America Needs Alternatives to Incarceration Essay

Clyde is your average American; he is a hardworking family man who tries to do everything in his power to make his family live happily. Due to the recent economic plunge he has lost his job and his wife is not making enough to feed their family. Feeling worthless and desperate to help his suffering family, Clyde decided to rob his neighbor. It was an unarmed theft of under $250; unfortunately Clyde was caught and sentenced to serve 1 year in the County Prison. Clyde never wanted to do it and was very uncomfortable doing it, but he thought it would help his family and allow them to go one more month with food on the table. Even though there are alternative forms of rehabilitation that would have kept him out of prison and been†¦show more content†¦In short the United States judicial system sends criminal offenders into the largest prison system in the world, where the increasing population forces overcrowding, widens the gap between state spending and revenue and fails to pre vent recidivism; we must re-evaluate and reduce our current prison system in order to reduce state debt as well as provide inmates with livable conditions and keep them from returning to prison. The cost of living is always on the rise, so naturally the cost of maintaining our public prison systems and its inmates is also on the rise. Not only does the cost to maintain the prisoners alive and healthy rise; our draconian laws that seem to make youth and the African American community the target, keep sending more and more offenders into the prison system. Without acknowledging alternative solutions and rehabilitation programs that are readily available. We currently live in an age where old laws from eras long past still rule. This is to say that we still follow laws that were put in place decades ago that are racist and unjust. Many of these laws emerged from the turbulence of the 1960’s; when the increasingly rebellious college youth and African American civil rights movemen ts looked to change the nation. Laws were put in place directed at mainly these two groups: laws such as having a 100 times largerShow MoreRelatedThe Major Punishment For Criminal Acts1526 Words   |  7 Pagesare in territorial prisons and military prisons, as well as local jails. By October 2013, America had the highest rate of incarceration across the globe at 718 per 100,000 people. It is equally important to note that as of December 2014, the International Centre for Prison Studies reported that there were 2, 783,689 prisoners from the total population of 319 million. The major causes of increased incarceration rate increased sentencing laws, privatization of the prisons, and drug sentencing laws. ItRead MorePrison Overcrowding : The United States1535 Words   |  7 PagesMatthew Fuhrman CRIJ 1306 Dr. Peniston April 20, 2017 Prison Overcrowding The United States has the highest number of incarcerated individuals than other countries. Offenders are arrested every day for minor and major offences such as murder. America is hard on crime. When someone breaks the law the criminal justice’s system seeks an eye for an eye. Prison overcrowding has become a major problem in the United States, it is very expensive to house an inmate and there are other methods to punishRead MorePrison Overcrowding And The United States1555 Words   |  7 PagesSome of the main causes for prison overcrowding that will be covered in this paper are mass incarceration, long sentencing, recidivism, and prisoners of drug crimes. Overcrowding of prisons in the United States is a major issue that affects not only the prisoners themselves, but taxpayers and politicians. Although there are many different solutions to prison overcrowding such as building more prisons, alternative and shorter sentences, etc., the issue is still prevalent. Some feel the best way to dealRead MoreAmerica Should Not Afford For Nonviolent Criminals Essay1741 Words   |  7 PagesAmerica cannot afford to continue incarcerating nonviolent criminals. Why reward offenders with food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and treatment programs at the taxpayers expense? Community supervision programs that require offenders to work to support themselves and their families make better sense. In addition, offenders should pay supervision fees, restitution to victims and court costs. Further, offenders on community supervision could utilize to addiction treatment programs and mentalRead MoreMass Incarceration During The United States1322 Words   |  6 PagesMonroe Craver Mrs. Gallos English 3 Honors 30 March 2017 Mass Incarceration in the United States There are too many people in prison in our country and any people in prison today are non-violent drug offenders. The American war on drugs has targeted people in poverty and minorities, who are more likely to be involved in drug use. This has created a pattern of crime and incarceration and â€Å"...[a] connection between increased prison rates and lower crime is tenuous and small.† (Wyler). The prisonRead MoreThe Division Of Our Society : Exploring Mass Imprisonment1737 Words   |  7 Pages Mass Incarceration The Division of Our Society: Exploring Mass Imprisonment Pamela D. Jackson WRIT 130: Research Paper Professor Jane Campanizzi-Mook September 11th 2015 ABSTRACT Prison is unfortunately big business in the United States and our society is paying the ultimate cost and there is only one system being rewarded. More than often we do not put much emphasis on the prison system in its entirety. It is a fairly simple concept to most Americans that if you commit a crime or ifRead MoreThe Flawed Prison System of America1039 Words   |  5 Pagesat its current rates. A violent crime is committed every five seconds. (Violence,1)Study after study reveals the neither the threat of punishment nor increased incarceration has any real impact on the crime rate. The three biggest flaws of the justice system are that they put too many people away for too long, it criminalizes acts that need not be criminalized, and it is unpredictable- many laws, especially federal ones, are so vaguely written that people cannot easily tell whether they have brokenRead MoreEssay on Criminal Rehabilitation in the United States Justice System1640 Words   |  7 Pagessomeone ret urns to the streets, beaten down and, more often than not, having suffered a great amount of violence during his or her incarceration. Professionals will tell you that incarceration really does very little to stop crime, but we go on spending billions of dollars in order to lock up more and more people. We have become the country with the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world. (National Criminal Justice Commission) This quote from Dave Kelly shows many of the issues withRead MoreAmeric Land Of The Incarcerated1296 Words   |  6 Pages America: Land of the Incarcerated Connor Murphy Mesa Community College â€Æ' In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the poem The Star Spangled Banner after witnessing the attack on Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy in the War of 1812. The poem was sang to the tune of a well-known British song and eventually, Key’s once amateur patriotic poem became the United States national anthem in which the lyrics strongly symbolize our country’s perseverance and freedom. The Star Spangled BannerRead MoreRehabilitation Over Incarceration : Persuasive Speech1736 Words   |  7 Pages Rehabilitation Over Incarceration Purpose: To Persuade Specific Purpose: To inform and persuade the public of the inefficiency of the justice and prison system, and to offer insight and methods to both reduce the finical burden of this institution on the state and inmate recidivism while simultaneously reviving our communities left ruined by this often racist and unfair institution. Central Idea: To rework the legal and economic infrastructure of the currently broken U.S prison system by providing