The United States judicial system believes in proving the innocent guilty when a crime is committed and then serving the individual a fair and just punishment. The role of jails and prison in our society is to act as punishment for committing a crime, prevent you from committing future crimes, and then to rehabilitate inmates back into normal society. While this system has always stood strong, within the past decades the population of  incarcerated citizens has skyrocketed as well as the length of the sentences. The prison system has lost sight of the main goals of incarceration and has abused the power of the system. Although the United States has increased punishment with longer sentences exponentially within the past two decades the way we imprison and correct our citizens who have committed crimes has shown to be ineffective and tends to lead ex inmates back into incarceration. The creation of the private prison industry is also causing a stray from the main goal of incarceration by allowing private businesses to profit off of jailing citizens. The quality of the prisons is set at such a low standard and inmates often can not be in prison without getting in more trouble. There are many negative effects to our current system, our country needs to fix this because it abuses the judicial system with harsh punishments, affects families nationwide, targets low level offenders and minorities, and offers little to no rehabilitation to inmates reentering society.

The United States has the largest portion of people incarcerated than any other country in the world and the rate is still growing. In October of 2014 a report was released by the government that indicated that our country has 22% of the entire world's imprisoned population. The country currently has 2.3 million people in jail which is approximately 716 people for every 100,000 which is the highest incarceration rate in the world. Laws and sentencing have increased severely within the past few decades, a main component to this being the creation of mandatory minimum sentencing. From 1984 to present day the incarceration rate has increased by over 400%. (Nesmith 257) This rate exceeds the rate of population growth and crime rate showing that there is little connection between the amount of crime being committed and the dramatic increase of citizens we are putting behind bars. This should come to no surprise considering legislation recently introduced to attempt to be tough on crime when in reality the government is severely punishing low level nonviolent offenders by putting them in jail for extended periods of time, especially repeat offenders. This ever-growing population of incarcerated citizens is highly expensive to the rest of the population.

Incarcerating the largest prison population of any country in the world does not come cheap to the rest of the country's population. With elongated prison sentences taxpayers have to pay to house and feed the inmates and pay for the construction of new prisons which have been being built at an alarming rate. The average cost to house our massive prison population is twenty four thousand dollars per inmate per year. With the population of inmates sitting just over 2.3 million the scope of the economic cost to our country comes into view. The cost of housing inmates is not the the only economic cost to taxpayers. The rate of incarceration has caused overcrowding in prisons causing the amount of new prisons being built to go through the roof. In 2014, the cost of contracting new prisons was slightly over 5.1 billion dollars. In total it is estimated that our prison system costs the country roughly 60.3 billion dollars a year. Although it is completely without a doubt necessary, there are steps our country needs to take in order to reduce the rapidly increasing incarcerated population. 

While imprisoning people is imperative to punishing actions, the system has been to harsh on minor offenses. The main goal of incarceration is to decide a fair punishment and attempt to correct inmates and deter them from committing future crimes, but our prison system  props ex inmates up to re enter into a life of crime due to the lack of rehabilitation that actually occurs and the record that follows them for the rest of their life. Almost any application a person fills out nowadays will ask if you have a felony, and any felon knows the chance of getting hired over any other person is slim to none. The amount of people that have gotten arrested, especially during their youth, is a surprising amount. in 2013 it was reported that 30-35% of people under the age of 23 have been arrested at least once in their life (Kelly 3). If they get arrested again, even for minor offenses such as a marijuana charge, they could see time behind bars. This is one of the reasons why prison populations have increased so dramatically while the rate of serious crimes has stayed relatively the same. The amount of people in prison has increased to the point that the private prison industry was introduced causing more corruption within the system.

Private prisons have allowed privately owned companies to profit off of incarcerated citizens and are paid to house them by the United States government. Private prisons were created as a result of overcrowding prison population after the surge of new inmates after mandatory minimums were introduced as part of Nixon's war on drugs and crime (Kelly 2). The problem with allowing this to happen is that these companies have a vested interest in increasing prison populations and making the sentences longer. With over 2 million people in prison, these companies are raking in some serious cash which they can use to lobby in congress for stricter laws and increased minimum sentences (Clemons). The top two private prison companies in the United States are the Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group. In 2010, tax reports showed that these two companies combines made over three billion dollars in revenue throughout the year. The corruption that the private prison companies bring to our judicial system is very apparent and should not be the solution to prison overcrowding. Between 1990 and 2009 the government has become more and more reliant on these companies to house their prisoners, with the private prison population increasing over 1600% (Clemons).  In 2012,  the Corrections Corporation of America made an offer to 48 governors to buy and operate their state funded prisons (Clemons). The increase in the private prison industry is not the solution to our mass incarceration epidemic that is unfolding inside our country, in fact it is making is drastically worse. If the general population knew more about private prisons, the majority would realize that it is morally and lawfully wrong to make money off long and harsh prison sentences. 

Mass incarceration was not always a problem in America but you can trace the epidemic back to its roots. In 1971, President Richard Nixon launched his famous War on Drugs to decrease illegal drug trade nationwide. This shouldn't have been a problem, people exchanging large quantities of drugs to suppliers should see serious time in prison. Unfortunately that is not how the campaign panned out, it ended up targeting average citizens with small personal quantities of drugs. The amount of simple possession charges skyrocketed and led to what used to be a fine turning into jail time. In 1984 the Sentencing Reform Act was passed, its main goal was to increase accuracy in federal courts but it ended up causing harsher sentences to ensure no crime went unpunished (Katel 299). Being tough on crime is always a good look for politicians but when it affects normal people this much policies need to be put into question. Back in 2009, there was a 237 page report by the American Civil Liberties Union titled "A Living Death" which recorded the conditions of 3,278 prisoners who had no chance of parole guaranteeing a life in prison. The crimes were all minimal ranging from shoplifting to minor drug offenses, but repeat offenders end up serving serious time. 79% of the cases were non violent drug offenses. As of this report there are 49,000 people in prison for life, a number that has quadrupled within the past 2 decades (Katel 297). Petty crimes such as shoplifting should never result in a life sentence, it just goes to show how companies are pushing for harsh punishments in order to seek personal gain.

