This video was very interesting and I thought it was very informative. As a student who is currently studying to go into the Criminal Justice line of work, it was quite the eye opener. Until this video, I had only heard stories of this. This video gave me statistics for the problem at hand and explained it to me in an understandable way as not to overwhelm me with numbers. It told of the United States’ staggering prison population which, according to the video, is higher than the second and third more populous cities in the United States. They would create the second largest city in the continental United States if they were to create their own city. This is obviously too high of a number and they gave a good explanation for this. This was explained by the war on drugs and how there is a large number of non-aggressive or nonviolent drug offenders and users in today’s prison. It was also stated that 38 different states have fewer people living in that state then the country and that one in every 35 people are under some kind of correctional supervision. It is because of these staggering number that it essentially “woke me up” in the ways that it really explained what is going on in the criminal justice system. They even put statistics in there to hammer in the point and give numerical proof of their accusations. Several question came to mind when I watched it. These questions were things like: Why are there so many people in the correctional system? Is this the fault of the law or something else? How do we fix this? Can we fix this? As a person going into the criminal justice line of work, is there anything I can do? This video also looked it the statistics of the incarceration rate of different races, and I saw some things that are not right like the incarceration rates of blacks (33.3%), Hispanics (20%), and those of Caucasians descent being only 4%. From these number, anyone would be able to tell of some sort of disparity in incarceration rates per race. It makes me wounded what is going on. I look forward to learning more about these in my class and getting answers that I do not know yet. The big question that came to my mind personally was, why is it like this today? - TheMarshall789
This is a sad truth as you had mentioned as this has many individuals prisoner in the correctional system losing out on freedom which is what many of us get to enjoy due to the point of view of per profit for those who are in charge of the private prison system. The root of the cause points to the money trail of who is profiting from this misfortune the way to overcome this as a nation is to show what the truth is for misdeeds of these individuals who only seek after this with the intent to have financial gain. Which effected the lives of these individuals. Also shown from this data as mentioned is that as a society we have more individuals who have certain racial features than others to have a higher outcome of facing legal trouble. This is sad as crime has no face but yet we treat it as if it does very sad.
This video blew me away by the number of incarcerated people. The fact that there are 4 states population worth, ( Houston, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Phoenix), of people in jail and prisons blows my mind. I understand that there are some hardened criminals in places like this for the safety of the society, but on the other hand there are people in for nonviolent crimes that should not even be there. In my opinion it is a waste of money to lock people up for petty crimes like having a small amount of weed on them. It is honestly just crowding up jails and prisons with people who are not a danger to society. I agree with the statement the woman makes about rehabilitation for these people behind bars. I do not believe that people who were arrested for prostitution and drug abuse type crimes should be placed behind bars. They should be helped in some way to get them back into society as a civil person. Now a days they are so concerned on keeping people in and making money like they mentioned, that they lost the true focus and that is to make them learn a lesson and get them back to being a part of the community and work. Another thing that was mentioned and I did not know was that the government tries to keep illegal immigrants in jail for as long as they can before deporting them again. I do not agree that this should be done. That is just another reason why the prisons are overcrowding. It makes no sense in the first place. The whole reason they are being deported is because they are getting away with not having to pay on stuff that any other American has to, yet then they make the citizens pay for them to be locked up before they are deported back to where they came from. To me that is a crazy waste of time and money. My over all take away from this video is the realization that everything is about profits and not about actually helping these people in some of the hardest times of their lives. This is almost sad in a way to think that we have lost focus on the fact that some of these people could be a working and functioning member of society with the right help, and instead we are turning them into harder criminals than before they went in. I am not oblivious to the truth that some of them will never change and you can not change them. - ST789
It is crazy to think that the total number of incarcerated people in prisons exceeds the population of Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia and San Antonio. Locking people up for petty and small crimes isn't the right thing to do, like you said. Prisons should be for violent offenders who are a danger to society and shouldn't be allowed on the street. Those who are in trouble due to petty crimes should be helped mentally to be rehabilitated and to get them back and functioning well in society. I agree with the fact that we shouldn't keep illegal immigrants in prison for as long as we do. This doesn't help with the over-crowding issue we have today. paww789
