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Prisons have never been a concern of mine. For a brief time, I was interested in the idea of touring the St. Cloud Prison; the reason behind that interest was merely curiosity. I wanted to know what a prison looks like in person rather than through a television screen. Before watching Last Week Tonight’s video, I thought I knew exactly how I felt about prisons and the prisoners inside. I had the mindset that the prisoners must have committed a really bad crime in order to be thrown in a prison and that how they were treated was none of my concern. It was ironic to hear John Oliver say in the video that many people know that they will never end up in prison so how prisoners are treated or the conditions in which they live in are none of the …show more content…
As John Oliver was saying in the video, blacks are 10 times more likely to be sent to prison for drug offenses than whites. I believe it is the reason behind the fact when someone says a prisoner, many people imagine the person being a black male. I am not proud but I know that is what image pops into my head. A black male is my very first perception of prisoners. Of course I know that is completely racist, and I do not want that to be the first thing that pops into my head. I want to think of not only my perception is considered but also the prisoner’s perception. Warren and Fassett claim that perception is “how a person sees the world” (99). A prisoner may go into court with his perception of the world, and then go into prison to find that his perception completely changed. For example, if a black male is in court for excessive drug use and is sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison, he may think to himself that he was caught doing something illegal and it is logical that he must face the consequences. He probably does not assume that he is going to prison not only based on the fact that he was caught but also because of his skin color. He then is in prison and sees that there are 10 times more blacks in prison than whites. That would be enough to change his perception on the world and especially on the justice
After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests. Working in a reception facility, this is a facility where inmates are brought in from the county jails to the state intake facility, we deal with a lot of requests and questions. At times, with the phone ringing off the hook from family members and inmates with their prison request forms, you get a little cynical and tired of answering the same questions over and over. As I read the book I begin to understand some of the reason for the questions. Inmate(s) now realize that the officers and administrative personnel are in control of their lives. They dictate with to get up in the morning, take showers, eat meals, go to classes, the need see people for different reason, when to exercise and when to go to bed. The lost of control over their lives is a new experience for some and they would like to be able to adjust to this new lost of freedom. Upon understanding this and in reading the book, I am not as cynical as I have been and try to be more patient in answering questions. So in a way I have changed some of my thinking and understanding more of prison life.
In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander states that we still use our criminal justice system to “label people of color ‘criminals’ and then engage i...
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
The over-representation of black people in the UK prison population became an issue which needs to be addressed. The prison statistics shows that black people are over-represented and by analysing their population in the UK and a prison statistics it can be noticed that their number increases massively comparing to white and Asian people. The statistics focuses on adult male population, but by considering women and young black people, the evidences show that across all levels black people are over-represented. However, black people are not over-represented only in prison statistics, police practices shows that they are a main target for their actions such as stop and search under section 60 or when fighting in “war on drugs” even that their drug usage is lower than white people. Matthews (2009) and Sampson (1987) provide evidences that one of the reasons for over-representation is institutional racism within Criminal Justice system, police service as well as areas such as Council, education and housing. Newburn (2013) presents that there are specific crimes for which black people are more likely to commit as well as black people are less likely to plead guilty, including that often they leave in inner city cause that judges in those locations are more likely to give “heavier” sentences (Newburn 2013). Furthermore, turning point is given by Wacquant (2001) and his idea of hyperghettoization, he looks at the massive privatisation of prison and provide evidences that the prisons are turning into “ghettos” to keep uneducated, unskilled young black offenders in one place (Wacquant, 2001).
Many Americans pretend that the days of racism are far behind; however it is clear that institutional racism still exists in this country. One way of viewing this institutional racism is looking at our nation’s prison system and how the incarceration rates are skewed towards African American men. The reasons for the incarceration rate disparity are argued and different between races, but history points out and starts to show the reason of why the disparity began. Families and children of the incarcerated are adversely affected due to the discrimination as well as the discrimination against African American students and their likelihood of going to prison compared to the white student. African American women are also affected by the discrimination in the incarceration rate. Many white Americans don’t see how racism affects incarceration rates, and that African Americans are more likely to face discrimination from the police as well as being falsely arrested.
Nationwide, blacks are incarcerated at 8.2 times the rate of whites (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” This difference in proportionality does not necessarily involve direct discrimination; it can be explained by a number of combined factors. Correctional agencies do not control the number of minorities who enter their facilities. Therefore, the disparity must come from decisions made earlier in the criminal justice process. Law enforcement, court pre-sentencing policies and procedures, and sentencing all have a direct effect on the overrepresentation of minorities in the correctional population.
