Incarceration for the
Innocents
According
to reason, United States is one of the countries that has one of the highest
incarceration rates in the world. There are 1,524,513 prisoners in state and
federal prisons. The International Centre for Prison studies calculated that
U.S. has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 people. Compared with other
countries, our rate for incarceration is at least double. The U.S. Incarceration rates have increased in the
last three decades, why? It’s all due to the recent policies that have been
passed that determines who goes to prison and how much time he does. Does that
mean that were surrounded by criminals, no it only means that people are being
thrown in jail for misdemeanors.
I think
that, that number is way to high for a great country that we are. Personally, I
think that only dangerous criminals and people that endangering people’s lives
should be in jail serving time. We are in a period of time that you can be
incarcerated for a simple think like possession of drugs like weed in small
amounts. According to the CEPR (Center of Economic and Policy Research),
nonviolent offenders make up more than 60% of the prison and jail population.
Nonviolent drug offenders now account for about one-fourth of all inmates. In
other words, many innocent people that were found guilty for non-dangerous
things are being placed in jail. There have been some circumstances that people
that committed a more serious crime spent less time in prison than someone that
was in for a misdemeanor.
I think
that there are many consequences of this wrongdoing. The first thing that comes
to my mind is family. All those people that are placed in prison are being
separated from their families. There are a lot of kids that are being left
without a dad or mom; which really has an emotional effect on them. There is a
big financial benefit of not incarcerating people for nonviolent crimes. Right
now the cost for correctional spending is over $50 billion a year. With that
money that we could save, we could improve and fund other aspects like
education. For me, incarceration for nonviolent crimes seems like a joke.
I completely agree that non-violent offenders should not be placed in prison, especially for the amount of time that they are being sentenced to. The typical mandatory sentence for a first time drug offender is 5 to 10 years. I think that that is ridiculous. I think that instead of spending all this money to keep these people in prison, maybe that should set up some type of rehabilitation for them. If they have an addiction problem, maybe they don't have the resources to get the help that they need. Just throwing them in jail is not going to give them the help and the understanding of their addiction.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that they are being pulled away from their families for something as small as drug possession. In the long run, I believe that it will cause more harm then good in society. The psychological effects that it is causing for all the children that have to grow up without a parent is long lasting. Family is the best support system anyone could have, so why rip that away from people?
I think everyone should have pay the price for breaking the law, but to have such an extreme punishment for something so minute is unacceptable. Instead of locking them up a throwing away the key, they should find ways to educate the non-violent offenders so that they can better themselves.