U.S. High Prison Population.

The United states is a first world country, with a relatively wealthy population in comparison to other countries. The country is considered an upstanding and prospering nation. However, the United States has the highest incarcerated population of any country in the world. The American criminal justice system has caused this large and growing amount of prisoners. The United states has an overly high incarceration rate, which is due to severe prison sentences of specific groups of people for drug related crimes, and a poor criminal reformation system which keeps them trapped in the prison system.

The United States has a population of over three hundred million people, making it the third most populated country in the world. Despite being less than a third the size of the two most populated countries, the United States has the world’s largest population of incarcerated people, around 2.3 million. More than 0.7% of Americans are currently incarcerated. One percent of adults over the age of eighteen in the United States are currently in prison. (NY Times). The fact that the United States criminal justice system puts so many offenders in prison causes the country to have an overly high crime rate because so many people are convicted.  The way that it’s criminal justice system works is what is causing this high population.

The amount of prisoners in the U.S. has increased over time. This increase isn’t entirely due to an increase of crime overall, rather the increase of a specific type of crime that has been greatly penalised by the justice system in recent years. The United states illegality on the selling and usage of certain drugs has resulted in a massive increase in the number of arrests.In 2012, 1.55 million people were arrested on drug related charges (Drug Policy.org). Penalties for drug related crimes can be severe, and have resulted in increases in the number of arrests. Introducing a new type of crime by placing such heavy penalties on drugs.

The goal of prison is to punish criminals. Ideally prisoners should leave prison with a changed attitude towards their crime, and hopefully will not commit one again. Often this isn’t the case. 68% of all released prisoners end up back in prison within three years of their release. This proves that the prison system is ineffective for most people. This is because the punishment of felons doesn’t always help them. Incarceration might make someone more wary of committing a crime, but they often they have no other ways to make a living but to live a life of crime, and that doesn’t often change after they get out of prison (Barrish). United states prison’s often do not reform criminals. Prison is a harsh place, and prisoners may feel alienated and depressed. But these emotions don’t always serve as a punishment, rather they just negatively affect the mental health of the prisoners, which doesn’t help to reform them. If anything it can make them feel like outcasts of society, which does not aid them to be productive members of it.  Also being surrounded by other criminals creates an atmosphere of concentration crime, and that doesn’t help prisoners to get away from that lifestyle (Henry).


“In seeking to severely penalize the criminals away behind safe walls actually provides them with the means of greater strength for future atrocities glorious and otherwise.” Jack Kerouac, author and former prisoner.


This is why prisoners usually end up back in the prison system.

Targeting specific ethnic groups, while unjust is an effective way of arresting a lot of people. There is racial profiling in the U.S. criminal justice system. Police specifically target neighborhoods with high black and hispanic populations, thus arresting more blacks and hispanics. Only fourteen percent of drug users are black, but forty five percent of people incarcerated for drug related offenses are black. White’s and Black’s use and sell illegal drugs about the same amount. That means that a greater percentage of blacks are being are being arrested for a crime than whites, when both actually commit the crime at the same rate (Rushing). This shows that police are racially profiling blacks. Targeting these ethnic groups has caused an increase in prison population because the police are paying a lot of attention to areas with a concentration of crime caused by non-white people. This racism allows the police to target these areas and arrest a lot of people from them.

The high prison population in the United States has to do with the fact that to many people are being sent to prison for too long, and too many people are returning after they are released. The country is trapped in a cycle of high incarceration rates. Providing for these 2.3 million prisoners is expensive and is costing taxpayers a lot of money. The police cracking down on drugs, and targeting groups of people who use them is resulting in a large number of arrests. Many prisoners are not becoming productive members of society, they’re just trapped in this cycle of crime, which will keep hurting society, both socially and economically.








Works Cited:


  1. Barrish, Cris. "Study: 8 in 10 Released Inmates Return to Del. Prisons."USA Today. Gannett, 31 July 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/31/delaware-prison-recidivism/2603821/>

  2. Henry, Stuart, Ph.D. "Defining Punishment and How It Works." On the Effectiveness of Prison as Punishment. Wayne State University, 24 Oct. 2003. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.is.wayne.edu/StuartHenry/Effectiveness_of_Punishment.htm>.

  3. Liptak, Adam. "U.S. Prison Population Dwarfs That of Other Nations."Nytimes.com. New York Times, 23 Apr. 2008. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2008%2F04%2F23%2Fworld%2Famericas%2F23iht-23prison.12253738.html%3Fpagewanted%3Dall%26_r%3D1%26>.

  4. Rushing, Keith. "The Reasons Why So Many Black People Are in Prison Go Well Beyond Profiling." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 June 2011. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-rushing/the-reasons-why-so-many-b_b_883310.html>.

  5. "Drug War Statistics." Drugpolicy.org. Drug Policy Alliance, 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics>.

  6. "Population of All Countries of the World / All National Populations Largest to Smallest - Worldatlas.com." Population of All Countries of the World / All National Populations Largest to Smallest - Worldatlas.com. Worldatlas, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/populations/ctypopls.htm>. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.

