Why Does Prison Population Grow In The United States

Why Does Our Prison Population Continue to Grow in the United States?
“It’s a stark fact that the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population” (Lee). Why are the numbers so elevated? Compared to other countries, the United States has more prisoners per capita than even Russia or China. “An astonishing number of Americans—nearly one out of every one hundred adults—is behind bars in this country” (Ryan 149). Are there more crimes being committed in the United States? Increase in prison facilities and prison growth is astounding. People are being unrightfully imprisoned and it must be stopped.
How far back in history does this problem exist? The

problem can be traced back to The Thirteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime ...” The important part of this amendment is, “except as punishment for crime.” This gave people a loop hole to get free labor. After slavery was abolished workers were needed to take the place of slave labor. This was the beginning of the increase of the prison population. Slavery was no longer legal so in order to fill the gap, prisoners were used as free labor.
The percentage of the prison population is mainly minorities. Racial profiling has become one of the main reasons for someone to become a suspect. The largest minority in prisons today is African Americans. Following African Americans are the Hispanic population. Something that is actually based on economics has created a prejudice society.
One theory on increased imprisonment is the fact that inmates are getting longer sentences; therefore staying longer periods of time.

Harsher punishments are being put on crimes to keep the body count up in the prisons. The more people private prisons have, the more money they get from the government and the more people they have for free labor.
Theory number two is “the war on drugs”. Every drug related violation has aided in the increase of prisoners. Richard Nixon is the president that declared the war on drugs. The war on drugs had an opposite effect and led to mass incarceration. Our government took away the supply without removing demand, so drug prices increased substantially. There was still a demand for drugs no matter the cost. The change in laws prevented big drug producers from being able to sell, but many small dealers took their place.
A.L.E.C. is a group that writes laws for legislation and gives them to people in government. These laws favor big business and make it harder for anyone with less money. Legislators have been caught with the A.L.E.C. leader head on their bills. People are not happy with a system that is rigged against them? If a person is rich, they can just pay their way out of any

situation.
Money talks is an old adage that has a ring of truth to it. If companies are making mega bucks utilizing private correctional institutes, this could be a great factor in prison increase. “CCA said that since the end of 2000 the number of federal inmates in private facilities jumped 165%, while the number of state inmates went up by 22 percent” (White). Are private corrections institutes helping to decrease the number of inmates? By making a profit off of how many prisoners the facility houses, these companies are not trying to help decrease crime and increase reformed citizens. Companies would lose people; therefore profits would decrease
Then the bigger issue of concern is the private correction institutions and how much money is made through this business. “Private correctional facilities were a $4.8 billion industry last year, with profits of $629 million” (White). These private facilities are spending ridiculous amounts of money lobbying to continue the business of prison incarceration and collecting huge profits. CCA is one of the biggest private prison owners. The more people they have in their prison the more money they make.
Americans want justice and Americans want to live in a safe environment, raise their children in a non-violent world.

Demands are made for harsher punishments for crimes. Elected officials give promises of making the world a better place by increasing penalties for people who break the law. People who are put in charge of prisoners are designed to break their will in the first week. It would be more productive if there was a bigger focus on rehabilitation to give people a chance when they get out of prison. Legislators are now striving to find positive solutions to overpopulation in prisons. Second-look is one such proposal. “This “second-look sentencing” provision is thought to have a number of positive effects, such as reducing incarceration and consequently decreasing governmental spending on incarceration” (Ryan 150). Other ideas are: more education, job skills training, and safe places similar to a halfway house in between prison and the real world. The halfway house could be a place for them to find somewhere to live, get a job, and be a productive

citizen.
Everyone would love to live in Utopia where crime is nonexistent. Reality shows us this is not plausible. Prisons are comprised of people who did something wrong, broke a law and should be punished for it. Longer prison sentences should be in place for harsher crimes. If America did not have prisons, it would not be a safe place to live. Prisons were designed to keep citizens safe and keep criminals in a stable environment.
The prison population is increasing because people are wrongfully incarcerated. The demand for labor was the first domino in play. Prejudice was also a substantial contributor to this problem of increased prison population, making minorities targets of the system. Greed plays an important part in this tangled web of deceit. With groups such as A.L.E.C. and the CCA at the forefront of this money train.