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Running Head: How Mass Incarceration Goes Against American Values
How Mass Incarceration Goes Against American Values
Robert M. Davey
VCU
Dr. Jason Corner
November 28, 2016
Author’s Note
This paper was completed in UNIV 112, taught by Professor Jason Corner.
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How Mass Incarceration Goes Against American Values
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Abstract
This essay focuses on the effects of sentencing policies on how mass incarceration. It
sheds light on the growing imprisonment rate. As well as the policies that are contributing
towards the rates of incarceration going up. It goes into the impact of minimum mandatory
sentencing in which prisoners have set amount of years they have to spend in prison based on a
crime. Truth-in sentencing which forces inmates to wait out their sentence until receiving parole.
It also talks about how racial discrimination plays a role in the process of incarceration. The
policies that lead to this discrimination and the amount of African Americans in the prison
system compared to Whites. The factors that go into Mass incarceration is the focus of this essay
and how the intended purposes of sentencing policies has served to contribute to the growing
epidemic it has become.
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There has been a problem in the United States that has been growing larger since the
1960’s; this problem is mass incarceration in the American prison system. Mass incarceration is
a problem because of the effects it has on the inmates of the prisons and the amount of people
who are sentenced for crimes that would otherwise not have jail time or serve less time than
they should for the crime committed. The United States faces many problems within its
sentencing system that have caused the imprisonment rate to grow. Data shows that about 1%
of adults in the U.S. are incarcerated (Savitsky 2012). The extent to which the United Sates
prison rate has grown is extensive. Stevenson indicates that imprisonment rates have risen
juristically from 300,000 people in the early 1970’s to 2.3 million people today (Stevenson 15).
The U.S. leads the world in incarcerated persons per capita so much that it almost doubles
China which has the second largest rate. so that These stats show how much prison rates have
increased. The reasoning for the increased imprisonment is because of government legislation
placed to increase and deter crime. Data shows that it had has led to the opposite and that
legislation that was meant to better America has led to one of the biggest problems the nation
is facing to this day. The problems caused by the legislation focused on incurring more
imprisonment needs to be taken into account and shift focus towards decreasing the amount of
people imprisoned and changing the sentencing process that create this problem.
A big factor in the increased rates of imprisonment in America is mandatory minimum
sentencing. Mandatory minimum sentencing was set by Congress to make minimum prison
terms for certain crimes. This makes certain offenses carry the same weight or more with no
remorse to the situation or circumstances of the case. Mueller asserts that these, “Mandatory
minimum sentences deter criminal activity by maximizing the certainty and predictability of
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incarceration for crimes that pose serious threats to the nation's quality of life, such as drug
trafficking near schools. Because mandatory minimum provisions are set forth in clear and
unambiguous language, they are easily understood and provide effective disincentives for
potential offenders” (Mueller 230). Muller is stating that crime would go down due to their
being a set punishment or time of imprisonment for an offense. This is untrue, minimum
sentencing only serves to convict more people of crimes rather than to deter them. New
guidelines were put in place to make offenses that were not eligible for jail time now have
minimum sentences. In fact, “Kopel (1994) claimed that about 60 percent of the increase in the
prison population between 1974 and 1990 was the result of decisions to imprison offenders who
otherwise would have been given a community sanction or other alternative sentence.
Specifically, Kopel (1994) estimated that 44 percent of the increase in state prison populations
from 1986 to 1991 was attributable to drug crimes, which were often the result of new
sentencing guidelines” (Zhang, Maxwell, & Vaughn 2009). This shows that there was an
increase in imprisonment of 44 percent that occurred because of sentence reform. This only
serves to increase the rate of imprisoned rather than cut back crime rates due to unambiguous
language. Nothing has been reduced; only an increase has occurred due to changes put into place
in the sentencing system especially with mandatory minimum sentences. It is has been proven
that what was meant to stop criminal activity has now made becoming a criminal easier in the
eyes of the law. This leads to the overcrowding of prisons and the increased incarceration rate.