Soy Lupe fiasco

lupee_fiasco1
lupee_fiasco1
Hola me llamo Lupe fiasco. Tengo trienta y dos años. Soy de Chicago pero vivo en Atlanta. Soy alto, artistico,serio, y trabajador.

Me fascina veer la tele, dormir, y andar en patienta.

Tambien, me gusta cantar, escribir, yjugar videojuegos.

¿Te gusta es cantar?

Soy Chase Utley

Hola.  Soy Chase Utley.  Soy de Calafornia, pero vivo en filadelphia.  Tengo treinta y cinco anos.  Soy alto y deportista, porque yo juego el besibol.  Soy super famoso.  Mi equipo es los Filadelphia Phillies.  

Me gusta jugar todos los deportes, y jugar video juegos.  Mu gusta dibujar y comer un poco.  No me gusta leer o limpiar nada.  

Te gusta beisbol?


Soy Morgan Freeman

¡Hola! Me llama Morgan Freeman. Tengo setenta y siete años. Soy de Tennessee pero vivo en New York City y Mississippi.


Soy alto, deporitista bestante famoso. Soy cómico y serio.


Me gusta ir al cine. No me gusta nada cantar. Soy muy talentoso. Me fascina musica. ​Me gusta Imagine Dragons y Green Day. No me gusta nada Uno Direction.


¿Te gusta ir al cine?
morgan freeman
morgan freeman

Me llamo Michael Vick!

Hola, Me llamo Michael Vick. Tengo 34 años. Soy de Virginia, pero vivo New York.


Soy famoso fútbol americano. Me gusta practicar deportes. Mariscal de campo (quarterback) New York Jets. Sin embargo, judué Atlanta and Filadelfia.


Me gusta escuchar música. Me encanta correr y tremendamente rápido (fast). No, me gusta nada videojuegos. Soy trabajordpr y inteligente.


¿Te gusta fútbol americano?    

Madison Militello

Hola, me llamo Madison Militello. Tengo catorce años. Soy de Filadelphia. 
Soy baja, divertida, e delgado. Soy bastante sociable. 
Me encanta pasar un rato con amigos cuando tengo tiempo libre. Me encanta ir de compras. No me gusta nada ayudar en casa. Me gusta escuchar musica cuando tengo tiempo libre.
¿Te gusta eschuar ?


I Am Malala

Melissa Alvarez | Earth Stream

11/5/14


No one really knew about the Swat Valley district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, and no one really knew that the Taliban were occupying this Pakistani Province, or the type of limits and restraints the women were being forced to live by. No one really ever knows about what’s really happening worldwide unless it’s in front of their own eyes. In front of 15 year old Malala Yousafzai’s eyes before everything changed in her life, was a gun at point-blank range and the sound of a bullet ringing through her ears.


In the year 2009, 11 year old Malala Yousafzai wrote a blog for BBC originally under a pseudonym, about what her life was like under the occupation of the Taliban in her home town of Mingora. The Taliban restricted girls from being able to attend school and receive a quality education (let alone any education), and if disobeyed, they would more than likely be facing death. Malala wrote all about how she believes everyone deserves equal rights to an education. She began giving interviews, appearing on TV, speaking with her father at events, taking part in a documentary for the New York Times. She slowly but surely became popularized from the outside, which posed a threat to the Taliban that a teenage girl was speaking out against them. On the afternoon of October 9th, 2012, the Taliban boarded the school bus Malala was taking, and shot her in the head while injuring two others. Yousafzai’s incredible recovery has only achieved the opposite of the Taliban’s hopes. Malala is now the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient in history for her bravery and activism, and she continues to speak at major events (the United Nations, the Liberty Medal award ceremony, the Forbe’s Best Inventors Under 30, etc.), and continues to spread her cause globally.


The book “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” leaves you wondering about what’s next on Malala’s list of remarkable experiences. She writes all about the love and melancholy she feels by having to be separated from her home in Pakistan. Readers are taken back to the short amount of time Malala spent as an adolescent, with her childhood stories and observations she made about her family early on. She writes about how and why her father was such an inspiration and motivator to her when she needed it, and how he’s been there every step of the way with her. The descriptiveness throughout the entire book gives the audience a very vivid and surreal experience, almost as if these are our memories and not hers. From the very beginning of the book, any reader is caught and fished in as Malala leaves them wanting more. From the very beginning, the story line cuts right to the chase down to the moment they pulled the trigger to her head. You won’t be able to put it down.


Some major themes recognized in this book are survival, family, the right to an education, and the definition of beauty. Malala has overcome and written not only about hardships she’s experienced personally, but the hardships her mother has also experienced, and the women before her. It is not uncommon in her Valley for women to give up their rights just to stay home, cook, clean, and raise sons. It is what they’ve been programmed to do by their ancestors, but it is something Malala has refused to do with the help and guidance of her father. Throughout this tale, you will also pick up on a little bit of ‘Pashto’ as Malala refers to certain things with certain titles from her native language (with an english translation accompanied). You will learn more about family than ever before, and the power of what the support from the right people can help you to accomplish. Also from this book will be a strong reminder about home and what it means to have a place you come from and find to be beautiful in every way that is your own; Be it the bustling city streets of New York, to the beautiful silence of the Mingora mountains, we each have some place to call home and will remember to love after finishing this book.


