The American Correctional System

Paper Summary:

This paper begins by citing numerous statistics on the numbers and demographics of the U.S. prison population. The paper then discusses the high levels of incarceration in the U.S., describes the American system's ruthless prosecution and incarceration of criminals deemed nonviolent and looks at theories regarding the positive correlation between economic disparity and punitive actions. Finally, the paper highlights the problem in the United States of widespread discriminatory imprisonment against the minority black and Hispanic populations.

From the Paper:

"The statistics about prisoners in American jails at the local, state, and federal levels and juvenile detention centers has shown a growth from 1,319,000 in 2001 to 2,166,260 in 2002. The year 2003 has seen the fastest rate of growth over the previous years. The rate of growth of prisoners in state prisons was estimated to be 1.8 percent while that in federal prisons was 7.1 percent and in local jails was 3.9 percent. (Cass, Report: 1 of Every 75 U.S. Men in Prison) Again the federal prison system has 163,528 prisoners which are greater than that of the state system. (Butterfield, A6) The national growth rate of prisoners is attributed to the increased growth rate in some of major states such as Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and California. It is evident that California accounts for the highest number of prisoners among the states and Texas has the highest proportion of prisoners. (Parkin, 69)"

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