Instead of policies aiming to incarcerate offenders there should be a system like what President
Obama has shifted towards. It has been shown that, “With regards to President Obama's drug
policy agenda, his administration has addressed the issue of drug abuse and drug-related crime
from more of a public health perspective rather than a crime and punishment one, thus favoring
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prevention and treatment policies over incarceration” (Sirin 93). This shows that Obama has
focused on one aspect that mandatory minimum sentencing was looking to capitalize on and
changing his policy to try and help those affected by drug related problems; by not filling the
U.S. prison system with them. U.S. policies should be put in place to help citizens not to fill
prisons with them. For a change to happen in the prison system there needs to be more focus
shifted towards to decreasing crimes and not adding more ways for crimes to occur.
A form of sentencing that has had major impact on mass incarceration in the United
States is Truth-in Sentencing. Truth-in Sentencing is legislation that is aimed to commit
criminals to the sentences they were given rather than letting them go early because of how well
they do in prison. This form of legislation only furthers the growing problem the U.S. is facing
which is the overpopulating of prisons. “Truth-in-sentencing laws were another version of
determinate sentencing practices that were popular with politicians and the public in the 1980s
and early 1990s. These laws aimed to reduce discrepancy between sentences imposed and actual
time served in prison by imposing the length of time that offenders needed to serve, within their
given prison sentence” (Zhang, Maxwell, & Vaughn 2009). Truth in sentencing was meant to
make crimes set in stone as to the time a prisoner was to serve. In congress’ eyes it was meant to
create finite sentences and have little variation to whether a prisoner would serve less time than
another for the same crime. It is also shown, “They also believed that the sentencing reforms
would produce more consistent, more transparent, and fairer sentence outcomes. Although
persuasive evidence suggests that the policy changes did lead to a greater likelihood of
incarceration and longer prison terms for those who were incarcerated” (Spohn 2014). This
shows that Truth-in Sentencing legislation leads to more time spent in prison even when parole
could be offered to inmates who have had good behavior. It also led to increased likelihood of
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ending up in prison. Not only that it also led to prisoners having to serve longer sentences in
prison. This only leads to prisoners spending longer time in prison causing issues with space and
overcrowding. This plays a significant role in mass incarceration because of the fact that inmates
are forced to see out their sentence before even being considered for parole. This form of
punishment only serves to increase incarceration rates and worsen the prison system. It is shown
that, “Prisons that meet current constitutional norms are not necessarily humane, nor do they
necessarily serve our society’s long-term interest in rehabilitation of its criminals” (Angelos &
Jacobs). This shows that most prisons are not humane and don’t uphold the values first set in
place for the incarceration system. It was meant to rehabilitate and change criminals for the
better while deterring more crime. Policies like Truth-in Sentencing and mandatory minimum
sentencing have grown a system in which nothing gets done in terms of decreasing crime and
incarceration rates. These policy changes have shown to increase incarceration rates and hold
prisoners for longer than necessary.
The prison system failed to address the issues it set out to prevent with its policies on
sentencing. Especially when it comes to racial bias that was meant to be eliminated in
sentencing. Not only has it failed to eliminate racial bias in sentencing, it has failed in the prison
system as well. Increased prison rates due to sentencing policies has led to racial discrimination
in the prions. “First, if a black defendant believes that his likely prison sentence for a particular
infraction is higher than that which a white defendant believes he will receive, this would
constitute such a perceived difference” (Savitsky 2012). This shows that there would be a
preference for minimum sentencing because there is a fixed sentence based on the crime. This
would mean less discrimination in the sentencing process and create less a system in which all
people facing the same crime would receive the same sentence. However, this is not the case in
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the sentencing system. In many court cases there persists racial bias and many sentences differ in
the amount of time a convicted person receives based on race. Guetzkow explains, “U.S. race
relations are central to any explanation of the massive expansion of the criminal justice system
(Alexander 2010; Wacquant 2001; Western 2007). Beckett (1997) argues that the war on crime
was a political tactic to channel white anxieties and backlash over civil rights unrest. More
generally, theories of racial threat hold that whites feel threatened by African Americans and
hence react to their increased presence with more punitive corrections policies (Jackson 1989).
