The incarceration rate in America is he highest in the world compared to other States. For instance, in America, 25% of the population, which is an equivalent of 2.2 million people, are incarcerated (Collier 56). The get-tough-on-crime policies have been linked with the increased number of Americans in prisons and jails, with majority of them being poor, uneducated people of color. Further statistics indicate that in 100,000 citizens 707 incarcerated, compared to 172 in China, and 600 in North Korea (Collier 56). America’s prisons and jails continue to produce a group of social outcasts sharing the experience of incarceration, poverty, crime, racial minority, and low education. In between 1980 to 2008, the rate of incarceration in the United States (U.S) increased from 221 to 762 per 100,000 (Western & Pettit 1). Based on these figures, the risk of American incarceration is high in the U.S, and it has resulted to increased crimes and disproportionate incarceration rates.
Majority of the persons incarcerated in U.S. prisons are from disadvantaged groups of the population. According to Travis, Jay and Redburn, the prisoners in the U.S prisons and jails “comprise mainly minority men under age 40, poorly educated, and often carrying additional deficits of drug and alcohol addiction, mental and physical illness, and a lack of work preparation or experience” (3). Thus, most of the persons incarcerated in the prisons are socially and economically disadvantaged, while over 50% of the prison population is Hispanic or Black. The socioeconomically disadvantaged people in the society are more likely to engage in crime-related activities. Subsequently, the same group of the people end up being arrested, prosecuted, and jailed. Therefore, the disproportionate incarceration rates in terms of socioeconomically disadvantage have been contributed to social and economic inequality in the society. Travis, Jay and Redburn further established that incarceration was strongly linked with negative economic and social outcomes for persons and their families with imprisonment history (6). Fathers’ incarceration is associated with family hardships such as housing insecurity and behavioral problems among children. This is because the absence of fathers in families affects the rest of the family members. Most of the people Americans are imprisoned when young and when they leave the correctional facilities, they are absorbed by communities with inadequate employment, housing, and educational opportunities. Subsequently, such people are morel to commit crimes and end up being incarcerated again.
In terms of negative effects of incarceration in the U.S, unequal incarceration on individuals is the most evident. The disproportionate incarceration rates by race show that African Americans compared to the Whites are incarcerated. There exists irrefutable evidence that Black Americans compared to the Whites comprise an unequal share of the American prison population (Spohn 172). Report by the American Civil Liberties Union indicate that “as of 2009, Blacks constitute 28.3 percent of all lifers, 56.4 percent of those serving Black prisoners comprise 91.4 percent of the, and 56.1 percent of those who received life sentences without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for offenses committed as a juvenile” (p. 3). Thus, in spite being minority race in the U.S, the Blacks have a higher risk of incarceration and majority of them serve a life sentence without a parole. The disparities have been associated with disparate treatment of Blacks during the different stages of the criminal judicial system from stops and searches to trials and sentencing. In addition, Black defendants are more likely to face significantly more severe charges compared to the whites, even when characteristics of the offense and criminal history are considered. Schnittker, Massoglia, and Uggen (4) pointed out that outcomes resulting from racial biases have effect on who has been arrested, detained, and sentenced harshly. Thus, racial inequalities have increased the risks of American incarcerations.
Irrespective of race of the prisoners, incarceration could be a debilitating, painful, and eventually counterproductive experience. For instance, Garland, Spohn, and Wodahl (7) established that prison inmates are susceptible to prisonization and this creates dependence to institutional structure. In addition, it results into hypervigilance, psychological distancing, interpersonal distrust, exploitive behavior, and post-traumatic stress in some of the prisoners. Such an exposure may in some cases make it hard for the incarcerated prisoners to adjust to the society and life a normal life without being discriminated and judged by the rest of the people. When inmates are incarcerated, they are in some cases exposed to violent environments (Schnittker et al. 4). Prisoners who fall victim to any form of person violence tend to suffer psychologically and emotionally as they experience anger, depression, and other negative emotional conditions. Also, the universal feature linked with all the incarcerated life is being constantly exposed and surrounded by other inmates such as murders, rapists, and death row convicts. Garland, Spohn, and Wodahl expressed their fears by noting that “the predicament makes inmates highly vulnerable to internalizing (or more deeply internalizing) pro-criminal motives, values, and techniques” (7). Furthermore, incarceration results to separation from friends, family members, and other forms of positive social supports. When people are socially separated from the rest of the society, they feel disconnected from the rest of world. As a result of the separation, suicide could become the last resort for coping with the paid, isolation, and trauma of imprisonment.
