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“One of every fifteen people born in the United States in 2001 is expected to go to jail or prison” (Stevenson 15). As of April 2018, two thousand seven hundred forty-three inmates are scheduled to be executed (“Facts about the”). Throughout history, the United States incarceration system has failed and continues to do so. With racial bias, an unacceptable death penalty, and harsh treatment of inmates, the United States’ criminal justice system is flawed and should be reformed.
In the United States, the incarceration percentage—the percentage in which people are confined in prison—is higher for African Americans and other minorities.
According to Brian Stevenson, civil rights attorney, social justice activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, one of every three black male babies born in this century is expected to be incarcerated (Stevenson 15).
African Americans are also incarcerated at more than five times the rate of a white person (“Criminal Justice Fact”). These statistics demonstrate that our prison system targets minorities more than whites.
Granted, the incarcerated most likely commit the crimes that they are imprisoned for, but the system is more likely to imprison blacks versus whites.
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In an investigation conducted by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, it was concluded that black inmates were nearly four times as likely as white inmates to be sent to isolation and were held there for an average of one hundred twenty-five days. White inmates were only held for an average of ninety days (Pager ¶11). Dating back to our U.S. Constitution, it states that “all men are created equal,” but our prison system shows otherwise.
The Pledge of Allegiance also states that there should be “liberty and justice for all,” but these minorities are not experiencing that justice.
Furthermore, the death penalty in the United States is unreasonable.
In most cases, the death penalty is only ruled when the accused have committed murder. However, there have been some cases when the death penalty has been ruled when a murder was not committed. As of November 2018, the prison system has nearly three thousand people on death row, but only less than sixty are executed each year (“Facts about the”). Our prison system forces the accused to wait for years, even decades for their lives to be taken from them. In one instance, Anthony Ray Hinton was falsely accused of murdering two people and sent to death row. Hinton spent thirty years on death row before being proven innocent. In his autobiography The Sun Does Shine, Hinton recalls his experiences on death row, such as how he witnessed his fellow inmates burned through electrocution just feet away from his cell. Hinton’s case and several others show that our judicial system leans towards guilty until proven innocent versus innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, some executioners even believe that executions solve nothing. In the words of Albert Pierrepoint, “I have concluded that executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over the responsibility for revenge to other people” (). This statement is significant because many people try to justify executions by saying that it is the best way to keep dangerous criminals out of society; however, an executioner admits that they do not solve anything.
Additionally, our prison systems are inhumane towards prisoners. Just because one is sent to prison does not mean that their basic health needs should be overlooked. It also does not mean that it is justifiable to keep them in cramped, unventilated spaces. In a 2006 study of the California prison system, it was noted that the prison building was built to house eighty thousand inmates, yet it ended up housing double that number (Stelloh 31). Also, a trial was held at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian, MS. The trial showed that over eighty percent of the prisoners there had mental illnesses. Not only that, but the facility neglects the inmates’ needs. Instead, they put the inmates in solitary confinement when they become unstable, causing more mental illness. Through all of this, the government does absolutely nothing about it. The facility still receives its governmental funds each year (“Five-Week Trial). Not only are the physical aspects around the inmates inhumane, but the food aspects are also. Under the Eighth Amendment, the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Because of this law, an inmate at the Allred Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice sued the ward for $19 million because he was given sour milk with his food. In order to uphold the Eighth Amendment, the state is responsible for serving inmates adequate food (Sikora 32). This issue may seem small to the free, but it is actuallyT significant to the incarcerated. With their lives already stripped away from them, the state could at least do its job by serving humane food. However, some are failing in doing the simplest requirements.
With the highest incarceration rate in the world, the United States’ criminal justice system proves to be flawed in numerous ways. Billions of dollars are poured into the system each year, but few benefits are being produced.
Why the US Prison System Should Be Reformed?. (2022, May 21). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/why-the-us-prison-system-should-be-reformed-essay
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