It’s hard to believe that the amount of people going through the criminal justice equals close to 6 million going through correctional system within the justice system. This is outstanding given the fact of many non-violet offenses and such as also people illegally being in the country being through into inccarraction instead of giving them impenetrate deportation. With this being stated as shown in the video with the exitance of the private prison some with the exitance of cluaseing with 95 percent of the beds must be full or states still pay for the unoccupied beds. Also, outstanding 1/3 black man have a likely hood of going into the correctional system when must the data show real change also said by the video 1/25 white men going into this system if the data shows bias than we as people have an existing bias that needs fix as crime is not bias. Also, a major point by this people individuals who do not have victims for their various crimes why imprison these individual’s what do they have to learn from being imprisoned because they never sought after damaging other individuals from the start of their offense being committed. This video points out the fact that we have more people going through this system than we do for 6 million that’s taking two majorly overcrowded cities in our country such as Chicago, and New York and throwing their entire population into this cycling system. The effect is what the video mention the “sad truth” we have a system that profits the private prison industry draining state and federal resources, but also has proven through the facts and data shows that the percent of people who reoffend are those who were non-violet offenders coming into prison for the first time. The message needs to be redirected by legislature’s looking at the data the facts at hand and understand these are more than just numbers these are people most are good people why lock up someone who would make a positive impact in the world for an individual that just needs some help in whatever capacity that would meet that individuals personal need. At the end of the day outside of these contracts and policies set in place what would bring change to the injustice done to these individuals is personally sitting down with these offenders one on one for lawmakers understanding what their going through, or seeing the effects this has on family friends or their personal lifestyle in general. Eagle789
This video was very interesting to me. I had no idea that 6.9 million Americans are behind bars. That is an astonishing number. It’s very hard to believe even. And when it is broken down by race it is even more unbelievable. only 1/25 white males end up in prison vs 1/3 of black males?That is crazy to think about. It’s even more crazy to think that over half of those people that are incarcerated are considered non-violent offenders, and are only in prison because of drugs or victimless crimes. I agree that our justice system only cares about money at this point and not whether or not someone has been rehabilitated or not. The whole point of prisons should be to make sure that all of the offenders can be rehabilitated and be able to go back out into the public and be civil. However, I don't believe our American system sees it that way. I believe that it is a waste of money for tax payers to pay money into the funding of prisons when they aren't even being used the correct way. I also agree with the fact that people that are in prison because of drugs or victimless crimes shouldn't be in prison, however, what do we do with them? Drugs will always be illegal, but do we give them probation? what about prostitution? A lot of people out there believe prostitution shouldn't even be illegal. I do believe drug offenses and victimless crimes aren't considered prison worthy, however you have to have an alternative. I don't ever remember prison numbers being this high, but I am still young and I wasn't paying attention to the prison numbers until recently. As a person who will be going into the criminal justice field, I wonder what kind of changes can be made or what kind of changes I can advocate to make. Because it is obvious that changes have to be made to the system, it is just a matter of whether people will go about to make these certain changes. It will take a while to make certain changes towards how we inaccurate people and how we sentence people, but i believe it can be done. The over-crowding of prisons I feel isn't a good thing, and maybe if the prisons have less people in them, then the chances of inmates being rehabilitated will go up. paww789
I agree with you on many things in the article and what you said. This video has brought to light some things that do not make sense and need to be addressed. This video has told of many things about the United States’ correctional system and the numbers and statistic really hammer in the point. Something is wrong. Some questions I asked myself after watching this video was why it is like that and how do I fix it. These questions are something I look forward to learning in the class and, perhaps, be able to do something about. It really is a disparity that all of these people are in the correction system and that most are there from non-aggressive drug abuse charges. I can only imaging the emotional cost on their families and the economic cost on the United States as a whole. –TheMarshall789
I agree with you in regards to the statement that you were shocked to see that there 6.9 million Americans behind bars. I also found it establishing when they broke it down by race, The fact that one in three African-American males will end up in prisons is crazy. Also made a good point by saying the system is not in it anymore for rehabilitation they are more in it for money especially the private prisons. The government needs to lessen the punishment for drug offenses and not care much about whether the private prisons are making money and focus more on rehabilitation. Are you see there is no reason nonviolent people or people that have not committed any crimes against anyone they shouldn’t be thrown behind bars. -RHB789
