It disproportionately targets minority populations and the undereducated, particularly among young black males. According to The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, "African American and Hispanics comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population" (Criminal Justice Fact Sheet). Why is it that America has imprisoned so many people and how has it come to be that the minorities of our general population make up the majority of our prison population? ... According to Law Prof...

• Word Count: 1163
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"We cannot run society for the privileged and allow a significant proportion of the population to be marginalized. ... Latinos constitute 19% of the prison and jail population compared to their overall 15% share of the population. ... While African American youth represents 17% of their age group within the general population, they represent 46% of juvenile arrests (The Sentencing Project 2008). ... Whites comprise the majority of the American population, blacks about 12.7%, and Latinos represent about 11.7%. ... As a result, African Americans, who are 13% of the population and 14% of drug use...

• Word Count: 2307
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Even America's perception of drugs before the Drug War was insignificant. ... Nowadays, drug related incidents stir American's fears, but such fears are unfounded. ... This disparity is a disservice to Americans, and it is the main driver of prison overcrowding. ... Enacting a law that directly addresses these points will provide a long term reduction in prison population by purging greed out of the sentencing process. ... Having a job is an important component of American citizenship as it provides the backbone of a healthy and productive, crime-free, lifestyle. ...

• Word Count: 1862
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It is well documented that there has been a substantial increase in America's prison population within the past 30 years. America's penal population has increased six fold between 1972 and 2000, leaving 1.3 million men in state and federal prisons by the end of the century (Pettit and Western 151). There is also the fact that over 90% of prisoners are men, and that incarceration rates for African American men are about 8 times higher than those for white men (Pettit and Western 152). ... Mandatory minimums were also a controversial issue because they unfairly targeted African America...

• Word Count: 903
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

What transpired from these conflicts is what has shaped modern day America. A quest for equality between the oppressed and the oppressor provides the central and underlying theme in the formation of American history. ... American history can be described as a quarrel between those who control the balance of power, and those who wish to share in that responsibility. ... Since America was founded, more and more groups of people have received the same liberties and rights which were once reserved for a small portion of the population. ... This war allowed for the formation of America, and it...

• Word Count: 902
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In our penitentiaries, problems like rape, racism, gangs, robbery, assault, extortion, drug abuse and murder within the walls of the prisons are cries so serious that they are deteriorating the American correctional system. ... The punks are usually nonviolent prisoners who are going to be under a "man's" wing for protection from the rest of the population (Hell Behind Bars 24). ...

• Word Count: 721
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The United States of America houses the most prisoners worldwide. ... Because of these initiatives prison populations have risen by three hundred and eighty percent. To put that in perspective the United States Census data revealed that the nation's population rose only thirty-three percent during the same period. Comparatively speaking, the number of people incarcerated in state and federal facilities has grown ten times faster than the rate of our entire population. ... Keeping accountability of them while not taking them out of America's workforce completely better rehabilitates t...

• Word Count: 710
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

American society likes to use the common phrase "what is in the best interest of the child" when justifying the punishment they deploy on juvenile delinquents. ... Furthermore a child being injected into a prison population cannot be good for that kid's physical or mental health. ... When it comes to the safety of people and their families it is fair to say that the general consensus would be take the chances of sacrificing a murderer's future, even if he is a kid, to ensure the safety of America's communities. Do to the terrorist attacks occurring recently, in where many Ame...

• Word Count: 1248
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Prison life in America and the operations of Prisons, as documented as best as possible through the eyes, interpretations and hand of Michael Santos. ... How he does this is via his testimony on life "Inside" Santos' book takes a somewhat ethnographic-like approach because a lot (if not all) of his work is comprised of very vivid details about the social life and the relationships of American prison systems during a time where Mass incarceration was underway (think crack epidemic, increase in violence, etc.). ...

• Word Count: 2785
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Subsequently, in 2010, the United States prison population increased by 790% in the federal prison population alone (Biron). ... Nowadays, the American Corrections Association campaigns for the civil rights of the incarcerated. ... In California, the courts mandated a prison population limit to remedy the violation of prisoners' constitutional rights. ... The prison population is booming because of mandatory sentencing laws that keep violent and non-violent people from jeopardizing public safety. ... Laws and mandates have been established to separate criminals from the rest of the po...

• Word Count: 1114
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The proliferation of the number of convicts notwithstanding, the populations fewer countries have taken the inventiveness of instituting new prisons or unconventional measures for penitentiaries. The California prison populace is one of the cases of this condition where the number of convicts is twice as much as the premeditated population. ... Some of the penitentiaries transcends to a twofold population relative to the original scheme. ... Other aspects that trigger congestion include miscarriage in identifying different plans to penitentiary, inadequacies with system of management, and unsa...

• Word Count: 1783
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

For example, "Thirty-four percent of those executed in America since 1974 have been black, while African Americans represent only 13% of the general population" (Mears, 2008). ... Because most of the overall population are underneath the poverty line, police along with society seem to believe that that's where the most crimes occur. ... This seems to initiate that in most cases the targets of race are African American and Hispanics/Latinos, which actually happen to be the minority of the overall population. As previously states, "Thirty-four percent of those executed in Ame...

