An Introduction to Prison Reform

Think of the word Prison. What does it mean to you? Do you think of justice?  Or crime? Or bad and dangerous people? While all of these are correct associations with the concept of prions, they are not always the case. American prisons have gotten out of hand. Currently, more than 2.4 million Americans are incarcerated, about 1 in 110American Adults. This is way to many people. On this blog I want to explore the ways the prison system fails, racial in equality in prison and how we can fix these problems that plague society. Prisons were not built to ruin the lives of small time offenders, but that is how the current prison system is working. It is time to fix that

Since the 1980’s the number of incarcerated individuals has been on the rise. By 2014 the United States has more than doubled its number ofprison inmates with no sign of slowing or stopping. This is because every year 636,000 people released from lock up but people go to jail over 11 million times a year. With numbers like these the incarceration rates will not be going down any time soon. Currently the United States are the leaders in the number of actual inmates and percentage of citizens incarcerated. Although the UnitedStates is only 5% of the world’s population, we house a quarter of its prisoners. The numbers just do not line up, we have too many people in jail.

Not only do prisons negitively impact communities and families, the economy is suffering at the hands of mass incarceration. BothBernie Sanders and President Obama have stated in the past that the UnitedStates Spends $80 Billion on prisons each year. Though some suggest that that figure is out dated and it is actually more like $90 - $100 billion a year. This is taxpayer money that could be much more effectively allocated if there were not so many wrongly imprisoned individuals.

The main issue comes from the state and local levels of law enforcement. State and local prisons house 90% of the United State’s prisonspopulation. This is also has its hidden benefits in that it is easier to effect change from the state and local levels rather than the federal level.

So when and why did this problem of mass incarceration begin? The problem began with “The War on Drugs.” The war on drugs is a federal effort to reduce the trade and sales of illegal drugs and narcotics.  With the crack down on small drug offenses, many non-violent small time criminals find themselves facing sentences much larger than their crimes. These cases are far more common than you would think; about half the people in federal prisons are drug offenders.

There is also the issue of the mentally ill kept in jail. Due to the lack of affordable and accessible mental health issues, often times the mentally ill end up living a life of crime. The mentally ill are often kept in federal prisons instead of getting the much-needed help they require, they are kept in lock up, untreated.  While a small percentage of the mentally ill are violent, with out treatment the odds of them becoming violent increase and the system can virtually create criminals because of a lack of proper help.

Prison reform is an under covered yet enormously important issue. America is the leader in mass incarceration and little has been done to fix this monumentally flawed system. Over the course of this blog I will highlight a different sides of this issue. Personally I believe prisons are not the answer for most non violent offenders. Often you see non violent offenders go into lock up non violent, and come out with gang involvements and violent tendencies, which often time results in repeat offenses. We need rehabilitation programs not prisons. Prisons are for dangers to society, not people who were selling pot on the street. I am curious about your opinions on mass incarceration and prison reform. Do you have any ideas on how to improve the prison system? Do you see this as an important issue? Do any of these facts or figures surprise you? Let me know! Check back in two weeks when I will go into further detail about sentencing lengths.