Marcus Chavis

Professor Kays

English 102

4/22/17

US Incarceration vs. World

Incarceration in America is very messed up, but crime is also messed all around the world

today. A lot of times bad things happen to good people, which is terrible, and something should

be done about it. Well in America and most countries authorities send people to prison to be

punished, and to prevent those people from doing bad things again, and to deter others from

breaking the law. The values the prison systems tend to enforce are punishment, corrections, and

deterrence. People tend to have a habit that prisoners are something external to society. Even

though prisoners are blocked from the world by walls covered with barbwire, as they are

watched over by people with guns. Millions of prisoners are released each year, and what are

todays prisoners become tomorrows neighbors. Corrections should be the most important

aspect in the values of penitentiaries, but unfortunately it is not. The American prison system

tends to be really good at punishment. America has about 4% of the worlds population and

about 25% of the worlds people incarcerated (Blumstein). America has the highest the highest

incarceration rate in the world, and the numbers keep on growing. 41% of American juveniles

and young adults have been arrested by the time they turned 23. Children as young as 13 have

been sentenced to die in our prisons (Maguire). The prisons violate many international

standards. Solitary confinement increases instability and violence in inmates, and is considered

by national law to be torture, but in America it is not regulated by anyone except the prison
officials. The is no judge or jury included in the situation. This can arguably be the most

devastating form of punishment enacted in this country, yet there is no appeals process for it.

Today in America it is hard enough for people to find jobs, even for graduated students.

When it comes to releases felons, society makes it even more difficult to get a job once being

convicted. It is even just hard for convicts to live a normal life after prison. Convicts are

ineligible for welfare, student loans, public housing, food stamps and are often socially

disconnect from communities and families. So in addition to having high rates of recidivism they

will have high rates of becoming homeless as well. Sometimes even suicide. Along the way

society started to think that being tough on crime is the same as being tough on criminals. Crime

and criminals are not the same thing. Punishment is only one piece of a very large plan to crime

reductions and it is an expensive one with some institutions paying more than one hundred

thousand dollars a year per prison (Hurwitz). The cost are towards people, communities, and

families.

The policy seems to be, if one was to commit a felony than the government will just

completely give up on that person. The wars on drugs and crimes are wars on people. What

people should do politically is to appear hard on crime because crime can be a scary thing, but

instead they can increase minimum sentences, arrest more people, and send more to prison. That

is how hard America looks on crime but the result is that it is a bad policy. It is cruel short

sighted and to continue this policy of mass incarceration would be foolish. So far American

imprisonment is a multibillion dollar failed experiment.

Prisons on other sides of the world differ a lot from the United States. For example, in a

The New York Times article prisons in Germany can appear to be very skeptical in the eyes of

people from the US. The men serving time wore their own clothes not typical prison uniforms.
When entering their cells, they were allowed to slip out of sneakers and put on slippers. German

prisons also have one person cells with bright natural light decorated with personalized items

such as wall hangings, plants, photos, and other handheld items that were brought from the

prisoners home. Each cell would also have a bathroom that would be separate from the sleeping

area and a phone to call home with. The men would also have access to communal kitchens

where there would be regular utensils such as forks, spoons, and knifes. The men would also be

able to purchase fresh foods with the wages they earned in vocational programs.

While the United States incarcerated over 2 million people in 2015. While Germany,

whose population is one quarter the size of the United States, locks up only 63,500 people.

Theyre incarceration rate is only one tenth of the US (Liptak). Multiple crimes in Germany can

receive sentences of day fines based on the offense and the offenders ability to pay. Very little

end up in prison, those who end up in prison have a rare chance of serving a life sentence. 70%

have sentences of less than two years with very few serving 15 years or more (Lee). It seems to

be that in Germany the incarcerated people have considerable freedom of moving around within

their facilities. The authorities of the prison systems in this country value the prisoners

judgement about how they use their time.

Solitary confinement is also rare in Germany, prisoners are given a few days, a couple at

most, in solitary confinement. In the United States, there are hundreds of people how have been

in solitary confinement for multiple years. The process of hiring and training correction officers

is more demanding in Germany, but in the United States American Corrections is described to be

in a shortage of labor and the training process only last for just a few months. In Germany, less

than 10% of those how apply to become correction officers between 2011 to 2015 were accepted

into the two year training program (Liptak). It is pretty incredible on how much more effort
Germany puts into their prison system. America is so rushed with their program because the rate

of just prison being filled in built stays at a high rate.

