Leonard 1

Dashiell Leonard

Leanna Brunner

English 121

23 Nov. 2010

The Need for Change in the U.S. Prison System

Nations have much invested in their prison systems. They provide powerful punitive

measures against criminal activities. However, if their power is misunderstood, then they can

punish the society that they are meant to protect. Inhumane and backwards prison policies

threaten the prisoners who can, in-turn, threaten others upon release. The U.S. prison system

contains many of these questionable practices. To reduce its problems with overcrowding and

recidivism, the U.S. prison system needs reform on the issues of sentence length, racism, and

prison privatization.

At the forefront of prison problems is overcrowding, and prisons in the U.S. are

dangerously overcrowded. There are 2.2 million people in prison in the U.S. which is more than

any other nation, and that means 767 out of every 100,000 people are imprisoned, which again is

the highest of any nation (Katel. “Prison Reform” 289, 291). Superior Court Judge Gail

Ohanesian says that prisons in the U.S. are “…creating conditions of extreme peril [for

prisoners],” (Katel. “Prison Reform” 291). ) Building more prisons isn’t the answer because the

rate at which we are sentencing people to prison is already greater than the rate in which we

release people (Katel. “Prison Reentry” 1008). Hence, the new prisons will eventually fill up,

and we will be left with the same problem. The answer lies in a variety of reforms targeting who

is sent to prison and for how long.

 Leonard 2

Additionally, high recidivism rates plague the U.S. prison system, and contribute to its

overcrowding. The percentage of released convicts that are later caught and sent back stands at

52 (Katel. “Prison Reentry” 1007). The prison system needs programs for both prisoners and

newly released prisoners that help them with the basic skills they need to contribute to society.

Otherwise, they will fall back into the criminal habits that they have been surrounded by while in

prison (Katel. “Prison Reentry” 1012). Jody Kent, public policy coordinator for the National

Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, notes “[Released prisoners] should be

coming out so they are no longer dangerous. The system we have in place hasn’t solved that

problem,” (Katel. “Prison Reform” 292). Reducing recidivism rates will certainly reduce the

overall number of convictions, and will help alleviate the overcrowding problem in prisons.

Also, overcrowding and recidivism are exacerbated by an upward trend in the lengths of

prison sentences. Since the 1980’s, “a tough-on-crime trend took hold around the country,”

which led to increasingly longer sentences being handed out for convictions (Katel. “Prison

Reform” 303). Due to laws limiting the imprisonment of minors, 18 years old have seen a near 6

fold increase in their chances of being imprisoned if caught for a criminal act, but those same 18

year olds are no less likely to commit a crime than when they are 17 (Waldfogel). This dispels

the argument that harsher sentences deter society at large from committing crimes (Bayley). For

an increased number of crimes, utilizing probation, house arrest, and other methods of

punishment that don’t rely on ever-increasing prison sentences will keep offenders out of prison,

while still providing a means of punishment for the offenders (Bayley; Waldfogel). Using these

methods, the U.S. prison system can reduce its overall prisoner load, and keep prisoners from

spending so long outside of society that they cannot cope upon their return.
 Leonard 3

Another reason for the overpopulation in prisons is inherent racism in the sentencing

laws. According to Glenn Loury, Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of

Economics at Brown University, “A black male resident of the state of California is more likely

to go to a state prison than a state college.” The reason for this is that African-Americans and

other minorities are targeted specifically and more harshly by the law (Price 141). This is

evidenced by the fact that crack-cocaine, which is more often used by minorities, carries harsher

sentences than powdered cocaine (Katel. “Prison Reform” 303). By reducing the targeting of

minorities, the strain caused by overcrowding can be diminished, and the racist laws that landed

minorities in prison in the first place won’t be in place to affect the minority convicts again.

Above all, every modern prison problem is made worse by the use of private prisons.

Private prisons have turned prison sentences into a for-profit industry that makes its money based

on the number of people incarcerated (Selman, and Leighton 93). Private prisons uphold that

they are able to house inmates at a lower cost than public prisons, but this is suspect based on the

types of contracts that private prisons have with state governments (Selman, and Leighton 114-

116). Even if private prisons do save money per prisoner, they inflate overall costs by pursuing

overly strong sentencing legislation. This is accomplished by a powerful lobby who, on the

behalf of the prison industry, pushes for “…increasing mandatory sentencing legislation,” (Price

21). Many of these forms of legislation target minorities (Selman, and Leighton 29).

Finally, privatization, racism, and sentence longevity are problems that contributed to

high recidivism and dangerous overcrowding in the U.S. prison system. These problems are all

fixable, and would contribute greatly to the safety of the nation. It is important to understand that

backwards prison policy dehumanizes both prisoners and society alike. It wastes the investment

nation’s have in their prison systems.