...Prospective Claims: Michelle Alexander discusses how mass incarceration has ruined and dismantled many lives of young African Americans. The problem she discusses so passionately in her book is a relevant problem in our society today. Ever since Ronald Reagan’s presidency and forward, campaigns have been targeting crime and especially rug related crimes. While it is clear that many of these young African Americans are going to prison due to drug related crimes, stopping the war on drugs altogether is not the solution. Although stopping the drug war may seem efficient for stopping the incarceration of young blacks in the present, it does not guarantee that these same people will not commit other crimes. The cost for stopping the drug war is allowing drug usage and distribution to run rampant which can cause the society and the neighborhoods around the areas to become unsafe. Alexander discusses how there is no way around this issue and dismantling the system of mass incarceration is the only resolution; however if these poor neighborhoods were funded with government money, drug abuse can potentially become lower or even be stopped. Alexander is also discussing how a handful of reforms cannot be a solution to the problem. She argues that all the financial grants that are given to police departments for drug arrests and racial profiling should be halted. She believes that by halting the funding and supplies of mass incarceration are only scratching the surface of social reform. She...
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...In this paper, I will discuss reducing rates of recidivism. Not everyone agrees that the United States’ incarceration rate is an issue that needs to be solved. Even though, the United States (US) has more inmates than any other country in the world with 2,239,751 inmates at the end of 2011, reflecting twenty-five percent of the world’s imprisoned (Kelly, P., 2015 and Walmsley, R. 2013). As funding for prison systems become burdensome for governments sometimes, alternative methods are sought, or despite all odds, the system continues. The consensus of public opinion may never fully support reducing prison populations. One aspect that effects incarceration rates that can be perhaps universally agreed upon are the reduction of recidivism rates....
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...institutions which label people into social categories such as the educational system and the formal labor market. The three articles discussed below explore the different faces of inequality in society. These articles are Incarceration and Stratification (2010), The Mark of Criminal Record (2003) and The Black-White Test Score Gap (2004). The overarching theme that will be pointed out below is inequality face by black people in the United States. These articles show inequalities face by black people in three different landscapes: incarceration cells, employment, and education. This paper included the role of media in the proliferation of racial inequality between white and black people. Lastly, this paper also presented the missing gaps on literature and how should we address the problem of racial inequality. Summary Inequality is present in incarceration cells. Wakefield and Uggen (2010) claimed that incarceration became a powerful “engine of social inequality that plays a massive and racialized part in the contemporary stratification system” (Wakefield and Uggen, 2010, p. 388). The study conducted by Wakefield and Uggen (2010) covers the scope of imprisonment and the process of selection into prison. The authors then proceed by giving the implications of incarceration in different aspects of their lives such as education, labor market, health, family and civic life. The method used by the author is through graphs and statistics from different institutions. They looked at the percentage...
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...The American Criminal Justice System: The Social and Cultural Considerations Introduction The American criminal justice system, the largest in the world, with 2.3M people incarcerated (Prison Policy Initiative 2016) has a significant impact on many aspects of American society when viewed through the social and cultural lens including the psychological impact of incarceration, varying treatment based on race, and post-incarceration results. Based on the analysis of various positions of experts in the field, it is clear that certain policy reforms in the existing system would be beneficial for the incarcerated and the broader society. When comparing the scale of incarceration and other related metrics in the United States...
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...Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," reports there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War. Statistics reported in 2006, by the U.S .Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics support this claim, which show that Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation’s 2 million prison and jail inmates, while Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent. The disproportionate ratio of blacks to whites who are incarcerated is especially great in Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota – greater than 10-to-1 (USJB, 2006). Why this structural inequality towards African Americans is happening, why it matters, and suggestions to rectify this, are issues that are discussed in this paper. Why is this happening? Since 1970, the U.S. has experienced a large and rapid increase in the rate at which people, regardless of race, are housed in federal and state correctional facilities (Snyder, 2011). This rapid growth in the prison population has been attributed in a large part to the rate at which individuals are incarcerated for drug offenses, especially minorities (Snyder, 2011). Between1995 and 2003, the number of people in state and federal prisons incarcerated for drug offenses increased by 21 percent, from 280,182 to 337...
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...Minority Inmates in American Prisons Noreen Harman ENG122: English Composition II Instructor January Pearson July 7, 2014 There is a disparate rate of minorities in the American prison system currently. I will present evidence from scholarly resources proving that the reason why the minority population is so high is due to racial profiling. The judicial system imposes stricter and longer prison terms on minorities because of their culture. Blacks are about eight times more likely to go to prison than whites, which dwarfs black-white disparities in, for example, unemployment rates (2-to -1 disparity), infant mortality (2-to -1 disparity), and out of wedlock births (3-to-1 disparity). L.J. Geo (2010). African American and Hispanic offenders were more likely than whites to be sentenced to prison, especially if they were male, young and unemployed, S. Spohn (2000). Even though there may be a high rate of minority crimes being committed, I believe the reason for having so many minorities in prison is due to the current judicial system stereo typing. In the article Rethinking Drug Courts: Restorative Justice as a Response to Racial Injustice, it talks about the rate of drug crimes committed by minority and longer sentences imposed to blacks and Hispanics. Drug court offers offenders the opportunity to not do time in prison and get court supervised treatment instead. This is beneficial to the families of minorities so they can keep working and providing...
