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Inflicting Incarceration

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The United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. America holds 5% of the world’s population, yet it houses 25% of the world’s prisoners (Walmsley 2013). The approximate amount of spending on our nations prisoners is 74 billion dollars, annually (Silver 2014). With the cost of rising incarceration in the U.S. and climbing recidivism rates, it is more apparent than ever that the American Prison Industrial Complex (“PIC”) is in great need of reform (Wagner 2014). The PIC enforces a recidivism cycle in which more than 50% of prisoners return to prison less than 3 years after release, thus being referred to by the PEW Research Center as “The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons” (2011). Not only is this cycle inflicting …show more content…
Department of Health and Human Services 2008). The weakening of the social tie between the prisoner and their partner leads to effects that can result in great strain for both partners. Contagion occurs, resulting in stress, disconnect, shame, and social stigma that flows across ties. The lack of interaction and access between partners reduces the ability to exchange emotional, instrumental, and informational support; their level of social embeddedness decreases (Chiaraluce Lecture …show more content…
Little attention has been focused on how communities, social service agencies, health care providers, and the criminal justice system can work collaboratively to better meet the needs of the families left behind (Travis 2005). In 2010, Texas state representative Jerry Madden claimed that, “it’s easy to see that we are at a critical turning point in criminal justice policies – one that will hopefully result in policies that protect the public.” The PEW Research Center has proposed several changes on both a community and a federal policy based level to help reduce recidivism and therefore, reduce strain on American families: (1) States should have shorter periods of post-prison supervision, and shorter parole periods. This will reduce the likelihood of recidivism for minor offenses, and will bring down recidivism, overall. (2) Introduce better programs within prisons to aid with prisoner education, drug rehabilitation, and job-skills trainings. These programs already exist in some form, but are largely underfunded and unsuccessful. (3) Ingrate detailed transition planning that begins six months before release that will help re-integrate prisoners back into society after serving their sentences. This has been instituted in Oregon, and was highly successful, with Oregon having the current lowest recidivism rates of all

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