I agree with you. Nearly half of the people who are imprisoned are being incarcerated for nonviolent or victimless crimes like drug charges, etc. Prison should be a place for people who actually have victims associated with their crimes and should have to pay for their mistakes. Also, race is an enormous factor when it comes to imprisonment. It should not be this way, but sadly that is the way it is in today's world. If one is not white, they are highly more likely to be put into prison compared to a white person, simply because of their skin color and nothing else. -Fozz789
i do agree with you that some of the people in prison are with minor crime and nonviolent crime if the government do something they will save lot of resources that they spend keeping them in prison but this is not the way to free people to do more crimes but certain law should be implemented gusii 789
The number of incarcerated people is completely unbelievable. I do believe that some people like violent offenders should be locked up in prison. There are so many things that can get a person sent to prison. Yes, there is such thing of getting out for good behavior but we don’t really hear about it. I didn’t know that undocumented immigrants were incarcerated for a while before getting deported back to where they came from. They come here to try and better themselves and help out their families back home. There is no point to have any immigrants in prison if they are getting deported. The deportation process makes it harder for them to come back into the United States LEGALLY. Deportation is something you can’t get off your criminal record. It isn’t fair to them to have to spend time in prison if they are getting deported. Deportation is already punishment enough for them in my opinion. You shouldn’t be able to blame them for taking resources but at the same time make money off of them by sending them to prison before deportation. They come to this country for a reason and that’s to change the way they used to live in. Immigrants don’t just come here because they want to move somewhere different. They come here because they don’t have the same opportunities where they come from compared to the United States. I really can’t believe that this happens to them. It is wrong in every way you can think of. Why are nonviolent offenders sent to prison? I know that there are some cases where nonviolent offenders should be in prison but it still depends on the crime and they should be separated from the violent offenders. In my opinion, keeping the nonviolent offenders in prison is only going to change. Everyone knows that there is a lot of violence in prison. Just because someone is in prison, doesn’t mean that the violence will stop at the door. You sometimes hear about gang vs gang violence, stabbings, and even guards being fought by the inmates. It is a totally different world in the prisons. I also believe that it makes people more aggressive than what they already were before they were put into it. I also do believe that being in prison does play a role in physiological matters. For example, solitary confinement keeps the prisoner to himself and with no one to talk to. I think it would be very mind numbing. -Chewbacca789
I agree with you on the notion that it is absolutely ridiculous that we incarcerate people before they deported form our country. It does not make much sense, especially from a funding standpoint as it costs us more money to incarcerate these individuals before we deport them back to their respective countries. I also agree with you on the fact that being deported should be punishment enough as it increases the difficulty of being able to come back to our country legally, especially because it is already hard enough to become a U.S. citizen if you are not born here anyway. Pack789
I agree. Half of the people who are being locked up for supposedly committing a felony such as drugs and illegally crossing the country are probably good people, who done bad choices. Yes drugs are bad, but there should be a more discrete discretion about incarceration people who really don’t belong in prisons. The system is so corrupt that we are at the point that no one is doing anything about it, nothing we can do, or not to mess with it. I don’t know what the real problem behind is, but there is something wrong happening. To many incarcerations, that look pointless. - LILPUMP780
i understand why they would hold them but not put them in prison. I can see why they would illegal immigrants into prison until the they get ahold of the foreign government until they can arrange for transport back to their country of origin. But you should only need a holding cell until transport back. JeepGuy789
The amount of incarcerated people in the United States is quite frankly baffling, over 6.9 million people are either incarcerated or on parole. One crazy thing that I learned while watching the video is that many people who are illegal immigrants to our country are incarcerated before they are deported to their home country. In my opinion being deported would be punishment enough for the illegal immigrants because it then makes it harder for them to come here legally in the future. Quite frankly incarcerating them makes no sense in my opinion because it is just adding more bodies to our prisons or jails for no reason and it is something that tax payers such as myself have to pay for in the long run, considering most prisons are funded by tax dollars. Another cray statistic that was shown in the video is that only 1/25 of white males end up in prison as compared to the 1/3 of black males who end up in prison. This statistic is mind blowing as it shows, I believe, a deeper problem rooted within not only are corrections system but our justice system as a whole. I am not saying that our system is racist however there is obviously some sort of issue, perhaps the system as a whole is too harsh on black males who commit crimes and more lenient towards white males who commit crimes. Unfortunately, there are still many people who believe people of a different skin color than them are in some way different, which does not make much sense, and they are in turn harsher on the penalties given to those individuals. It was also stated in the video that many prisons have been bought by private owners and have thus created a trend where we see many prions being bought and operated by private persons and not run by the state or federal governments respectively. Tis can provide some positives to the system as the prisons do not have to rely on the government for funding and can often times function fine even through economic hardships. In my opinion, however this has cause more problems because now it has changed to be all about money as private prisons make more money when they have more inmates. I believe this has caused our mass incarceration numbers to increase at a rapid speed because these privately-owned prisons just want more inmates so they can make more money. I feel like this a one of the main reasons why we have seen more and more people being incarcerated each year. Pack789