The other risk associated with the American incarceration in related to the spread of infectious diseases. The prisoners are prone to diabetes, Hepatitis, HIV/AIDs and other chronic diseases that are contagious. Schnittker et al. noted that “about 1.5% of inmates have HIV/AIDS, although the number of AIDS-related deaths in prison is declining, much as it is in the general population” (2). The people with infectious diseases are mostly incarcerated for a long period of time and it is during that period of time when they are infected. People incarcerated in America are also prone to Asthma and hypertension and higher levels of mental illness as a result of isolation. Incarnation has been linked with multiple sex partners, and increases the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDs and Hepatitis. Further studies have established that “HIV prevalence among state prison inmates in the US is four to five times higher than in the general population, and inmates experience a disproportionate burden of other sexually transmitted infections” (Khan et al., 585). This is because during incarceration, prisoners are more likely to face the risk of being part of new and coercive sex partnerships with persons at high risk of infection. In addition, incarceration acts as a disruptive life event which destabilizes any formal intimate partnerships. As a result of lack of a stable partner, accompanied with the stress that comes after being incarcerated, newly released prisoners may end up engaging in increased number of multiple partnerships. The partnership concurrency is a primary determinant of HIV and STI transmission.
Women who have been incarcerated have high risks of social and health problems. In addition, women who have been incarcerated are typically poor, young, and of inadequate formal educational attainment, and this makes them more vulnerable to further crimes. Most of the women who leave the correctional facilities go back to communities that present inadequate educational, housing, and employment opportunities. Freudenberg confirmed that “all poor families suffer from these conditions, but people of color returning from correctional facilities face the triple jeopardy of poverty, racism, and stigma toward ex-offenders” (1895). Therefore, people who return from correctional facilities are faced with racism, poverty, and stigma. This is because when persons from poor societies are incarcerated, they go back to the same society which is characterized with poverty. On the other hand, prisoners from affluent societies end up being absorbed in a society with well-established systems and structures. Also, low-income communities from minority groups such as Hispanics and Blacks continue to experience the worst schools and limited job opportunities (Freudenberg1895). The incarceration experience additionally contributes to a downward cycle of social isolation, economic dependence, substance abuse, and other kinds of mental health problems. Women ex-offenders face more challenges compared to men as they have more responsibilities related to family.
Rather than solving the problem of crime by acting as deterrence, incarceration of Americans has resulted to increased crimes. This is because majority of the juveniles form the largest percentage of criminals in the U.S. In addition, if long prison sentences were a deterrent, then juveniles would not continue committing crimes. Travis, Jay and Redburn (6) noted that young persons who have a history of crime are more like to be impulsive and liberal against the correctional system, and this could compel them to commit more crimes. A longer prison sentence is thus less likely to pose deterrent, although incarceration reduces the rate of crimes by the youths. Nonetheless, Travis et al. (133) acknowledged that deterrence theory has been underpinned by the rational theory of crime which is based on the supposition that most of the offenders are rationally motivated and attracted to commit crimes. In addition, offenders may respond differently to the severity, certainty, and swiftness of punishment. In some cases, the punishment used could not act as deterrent to the crimes committed, and first offenders could be compelled to commit similar crimes.
In conclusion, American incarceration has increased in the last decade and the rates are high among persons of colour, such as the Hispanics and Blacks. The risks associated with American incarceration are unequal incarceration on individuals, risk of infectious diseases such as HIV, increased crime levels, and high social and economic problems. The disproportionate incarceration rates affect the socioeconomically disadvantaged people in the society who have to commit crimes as a way of life. Also, the Blacks compared to the Whites have a higher risk of incarceration, and most of them serve a life sentence without a parole. Incarceration is not only debilitating, but also painful and it has a counterproductive experience which results to trauma. In addition, when socially separated from the rest of the society, the people feel disconnected from the society. Last risk linked with the American incarceration is the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDs and STIs.
Work Cited
American Civil Liberties Union. Racial Disparities in Sentencing Hearing on Reports of Racism in the Justice System of the United States. PDF file. 17 Oct. 2014. < https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/141027_iachr_racial_disparities_aclu_submission_0.pdf>.
Collier, Lorna. “Incarceration nation.” American Psychological Association, 45.9 (014): 56-60. Print.
Freudenberg, Nicholas. “Adverse Effects of US Jail and Prison Policies on the Health and Well-Being of Women of Color.” American Journal of Public Health 92.12 (2002): 1895–1899. Print.
Garland, Brett E, Cassia Spohn, Eric J. Wodahl. “Racial Disproportionality in the American Prison Population: Using the Blumstein Method to Address the Critical Race and Justice Issue of the 21 st Century.” Justine Policy Journal, 5.2 (2008): 1-42. Print.
Khan, Maria R, Irene A. Doherty, Victor J. Schoenbach, Eboni M. Taylor, Matthew W. Epperson, and Adaora A. Adimora. “Incarceration and High-Risk Sex Partnerships among Men in the United States.” Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 86.4 (2009): 584-601. Print.
Schnittker, Jason, Michael Massoglia, and Christopher Uggen. “Incarceration and the Health of the African American Community.” Du Bois Review, 8.1 (2011): 1–9.
Spohn, Cassia C. How Do Judges Decide?: The Search for Fairness and Justice in Punishment. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 2002. Print.
Travis, Jeremy, Bruce Western, and F. Stevens Redburn. “The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences.” National Academy of Science, (2014), 1-440. Print.
Western, Bruce and Becky Pettit. “Incarceration & social inequality.” Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 2. 3, (2010): 8-20. Print.