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...Alternatives to Incarceration Abstract Our country continues to search alternatives to the overcrowded prisons bulging at the seams. Citizens are crying for a relief on taxation in funding these prisons. The criminal justice system has searched for years for ideas to limit incarceration. Some alternative programs have withstood the test of time, some continue to build a name for themselves, and others have just come onto the scene. This paper will focus on three alternative programs to placing adults in prisons. These programs include military services, intensive supervision programs (ISP’s), and Restorative Justice programs. Each provides some type of benefit to criminals, corrections department, and society. Alternatives to Incarceration Our country seems to have gone in various directions trying to find a successful justice system to work in punishing crimes. We went from a rehabilitation system, to no tolerance policies in the 1980’s. Overcrowded prisons forced officials to let prisoners out early in the 90’s. Taxpayers wanted something done with crime in their communities, but didn’t know which way to turn. A faulty criminal justice system has been blamed in such that it had, “Inadequate or ineffective rehabilitation programs, lack of drug treatment, insufficient funding for resettlement after prison, and other . . . policies. . . .”, (Sherman & Strang, 2007, p. 12). Crimes continue to be a major concern within American society, yet our only response...
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...The first time that I began writing the English academic essay is three years ago. In order to apply for universities in America, I should take the SAT test. In the test, the hardest part for me is writing. At that time, I realized that writing is never easy for an international student. It is a big challenge to write an academic paper by using the second language. The argument, thesis, word choices and grammar always bother me. However, I know that writing is the most important skill for a college student, so I never stop practicing and improving it. I took a writing class 20C and 39A in my first year. Both of them helped me a lot to improve writing skills. Last quarter, I took 39B, which was my first time to know rhetorical writing. When I take writing 39C this quarter, I learn deeply about the rhetorical and research...
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...America has become one of the most diverse and wealthiest countries in the world. Although the United States is wealthy, not all individuals have benefited from that wealth. Throughout society, African American communities have become marginalized, with areas of poverty, high crime rates, discrimination and few opportunities for advancement. These areas are often locations where racial and cultural minorities live. Racial disparities exist within the criminal justice system and have shown many problems of inequality between the white and black race. In addition to having inequality within the criminal justice system, the criminals also have impacted their family members in different ways due to being incarcerated. The media has misrepresented African Americans by emphasizing African Americans participating in crimes while ignoring crimes committed by whites. People in society are assuming that only black people commit crimes, which is unfair because the incidences of people committing crimes are about equal between the races. Racial disparity favors white people over black people in the criminal justice system. Therefore, society must reevaluate the way society portrays who commits crimes, and where they are committed. Throughout many decades of history, black people had been discriminated against and treated as second class citizens in American society, even though they participated equally in the workforce. Discrimination has happened from slavery until present times. For...
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...Community Corrections or Incarceration Are community corrections a better solution than incarceration? Michelle Brooks ITT Technical Institute Community Corrections or Incarceration Abstract In this research paper will read about different subjects and topics that pertain to incarceration and community corrections. The incarceration rate is going up in the United States while at the same time community corrections is slowly fading away because of limited support from the local communities and government officials within each state. In this research I hope to find out those community corrections has more to offer than incarceration. In conclusion incarceration is not the right way but community corrections will be. Community Corrections or Incarceration Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Background on Community Corrections Background on Incarceration Effectives of Community Corrections Effectives of Incarceration Programs dealing with Community Corrections Programs while Incarcerated Theory Interview with Mr. Sharron Wilson Result Reference Page Community Corrections or Incarceration Introduction Community Corrections is a better solution than incarceration because it offers many different alternative programs for several different types of offenders. Incarceration also offers similar programs...
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...To Hold Us Back: The War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, and a Call to Action for America's Black Youth By Carl L. Young An Alternative Plan Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science In Sociology: Corrections Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, Minnesota Spring 2013 Final Draft 4/20/2013 1 This Alternative Plan Paper has been examined and approved by the following members of the Examining Committee. _____________________ Dr. Leah Rogne, Advisor _____________________ Dr. William Wagner _____________________ Dr. Penny Jo Rosenthal _____________________ Dr. Nadarajan Sethuraju ________________ Date 2 A bstract This alternative plan paper examines the circumstances that have evolved as a incarceration of the Black community. In the last thirty years, the federal government of the United States of America has engaged in camp which has involved a variety of policies to stop the production, distribution and sale of illegal narcotics. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in a war that has targeted the most vulnerable in our society, impacting its youth for generations to come. This alternative plan paper addresses the impact of the War on Drugs...
