Does the U.S.A Imprison Too Many People?

According to The New York Times, “The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.” Let's face it, the U.S is imprisoning way too many people, because of three main reasons: harsher drug-related crime sentences, lack of prisoner's resources, and racial profiling.
The first reason, why the U.S imprisonment rates are too high, because of harsher drug-related crime sentences. In the early 1980's, lots of cocaine was shipped to the U.S. What happened, is that drug dealers extracted a powder from the leaves of the Coca plant, and turned it into a smoke-able powder. This resulted into a massive “Crack Epidemic” which led to the crackdown of drug traffickers. This also led to harsher drug-related crime sentences. What the U.S should do, is to lower the sentencing standards for drug related crimes. Still, drug-related crime offenders still need ti be sentenced. The U.S should lower the maximum sentence for drug-related crimes, because according to www.drugwarfacts.org, “On Dec. 31, 2012, there were 196,574 sentenced prisoners under federal jurisdiction. Of these 99,426 were serving time for drug offenses.” That means that half the people in prison in 2012, were there because of drug offenses, and a good way to make that number lower is to lower the maximum sentence for drug-related crimes. That is the first reason why the U.S imprisonment is too high.
The second reason why the U.S imprisonment is too high, because of lack of prisoner's resources. Often times a person, might burgle someone, why, because they are a 12th grade dropout, who barely has enough enough money to get by. What do you think is going to happen if you put a 12th grade dropout with no money in ...

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