In 2014, HBO's talk show host John Oliver did a piece about the United States prison system on his show, "Last Week Tonight." Oliver highlights that the United States now has over 2 million people behind bars, and that more than half are incarcerated for drug charges, yet this has done seemingly nothing to advance the nation's war on drugs. Oliver later elaborates on the substandard living conditions prisoners are subject to, along with the way society has been desensitized to sexual assault and rape but only when prisoners are the victims. While this is one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, it appears that America has placed less importance on the indivisible and liberty aspect.
Having spent a semester taking Sociology 399A: Social Issues Through Prison, I have gained first-hand knowledge about the prison system, and have gotten the opportunity to speak to individuals living in the system each day. From their experiences I have learned that America is, in fact divisible, and that divide is often manifested in the disparity of opportunities for those who have served time. This lack of opportunity often times leads to recidivism, the tendency for convicted criminals to reoffend upon release. Once the individual has reoffended, they are reinstituted into the system and the process begins all over again. On the surface, it may seem simple that those who offend should face the consequences of their actions, and while that is true, it is simply not enough to lock a man or woman away with little regard for their circumstances, which play a tremendous role in why people commit crimes. From disfigured neighborhoods and inadequate schools, to broken homes and addicted parents, the necessary components of a healthy lifestyle are often inaccessible to those living in poverty, and the United States has chosen to use mass incarceration techniques to combat crime, but it still remains persistent.
In terms of the country's liberty, it is true that every person is born free, in the sense that they are not the property of any other individual. What they are not always free from however, are the institutions that make a profit on the captivity of citizens, such as jails and prisons. What many fail to realize is that going to prison has a ripple effect in society. Many of the men in my sociology class, are fathers to little boys and girls. Many of them are not coming home any time soon, which means their children will go through life without their biological fathers. The lack of a father is often paired with hardly present mothers, who work multiple jobs to afford food and a home for their children. With little to no adult supervision, and underfunded school systems, kids and teens are more likely to turn to a life on the streets than they are to turn a page in their textbooks. Subsequently, they become slaves to the system that they were born into. Despite this tragedy, society as a whole still considers mass incarceration to be the answer to ridding crime from neighborhoods, instead of enlisting programs that may have more long-term positive effects.
In order to truly make a lasting impact, we must continue to advocate and vote for policies that aim to level the playing field between the affluent and the impoverished. My experience mentoring a group of Detroit high school students participating in the Mack Alive program last summer reaffirmed my belief that the drive to succeed exists even in those with all odds against them. So I ask, why not afford each and every one of those high school students the opportunity to get a proper education and ultimately improve their circumstances, instead of allowing them to get swallowed up by the system and continue the vicious cycle?
To truly resolve a problem, you must get to the root of it. Crime is always going to happen, but putting more people in prison is only a temporary solution that eventually perpetuates the same issue. The government spends more money to put a young man in prison for a year, than it would cost to send that young man to college for a year, and that stat alone is enough to see why reform of the mass incarceration policy is necessary.