I agree on what you are saying. We are both on the same page about the immigrants being held in prison before they are departed. Those immigrants are just bodies that don’t need to be put in that situation. I had no idea that it was happening to them. I was extremely upset at that fact because both of my parents were immigrants at a point in time. They became legal after a short period of time of being here. I’ve heard stories about others and their journeys on how they got to where they were. I also agree on what you were saying about the problems being not only in corrections but also in our justice system. -Chewbacca789
I agree with what you are saying about the unfair treatment of illegal immigrants, because I believe the vast majority of them simply seek out a better life and more opportunities. I do wonder if the video did not explain why they are being held for so long on purpose. It probably takes a lot of legal work to deport people properly with collaboration from another country. however I am not certain on this. Just a thought. Maybe a better alternative to this would be updating the citizenship process and making a more time considerate option for people to immigrate. - Rudedogg789
I feel the number of incarcerations is not surprise considering the fact that society has changed a lot over the past of couple of years. She is right, why do we lock immigrants? They are getting put in prisons for crossing the country to make a better living. Also, drugs are bad, as we know; unless the drugs are prescribe from a doctor, which is okay. But, people who get looked up for going to prison, are not bad people. These are people who only made a bad decision. Not to mention, the amount of money that cost to only put one person in jails or prison is hectic. Indeed, race also plays a big role into this as well. Race is no were near a correlation to be sent to prison. 5 million people are a lot, and I am scared that the number could rise in the future. I understand the meaning illegal, and I also understand these people who are humans as well, who are getting locked up for something that, yes, is illegal to cross the border and than getting locked up is unbelievable. Who is to blame now in days? Because even though we can all point fingers, there is no point because our society is messed up, and partially because of stereotypes and media. We should incarcerate real criminals for a legitimate crime, than there is no problem. Also, I am a Hispanic who wants to be a future police officer and I want to make a change to this. To change for the common good, a change to see how the world thinks. I believe half of those incarcerated are in prisons because of drugs. I recall, not everyone is a bad person, they are just sometimes, and I hint SOMETIMES, they are just bad choices. But, this is how society is shape and prison system is corrupted. 6.9 million are on parole or probation, that’s a lot. Next, there are way more PROFESSIONAL ways to deal with immigrants, not just locking them before sending them to their country after several years. What’s the point? To make money? Very unprofessional. There are better ways, and nothing is being done. Surely, it cost money but doing things right, will improve the U.S. What happened to the first 10 amendments, what happen to the right that the people have? Some of those people don’t belong in prisons, the system is corrupt. - LILPUMP789
I completely agree with what you are saying. Why should a person be locked up for drugs when in reality it was just a bad choice. Also most of those people are addicted to those drugs so how is it helping them to lock them up forever and not giving them the help they need. You are correct in how there is so many different ways to go about handling certain situations. The thought about the amendments is so right because you're talking about people's rights that necessarily haven't done anything that bad. To me having a little bit of drugs on you is not a “bad” thing, it's not the right thing but you shouldn't be punished as harshly as what they are doing now. hollywood789
This video was so eye opening to me based on all of these statistics. It is so hard to believe that there is around 6.9 million people going through the criminal justice system today. That was put into more perspective when they stated that is the size of Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San antonio combined. It is even crazier to think that most of those “criminals” are non-violent and they don't have any type of violent nature to them. People who commit nonviolent or victimless crimes should not be locked away, such as drug offenses or prostitution, but instead should be rehabilitated then sent back to the real world. When those non-violent offenders are locked away and set free they tend to reoffend. As they said in the video 60% of california offenders are more than likely to reoffend because they have been exposed to that type of nature in prison. Which to me is not hard to believe because I would say it is kind of like children, when they watch something the next minute they do it, but if you don't expose those type of non-violent offenders to a place that is violent then they won't offend and be more stable. It blows my mind that people who maybe have a small amount of weed go to