America's Prison System
The American prison system has countless problems that time after time fail to be addressed by people who can help. It's considered not to be a large problem, as it doesn't concern all Americans, or because the people in prison are criminals, however the American prison system actually has a large effect on not just the prisoners, but their families, the community, and the larger society, so changing the system to make it safer and more effective will benefit almost everyone.
Increase in Prisoners As we can see from the picture from www.pbs.org/frontline, America's prison population has grown enormously since 40 years ago, a huge 766%. In fact, 1 in 100 U.S citizens are confined in prison. This is especially shocking when we think that a large amount of Swedish prisons are closing down due to lack of prisoners to imprison. We can partly put the increase in America's prison population to America's increase in incarcerating and arresting people for less serious crimes such as theft or vandalism. |
America also deals with a large re-offending rate:
Treatment of Prisoners
Perhaps most well known about American prisons is the treatment of their prisoners. American prisons have a huge amount of violence and mental anguish put upon those incarcerated inside, for both men and women. Because of its prison system which promotes physical violence alongside the lack of care and dedication shown by guards, the US is the only country in the world where more men get raped in prison than women. This also doesn't mean that there's a lack of women who are raped in prison; in 2008, the number of male inmate victims of sexual assault (including rape) was 216,000. The number of females was a little over 215,500. In 2008, there were 69,800 female victims of rape in prison.
- Within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested.
- Within five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested.
- Of those prisoners who were rearrested, more than half (56.7 percent) were arrested by the end of the first year
Treatment of Prisoners
Perhaps most well known about American prisons is the treatment of their prisoners. American prisons have a huge amount of violence and mental anguish put upon those incarcerated inside, for both men and women. Because of its prison system which promotes physical violence alongside the lack of care and dedication shown by guards, the US is the only country in the world where more men get raped in prison than women. This also doesn't mean that there's a lack of women who are raped in prison; in 2008, the number of male inmate victims of sexual assault (including rape) was 216,000. The number of females was a little over 215,500. In 2008, there were 69,800 female victims of rape in prison.