Imprisonment is the modern day form of slavery. Under the 13th amendment which was ratified in 1865 made slavery illegal except for means of punishment. Imprisonment has thus been seen as the ways to deter crime, protect the good of the public and for rehabilitation. The United States is the largest country with over 2 million of its citizens in prisons. New York City has seen progress in decreasing its overall incarceration rate and population rate in correctional facilities. .
Incarceration rate for men is 14 times higher than the incarceration rate. Recently in 2013 according to the Sentencing Project, the rate of incarceration for Black men has dropped since 2000. For black men, the rate decreased by 9.8%.In 2000 they were incarcerated at 7.7 times the rate of white men, but that gap shrunk to 6.4 times the rate for white men. While the rate decreased for Black men that is not the case for white men. Incarceration rates for White men rose by 8.5% over the same period of time. Although there are declines in the rate for Black men they still make up about 1 million of the total prison population and create disproportionate ratios. Black men who do not have a high school diploma are more likely to get locked up than to get a job. The average prisoner is said to be less educated and perform at the level of a 10th grader. One out of 15 black men will get locked and, unfortunately, this has become the norm in our society.
The female prison population in the United States is over 110,000. Although the population for women prisoners is significantly lower than for males the same disproportionate numbers exist. Black women are three times more likely to get incarcerated than white women. Many harsh conditions exist in prisons and females are more likely to be abused, develop mental problems and acquire sexually transmitted diseases. Juvenile incarceration is a big phenomenon in the criminal justice system as well.
