The Prison Boom

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The prison boom of the past three decades has caused prison populations to skyrocket. One statistic wrote there more prisons built in during this time than schools. Each year thousands of people are incarcerated for drug convictions receiving outrageous sentences. Many of these inmates will be stuck in a perpetual cycle because of the major issues concerning how this war is being waged. With the alarming growth rate of US prison, many inmates will be unable to receive the treatment necessary to prepare for release. Then after release, many of these individuals will find it near impossible to find employment because of the social stigma of being in prison. This essay will explore the problems associated with those who have been effected…show more content…
This is due to the get tough on crime and the war on drugs policy. The largest section of this population growth is in the uneducated males in their twenties and thirties. More specifically black males. “In the mid-1990s, one in every three young black males was under some form of supervision (Latessa and Holsinger, 2011, p. 388). This is huge issue with other minorities as well. The rate of imprisonment of the minority population is much higher than that of white males. Pushing the criminal stigma associated with people of race that much more (Latessa, and Holsinger,…show more content…
As prisons were busting at the seams, new prison were being build all over the nation. “Between 1990 and 1999, the total number of inmates in state and federal prisons increased 75% (Latessa and Holsinger, 2011, p. 386).” California alone built 21 new prison in the previous 20 years. One statistic showed that a 500 bed facility would open weekly during the mid-1990s. And most of those increases in the prison growth are related to the war on drugs. With each new prison, the cost of housing inmates grows substantially. While more is being pumped into this prison empire, little of the money is used to actually rehabilitate these inmates (Latessa and Holsinger, 2011). “There is of course a very cruel irony in all these developments. As state goverments take funds from education and social programs to extend their prison systems (Latessa and Holsinger, 2011, p.
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