I would like to address the disgraceful problem of the high incarceration rate in the United States; we lead world in number of people in prison per capita out of every industrialized nation. Furthermore, the correctional system in our country is clearly skewed by racial and ethnic bias. I am going to persuade you that using incarceration as a panacea to solve far too many problems in our country is no longer feasible, moral, or acceptable; I am hopeful that when you consider the facts involved in this situation, you will agree with me as well.
Currently, the US prison population consists of more than 2.5 million of our citizens (Sakala.) This means that more than one out of every 100 American adults is incarcerated, or 1% of the total population (Soltas.) In order to house all of these people, the United States also has an incredible range of places to put them in: local and county jails, state and federal prisons, and juvenile detention as well as correctional facilities (America’s Prison Population: Who, What, Where, and Why?) What’s more, there is an incredibly wide gap between racial groups in the prison population; more than 60% of the prison population is comprised of racial and ethnic minorities. For all men, the chances of being incarcerated during one’s lifetime are one in 17, or 11%. For black men, there is a one in three chance of being incarcerated during one’s lifetime, or 33%; for Latino men, the odds are one in six over the lifetime, or 16%; for white men, the odds are one in 17, or just under 6% (Racial Disparity.)
For women, although the numbers are much lower for that gender, the disparities are also evident. For all women, there is less than a 2% chance of being incarcerated during one’s lifetime. However, for white women the chance is just 0.9% over one’s lifetime, for black women, the odds are 5.5%, and for Latino women, the chances are 2.2% (Racial Disparity.) Undoubtedly, the incarceration rate is also emblematic of the class differences in our country; the prisons are full of minority men from underprivileged backgrounds while there are very few inmates that come from more affluent circumstances. For example, after the Wall Street financial collapse that caused millions of people to lose their pensions and their investments, virtually none of the investment bankers who made millions while breaking the law went to prison. There is a simple and obvious explanation for this: white people, i.e. more affluent people, can afford to be better represented because they hire brilliant defense lawyers as opposed to poor defendants who simply have no ability to pay attorneys. The factors of race and class are clear drivers of who ends up in our prisons.
The justifications for punishment met by incarceration are primarily retribution, as well as rationalizing that putting such people in prison protects society at large. In truth, a large percentage of people in prison are nonviolent offenders who are incarcerated because of low level drug crimes, petty crimes, and do not necessarily present any actual risk to people outside of prison. Race is an important component of the mass incarceration rate because as stated, the criminal justice system is stacked against minorities who have fewer resources to defend themselves in courts, and are also more likely to be detained and arrested than white citizens. White privilege is a component because police are less likely to consider white people suspicious and so are less apt to stop them and search them; in addition, whites have better experiences with the court system because they are more likely to hire an attorney as opposed to a public defender or assigned counsel, which is largely determinative of one’s fate (Leonard.) As a result, nearly 95% of criminal cases don’t even go to trial, because the lack of a private attorney causes so many minority defendants to enter pleas for lesser charges and serve time in jail; by contrast, white defendants are more able to stand up in court with their lawyers and plead their cases to a receptive judge or jury.
The relationship between poverty and incarceration is a strong association, because the prisons in the United States are filled with poor people who make up the largest segment of the population. The factors involved in this situation are, as stated, lack of access to quality representation, as well as living in neighborhoods where people are more likely to be targeted by police in stop and frisk activities, and searches and seizures, lack of opportunities to engage in successful pursuits, and a criminal justice system that is biased in favor of the affluent segment of the population.
Incarceration has not proven to be an effective means of addressing criminal behavior because it is so interconnected with poverty, racism, and other social problems that it has simply been a way to warehouse people who have been ignored or rejected by society. It is certainly a legitimate outcome for the most violent perpetrators who pose serious dangers to the public safety, but there are so many more options for a large part of the prison population that would have outcomes which would better serve the individual offender and the community as well. For example, if prisoners had more access to rehabilitative programs including group and individual counseling, job training, and advocates helping them transition back to society, there would likely be less recidivism and more opportunities for ex-offenders to lead productive lives. The impact of prison on an individual’s self-concept and opportunities to succeed on the outside is detrimental, hence there are so many prisoners who both remain in prison and continue to commit crimes within the facilities, extending their sentences, or they are released but reoffend because of the lack of opportunities to change their lives outside of prison. The criminal justice system does not mete out justice fairly, as evidenced strongly by the disparities in prison by race, class, and legacy. If the system worked equally well for all, then people convicted for drug crimes who are imprisoned would not be largely represented by minorities, since there is no indication that more minorities use drugs than white people. Instead, the inequality of the criminal justice system causes minorities to be profiled and targeted more frequently, and once they enter the court system they are more likely to be convicted and sentenced. Minority groups are overrepresented in prison, and on death row, and those are facts that must be examined in light of their numbers in the general population. The fact that there are so many people incarcerated in the United States, and that most of them are minorities, allows many white people or affluent people to conclude that these are the people that are simply more likely to be committing crimes. This is a consistent perspective with labeling theory, in which no act is considered to be intrinsically criminal, but rather definitions of criminality are developed by those in power, a framework which stems from the work of W. I. Thomas. This is a much more comfortable conclusion then facing the fact that the criminal justice system in the US does not offer an equal experience for all citizens.
- Leonard, David. “White Privilege and Wealth in the US Criminal Justice System.” 16 July 2012 . Urban Cusp.com. Web. 20 April 2014.
- “Racial Disparity.” 2014. The Sentencing Project. Web. 20 April 2014.
- Sakala, L. & Wagner, P. ” Mass Incarceration: the Whole Pie.” 12 March 2014. Prison Policy.org. Web. 20 April 2014.
- Soltas, E. & Klein , E. “11 Facts about America’s Prison Population.” 13 August 2013. The Washington Post. Web. 20 April 2014.
- “The American Prison Population: Who, What, Where, and Why?” 13 March 2014. The Economist.com. Web. 20 April 2014.