We live in a society today filled with crime and fear. We are told not to go out after a certain hour, always move in groups, and even at times advised to carry a weapon on ourselves. There is only one thing that gives us piece of mind in this new and frightening world we live in: the American penal system. We are taught when growing up to believe that all of the bad people in the world are locked up, far out of sight and that we are out of reach of their dangerous grasp. Furthermore, the murderers and rapists we watch on television, we believe once are caught are to be forgotten and never worried about again. We wish on them the most horrible fates and to rot in the caged institution they are forced to call their new home. But, where do we draw the line of cruelty to those who are some of the cruelest people in our country? And what happens when one of this most strict and strongest institution our nation has breaks down? What do we do when this piece of mind, the one thing that lets us sleep at night, suddenly disappears? This is exactly what happened during and in the after effects of the Attica prison riot of 1971. The riot created an incredibly immense shift and change not only in the conditions of prisons, but also in the security we feel as American citizens both in our penal system and American government. The Attica prison riot brought about a much-needed prison reform in terms of safety and conditions for inmates, which was necessary regardless of the social backlash it created and is still felt today.
Kathie Snow’s article talked about the power of language and labels, and this reminded me of a project that I completed in my Visual Arts class. The project was created because of research completed by Dr. Caroline Leaf, in which she described how different thoughts and words affect the brain. Another aspect of Kathie Snow’s article in which she reveals that the real problems are attitudinal and environmental barriers, this brought to my remembrance, a paper that I wrote for my English class titled Passion for Prisoners. In my paper, I wrote, “the malicious attitude that Americans have cultivated toward prisoners contributes to the ineffective treatment towards them.” These are just a couple concepts that I have found interesting, but it took a couple times of reading this article to come to this
According to statistics since the early 1970’s there has been a 500% increase in the number of people being incarcerated with an average total of 2.2 million people behind bars. The increase in rate of people being incarcerated has also brought about an increasingly disproportionate racial composition. The jails and prisons have a high rate of African Americans incarcerated with an average of 900,000 out of the 2.2 million incarcerateed being African American. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics 1 in 6 African American males has been incarcerated at some point in time as of the year 2001. In theory if this trend continues it is estimated that about 1 in 3 black males being born can be expected to spend time in prison and some point in his life. One in nine African American males between the ages of 25 and 29 are currently incarcerated. Although the rate of imprisonment for women is considerably lower than males African American women are incarc...
...ple. Before this experience, I do not think I could have ever said I respected a convicted burglar or any criminal. These were humans who made incredibly bad decisions, but that does not mean they do not deserve a second chance if they are willing to change, some aren’t, but I emphasized for the prisoners who were. Prison is a lot of their second chances. “I am lucky to still be alive, if I were not here (in prison), I most likely wouldn’t be alive,” exclaimed one prisoner. This experience allowed me to be thankful for the life I was given, the home I grew up in, and how my parents raised me. I cannot say I would not walk into a prison frightened and with preconceived thoughts again because I would be lying. I have been taught by society to be scared of these people, but I am thankful I can say I did meet kind, remorseful prisoners waiting for their second chance.
There are so many more African-Americans than whites in our prisons that the difference cannot be explained by higher crime among African- Americans - racial discrimination is also at work, and it penalizes African- Americans at almost every juncture in the criminal justice system.1
Lappin, H. G., & Greene, J. (2006). Are prisons just? In C. Hanrahan (Ed.), Opposing Viewpoints: America’s prisons (pp. 51-98). Detroit: Bonnie Szumski.
The first issue that I would like to address is the overcrowding issues in prisons. In my opinion, overcrowding issues are the biggest issues in our correctional system that concerns every citizen. Running a prison required money, resources and manpower, with overcrowding issues, the government would have no choice but to increase the number of correctional facilities, privatized prisons and increasing manpower. According to (Levitt, 1996), “The incarceration rate in the United States has more than tripled in the last two decades. At year-end 1994 the United States prison population exceeded one million. Annual government outlays on prisons are roughly $40 billion per year. The rate of imprisonment in the United States is three to four times greater than most European countries.” (p.1). Overcrowding issues are not only affect prisons but the society as a whole as well. The reason is simply because prison population directly refl...
Most people have no idea what it feels like to be in prison, statistically only one out of every five people will know what its like to be in prison. Approximately 1.4 million people out of the U.S.’s 280 million people are in prison. (Thomas, 2) The only reason people know about prisons is because of the media. The news, movies, and books all contribute to people's stereotypes about prisons. Prisoners receive three meals a day, workout facilities, a library, as well as other things. People are also given the idea, through the mass media, that prisoners are free to walk around certain parts of the prison. All of these ideas are cast upon prisons so that people will not be afraid of them. Society has been given the idea that prisons are not very bad on the inside. What is prison life really like?
On January 26, 2017, I attended a seminar in the Burns Wellness Center at the College of Saint Scholastica about inmates at the local prison camp who all committed a white-collar crime. These three inmates came in to discuss how they committed these crimes what punishments came from them. Due to me having a meeting with one of my nursing professors, I came in late and had to get some notes from fellow classmates about the first two inmates that I missed. Listening to the cases of fraud that each of these men committed was scary. Most people do not want to believe that it is as easy as it sounded to get into fraud within today’s business world. They all seemed like good people, but admitted that good people can do bad