The Pros And Cons Of Prison Incarceration
Introduction There are currently over 2.2 million inmates in the American prison system (The Sentencing Project). This is of notable significance because it is a huge percentage of our country’s population especially when compared to other countries around the world. The United States of America accounts for approximately 5% of the overall world population, however, its citizens make up 25% of world prisoners (NAACP). I wanted to explore how people viewed this issue and what factors determine differentiating opinions.
Hypothesis There are three factors that I believe will account for individual’s contrasting views on prison and prison inmates. The first factor involves the huge racial disparity within prisons at the present time. African …show more content…
Once again, the responses were strongly in favor of such reforms with all responses falling on the scale of agreement or having no opinion. When asked whether we should develop alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, 50% strongly agreed, 43% agreed, and 7% had no opinion. Furthermore, when asked whether programs to make prisoners more productive citizens after being released should be developed, 70% strongly agreed and 30% agreed meaning that the entire sample population agreed with the statement in some way. Digging deeper, however, I discovered that there is a difference within the respondents who indicated strong agreement versus agreement within these two questions (Tables 2 and 3). In response to question 7, 13 respondents agreed with the statement. Of these 13, 69% were white while 31% identified as a minority. Of the 15 respondents who strongly agreed, 13% were white and 87% identified as a minority. Within question 8 a similar pattern is found. 21 people strongly agree with the statement and 9 agree. Within the 21 individuals who indicated strong agreement 76% identified as a minority while 24% identified as white. Within the 9 who indicated simple agreement, 89% self identified as white while 11% identified as a
Hypothesis There are three factors that I believe will account for individual’s contrasting views on prison and prison inmates. The first factor involves the huge racial disparity within prisons at the present time. African …show more content…
Once again, the responses were strongly in favor of such reforms with all responses falling on the scale of agreement or having no opinion. When asked whether we should develop alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, 50% strongly agreed, 43% agreed, and 7% had no opinion. Furthermore, when asked whether programs to make prisoners more productive citizens after being released should be developed, 70% strongly agreed and 30% agreed meaning that the entire sample population agreed with the statement in some way. Digging deeper, however, I discovered that there is a difference within the respondents who indicated strong agreement versus agreement within these two questions (Tables 2 and 3). In response to question 7, 13 respondents agreed with the statement. Of these 13, 69% were white while 31% identified as a minority. Of the 15 respondents who strongly agreed, 13% were white and 87% identified as a minority. Within question 8 a similar pattern is found. 21 people strongly agree with the statement and 9 agree. Within the 21 individuals who indicated strong agreement 76% identified as a minority while 24% identified as white. Within the 9 who indicated simple agreement, 89% self identified as white while 11% identified as a