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...Unfair Incarceration: Minorities’ Plight in the U.S. Judicial System DeVry University Cultural Diversity in the Professions SOCS 350N Spring 2013 Abstract The United States is well known as the Land of Opportunity, but if you’re a minority that opportunity maybe a greater chance of being incarcerated in the state and federal penal systems. Civil rights battles have raged for the greater part of the last century in this country. With milestone victories in the early and mid 1960’s equality under the law seemed to be a foregone conclusion. There are numerous laws, policies and even a Constitutional Amendment that address the matter that race should never be a factor. With this is all in play and in mind, you would think that statistics of the U.S. penal systems racial analysis has to be completed with a huge margin in error because it is not near equality. In a cursory search of this topic one can find a deluge of graphs, tables, and statistical analysis. The one thing you cannot find is a quantitative or qualitative consensus of why this has occurred or why it is still occurring. A preponderance of the evidence is anecdotal and offers suggestions of policies and attitudes that have led to this epidemic in contemporary American society. In this review, an endeavor to gather the gist of the issue and attempt to answer why or how this came about and the numerical extent. Followed by the consequences to the affected groups and the whole of society. Finally...
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...It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back: The War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, and a Call to Action for America's Black Youth By Carl L. Young An Alternative Plan Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science In Sociology: Corrections Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, Minnesota Spring 2013 Final Draft 4/20/2013 1 This Alternative Plan Paper has been examined and approved by the following members of the Examining Committee. _____________________ Dr. Leah Rogne, Advisor _____________________ Dr. William Wagner _____________________ Dr. Penny Jo Rosenthal _____________________ Dr. Nadarajan Sethuraju ________________ Date 2 Abstract This alternative plan paper examines the circumstances that have evolved as a result of the Reagan Administration’s War on Drugs and the increase of mass incarceration of the Black community. In the last thirty years, the federal government of the United States of America has engaged in campaign known as the “War on Drugs,” which has involved a variety of policies to stop the production, distribution and sale of illegal narcotics. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in a war that has targeted the most vulnerable in our society, impacting its youth for generations to come. This alternative plan paper addresses the impact of the War on Drugs and the criminal justice policies that have impacted the life chances of Black youth nationwide and calls for a new social movement...
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...say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. He’s fired!’ (Graham 2017). Overall the NFL protests demonstrate how the snowballing turmoil of a country can make its way into the world of sports. This paper concludes that the NFL, a space that is assumed to remove everyday concerns, ironically is filled with the underlying struggles America battles with—inequality and racism. With the help of Michelle Alexander and her findings regarding mass incarceration as the new form of the caste system, the paper will first unravel and present the racial politics of America. Alexander will help set the tone to a journey in recognizing the that racism and inequalities within the NFL are caused by the fear of intimacy that haunts white America. Following Alexander’s findings, search studies presented by the National Football League and Dr. C. Keith Harrison from the University of Central Florida, will reveal that inequality is in fact present in the NFL and that the league is not simply about football but about maintaining a monopoly. A big part of the history of the US is the idea that sports and other institutions in America are preserved for white men. That this is how they were founded and how they have been maintained. Furthermore, by presenting Kaepernick’s story, the paper argues that paychecks keep black athletes from speaking up and allowing for others to speak for them. Once again allowing inequality and racism within the NFL. The nightmare of racial hatred Kaepernick tries...
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...A Look at Racial Disparity in the United States Prison System Micah O’Daniel Institutional Corrections 2/22/11 Racial inequality in the American criminal justice system has a strong effect of many realms of society such as the family life, and employment. Education and race seem to be the most decisive factors when deciding who goes to jail and what age cohort has the greatest percentage chance of incarceration. Going to prison no longer affects just the individual who committed the crime. Instead, the family and community left behind gain a new burden by one individual's actions. The United States still has a large disparity between Whites and Blacks and now a growing Hispanic population. This racial disparity in the educational system, job sector, and neighborhoods have all contributed to the booming prison population in the latter part of the 20th century which has only continued to widen in the 21st century. At the end of 2006, the Bureau of Justice released data that stated that there were 3,042 black male prisoners per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,261 Hispanic male prisoners per 100,000 Hispanic males, and 487 white male prisoners per 100,000 white males (USDOJ, 2008). The likelihood of black males going to prison in their lifetime is 16% compared to 2% of white males and 9% of Hispanic males (USDOJ, 2008). Other social factors can be linked to the racial inequality in the criminal justice system such as socioeconomic status, the environment...
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