The Pros And Cons Of Incarceration

Since 2002, the United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world. Although prison populations are increasing in some parts of the world, the natural rate of incarceration for countries comparable to the United States tends to stay around 100 prisoners per 100,000 population. The U.S. rate is 500 prisoners per 100,000 residents, or about 1.6 million prisoners in 2010, according to the latest available data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Prison is a place used for internment of convicted criminals. Not including the death penalty, a sentence to prison is the harshest punishment inflicted on criminals in the United States. On the federal level, imprisonment or incarceration is managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a federal
Jail is usually the first place a person is taken after being arrested by police officers. Most cities have at least one jail, and persons are taken directly there after they are arrested; in less populated areas, arrestees may be taken first to a police station and later to the nearest jail. Many jails are also used for the short-term incarceration of persons convicted of minor crimes. Men make up almost all of the prison and state population, the number is at 90%, and they have an imprisonment rate 14 times higher than the rate for women. According to Tyjen Tsai and Paola Scommegna who wrote,“U.S Has the Highest Incarceration rate,” there is an increased number of minorities in prison and jail compared to whites, “Latinos were incarcerated at 1,258 per 100,000, and white men were incarcerated at 459 per 100,000. Since 2007”(Tsia, Scommegna), however, the incarceration rate in the United States has tapered slightly and the 2010 prison population saw a decline—of 0.3 percent—for the first time since 1972, according to the