The highest prison population in the world can be found in the United States. This has been an on going problem in our country for quite some time. The national prison population has risen nearly 500 percent since 1972, far greater than the 28 percent rise in the national population during this time. This shows that the scale of imprisonment has come a long way since the birth of the institution (Mauer, 1999). Many aspects of the system have undergone tremendous changes, but still there are many factors, which seem to influence the traumatic increase in population. One important factor can be the imposition of harsher laws such as the "three-strikes and your out law." Also, judges have become less lenient for women offenders as well as juveniles. This only adds to the large population that already exists within our prisons. When crime is looked out we can find that most crime occurs due to economical obstacles, minority discrimination, and more importantly the break out of various illegal/legal drugs. Throughout this paper I will examine the prison system from the past to the present, the demographics of the prison population, and the impact of drugs on the increasing incarceration rates. .
About 200 years ago, the Quakers and other reformers in Pennsylvania developed the institution of the penitentiary, which emphasized having sinners engage in hard labor and reflect upon the errors of their ways. Before this method, criminal behavior did not include institutions. Jails that did exist, were only for short-term detaining, and were primarily for those defendants who were awaiting a trial or debtors who had not fulfilled their obligations. During this time, punishment was done usually by embarrassment or public humiliation. This was seen as shaming the offender into desisting from continued illegal activities. They also believed that if the rest of society saw what happened to those who did not behave lawfully then they would be deterred to engage in criminal behavior.
In 1971, President Nixon declares "War on Drugs." ... In 1984 Congress enacts mandatory minimum prison sentence for some drug offenses. ... One of the hardest elements to fight in this war on drugs is the business of drugs. ... Today our prisons are filled with drug dealers and drug addicts. Over 50% of the 1.6 million people currently in prison are there for drug felonies. ...
In 1971, President Nixon declared war on drugs and increased the presence of federal drug agencies. ... The war on drugs was not effective because the drug laws have been poorly correlated and prisons are getting more money than colleges. ... Second reason why war on drugs has been a failure is because prisons get more money spent on them than state colleges or UC systems. For example, in 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons and only $5.7 billion on the UC system and state colleges. ... By putting people in prison for life isn't stopping the war on drugs. ...
Prison overcrowding results from the direct effects of the racist war on drugs and the lack of rehabilitation available for drug offenders. ... First, we will look at how prison overcrowding is effected by the racist war on drugs. ... However, the war on drugs has become the leading cause of prison overcrowding. ... The war on drugs has increased the number of inmates in American prisons in a very unproportional way. ... This issue, when related to prison overcrowding, gives us (society) a prison system that is full of minorities. ...
The War on Drugs I would like to say that my initial reaction to the continuance of the prolonged fight on what we have named the war on drugs and recent debate as to whether or not we should keep drugs illegal was of course we should. ... The drug war has created no victors but has left a plentiful amount of losers. ... Federal and state legislators have turned the world's greatest democracy into its largest prison system, where young adults are warehoused and the opportunity to treat them is wasted. ... Yet the fastest-growing segment of the prison population is non-violent drug off...
In 1997 when federal examiners drug tested certain inmates in federal prisons, nine percent of these inmates tested positive for drugs in their system (1Gray 49). Putting drug offenders into prison did not stop the flow of drugs. ... On the other hand, the "War on Drugs" has made the criminal justice system one of the top growth industries. ... America's "War on Drugs" has greatly failed, as it has clogged up the federal court system and jails. ... The "war on drugs" had put more people in federal prison for drug crimes in 1996 than all Americans in...
The policy is known as the " War on Drugs". ... The illicit drug market, pre-drug war, is estimated to be a hundred billion dollar a year business. ... The space in the prisons is extremely limited, and the cost of keeping a person in prison is astronomical in caparison to the prevention being provided in reference to drug prohibition. The issue of limited prison space gains significance greatly when you consider an estimated sixty-percent of prison population is serving time on drug conviction. ... The war on drugs' is no exception. ...
The government does not take crime lightly, that's why the prison system was introduced. ... Right on Crime covers the issues that the prison system is currently faced with. ... When the twentieth century came around that's when the true prison system was developed. ... This was the beginning of the prison system we now have today. ... "Sentencing policies brought about by the "war on drugs" resulted in a dramatic growth in incarceration for drug offenses" (Sentencing Project). ...
The War on Drugs and Americas Prison Population The United States has the largest prison population on earth. ... (PBS, Frontline, The Drug Wars) By 1972, the drugs wars were considered an over all success. ... (PBS, Frontline, The Drug Wars) Prisons represent one of the fastest growing industries today. ... The unyielding war on drugs still to pulls masses of drug users into the criminal justice system: in 1998 alone 1,559,100 people were arrested on drug charges; also that year approximately 450,000 drug offenders were confined in jails and prisons. ... "It's not a war on dr...
Applying it to the age-old principle of supply and demand, it proves that the war on drugs is nearly impossible to win. ... Our prisons are filled with people found guilty of possessing a few grams of cocaine or an ounce of marijuana. ... Right now the war on drugs and marijuana in particular is only leading to failure and there are many very negative things derived from its prohibition. ... Considering there will always be drugs on this earth we as people need to organize and form a better and more practical system of dealing with the drug problem. A system in which focuses on reducing the...