Jacobs and Helms (1999) find that growth in the presence of non-whites is accompanied by
increased spending on corrections nationally” (Guetzkow 2015). This indicates that the change in
sentencing policy is directly correlated to racism. That there was a push for these more punitive
policies because of a perceived racial threat due to backlash of civil rights movement. Not only
has sentencing not decreased racial discrimination it was basically founded on it. It shows that
measures meant to prevent more crime from happening ended up target victims who are African
American. “This observation is important to the current discussion because it makes us wonder
why there are more African Americans in prison than whites since whites committed twice as
much of the total crime. The answer is that there might be more African-Americans in prison if
the crimes they commit are much more serious than the crimes whites commit. Or, this situation
could arise due to racial biases that operate throughout the criminal justice process[.]” (Lynch,
Michael, Michalowski, & Raymond J. 160). This shows that there are more African Americans
in prison than whites even though whites commit twice as many crimes as African Americans
do. This shows that even with a higher rate of crime being committed by Whites the punishment
is more server for African Americans. Showing that discrimination does exist in the criminal
justice system. The United States’ justice system has failed in many regards. It has filled up its
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prisons with minorities committing crimes at a lower rate than the white minority. It has set in
place policies that aim to discriminate against minorities making it easier from them to be in
prison and stay there longer. The American sentencing policy has made it so that its prisons our
not only filled with minorities but that it is being filled juristically altogether. Leading to mass
incarceration and the overall epidemic the United States is facing.
Mass incarceration is a growing problem and has been facilitated by policies that lead to
the prison system being filled with more and more inmates. The United States intended focus of
deterring crime through these sentence policies have only worsened it by placing more
individuals in prison. Instead of changing the environments in which crime takes place the
sentencing policies have shown to capitalize on racial discrimination and force more minorities
into prison. The prison system has worsened due to these litigations on prison sentencing. This
has become one of the biggest issues this country faces today. Awareness should be raises to the
fact that mass incarceration is a big problem; Not only that but it also is contributed by the
sentencing policies that have been put in place by the United Sates. Focus should be shifted
towards changing these policies and decreasing the amount of people imprisoned.
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Sources For Core Writing Assignment:
1. Savitsky, D. (2012). Is plea bargaining a rational choice? Plea bargaining as an engine of
racial stratification and overcrowding in the United States prison system. Rationality and
Society, 24(2), 131-167.
2. Lynch, M. (2007). Critical Issues in Crime and Society : Big Prisons, Big Dreams :
Crime and the Failure of America's Penal System. New Brunswick, US: Rutgers
University Press.
3. Stevenson, Bryan, author. (2014). Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption. New
York :Spiegel & Grau,
4. Guetzkow, J. and Schoon, E. (2015), If You Build It, They Will Fill It: The
Consequences of Prison Overcrowding Litigation. Law & Society Rev, 49: 401–432.
5. Angelos, C., & Jacobs, J. (1985). Prison Overcrowding and the Law. The Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science, 478, 100-112.
6. Zhang, Y., Maxwell, C. D., & Vaughn, M. S. (2009). The impact of state sentencing
policies on the U.S. prison population. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(2), 190-199.
7. Spohn, C. (2014), Twentieth-Century Sentencing Reform Movement: Looking
Backward, Moving Forward. Criminology & Public Policy, 13: 535–545.
8. Mueller, R. (1992). Mandatory Minimum Sentencing. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 4(4),
230-233. Shows other side to minimum sentencing, side im trying to refute
9. Sirin, C. (2011). From Nixon's War on Drugs to Obama's Drug Policies Today:
Presidential Progress in Addressing Racial Injustices and Disparities. Race, Gender &
Class, 18(3/4), 82-99.
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