America’s Prison System Problems: Explained

Summary

‘Investments in people, not jails and prisons, leads to a decrease in crime’ — We’re breaking down the history and stats behind America’s prison system and the misconceptions that keep incarceration rates growing.

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On any given day, the United States incarcerates around 2 million people. But when you look at who comes under correctional control over a whole year, that number is actually closer to 10 million people—which is roughly the populations of New York City and Chicago combined.

Now let’s break that down.

Of that nearly 10 million, more than 5.5 million people end up behind bars. 600,000 of those are sent to prison, and about 4.9 million of those are put in jail. Then there’s the folks on probation or parole, which comes out to roughly 4 million people.

So how did we get here?

‘Investments in people, not jails and prisons, leads to a decrease in crime’ — We’re breaking down the history and stats behind America’s prison system and the misconceptions that keep incarceration rates growing.

» Sign up for our newsletter KnowThis to get the biggest stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox: https://go.nowth.is/knowthis_youtube
» Subscribe to NowThis: http://go.nowth.is/News_Subscribe

On any given day, the United States incarcerates around 2 million people. But when you look at who comes under correctional control over a whole year, that number is actually closer to 10 million people—which is roughly the populations of New York City and Chicago combined.

Now let’s break that down.

Of that nearly 10 million, more than 5.5 million people end up behind bars. 600,000 of those are sent to prison, and about 4.9 million of those are put in jail. Then there’s the folks on probation or parole, which comes out to roughly 4 million people.

So how did we get here?

Author: Shenique S. Davis

Shenique S. Davis (née Thomas), Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) Borough of Manhattan Community College. Prior to joining CUNY, she served as a Senior Policy Analyst with the Council of State Governments Justice Center where she managed projects centered on the improved application of the risk and needs framework in corrections and developed training curricula and resources to support a more informed approach of reentry strategies, specifically for adults with sexual offense convictions. Her research interests concentrate on the social consequences of mass incarceration, with a particular focus on race/ethnicity, race-related stress, and the family. Shenique has taught courses for the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons Consortium (NJ-STEP) and previously worked as a research assistant professor at the Rutgers University Evidence-Based Institute for Justice Policy Research. Shenique has co-authored scholarly articles on the social implications of mass imprisonment, most recently presenting her research at the University of Oxford. Shenique received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University, School of Criminal Justice and earned her BA in Psychology from Hampton University.

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