Minority groups are specifically targeted for crimes and the disproportion between white americans and minority groups arrests is ridiculous. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People funded a study in 2014 revolving around the differences between arrests of white and black americans. The study showed that 14 million whites and 2.6 million blacks admitted to using an illicit drug (Foster). Despite there being 5 times the amount of users amongst whites, court records showed that blacks were imprisoned at a rate 9 times that of white americans. The study also found that the average sentence also varied by race. The average sentence for drug offense for a black american, 58.7 months, was shockingly almost equal to the sentence of a white american arrested for a violent act, 61.7 months (Foster). In today's society there is no escaping the news about the conflict between police and black americans. The targeting of minority groups and disproportionate prison sentences have a serious impact on the overall population of imprisoned citizens. 

Due to the overcrowding epidemic and the creation of private prisons, the conditions our prisons are run under have incredibly low standards which does not help rehabilitate the prisoners back into functioning members of society but instead push them back towards crime. The standards we hold our prisons to violate human rights and are genuinely inhumane. In 2011 a report from the Department of Justice stated that one in ten prisoners have admitted to being sexually assaulted by other inmates or the prison staff. It was estimated that over 600 of these attacks happen every single day. In December 2008, a total of 21,987 inmates in both federal and state prisons were HIV positive or were confirmed to have AIDS (Pinto 37). There is so much crime that occurs inside of prison walls it is almost ironic. Gang violence makes it hard for prisoners who want to serve their time and get out to go through their sentence without getting involved in violence and getting into even further trouble with the law. Prisons also practice inhumane forms of punishment, mainly the use of solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is a small, windowless cell for 23 hours a day with minimal access to family, lawyers, and guards (Katz). Studies have shown that using this method increases instability in inmates and increases violence. There is not even an attempt for rehabilitation, that sort of treatment would drive any normal person insane. The practice has been deemed torture by international law yet there are over 80,000 people in solitary confinement as of 2013, a rate growing faster than the incarceration rate itself. (Karakatsanis 258). Not only are prisons using inhumane practices, the overall quality of prisons is at such a low standard. In 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against East Mississippi Correctional Facility, a prison for mentally ill inmates. The investigation showed reports of unfed prisoners, infestations of rats, faulty plumbing and lighting, high percentage of rapes beatings and stabbings, and was described as "hazardously understaffed" (Karakatsanis 256). State budget cuts lead to poor quality food and a reduction in guards leading to a more hazardous environment (Katz). It is easy to not care about the conditions of prisons, most would think that they committed the crime so they deserve what they get. What people fail to realize is that today's prisoners are tomorrow's neighbors and if we fail to help them get the help they need they will just be detrimental to everyone when they rejoin society.

The end goal of locking people up is to rehabilitate them into becoming a functioning member of society and deter them from a life of crime. When people are completely removed from their lives for long periods of time it is incredibly hard to get back up on their feet. Ex inmates constantly struggle in the job market due to the "Have you ever been committed of a felony?" that is on every single job application nationwide. The common phrase you do the crime you pay the time doesn't really apply because they have already served their time, but the crime they committed will follow them around for the rest of their lives. Once you are committed of a felony you lose a lot of benefits that could be crucial for re entering society. Felons cannot apply for student loans so unless they have money in the bank, which most of them do not, they cannot advance their education to expand their opportunities in life (Dye 799). They also cannot apply for welfare which is a huge problem because most cannot land a job over those who have a clean record no matter how rehabilitated they actually are. They can't apply for food stamps which is another struggle for those coming out of prison with no money. They cannot apply for public housing so unless they have been keeping in contact with the outside world they may not have a place to stay (Dye 797). Many prisoners who have been in jail a long time get disconnected from all their friends and family support so they have nothing to fall back on when they get out of jail. All of this pushes inmates back into a life of crime which is why there is such a high percentage of prisoner re entry.  Ex convicts also have incredibly high rates of homelessness and suicide because they have nothing waiting for them when they get out and no opportunities that they can pursue (Javitze). Punish people for their actions, deter people from doing it in the future, rehabilitate people back into society; these are the goals of the United States prison system. The judicial system within the past decades have exceedingly punished people for their crimes at an alarming rate with long sentences, yet the prison system does not deter people from a life of crime but instead puts inmates in a violent hostile environment and puts ex inmates in a position that pushes them back into a life of crime. The practices inside of these prisons do little to no rehabilitating and can often worsen a prisoner's state of mind. Somewhere along the way of being tough on crime this country lost its way and became tough on prisoners.

Incarceration is a dark topic that is easy to avoid due to its extreme complexity. It's easy not to think about the conditions of prisoners or the growing problem of mass incarceration because it is so removed from normal society, there are literal walls between us and them. This is a country that likes to pride itself on its justice system, being tough on crime and those who are guilty. Being tough on crime will always be present, it is always a good stance for politicians to run on and it is so negatively viewed in the public eye. However, this increase in the war on crime has led to easier incarceration for longer prison sentences with influence of private businesses seeking to make profit off of jailing citizens no matter the level of crime actually being committed. No one could ever imagine going to prison, but society needs to reevaluate the way we look at our prisoners and the conditions they are subjected to. There needs to be more focus on how we are actually helping these people so that when they get out and move into your neighborhood that you know you are safe. It is not an easy discussion but it's one that affects a very large percentage of American people and their families. 

