Introduction
Under a generalizing name – social control – several internal mechanisms were designed to maintain the society’s integrity. They establish specific rules, norms, and laws for people’s behavior and enforce them through individuals, such as families or peers, and various social institutions, for example, schools and workplaces. Prisons also belong to the social institutions responsible for social control. Prisons are designed to hold individuals who broke the established law, so they can suffer the punishment and reconsider their actions before reintegrating into society. However, this only resembles the theoretical background – reality often differs, sometimes not in the most pleasant manner. For its better perception, prison should be evaluated from three sociological perspectives – institution, social inequality, and race.
The prison system of the U.S.
Nowadays, the U.S. relies heavily on prisons as a social control mechanism. According to Rothschild, it holds 25% of the total world criminal population; consequently, it is referred to as mass incarceration (103). The reasons that explain this phenomenon lie in the history of the U.S. criminal system, which has hardened significantly over the last century. Often, the incarceration rate grew significantly after an aggressive political campaign (Rothschild, 104). Politicians sought to soothe the population’s anxiety during increased crime by blaming various social groups. At the dawn of the 20th century, the immigrants became the target; between the 60th and 70th – the racial minorities and Vietnam War opposers; during the “war on drugs” – hippies and African-American people (Rothschild, 104, 105). In its pursuit of control and political power, the U.S. government implemented numerous reforms that simplified the conviction process.
These tendencies led the U.S. to unprecedented levels of incarceration. In addition to the simplified conviction process, it became harder to get out of prison due to the possibility of increasing the prison sentences length. Moreover, the modern prison system resembles another negative feature – private prisons. Previously, prisons consisted only of two types: federal and state; nowadays, however, the private sector registers an unsettling degree of proliferation (Rothschild, 106). These institutions, being primarily profit-oriented, directly benefit from the increasing incarceration rates. Thus, they support the current state of the criminal system and might vote for its further tightening. Everything mentioned so far allows a discouraging implication that the modern prison system is changing its sole role of a control mechanism to a more political and economic tool. It also affected the culture of the U.S., producing various associations connected to convicted people.
Because of occurred political campaigns against minorities, the topic of prisons became intertwined with racism to a frightening extent. Additionally, a study by Reiman indicates an economic bias toward the lower social classes. Poor people are generally more likely to undergo the whole conviction process than members of other classes (Reiman, 110). At the same time, African-American people are vastly underrepresented in the middle and upper classes compared to white people (Reiman, 112). These two factors coincide with the increased conviction rate of African-American people. In this context, the racial bias in the conviction process also has to be considered, as well as an increased minority’s exposure to specific policies. For example, individuals convicted for the drug issues are primarily arrested in the disorganized inner-city areas, which happen to be a proportionally more likely place to live for African-American people than for white people (Reiman, 113). To conclude, the modern prison system and its new roles contribute to the economic and racial bias.
Conclusion
In summary, the prison system of the U.S. gained features that distance it from the theoretical conception of a redemptive control mechanism. Historically, it served as a political tool to help soothe the general population’s anxiety; this usage added fuel to the topic of racial bias. Nowadays, it has also become a source of profit, attaining an economic aspect. Above everything else, there is evidence of economic discrimination in the form of increased exposure to certain social classes. It is the case when the social control mechanism exceeds its boundaries; unfortunately, it might not indicate the intended functioning.
Works Cited
Reiman, Jeffrey H. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice. Allyn & Bacon, 2000.
Rothschild, Connor. (2019). “The Incarcerated State (s) of America: The Causes, Consequences, and Solutions to Mass Incarceration in the United States.” The Rice Examiner, vol. 2, no. 1, 2019, pp. 103-129.