Name
Professor
Course
Date
Mass Incarceration and the Death Penalty
Mass incarceration refers to how the United States is responsible for the imprisonment of a large population of people. The United States has the largest community of inmates in the world, surpassing even more populous countries like China and India. The United States is one of the few western countries that continue to employ capital punishment. Many people receive the death penalty yearly, and there remains a large number of people on death row. The criminal justice system of the United States suffers from racial bias and unfairness, with minorities like African Americans suffering the most.
Many individuals often suffer incarceration for minor offenses such as illegal drug possession and loitering. Even though African Americans are a smaller fraction of the community, they still account for the largest population of inmates in the United States. Due to racial bias, an African American is more likely to be incarcerated than a Caucasian for the same crime. Men make the highest number of inmates as compared to women.
Punishment in the United States is usually harsh and disproportionate to the crimes committed. Also, there is a direct positive relationship between incarceration and the administration of the death penalty. The more incarcerated people we have, the higher the number of people sentenced to death. Because of the high number of African Americans serving sentences, they also account for a more significant percentage of the people receiving the death penalty every year.
Mass incarceration makes African Americans bitter and resentful as a result of their unfair punishment, usually for petty offenses. Upon release, African Americans are more likely to commit minor crimes as a result of the resentment. The vicious cycle of discharge followed by incarceration means that African Americans are convicted many times, increasing their chances of finally serving the death sentence.
Some states, such as New York, have high levels of mass incarceration because of their high percentage of African American residents. Consequently, it was befitting to choose the interviewee from New York state as a means of having an in-depth understanding of the problem. When compared to their white counterparts, African Americans are more likely to receive the death penalty for the same crime. The high number of incarcerations in New York is indicative of the racial bias of the American criminal justice system, which seems to persecute African Americans deliberately.
Most of the incarcerated people are usually victims of a poor socioeconomic status. What this means is that income and opportunities for growth remain inaccessible, especially for minority populations. Detaining a person does not improve a person’s socioeconomic standing. More often than not, incarcerated persons end up more miserable and more desperate than they were before. Also, inmates receive a criminal record which locks them out of many employment and self-improvement opportunities. Such conditions, in turn, cause them to commit crimes as a survival tactic since it is hard to make a living legally. In this way, mass incarcerations are responsible for increasing crime rates.
In conclusion, mass incarceration does not reduce the rates of crime in the United States. Harsh punishments do not address the main issues that lead people to commit crimes but instead, put people at a disadvantage. Questions need to be asked, such as who is benefiting from the mass incarceration. The main issues that lead to incarcerations also need to be addressed to legitimately reduced crime rates. More opportunities need to be availed to marginalized groups such as African Americans because poverty and a lack of education are usually contributors to the incarcerations, on top of racial bias. The justice system also needs reviewing to establish fairer and more logical punishment and rehabilitation systems.