Advanced Essay Final Draft

America makes up 5% of the world’s total population, and 25% of the world’s incarcerated people. With over 2.2 million people imprisoned, it's hard not to wonder how we got to this stage. How did a country that makes up such a small portion of the world, become the producer of over 1/4th of our people’s incarcerated people? Until the 1970s, America’s incarcerated citizens rate was fairly stable throughout the years. What we see today, is a direct result of some harmful policies put together in the 20th century, that Americans are still suffering under today. These policies that we see have been enacted have furthered our problems with imprisonment in modern society.

The 1970s gave birth to what is commonly referred to in mass media as the War on Drugs. This is commonly recognized as when we as a government stopped treating drug addiction as a health issue and started to treat it as a crime issue. Thus, the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act was born. This act ultimately shaped what drugs were considered controlled substances, substances that weren’t, and instilled heavy burdens on those who did not abide by these strict ordinances. According to this act a person found possessing “less than 50 kilograms of marihuana, except in the case of 50 or more marihuana plants regardless of weight, 10 kilograms of hashish, or one kilogram of hashish oil, such person shall…  be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than 5 years, a fine not to exceed the greater of that authorized in accordance with the provisions of title 18, United States Code, or $250,000 if the defendant is an individual or $1,000,000 if the defendant is other than an individual, or both. If any person commits such a violation after a prior conviction for a felony drug offense has become final, such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than 10 years.” In 1970 the number of incarcerated citizens was 357,292. In 1980, that number was 513,900. In just ten years, we had amassed over 200,000 more prisoners at the start of the War on Drugs. However, the incarceration rate didn’t slow down there.

The Ronald Reagan Era introduced mandatory minimum sentencing. By doing this, Reagan introduced harmful sentences for harsh drugs. As we see now, marijuana has proven in recent years to not be as harmful as once portrayed. Mandatory Minimums introduced harmful sentences for marijuana. For instance, if you were thought to have attempted or actually carried out possession with intent to distribute was 10 years. If it was your second offense, you could see 20 years to life in prison for your crimes. So we see that people with either addiction problems or catering to the addictions of others, were forced into harsh sentencing. In the age of harsh sentencing for already extremely regulated drugs, our incarceration rate skyrocketed. The number of incarcerated citizens went from 513,900 in 1980, to 759,100 in 1985. In just FIVE YEARS, we see incarceration has essentially gone up ¼ . According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1985 of those 759,100, 94% (718,507) were in jail due to drug related crimes. In this case, the mandatory minimum sentences increased the amount of people who were in jail, and the amount of people who there for drug related crimes.

Bill Clinton was elected in the 90s majorly on his support of tougher prison sentencing. One of the major decisions that shaped his career was the 1994 Crime Bill. This bill introduced policies which expanded the death penalty, encouraged states to issue longer prison sentences, and eliminated federal education funding in prisons. The  prison population went from 1,179,200 to 2,015,300 in the year 2000. Bill clinton later admitted that this bill made the problem of mass incarceration much worse. The 1994 Crime Bill perpetuated the problem of mass incarceration, by encouraging prison systems to further the problem of mass incarceration. These bills throughout three decades have furthered the problem that America faced and continue to face today.

Throughout three decades, American policy makers perpetuated the issue of mass incarceration through policies that made it harder for prisoners to rehabilitate or even get out of jail. In the 70s, the beginning of the War on Drugs, Nixon began to crack down on drugs, treating drug addiction as a crime issue instead of a health issue. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan introduced in Mandatory Minimum Sentences. These sentences not only brought people into prison because of minor drug charges, but kept them there for years, sometimes decades. In 1994, Bill Clinton continued these issues of mass incarceration, by encouraging state governments to make longer sentences. Today, we see what these policies have created. A massive prison population, the largest in the world. But we can look at our prison policy history and see where surges in the prison population occurred and that they often coincide with a change in policy.

Bibliography

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