Mass Incarceration
Trend
In the last three decades, the United States has introduced unprecedented, radical practices and policies that have tried to address crime by emphasizing on disproportionate and harsh punishments over rehabilitation or prevention. In 2010, around 7 million Americans were placed under a given correctional control either in jail or prison, parole, or probation. To this end, mass incarceration is the unique method used by the United States has locked up a massive population in state and federal prisons and local prisons as well. The prisons are filled with Latino and the black community who are biased by the system at all levels. Regardless of the similarities of drug use rates, African Americans are four times likely to be arrested for abusing marijuana. African Americans are also served with longer prison times for the same crimes committed by white counterparts. Despite contributing to 5% of the world’s population, America has around 25% of the prison population in the world.
Hidden Drivers
One of the main drivers of mass incarceration in the United States is the War on Drugs or racial profiling. The drug war has led to significant unequal outcomes in various racial groups. This is shown in the racial discrimination from law enforcement and the misery that the people of color suffer. Multiple people of color bear the effects of the varied implementation of drug laws, and the impact varies from one region to another. Countrywide, the most severe racial differences are observed in the case of Latinos and African Americans. The high rates of incarcerations and arrest do not reflect increased drug abuse. Instead, they indicate the focus of law enforcement on urban regions, the low-income earning communities, and people of color. The differences in incarceration and arrest are observed in both sales of the drugs and violations of laws prohibiting drug possessions. People who sell small drug volumes are arrested and imprisoned for years on end. Unequal enforcement does not factor the aspect of dependency on drugs. The mass criminalization of communities of color, especially African Americans, is a racial control system that was introduced during the Jim Crow era in the 1960s. The war on drugs causes lifelong collateral impacts. The punishments for violation of drug laws are not present only within the criminal justice system but also exist in the policies that deny voting rights and child custody, among others. These exclusions have resulted in permanent second-class positions for many Americans. Like the enforcement of war on drugs, it has fallen unevenly on people of color.
Long-term Consequences
The long-term impacts of mass incarceration include disenfranchisement, undermined democracy, and recidivism. Mass incarceration leads to disenfranchisement, where an individual or group is denied voting rights. Political disenfranchisement is not a new method whenever it comes to deliberately oppressing people of color. Around 2.5% of Americans, which represents 6 million voters have been disenfranchised because of their past convictions for felonies. In various states, these include individuals who have served their prison time, but they cannot vote since they are on parole or probation. In Iowa, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida, obtaining voting rights is challenging for people who have been incarcerated in the past. They are barred for life to exercise voting rights. Besides, mass incarceration undermines the principles of democracy and the democratic values of the United States of America. 38% of American citizens, which represent 124 million people, have encountered police officers once within the last five years.
On parole, in prison and even on probation, around 6 million people have been placed under close supervision as ordered by the courts. Many convicted felons have experienced permanent or long-term impacts whenever they encounter the criminal justice system through employment and housing discrimination. Mass incarceration and criminalization that is regularly targeted towards the Latino and black communities disempower and disenfranchise many Americans. In the process, it undermines the legitimacy of the country’s democracy. Mass incarceration also leads to high rates of recidivism, which is evaluated according to the criminal actions that cause reconviction, prison return, and even rearrests. Many incidents of mass incarceration affect people of color. Since they have limited employment and housing opportunities, they have limited options that they can use to remedy their situations after serving their prison sentences. These are some of the long-term impacts of mass incarcerations that have encountered the US criminal justice system.
Counter-argument
Many Americans, especially on the right claim that mass incarceration was introduced in the 70s and 80s, when the federal government began its war on drugs. This resulted in many Americans being locked up for low offenses and a subsequent spike in the American prisons. The new population in prisons is mainly African Americans, causing vast racial differences within the criminal justice system. However, John Pfaff believes the narrative is wrong and does not reveal the extent of the story. The failure of this story is its emphasis on the shocking events, but it does not provide solutions to the problems that the American society faces. Drug offenders do not make a considerable number of the prison population, which duly nullifies the claim that the war on drugs is an unknown factor for the mass incarceration.
Call to Action
To this end, the best approach to end the issue of mass incarceration is to focus on the privatization of prisons. The main advantage of the privatization of prisons is that it gives room for market forces to govern. Private organizations agree on lower rates for the necessary items, and in the process, save the government and the correction system money in various ways. This can only be achieved when the non-profit correctional institutions are managed responsibly with the right staffing.