The U.S. government tries its best to represent America as a free nation that protects everyone’s rights. However, it seems as if the American prison system does not fall into this category. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration, with a rate that is “five to ten times higher” than other western countries such as the United Kingdom and France. Furthermore, the justice system is skewed. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, although both races tend to have similar rates of drug use, a black male is “black people are jailed on drug charges 10 times more often than white people are." Along with facing racial discrimination, prisoners live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions unfit for humans. The American incarceration system is based on inhumane and immoral actions towards prisoners that are not in any means justified.
One moral that transcends all cultures and religions is to not harm others. Nevertheless, the prison system fails to abide by the same morals the rest of society follows. Every day, prisoners suffer from violence. In Dade Correctional Facility, located in Dade, Florida, 3,400 prisoners have died in jail since 2000. Majority of the deaths have been declared as accidental. However, it does not make sense why thousands of people could have all accidentally died. In one statement from Florida’s Okeechobee Correctional Institution, prisoner Theo Hall died after “accidentally spill[ing] some hot soup on his feet." These frivolous claims are used as excuses to hide the fact that these deaths are not accidental.
The death rate in prisons is not surprising. The violent and degrading conditions in prisons can cause death due to sickness, or lead to suicides. Because of the high rates of incarceration, many prisons are overcrowded. Several prisons in California do not provide mattresses or bedding for the prisoners because they wish to not spend more money. As a result, prisoners are forced to pile up and and stay in closed overcrowded spaces where diseases can easily spread. Furthermore, prison guards often look the other way when prisoners abuse other prisoners. In fact, at least one in every five women in prison is sexually assaulted. However, many prisons try to restrict abused prisoners’ access to treatment and help, thus leading many to choose suicide as an option. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the “U.S. is the only democracy in the world that has no independent authority to monitor prison conditions and enforce minimal standards of health and safety.” There is no aid given to prisoners, especially concerning mental health. Rather than aiding mentally ill prisoners, the guards instead put them in solitary confinement. Humans are naturally social beings, and by depriving people of a human need, the guards are depriving them of their sanity.
Solitary confinement is not the only way the prisons restrict freedoms. In 1987, the Supreme Court stated that “prison walls do not form a barrier separating inmates from the protections of the Constitution.” Unfortunately, correctional officials frequently attempt to restrict liberties. Many of these restrictions include limiting the amount of time prisoners can see their family, restricting access to religious texts, and as previously mentioned, not allowing people from seeking help after abuse. Prisoners are even ostracized after being released from prison. While the American justice system provides reentry programs that allow prisoners to once again be a part of society, it does not help provide any future solutions. Once a person leaves prison, he or she does not have enough money to make a living, and it is especially difficult to come across employment with a criminal record. As a result, reentry programs create an endless cycle that leads people back to prison. However, about 76.9% of all parole violations are only minor technical violations. There is no way to escape the prison system. The prison system does not provide a way for prisoners to assimilate back into society. Rather than trying to find solutions to aid former prisoners, the prison system merely forces them to return back to the isolated violent conditions in prison.
The purpose of a prison system should be to bring forth justice and allow for people who have committed crimes to change themselves for the betterment of society. Depriving people of their humanity is not the way to do so. While some argue that prisoners deserve these punishments because of their crimes, taking away their humanity is still immoral and one of the most terrible actions one can do. People continuously forget that prisoners are humans too; nevertheless, it does not stop them from treating prisoners as animals, and degrading them to beings less than humans. The cruel punishments and the calculated ways of ostracizing prisoners from society are simply a way to ensure that the prison business remains thriving. People do not wish to spend money on prisoners, yet are willing to pay for prison systems that do nothing to improve society. By reducing the incarceration rate, one can spend less money on the prison systems, and instead invest in the treatment of prisoners so that they can once again because valuable contributors in the world.