prison, like it is so unnecessary. Your also spending money on people that shouldn't be in there. Another thing that does not make sense is why would you hold an illegal immigrant in prison before they get deported, the reason they are in there is that they were using our money. Why would you use our money to take care of them before they get deported? That is so hypocritical because you are preaching one thing then doing the other. It is a big waste of money for taxpayers because the money is not being used properly or not being used where is should. I also did not realize how high the statistics of different races that are in prison. I did not realize that their is a lot of african americans in the prison system. I knew there was a good majority but I did not know that there was that many. It's very interesting looking at these statistics because I can now see where the overcrowding of prisons is coming from. Its coming from people that shouldn't even necessarily be even close to being in there. Watching this video really showed me how big of a situation this is. hollywood789
I too thought it is a terrible thing to be putting people into prisons for things that they need help with. It is not going to help people to have drug addictions or who are prostitutes, like you mentioned. It is just hurting these people more than helping them in any way. I also was very shocked to see just how many African Americans there were being incarcerated. I knew there were a lot, but like you said it is just so shocking to put in perspective that one in three are in prison. Overcrowding is definitely a problem. If people weren’t so focused on making money and actually wanted to help people, it might actually help some of these situations. - ST789
The amount of people in prison is outrageous in the united states to the percentage of what the other countries in this world. Being that the number of people on parole and probation is at about 6.9 million which is a crazy high number for a country that has a population of around 300 million. With the prison being funded with or without the beds being filled with a body the state. I do not agree with the lady in the video about non-violet offenders should be released due it being a victimless crime, but I don't believe that there is a such thing as a victimless crime. Someone is always a victim even if it's the person is doing the drugs themselves the family is going to suffer. I say this because I have family that is addicted to drugs and he is going back to prison which make it difficult to say the no one was harmed in the use because the family of that individual is going to suffer for the actions they taken on themselves. I find it an insane number for sixty percent for the recidivism in the great state of California. I find it ridiculous that the rates for individual being black at 1/3 more chance, 1/6 Hispanics, and 1/25 white for your chance to go to prison which is terrible. this video was a eye opener for me to know how many people on parole/probation, which would mean that they are out on the street. JeepGuy789
I agree, the number of people in prison in the United States is crazy when compared to other countries. Makes you think what other countries are doing or have done to neutralize crime or perhaps overlook those things that we consider as crimes. I also agree that its ridiculous that 1/3 African Americans have more of a chance of going to prison as opposed to 1/25 white Americans. On the positive side of things we have system in place now it just needs some refining.
This video was very interesting in the sense that in open my eyes as to how much of a problem our incarceration rate is. I knew that we have more people in prison than any other country in the world however I never knew that the numbers and statistics were that high. The thought to the fact that we have 6.9 million people in the corrections system is astounding like they said in the video that is more than Los Angeles and Chicago combined. She mentioned in the video that we are detaining illegal immigrants before we are deporting them. Which brings up the really crazy argument in my mind that we are so worried about them taking up resources taking jobs and other things like that yet we still put them in prison. We all know who has to find those prisons, we as American citizens are the ones who are paying for the incarceration of all these people. I completely agree with this video when she talks about it’s crazy to think that we might keep illegal immigrants in prison before we deport them where it is simply just causing taxpayers more money and it doesn’t fix the problem of them taking resources. It was also very interesting to me that she talked about some of the reasons we do keep these illegal immigrants for a while rather than just sending them right back in that would be because private prisons are out to make money and the government supplies them with that money and most of these private prisons have a contract with the government to keep there prisons at 90% capacity and if they are they still charge the government the same amount. I know that state and federal prisons are overpopulated and I get the need for private prisons but I still don’t completely understand why the government agreed to the 90% capacity and having to pay that amount to these private prisons. The government should not want to have that many people in prison or to have tax dollars go towards that but, obviously private prisons are up to make money and they want as many prisoners as possible. Another statistic that really shocked me was that the national average for recidivism was about 50%. That was just kind of one of those things that really stood out and check me in this video for some reason I thought that number would be or at least should be a lot lower. I also couldn’t agree more when they talked about the fact that there way too many nonviolent offenders in prison. Very specifically drug offenders are in there because of the war on drugs and I’m not talking about dealers or drug lords we are talking about people who use them recreationally and don’t hurt people.
