Criminal Justice Policy in the United States - Essay Example

Add to that that they are obliged to work without their consent.All the previous facts prove that prisons weren't developed for just correctional purposes but mostly for economical ones. That is most proven by the actual tendencies to privatize prisons so that these will be run by various profit organizations instead of the government. For the reasons mentioned earlier, prisoners are considered to be a treasure for these organizations' runners. That provides a logical explanation for the explosion of the incarceration rates in the United States in the last few years.

Incarceration rates in the USA are considered to be the highest in the world indeed! It comes as a matter of fact that black workers are incarcerated at over eight times the white rate. That is often justified by the high number of unemployed and underemployed black Americans. Poverty is always attached to violence this is why black Americans are often stereotyped as the "trouble makers" or as "problems". Racism is involved in the game since black Americans are often not hired in the first place because of their race.

Drug consumption also plays a role in the mass incarceration of colored minority, actually, a considerable percent of incarcerations take place for non-violent acts. It is important to clarify two curious facts. First, the sentences accorded to prisoners for drug possession are really high, as high as 10 years for possession of fewer than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine. Meanwhile, the police often search for drugs in the inner cities, the places where black minorities reside. Due to all these factors, the black minority in America is considered to be the main target for imprisonment and consequently for-profit organizations.

Now that the dilemma of the black Americans prison workers is emphasized it's time to look at the results. First, the impact of mass incarceration on black families is unfavorable. The odds of having a male member imprisoned in a black family are really high causing the reign of a feeling of insecurity in these classes. Being a constitutive part of American society, whatever applies to the black minority affects society as a whole. It is believed without a doubt is that black people are"neither additions to nor defections from American life, but rather constitutive elements of that life".

(Cornel West, Race matters, Preface 6).The impact is not only limited to black people though, it directly affects white Americans. Many white American citizens are actually unemployed because the firms use the prisoners as their employment base. Certainly, The position of black minorities in America in the 21st century is much more favorable than it was in the 19th! However, it doesn't deny the fact that the actual prison system can be identified as a New Age slavery for the reasons mentioned throughout the essay.

Prisons were for a long time a controversial subject. Some believe that prisoners must have the same rights as the rest of American citizens while others believe they must pay to the society the price of their crimes, not the opposite. The debate remains unsolved.