Malala to me almost represents a real-life Katniss Everdeen. She is very much the survivor, the motivator, the one who never loses sight of her beliefs, and the one who stood out. If you are interested to hear a very visual tale of survival, near death experiences, and a personal comeback into a new and more powerful life that the author is still adjusting to, this book is very highly recommended.



Title: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

Author: Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Date of Publication: November 26th, 2013

Pages: 464

Genre: Non-Fiction


Link to creative piece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrACYiz5QUE


Soy Mark Zuckerberg

59441-poster-p-1-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-hacker-dropout-ceo
59441-poster-p-1-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-hacker-dropout-ceo

Hola, Me llamo es Mark Zuckerberg. Tengo treinta y tres años. Soy de White Plains, NY pero vivo en Palo Alto, California.


Me gusta (mucho) jugar con mi teléfono. Soy súper inteligente. Me algo famoso.


Me gusta Facebook. Soy creativo. Soy algo serio en trabajar. Me gusta (mucho) dinero. Soy billionare. Soy más o menos alto.


Soy Aaron Ash (Yamimash)

Yamimash
Yamimash
​Hola, mi nombre es Aaron Ash, aka Yamimash. Tengo 23 años, mi cumpleaños es veinticinco de agosto. Pero vivo en London, England. Soy de costumbre tímido, pero muy comico. Es cierto, soy muy, muy adorable. c; Me encanta jugar videojuegos en YouTube. Soy por lo general bobo. Soy amigo de Markiplier!

Soy Jon Stewart

jonstewart-stephencolbert_indecision2008
jonstewart-stephencolbert_indecision2008
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
¡Hola! ¿Comó estas? Yo soy muy bien. Me llamo Jon Stewart. Tengo 51 años. Yo soy un poco viejo, pero yo soy muy chevere. Soy de New York, y yo vivo en Tribeca, New York City. 

Yo soy muy divertido, y  famoso. Tambien soy bastante bobo. Yo soy súper súper comico. Tambien, yo tengo una familia impresionante. 

Me gusta ver la tele y leer. Me encanta pasar tiempo con mi familia, y me gusta mucho pasar un rato con amigos. Tambien me fascina escuchar musica y hablar con Stephen Colbert, mi amigo bueno. Me gusta ir al cine, sin embargo no me gusta nada ir de compras, porque es súper aburrido.

¿Te gusta contar chistes?

Soy Tyler Hoechlin

th
th
Hola, me nombre es Tyler Hoechlin. Tengo 27 años. Soy de Californi, Corona pero vivi en Filadelphia.

Soy alto, deportista y muy famoso. Las Chicas y Chico dicen que soy supér guapos. Es cierto.

Me gusta acto. Mis fans dicen que talentosa. No me gusta nada escribir. Prefiero correr y pasar tiempo con mi amigos. Me encanta trabajar. Me encanata laboral con Dylan O'brian, Tyler Posey, y Holland Roden.

Soy Tyler posey

tlyer posey
tlyer posey
Holla, Me llamo Tyler posey, Tengo 23 años. soy de Santa Monica 

Soy alto,deportista, y muy famoso.  Mis fans dicen yo ta muy guapo.

Me encanta acto. Soy muy comico. No me gusta nada cantar, prefiero pasar un rato con amigos(dylan obrien). Me gusta nadar y jugar video juegos. Me fascina Tyler Hoechlin y Crstal Reed pero no me gusta nadacolton hayes.

Soy Eminem



Soy eminem . Soy de cuarenta y dos .Soy de Saint Joseph,Mo.  Soy artistico, Soy creativo, y talentos. Me gusta y rap. Me gusta cantar y mi gusta esribir cantar. Soy extana en guapo camino. En guapo tiene que ser en cantar. Me encnta rap en mi. Mi no estaria aqui . Muy Muy gracios dos rap. Mi encanta rap. Mi encanta vida  y tele el mundo .  tu se lo que como ahora.
Como eres tu?




Soy Michael Jackson!

Hola! (HEE-hee). Me nombre es Michael Jackson (OWw!) tengo cincuenta y seis ( 56 ) años. soy de Gary Inc, pero vive en California. Soy alto, serio, diverito, y trabajador. Me gusta bailar y cantar! (HEE-hee!). ¿Te gusta Bailar? ¿Te gusta cantar?
soy ¨King of Pop¨!. (HEE-hee!!)...

Soy August Alsina

 

Hola, me llamo August Alsina. Tengo 22 años. Feliz Cumpleaños septiembre 3. Soy de New Orleans, LA pero vivo en California. 
Soy alto, bastante famoso. Chicas dicen que soy guapo. Me gusta cantar y escuchar música. Me fascina tocar la guitarra.