Much like in Germany the prison system is shocking in Norway. Just like in Germany

prisoner have access to certain living areas. For those in Norway, they have access to workshops

like a cooking area and healthcare facilities. The goal for prisoners in Norway is that every

inmate is going back to society. They do not want people to be angry, but for them to be

rehabilitated. In America, prisoners are constantly locked up behind concrete walls held with

inhuman conditions. They do not realize criminals are still human beings, those on the outside

who are not incriminated will judge prisoners until the day they someone say that that person did

not commit a crime. In America 76.6% released prisoners are rearrested within five years of

release (Lee). Norway on the other hand holds one of the lowest rates of recidivism, the

tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend, at 20%. Norwegian prisons systems are able to

succeed through the practice of restorative justice programs. The brain is capable of change, so

responsibility is taken for ones actions. Norway believes that those same responsibilities can be

taken for ones rehabilitation. Prisons holds a lot of possibilities to go to school and become a

better person.

The American prison system needs a change. Authorities must drawl back on the focus of

punishment, and progress with on what convicted felons can do after prison to better their lives.

Countries like Norway and Germany are not perfect, but already on rehabilitation stages have

shown success. Once America realizes that value of life is more important than the cost lives of

prisoners can be changed. When the prisoner changes their values they will then have to ability

to affect generations after.

 Annotated Bibliography

Lee, Michelle. "Yes, U.S. Locks People up at a Higher Rate than Any Other Country." The

Washington Post. WP Company, 7 July 2015. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.

Michelle Lees article in the Washington Post gives a political view on prison systems in

the United States compared to other countries. Lee focuses on the comparison of the United

States to Western European countries. She also gives some intel on how the United States high

criminal justice system effects the economy. The article also holds graphs and statistics of the

United States towards other countries. Overall, the article was good because it displays how the

United states criminal justice system is high regardless of factors like economic development,

crime victimization and spending for social service.

Maguire, Kathleen, and Ann L. Pastore. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2000. Albany,

NY: Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, 2001. Print.

This book gives statistics on characteristics of the criminal justice systems of the United

States in 2000. It also public attitudes toward crime and criminal justice-related topics. The book

describes the characteristics of U.S. criminal justice agencies and employees, criminal justice

expenditures, and the workload of agency personnel. I wished it showed information on how

they public felt toward crime and their opinion. I also wished that the data of people arrested and

were categorized by age, sex, race, and area. This resource will be useful towards my topic

because it gives insight and factual evidence on the United States criminal justice system.
Hurwitz, Jon. "Explaining the Great Racial Divide: Perceptions of Fairness in the U.S. Criminal

Justice System." Hurwitz - 2005 - Journal of Politics - Wiley Online Library. N.p., n.d.

Web. 07 Feb. 2017. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-

2508.2005.00338.x/full>.

This resources talks about how race plays a major factor within the judicial system. For

example, in the U.S. criminal justice system there is a higher chance of a black male serving a

longer sentence than a white male for the same crime. That type of information could be found in

this journal. One thing that the writer of this journal could do is add insight on how blacks view

the judicial system, and how they may find it unfair. The main reason why I picked this journal is

because it will help display examples on how the criminal justice system in America is flawed.

Liptak, Adam. "U.S. Prison Population Dwarfs That of Other Nations." The New York Times.

N.p., 23 Apr. 2008. Web. 7 Feb. 2017.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html>.

The United States leads the world in prison population compared to other countries. This

New York Times article shows how the incarceration rate has grown rapidly in the U.S. and how

it relates to other countries like Norway, Germany and Britain. Finally the source also gives the

opinion of the public in the judicial system. To improve the article I with the writer would have

made focus on the social impact on incarceration in other countries. This information will be

useful because I will be able to apply an international view on criminal justice systems.
Blumstein, Alfred. "U.S. Criminal Justice Conundrum: Rising Prison Populations and Stable

Crime Rates." N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

<http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0011128798044001014>.

This journal by Alfred Blumstein gives information on crime from the 1960s to 1998.

The document gives examples on how crime has changed through time and what causes these

crimes to happen. After looking through this document there is not much I would change. It

gives statistics on the crime rates, what races and genders are normally affected by these crimes,

and give a theory on how it happens. The only thing I believe that is missing is an international

view. This journal will be useful because it will help add insight to why certain races and gender

groups are at a disadvantage in the United States criminal justice system.