i also agree with the video when they were talking about the immigrants. How they took them to prison and then deported them. don't you think they have been punished enough by them leaving there homes and their living they have created and being taken away i think that they are wasting the tax-money instead of them just using to improve hospitals or schools. the government is not treating people right when it comes to prison and it was interesting that they are just taking them into prison just for government to make money instead of helping them get go to rehab etc.. -justice789
This video is very informative and disturbing. The fact that 6.9 million people are being funneled through our criminal justice system is insane. The fact that you can fill a state with that many people really should be a wake up call for us as Americans in my opinion. If that's not enough the fact that the spending on federal prisons has raised an outstanding 6oo% since 1980, perhaps more than that now since that number was stated in 2014. There are people who do not fit into society, for instance violent offenders,but to throw in drug offenders, illegal immigrants, and any other non violent offender to spend there lives behind bars is just feeding the mass incarceration monster we have created. I enjoyed the statistics they used in this video because it put a clear picture on the problem. The fact that race plays a card in who gets there lives taken away is sad, and in many ways shows the need for growth within our criminal justice system. I wish they would have stated more on what new and innovated ways are being implemented, or perhaps I missed it. It seems, in my opinion, that the focus should evolve from incarceration to rehabilitation. I believe that everyone messes up in some way and if its possible to rehabilitate and show a better way of life that would be a far more productive use of time and funds. One thing that really stood out to me was that illegal immigrants are incarcerated for a period of time before they are sent back to their home country. It seems to be a very unnecessary action, but as the video stated for some private owned prisons theirs money involved. All of this is really eye opening. pj789
I also found it interesting that they kept illegal immigrant in prison for so long. I wonder what takes them that long to deport them. It is also crazy to think that we could have an entire state just made of people that have been incarcerated. I also would have liked if they talked more about what the government is trying to do to fix this issue, and as you also pointed out is sad that race seems to play a race in who gets incarcerated. I would like to see a fix to that issue if at all possible. -dp789
While the facts presented in this video may be accurate I have a lot of problems with this video. I think that we do have too many people in prisons for nonviolent crimes. However I don't think there is a such thing as a true victimless crime, at some point someone somewhere is getting affected by the offenders actions even if its not directly. I think the correct way to handle "victim-less" crimes would be to legalize said crime, such as prostitution and non life threatening drug use while the government taxes and controls them, instead of incarcerating the offender. This video did make me question a few things, like is this news organization biased to one side? It certainly felt like they were biased the way they were speaking, and they only offered one sided opinions on the problems they spoke of. for example they brought up how illegals are detained for periods of time before they are deported, and acted like it was a crime against their basic human rights. When in reality it probably takes our government a long time to relocate those people and figure out what to do with them. Another example of them being biased is when they showed the statistics on how many people of each race were incarcerated. While their statistics may have been accurate they sensationalized and heavily implied there is inherent racism in the criminal justice system. when in my opinion I think it has more to do with socioeconomic status. not to say racism doesn't exist on a personal level in some instances of the criminal justice system, but I certainly don't think its close to the leading cause of minorities being incarcerated. I did some more research to see if this news outlet was a reliable and unbiased source, and what I found on (http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-the-young-turks-a-reliable-source-for-news) and (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-young-turks/) makes me take what they are saying less seriously. A news outlet should present you with information correctly without pushing any agendas, or trying to appeal to a certain demographic. Overall, while I personally did not like the video because of the bias, the statistics and information they showed were accurate and alarming, however I think they were more worried about pushing an agenda and sensationalizing the problems they brought up than actually informing and offering explanations to our current problems within our criminal justice system. - rudedogg789
The video taught me a lot of information. The video talked about how there are 6.9 million people that are on probation, in prison or on parole. That is a large amount of people, and the number seems even larger when compared to the fact that 38 states have less than 6.9 million. Also, that is more than the number of people that live in Chicago and L.A. combined. That just shows to me that there are so many people out there that are being incarcerated by the U.S. The guy in the video talks about how we could have 52 states and how 2 of the states would just be people in prison. The demographics of the people being incarcerated is also interesting. The video says that 1 out of every 3 black males, 1 out of every 6 Hispanic males, and 1 out of every 25 white males are incarcerated. It is interesting to see why the ratios are so different between the ethnicities. It would be nice to know the cause of the difference, and be able to see if it was something that could be changed, and hopefully not racism. The people in the video seem to see the number of incarcerated people as a problem. They say it is a problem because it is costing the government a large amount of money, and as the tax payers we are helping to pay towards that. They also said that part of the problem is private prisons. Private prisons cost a lot of money and charge the government more money than they need, and some of them are for-profit so they are trying to earn money. In the video they also talked about how private prisons could have in their contract that if 90% of the beds are not being occupied, the government still has to pay for those beds. The video also tried to come up with a solution to the problem. A solution they gave was to try to not keep as many people in prison. They talked about how illegal immigrants are kept in prison for a couple years before they are deported, and how that is taking lots of money just to keep them in jail. They also talked about not putting people that made “victimless” crimes in jail. It was interesting to me that the man in the video talked about letting go of some of the “victimless” people, but keeping other people that just did financial fraud. -dp789