• Word Count: 2043
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

A study was conducted to determine "the rate at which male American Indian students received office discipline referrals compared to female and the leading behavior violations and how they compare across race/ethnicity, and the impact that the type of ODR and race/ethnicity have on administrative action" (Whitford & Levine-Donnerstein , 2014). The results were that American Indian students were more likely to receive office disciplinary referrals than their fellow Caucasian, Hispanic, and Asian students but not higher than African American students. ... In addition, results indicated...

• Word Count: 463
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The American institution has encountered numerous issues within its criminal justice system since its establishment in the U.S. The American juvenile justice system does not offer fair judgment when sentencing juvenile offenders to life sentences without parole. ... It's important as members of American society to be aware of all the issues in the criminal justice system and how our government officials handle these issues. ... The way judicial officials handled the same cases 50 years ago has affected the future population of criminals in prison facilities presently, and those same child...

• Word Count: 1701
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The United States and United Kingdom are very similar in terms of prison population. ... While holding the statistic of a 59% overcrowded prison rate, the United Kingdom reports that the growth of prison population is actually beginning to slow down. ... (BBC, 2012) The United States is projected to become 45% over the maximum population levels by the year 2018. ... " The driving factor in many prison population crisis' today is unreasonable drug sentences. ... My perception of American prisons has definitely been altered since I've learned of the various problems inside of thes...

• Word Count: 1452
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Amnesty International also revealed, according to a 2007 study of Connecticut sentences that were examined by Yale University School of Law, African-American defendants receive the death penalty at three times the rate of white defendants in cases where the victims are white. ... Despite the fact that African Americans make up only 13 percent of the nation's population, almost fifty percent of those currently on the federal death row are African Americans (Death Penalty Information Center, 2015). ... If we look at the prison population, many prisoners are suffering from life long history ...

• Word Count: 1818
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Potential answers to these questions may be found in the statistics of prison population or in the effects of mandatory sentencing or any other laws that affect prisons. ... It's common knowledge that the harsh drug-sentencing laws that congress passed in 1986 have greatly increased the prison population. ... In the past seven years this population has increased by almost 19,000. ... Also, workers have noted instances of inmates being told to replace "Made in Honduras" tags with "Made in America" tags in order to defraud customers. ... Consider just the year 2001, and just the Corrections...

• Word Count: 3333
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

On a unanimous vote, "unfairly long sentences" for crack offenders, who are mostly African Americans, were reduced to be more compatible with sentences given to powder-cocaine offenders, who are often white and sometimes affluent (Serrano). ... Almost six percent of the federal inmate population will be released. ...

• Word Count: 790
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Attica Prison Riot happened at a time in American history when the turmoil surrounding, racism and persecution had come to a focal point. ... The governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller ordered the prison retaken by force if negotiations continued to fail between mediators or observers and the prison population. ... The prisoners morale along with supplies were fading and many felt that it was only a matter of time until the prisoners would give up, however that was not the decision and the hasty decision to assault the prison had a high price in human life along with an impact on prison ...

• Word Count: 2066
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In previous years, the American public based their views strictly on the deterrent effects and cost effectiveness of the death penalty. Public opinion on capital punishment in America over the past 50 years has fluctuated tremendously. Support was fairly low through the 1950's, and in 1966 only 47% of the American public voiced their support. Since 1982, about 75% of the population has favored capital punishment, with a slow decline in recent years (Gillespie 1999). ... With recent studies and technological advances, the American views towards capital punishment have changed significa...

• Word Count: 1333
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

These repeat offenders enjoy the continuation of lenient penalties couples with a prison system charged with keeping the sex criminal separate from the general population for fear of internal justice at the hands of the other inmates. In contrast to the protection afforded the pedophile, no such measures exist under child abuse laws, laws, leaving millions of American children directly in harm's way. ... This ultimately leads to the sequestering of sex offenders from the prison's general population. ...

• Word Count: 1171
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Originally devised to keep an eye on the "official" deviant, new forms of social control are bringing a wide range of populations under a watchful gaze (Staples, 240-242). ... Although Staples looks upon this watchful eye from a contemporary American perspective, Westerns often unintentionally impose their own watchful eyes upon the lives of others. ... One American woman attempts to pose with a young native child, requesting that he smile for the photograph, depicting a message of friendship and happiness. ...

• Word Count: 1321
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Thomas Graunger, the first juvenile known to be executed in America, was tried and found guilty of bestiality in 1642 in Plymouth Colony, MA. ... There are currently 83 death row inmates (all male) sentenced as juveniles constituting about 2.25% of the total death row population. ... The development of sentencing and program options for juvenile capital offenders is difficult in light of the lack of knowledge about this small population. ...

• Word Count: 2175
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment did not violate the constitution and in 1976 America saw the reinstatement of the death penalty. ... The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) addresses the issue on their website with the following statement. ... Although the debate wages on, according to Clear and Cole (2003) the majority of Americans polled are in favor of the concept of capital punishment, if it is justly and accurately applied. They also show that public opinion changes when a sentencing alternative is suggested, "When given an explicit alternative to the death penalty- l...

• Word Count: 2477
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Indeed, trends in Australia from 1965 to 1985 demonstrate an increasing number of homicide cases being reported to the police, but since the figures are rising more slowly than the population, the homicide rate has actually fallen over this period, from nearly six per hundred thousand to less than 4.4. ... In Canada, the homicide rate fell from a peak of 3.09 per 100,000 population in 1975(the year before the abolition of the death penalty for murder) to 2.74 in 1983, and in 1986 it reached a 15-year low. ...

• Word Count: 2841
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate