Effects Of Mass Incarceration

Every day people are entering and leaving the American Prison system. Maybe a co-worker, neighbor, family member, etc. are re-entering the world and becoming part of “civilization” again. Peter Wagner, in his article Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2016, says that “Every year, 636,000 people walk out of prison gates, but people go to jail over 11 million times each year.”Where are those 10.6 million something people that vanished? That is basically the basis of mass incarceration which in other terms mean that more people are in jail then leaving which causes overpopulation. Mass incarceration must end due to its effects. An Example of an effect of mass imprisonment is the loss of benefits an ex-con receives. The Vlogbrothers, in their
The United States could use the money spent on the prisons to profit other areas of interest in the country. “Around $75,000,000,000 is spent to supply equipment, beds, food, and the building of prisons.” (Vlogbrothers) The U.S is in a lot of debt and $75,000,000 might not completely resolve the issue but can definitely help. This money spent to supply resources for inmates that should not have long sentences. Many prisoners get over sentenced and spend most of their life in jail for crimes that did not deserve it. A lot of money is spent on each individual prisoner which is money that can be saved. If prisoners and alternative consequences than prison the price per head of each prisoner would be reduced drastically. The money spent on prisons can help leaving convicts. All the money that spent on a prison is used to “rehabilitate” convicts when it really does not. Instead, that money can be used to help ex-convicts get back on their feet when they leave prison. This will benefit the lives of ex-convicts trying to start over. Not saying we must set them up for life, but we should give them some to help”civilize” them
Those people argue that if you commit a felony, you must be punished. I coincide with that entirely however, nonviolent crimes don’t deserve life in prison. “...President Obama insisted that “the real reason our prison population is so high” is that “over the last few decades, we’ve also locked up more and more nonviolent drug offenders than ever before, for longer than ever before.”” Nonviolent drug offenders are getting sentences way too long which is a big reason for the number of people in prison. Another reason why many people support mass incarceration is because it brings in a lot of money. AFL-CIO, in their article Resolution 17: Prisons and Profits-The Big Business Behind Mass Incarceration, says that ” For-profit prison companies benefit from rising rates of incarceration…” This isn’t right that people are benefiting from basically ruining the lives of many first time offenders that made bad decisions and ended up in prison. It is not illegal however there should be a moral balance on this