This video states some very intriguing facts about how our criminal justice system in the U.S. is working. For example, the fact that 6.9 million people are either in jail or on probation/parole is amazing to me. Also, a good amount of these people are doing their time, whether it be behind bars or on probation/parole, for nonviolent crimes and offenses like drug charges. The people who should be in prison should be people like murderers, rapists, etc. who have committed crimes that involve actual victims. People who commit victimless crimes like doing drugs should not be put into prison, like the video states, they should be sent to rehab to try and help them improve their health and possibly get over their addictions and things of that nature. Another item that was discussed that I found very interesting from the video was the fact that prisons are shifting their focus from imprisonment/punishment and rehabilitation of the prisoners to mainly just imprisonment/punishment. Prisons are not trying as hard to try and actually fix and help their prisoners. This could potentially cause a problem as time goes on. Without rehab, prisoners will just be released from prison with the same mindset and attitudes that they were put into prison for. By not focusing on rehab, prisons are releasing dangerous people that need help back into the public and are far more likely to commit the same crime or a similar one again. Furthermore, public money is being wasted rather than saved on prisons overall, but especially on private prisons. Some of everyone's taxpayer money goes towards prisons to keep them up and running. Private prisons claim that their facilities are saving taxpayer money. However, this is not the case. In fact, private prisons are using a lot more money than they really need to, wasting public taxpayer money instead of using it all wisely or putting it somewhere that would prove useful. One statistic really jumped out at me during the video. 1/3 of blacks are likely to be sent to jail, compared to whites where the stat is only 1/25. These numbers show how even though people believe that racism is dying, it is still very much alive and around today. Someone should not be more likely to be imprisoned simply because of their skin. These facts are just a few among man that show how corrupted the U.S criminal justice system is today and how it really needs to be looked over and corrected. -Fozz789
I didn't realize about the way they are dealing with them. Like you said they need to help them in everyway possible and if that means they have keep them out and put them in rehab facilities them that is what they are going to have to do. They cant keep letting people back on the street without getting them help because this is doing noting for our society. We need to see what we can for them and see if we can help them live out the rest of there lives and help them get a job so they don't end back up in prison. Gator789
It's sad to say that we do have to many people in our prisons. There is no reason to have that many. There are 6.9 million people in prison or on parole in the US. We are locking people up on crime that are not that serious of crime and we are crowding the prison system. We are trying to make people face the things that they did like drugs and and then we are going to put them in the prison system and then we don't have room so we let the murder out that his time was almost up and he does the same crime again. We need to have a system were they get a penalty but don't have to go to prison. 38 US states are home to fewer people than what is in the criminal justice system. When you look at that number and see that it should never be that bad. The system is trying to keep people in the system to let them realize what they have done and that is not right if they only had some drugs on them, i mean i know it's not right but they didn't murder anyone so why make them sit in prison when they could be out getting rehab or something to get them on the right path. When you look at the majority of people in prison you see colored people and the reason for that is that they only see them as troublemakers and they don’t see them as the person they are they automatically assume they are bad without knowing them. Prison should be only for murderers and rapist and other serious crime we don't need people that have drug offenses in the system and we need to get this handled real quick before to many people are in there and we have no other room to put them. Gator789
I agree that it is very sad to even say or think that we have 6.9 million people in prison. That mean there is 6.9 million people who aren't with there family and some of that 6.9 million are non violent offenders who are in prison away from their family for stuff like drugs which is little compared to murder its little compared to offense that hurt people. I agree with you t hat prisons should only be for murderers and rapist. I feel like prison should be for people who are a threat to society. Yet there are some murders and some rapist who are walking these streets today while there are people who sold a pound of cocaine in jail for life. It make no sense to me maybe it will one day maybe it wont. I feel like someone with a lot of authority should fix that because its messed up and very sad. I agree that the system is trying to keep people in the system to let them realize their wrong doing if they only sold drugs. I feel like they arrest people for drugs they give them the most time just because they weren't suppose to be doing it and they got caught. It is so crazy it just makes me shake my head when I think about it. -Jolly Rancher
