
In the article “American Imprisonment in Comparative Perspective” by Nicola Lacey, she surfaces the modern controversy that minorities are cursed with a disadvantage in the American legal system.  Lacey suggests that it’s not just the skin color of the minorities that are the issue, but it’s the deliberate manipulation of the corrupt political and economic system in America that is responsible.  Lacey doesn’t just pin the accountability on the federal government, Lacey is able to dissect each level of government, and the part they play to ensure maximum impact on the lives and futures of minorities.  Early in Lacey’s article, she uses a chart that records the imprisonment numbers by country from 2002 and from 2008.  Also in this chart, countries are grouped together on their stance on the economic spectrum.  The information translates like so…The U.S.A. has had FAR more imprisonments than any participating country on the graph, by several hundred thousand.  That statistic can be reasoned with the fact that we have a population of three hundred million.  However, the scary underlying meaning of the graph shows that a country like the USA, a market liberal nation, compared to a country like Netherlands, a conservative corporatist nation, has an imprison rate that shoots much higher over time.  Lacey uses this graph to summarize that it’s not just the political leaders we need to turn-to to cleanse social inequality, but that they must cooperate with corporate America.  

Nicola Lacey uses several relevant pieces of evidence to reveal the dark horse responsible for the incurable disease of social inequality.  Just as this current diabolical election for president has so easily portrayed, the politicians want to “fix” social inequality.  They solely think that enough policy and cooperation with their voting demographic will do just that.  Lacey tells them otherwise.  Lacey analyzed all the political possibilities that could heed change.  Then she realized, it isn’t JUST the political system that’s corrupt, it’s the economic system as well.  Lacey says “Mayors, for example, are not responsible for most aspects of a city’s economic performance,” even though mayors and other officials at that level preach and promise about lowering crime rates and cleaning up the streets (Lacey p 111).  Lacey wants to make the point that officials don’t have the economic connections to push for advancing minorities because it is essentially out of their hands.  Lacey does not want her message to be confused with her being a socialist.  Although she proved socialist governments have a more sensible and efficient means of advancing minorities and lowering imprisonment, Lacey just wants her proud liberal nation to find a compromise to lowering imprisonment and boosting the economy for the lower class without HUGE corporate profit and motivation.

In the article “Punishment’s Place: The Local Concentration of Mass Incarceration” by Robert Sampson, he discusses the issue of racial diversity, the flawed legal system, and steps to take to fix and abolish the previous corrupt ways of imprisonment.  Sampson begins his article with scary numbers of incarceration.  Sampson showed that the United States, more than any other nation, skyrocketed its imprisonment numbers in the modern era unlike any other country on the planet.  Sampson says that imprisonment is getting so high because the law enforcement knows exactly where to look.  The suppressed ghettos, like the ones he addresses in Chicago, are subject to something he likes to call “the negative feedback loop” (Sampson p 21).  In a large metropolitan city like Chicago, like all other major cities in the United States, its crime frequency peaked in the 1990’s.  Sampson’s chart he used was pulled from the Circuit Court Offices of Cook County, shows that although crime has gone down SUBSTANTIALLY, imprisonment has gone up ASTONISHINGLY.  How could this be?  Sampson’s next point of evidence uses is a geographic map of the incarcerated residents.  The map shows the densest population of imprisoned people live in the south and west sides of Chicago, notoriously known for being gang-ridden and unsafe.  Sampson is saying that as a law enforcement officer, you will surely find criminals in high density criminal locations. But rather as a nation, Sampson wants to give these poor, crime-ridden, communities more opportunity to advance so that as the crime rate continues to go down, the imprisonment numbers will as well.

Sampson fearlessly addresses some very controversial issues with some horrifying statistics.  But good thing he does.  This has been a prominent issue for a long time, especially in Chicago, that lacks efficient solutions.  The harsh truth to this subject matter is where it is happening.  Maps, graphs, data will all show you were the majority of these prisoners are coming from, and that is straight from the poor neighborhoods outside large cities.  The numbers DO NOT lie.  Another thing often talked about this issue is “well, they didn’t HAVE to do anything illegal in the first place,” which sure, theoretically, is true.  Even so, we were not raised how they were, we did not go to equally scholar schools, and we certainly did not have the same opportunity to get into college.  Sampson simply wants them to be helped.  We owe those neighborhoods that much.  Sampson wants these young men and women to quit being set up for failure, and allow others to benefit off of it!  Both the article written by Lacey Nicola and Robert Sampson agree that the first step to change is to allow for prison release programs so we can one day build up opportunity for the communities we ignored and trampled upon.  