American Prison System Reform Analysis
How it works
Prison systems often disproportionately affect marginalized economic communities. These individuals are often sent to prison not only as a means of punishment but also for prison labor, which generates economic gain for the states. Over the last four decades, mass incarceration has increased tremendously, wreaking havoc on families and black communities. This phenomenon is a manifestation of structural racism, which I will delve into later. Incarceration dehumanizes poor individuals and people of color, making it significantly harder for them to find a new life after prison.
Contents
Education and Incarceration
Consider the plight of a young individual who drops out of high school today. This individual will eventually find himself at a disadvantage in every endeavor he attempts to accomplish. With the odds stacked against him due to a lack of education, he becomes more susceptible to arrest. An arrest carries a huge, enduring stigma in American society that many people do not overlook—no matter how big or small the crime is or how much time the perpetrator serves. If the dropout is black, he finds himself in a life-threatening situation that could define and limit him for the rest of his life. Assuming this dropout serves eight years in prison and is finally released, the question of rehabilitation arises.
Prison often acts as a revolving door, with prisoners who reoffend and then re-enter the system. One of the significant challenges is that people get released from prison without any tools to help them survive, let alone succeed. This forces returning citizens to focus on basic survival rather than thriving, resulting in reoffending behavior. Within a twenty-four to seventy-two-hour period upon their return, individuals realize they need to secure employment, find shelter, and procure food and other necessities—all of which require money they do not have. This financial desperation leads to high-risk behavior as they are overwhelmed by the changes in their everyday life. Being under the control of someone else for an extended period, they often forget how to take care of themselves and lift themselves up without assistance or a short-term path to follow.
Rehabilitation and Systemic Bias
If prisons dedicated time and effort to genuine rehabilitation, the chances of other inmates reoffending would decrease significantly. However, the current system seems designed for failure. Many individuals released for less than a month end up returning to prison, repeating the same pattern. This reflects a troubling reality: incarceration is racialized and gender-biased. Historically, the 13th Amendment of 1865 abolished slavery for all except those convicted of a crime, thereby opening the door for systemic exploitation. This incarceration system is not just racialized and gendered but also puts African Americans in the spotlight for mainstream critique.
In the 1800s, African Americans were perceived as threats, and today they are viewed as competitors in a taut labor market. When looking at the prison system through the lens of history, the risks are high, and it is evident that incarceration transforms those who were formerly exploitable into labor that can be exploited for profit through work in prison industries. The use of incarceration, therefore, can be considered a form of racial labor exploitation, akin to the slave plantation economy that was critical to our country’s development. Prisoners are often not provided benefits like health care, unemployment insurance, or compensation insurance.
Prisoners are paid as little as 13 cents per hour, which is tantamount to slave labor in the 20th century. The most disturbing aspect of this situation is that the sheer number of individuals incarcerated disproportionately affects people of color, particularly black males and a small portion of Hispanics. African American men in their early 20s or 30s without a high-school diploma are more likely to end up behind bars than in the workforce. In 2017, the American criminal system incarcerated 2.3 million people, making the U.S. the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world.
The Cash Bail System
According to Releaz in 2014, “No other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens, not to mention there are 6,000,000 people on probation or parole.” What intrigues me most is that many people are in prison for the wrong reasons or inappropriate time lengths. The cash bail system, originally designed to ensure people returned to court as their case progressed, has morphed into a for-profit system of wealth-based incarceration set up by the government. Poor people remain detained, and that is fundamentally unjust.
This system represents a violation of equal protection rights, creating a framework where the less fortunate are detained and wealthier people go free. It also constitutes a due process violation by keeping innocent people in jail prior to trial without the necessary procedures and findings to justify such deprivation of liberty. Courts continue to use this method, but unfortunately, until there is widespread public demand for change, extraordinary reforms are unlikely. The cash bail system is also racially discriminatory. Judges are more likely to assign black defendants higher bail amounts compared to white defendants for the same charges.
