Introduction
Imprisonment, or incarceration, remains one of the main forms of punishment and rehabilitation in the world. Each country has its own justice system and punitive measures, that affect the development of prison system as well. This research paper concentrates on the American type of prisons’ organization. In order to explore the topic accurately, the paper will be divided into four main parts: history of U.S. prison systems, the Sentencing Process, prison populations, and the criticism of incarceration.
History of United States Prison Systems
In 1790, Pennsylvania Quakers founded the first prison in the American history. There were jails and dungeons before, but the Quakers were the first who decided to create an institution, which aims at rehabilitation of the prisoners (Jenness, 2016). After the introduction of a new idea, came the first wave of prison building. It is connected to the Jacksonian Era and led to the popularization of the method. According to The Oxford History of the Prison, the Jacksonian reformers were particularly interested in improvement of the mechanism and the main aims of the prison system (Jenness, 2016). Thus, before the Civil War, almost every American state evolved the imprisonment into the main punishment for most crimes.
The second wave of building prisons began after the Civil War and continued until the end of Progressive Era. The reformation in the end of the 19th century was featured by the introduction of such methods as probation and parole. The third and the most modern wave began in the 1970s and can be witnessed today. Right now, there are 1,833 state and 110 federal prisons in the country (Sawyer & Wagner, 2019). This number of prisons throughout the country continues growing.
The Sentencing Process
After the arrest of an individual, who committed a crime, a special process before the imprisonment must be proceeded. It is called the Sentencing Process and its aim is to decide whether the person is guilty and, if so, what kind of punishment is going to be used. After the trial, if the suspect is found guilty, he or she is going to spend some specific time in prison. The duration depends on various factors, like the brutality of a crime, the state laws, and the previous record of a person (Pendleton, 2019). Moreover, during the trial itself the person is held in custody and is not treated as a convicted prisoner.
In addition, many trials may end up with a plea bargaining, when a person admits committing a lesser violent crime and thus is sentenced to a lesser time in prison. In this case, even if the individual is suspected in committing a more violent crime, it will not be taken into consideration by the judge. Some crimes are violent to such an extent that the criminal can be given a life sentence. The possibility of ending the imprisoning earlier under parole is not available in all states of the United States. Somewhere, death penalty is still existing as the last sanction of the law.
Prison Populations
There are two main types of prisons in the United States state and federal prisons. The criminal law of the United States is a concurrent power, which means it is shared both by the federal government and by the local government of a state. Thus, depending on what laws are violated – federal or state – the individuals are usually placed in either a federal or a state prison. As on 2016, 90% of the U.S. prisons are state and 10% are federal (Pfaff, 2017). The state prisons have gained much more negativity, as they house individuals, whose felons are more serious than the felons of the federal prisons’ inmates. According to the research of Sawyer and Wagner (2019), in 2016 the number of incarcerated in the United States was 2.3 million and the peak was reached in 2008 (2,418,352 people). Concerning the information about violent and non-violent crime, according to 2016 Federal Bureau Crime Statistics, 1.2 million of violent crimes were committed in 2016 (Alper & Durose). For the record, in 2008 about 52% of inmate were sentenced to imprisonment for violent crimes (Alper & Durose, 2018). However, there are many people, who spend large periods of time in prison, though they have not committed any violent crimes. This is one of the main reasons for criticism of the system.
The Criticism of Incarceration
The critics of the United States prison system base their main arguments upon three moral norms that may be violated in prisons throughout the country. These are: the proportion between the punishment and the crime, the equality of methods used in like cases, and the ameliorative function of imprisonment. First, in 2010s the rise of life sentences for non-violent offenses can be seen (Nellis, 2016). As of 2012, there were 159,520 people serving life sentences and, comparing to 2008, the rise is 11,8% (Nellis, 2016). About 10,000 people of this number committed non-violent crimes (Lichtenberg, 2016). These phenomena relate to the mandatory sentences system, which was developed in 1970s-1980s. It forces judges to get fixed prison terms to those committed certain crimes, such as drug-dealing.
The problem above also leads to the second problem when the judges’ decisions correlate with the race, gender, sexuality, and other characteristics of a suspect. It is stated that a black man without a high-school diploma is more likely to spend time in prison after the court (the possibility is 70%) (Lichtenberg, 2016). Finally, some people say that prison is not performing its main function – to rehabilitate criminals. Now, about two-thirds of the released prisoners came back after three years on the outside, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (Alper & Durose, 2018). This kind of data is studied in detail in research papers, which concentrate on recidivism in the U.S. prisons.
There are many other details of the U.S. prison system, which can be described. The inner organization in prisons, the statistics of prison’s population, including the correlation based on race, sexuality, and gender. Another topic that can be interesting for research is prisons for women. However, this research paper concentrates on the basic description of the prison system. At the same time, it can be a good foundation for the following research of the questions, named above.
References
Alper, M., & Durose, M. R. (2018). Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) – 2018 update on prisoner recidivism: A 9-Year follow-up period (2005-2014). Web.
Jenness, V. (2016). United States prison system history. Web.
Lichtenberg, J. (2016). America’s prison system is inhumane. Here’s why. Web.
Nellis, A. (2016). Life goes on: The historic rise in life sentences in America. Web.
Pedleton, C. (2019). How does the U.S. prison system work? Web.
Pfaff, J. (2017). A better approach to violent crime. Web.
Sawyer, W., & Wagner, P. Mass incarceration: The whole pie 2019. Web.