Rehabilitation Vs Incarceration
At 2.2 million inmates, the United States currently has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Approximately 1 per every 130 people are imprisoned and over 4 million people are on probation or parole. Despite the amount of people locked up, the U.S. has wildly fluctuating crime rates and the number of offenses per year has steadily been going up since the year 2000 (Henry). While the current prison system is highly debated amongst different groups, it is generally agreed that crime rates are still out of control. The current U.S. criminal justice system need drastic change because they currently fail to control crime, rehabilitation efforts are not working, and they unrightfully target people of color. As of today the current prison
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In a powerful essay concerning prison’s deterrence of crime, Joel Waldfogel claims, “the likelihood being sentenced to prison jumps from 3 percent to 17 percent at exactly 18.” Despite this large change, offenses from teens aging 17 to 19 remain mostly consistent, which is unusual compared to the assumption that a higher chance of incarceration equals more apprehension towards committing a crime. Waldfogel goes on to state that a whopping one-fifth of people arrested in the weeks before their eighteenth birthday are later rearrested no more than a month later. Putting aside teenagers, looking at statistics from the 1980’s up until now gives some insight on the ineffectiveness of prison threats. There was a brief decrease in the number of crimes committed during the 1980’s when mass incarceration really began taking effect. This is often used to prove that the threat of prison time does in fact lower crime rates; however, the correlation here is offset by the fact that economy was in a stable state during this …show more content…
In his brilliant article “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” Daniel Patrick Moynihan explains the effects of racial profiling in black and hispanic neighborhoods in the U.S. Current laws allow police officers to stop suspicious individuals based on very vague and unclear premises such as “furtive movements.” Once stopped, an officer can search them with little reasoning and more often than not become extremely aggressive, using unwarranted force and pat-downs in order to find guns, drugs, or other illegal items. Moynihan’s research shows that blacks and hispanics were stopped extremely often on unclear terms. Some individuals might say that this is a good thing, that blacks and hispanics are constantly partaking in illegal activity and must be stopped to prevent them from “killing each other.” However, Moynihan states that “between 2004 and 2009, officers recovered weapons in less than 1 percent of all stops - and recovered them more frequently from whites than blacks.” Despite this fact, blacks and hispanics are still 14 percent more likely to be subject to force (Moynihan). In a shocking article written by professor Bill Quigley, he informs readers that criminal cases going on trial is extremely uncommon. This being the case, many cases are simply plea bargained, and he
In a powerful essay concerning prison’s deterrence of crime, Joel Waldfogel claims, “the likelihood being sentenced to prison jumps from 3 percent to 17 percent at exactly 18.” Despite this large change, offenses from teens aging 17 to 19 remain mostly consistent, which is unusual compared to the assumption that a higher chance of incarceration equals more apprehension towards committing a crime. Waldfogel goes on to state that a whopping one-fifth of people arrested in the weeks before their eighteenth birthday are later rearrested no more than a month later. Putting aside teenagers, looking at statistics from the 1980’s up until now gives some insight on the ineffectiveness of prison threats. There was a brief decrease in the number of crimes committed during the 1980’s when mass incarceration really began taking effect. This is often used to prove that the threat of prison time does in fact lower crime rates; however, the correlation here is offset by the fact that economy was in a stable state during this …show more content…
In his brilliant article “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” Daniel Patrick Moynihan explains the effects of racial profiling in black and hispanic neighborhoods in the U.S. Current laws allow police officers to stop suspicious individuals based on very vague and unclear premises such as “furtive movements.” Once stopped, an officer can search them with little reasoning and more often than not become extremely aggressive, using unwarranted force and pat-downs in order to find guns, drugs, or other illegal items. Moynihan’s research shows that blacks and hispanics were stopped extremely often on unclear terms. Some individuals might say that this is a good thing, that blacks and hispanics are constantly partaking in illegal activity and must be stopped to prevent them from “killing each other.” However, Moynihan states that “between 2004 and 2009, officers recovered weapons in less than 1 percent of all stops - and recovered them more frequently from whites than blacks.” Despite this fact, blacks and hispanics are still 14 percent more likely to be subject to force (Moynihan). In a shocking article written by professor Bill Quigley, he informs readers that criminal cases going on trial is extremely uncommon. This being the case, many cases are simply plea bargained, and he