Black individuals are incarcerated at an egregious rate, and due to historical socio-economic disparities, they are still catching up in terms of wealth and household income. What shocks me the most is the disparity in sentencing. Drug dealers, thieves, or those charged with drug possession often receive sentences of twenty-plus years, while rapists, serial killers, and murderers occasionally receive sentences as short as three months or a few years. This discrepancy is often influenced by race and stereotypes. If the drug dealer is black, the defendant might not even receive a trial, with the issue swept under the rug.
Societal Impact and Profit
Consider a scenario where a black person commits murder; they’ll likely face a death trial or receive a thirty-year sentence, while a white man committing an identical crime might receive as little as three months and be diagnosed with a mental illness. It is unjust to differentiate between two individuals when both have committed the same crime. As a result, some 2.3 million people lose their freedom, family connections, jobs, and homes. Prison is supposed to be a place for reflection, reform, and preparation for a better life upon release. However, many prisoners fall into a cycle of crime, often pulled into gang activities and illegal enterprises for financial aid.
Typically, prisoners emerge in a worse state than they were before. Every five years, 76 percent of those who leave prison return, often in a worse condition. As stated earlier, those who do leave prison often rely on survival skills rather than a path to success. Many ex-convicts are not given the chance to apply for jobs, let alone enter a rehabilitation program. This situation sheds light on how prisons impact communities, particularly American children living in poverty. Communities often bear the brunt of our failing prison system. Every day, children lose a parent or more to incarceration, leading to a life of poverty and significant mental health issues due to the lack of proper guidance and care.
Parents are often forced to raise children without the support of a spouse due to our country’s troubling history of mass incarceration. This has influenced many high schools, forcing them to adopt zero-tolerance policies. Children typically experience their first arrest during their early teenage years and then find themselves on a path of repeated incarceration. Most children lack guidance while growing up. Those living in poverty often find themselves lost without supervision. They frequently encounter domestic violence, abuse, secondhand smoke, substandard living conditions, and inadequate clothing, suffering profoundly.
The absence of nurturing figures leads them towards criminal behavior. They usually fall back on survival traits leading to drug violations, theft, and other criminal activities. Regrettably, children often rely on the first thing that makes them feel safe, which is generally the streets. Now let’s discuss the entities profiting from prison labor.
American prison systems operate like a self-contained economy, leveraging labor workers and receiving financial support and funding. This economy rests on an opaque, often unaccountable infrastructure with its private equity financial transactions. Companies invest heavily to maintain or expand the use of our criminal legal system. Thousands of privately-owned companies profit from prison labor, including brands like Whole Foods, McDonald’s, AT&T, Starbucks, Nintendo, BP, Victoria’s Secret, Walmart, Microscope, and American Airlines. It is surprising to learn that even the world’s most kid-friendly restaurant chain profits from prisoners by outsourcing prison labor.
McDonald’s, the world’s most successful fast-food chain, makes purchases of items placed in a jail facility such as plastic cutlery, containers, and even uniforms. In an article by Ashley Hackett, she states, “A report released by the Corrections Accountability Project exposes over 3000 corporations, including over 2500 privately traded companies that profit from the United States prison system.” She also mentions that “The article provides data outlining thousands of companies that contribute intentionally and unintentionally to the prison industrial complex.” Apparently, many of these companies were attempting to conceal their involvement in the system to avoid tarnishing their reputation. Since people do not unite as often as they should or have a voice to challenge what happens in their communities, the United States has more inmates than China, which has a population five times greater than the United States. U.S. statistics reveal that the U.S. holds twenty-five percent of the world’s prison population despite having only five percent of the world’s population. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1977, the jail population grew to two million by the year 2000. In 1990, it was one million, and since then, the rate has increased to over four times its previous size.
The true problem causing the high crime rate is poverty. Children of all backgrounds experience poverty because they are born into it, and this creates issues throughout their youth. Poverty in America often stems from urban areas, affecting low-class African Americans disproportionately. I believe that by becoming more proactive in addressing crime and the efforts made towards putting an end to it, we can move closer to finding a solution. Understanding the roots of these problems and addressing them at their source is crucial to creating a more just and equitable society for all.
American Prison System Reform Analysis. (2022, Apr 12). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/institutional-racism-in-prisons/