The Flaws of Incarceration in America Essay - 1366 Words

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. The ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system is caused by mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism. The majority of prisoners incarcerated†¦show more content†¦Arizona has strict laws that force minimum sentencing on most of its first time offenders, and all repeat offenders who have had a past felony. Because of its laws, only 5 percent of Arizona’s criminal cases receive a trial, all of the others are settled outside of court, without any information about the accused from their families or probation officers (Hooker, Hirsh). This means that most of the people being persecuted in the state are given a mandatory minimum sentence. Although a large population of the country’s prisoners has been persecuted for drug crimes, a lack of any reformative programs in many prisons has caused those who are addicted to drugs to have no chance of rehabilitation while they live out their sentences. Another anti-drug legislation that dictates mandatory sentencing for a particular type of crime levies unequal punishment for similar crimes. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act was passed by Congress in 1986, and it stated that people accused of possessing crack cocaine faced a more harsh penalty than those accused of possessing powder cocaine, despite being scientifically proven to have the same effect on the user (Conyers 381). This caused a drastic rise of federal criminals serving mandatory sentencing for first time, nonviolent drug offences. The 1988 OmnibusShow MoreRelatedThe American Criminal Justice System1398 Words   |  6 Pageshas its flaws. There are many flaws but the largest three, in my opinion, would be the fact that we have the highest incarceration rate of any other country, the high penalties for drug users, as well as the jury system. The high incarceration rates and the penalties for drug users affect each other but they are still issues on their own. In fact, many of issues within our system coincide within each other. 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