. An average inmate would cost the tax payers nearly about sixty-three thousand dollars a year for the length of that inmate sentence. That’s nearly a ninety-five percent cut rate and that would save us billions upon billions of dollars every year. The success rate of this program is truly amazing because it shows. Out of the 656 men and women who have completed the program on about five percent have returned to prison. Now compare this to rate of the other method of imprisonment with no rehabilitation there is sixty-five percent return rate. Now the next possibility method that we can do to help reduce the size of the population in jail is to speed the process. I truly believe that we need to speed up case processing for inmates who must stay in jail for public safety reasons. But what I mean is that we need to speed up cases for inmates that are higher risk. Inmates who are in jail for nonviolent crimes. Such as nonviolent Mass incarceration thus deepens disadvantage and forecloses mobility for the most marginal in society.
Finally, carceral inequalities are intergenerational, affecting not just those who go to prison and jail but their families and children, too. One of the factors that is going on right now that is currently growing in our society is that men account for ninety percent of the prison population and a similar proportion of those in local jails. This incarceration rates have been growing faster among women in recent decades, but this social impact of mass incarceration lies in the unevenness of the community and family that are in involved. Women remain in their communities raising children, while men confront the possibility of separation through incarceration. Which is horrible because even for nonviolent crimes they separate fathers and mothers from their children and which has the potential to cause damages to the future of their kids.
In today’s society we should do better for our returning citizens. The term of prisoner and their crime should not carry into their future. Once you do the time you should not be held back in society for their crime. Instead while they are in prison we should educate these prisoners and give them skills, so when they leave prison they are well enough prepared for the real world. I truly believe this would reduce the rate of inmates coming and having repeat offenders. Our community and government need to do better. If we don’t act now, then who would?