I knew that there was violence in the world and that people were being punished and put into prison to keep people safer, but not as much as 6.9 million people in prison. It is almost unbelievable that the number of people in prison or probation exceeds the amount of the two largest cities in the states. It is mind-blowing to me that immigrants are being imprisoned then deported after. I had no idea that this is what people had to go through before they were forced to leave. I find that it is best to deport them instead of imprisoning them since they are already being punished by having to leave the life they built here. Using the money to prison they could be saved by just deporting them back instead of having more people in prison increasing number just to make more money off tax payers. It is also unfair that taxpayers have to fund nonviolent criminals when instead they could use that money in different ways to help other things that are more important and could benefit the society as a whole. For example, instead of placing people in prison, people with drugs could be forced rehab. another thing that caught my attention was the news reporter talked about people who are in prison for a non-violent crime have been punished so much that they start to become violent which brings to the fact that they should be rehabilitated instead, there have been so many people going to prison for something so small I think that it is a waste of tax money that is not even used as an important way to help the country in any way. I also think that private prisons should not get money for beds that are empty and it is not fair to prison people in them just to fill the beds and make money. The statistics shown in the video of 1 out of 3 black people or 1 out of 6 Hispanics and 1 out of 25 white people are incarcerated. It is sad to see such numbers since on a personal view I still see racism and people who are quick to judge others based on stereotypes. I feel like that man’s comment saying we win was a bit aggravating to me personally even the other reporter seemed to be surprised by his reaction I do not think that people who are minorities are treated fairly in courts and are more likely to get tougher sentences. justice789
I agree with you when you say it is unbelievable how many people are incarcerated. I could not believe it when the lady said that many people have been in the corrections system. I also agree with you when you say about how it is unfair for us taxpayers to pay for the nonviolent criminal. I understand that just deporting the immigrants back to their country would save money but what if they do violent crimes and we just deport them. Do we not get any justice for the crimes that committed? I heard about a illegal immigrant who recently killed I think two cops and he regrets not killing more. What would happen if we just deported him back and he just kept coming back into the United States and killing more cops? Would we let him keep doing it by deporting him back or would we make him do time for the crimes that he committed? The people with drug problems, I think should be forced into rehabilitation as well. -jw789
From watching this video I found some of the things surprising but also not surprising that was talked about. I have also found it interesting and very informative. I can believe we have many people incarcerated and/or on parole but I did not imagine it would be six point nine million people who would be incarcerated and/or on parole in the United States. It is honestly very depression that the United States has enough people in the corrections system that exceeds Los Angeles and Chicago combined or Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Antonio combined ranging from non violent crimes to violent crimes. When she talks about the “undocumented immigrants” many people say that they use a large part in the taxpayers taxes or our resources just because we keep them so long in prisons before they are deported. I understand that the for-profit prisons make an income off of them. The thing I do not understand is why she does not consider the fact that some immigrants commit violent crimes. If they are wanted throughout the United States and we just send them back to their home country the other states in America can not get justice for the crimes that the immigrant committed, basically the immigrant gets a free ride back home to possibly sneak back in and commit more violent crimes under a new alias. As the video continues and towards the end she talks about prison being reserved for the ones who commit violent crimes versus prison being for all of the violent and nonviolent crimes. I remember reading in my intro to criminal justice system textbook those who were incarcerated for nonviolent crimes ended up going back to prison for violent crimes just from what those people learned from the other people in prison. I personally think that the violent and nonviolent convicts should be seperated to help prevent future crimes that could be committed from both parties. -jw789
The video is actually inspiring to the people of american community and whoever is watching this rise a question on his mind on how is this happening and why.This video might change minds of alot of people in committing clime in that the government still have a place to whoever committing any clime. the population as it is said i very high 6.9 is higher number to be in prison. some of this people have families that are left home struggling for the living. Drug crime is becoming more popular in united states at least large number of people are taken to jail in drug related crimes and most of them are young generations. To my opinion like she said its better to eliminate some of the prisoners from prison and nonviolent crime makers to reduce the number of population in prisons. in the other hand by doing this the federal and state will save the resources to other institutional other than spending it to mass population of people in jail.Also the point of locking the immigrants for certain period of time before deportation this is waste of time and money. instead of them staying in prison or jail that long its better for them to be released and go back to their countries on the other hand the country saves money from keeping them in prison. another question that comes to my mind when i was watching this video was, why are so many people are locked up for drug crime? According to my understanding the answer has alot to do with federal mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. judges are maybe supposed to do minimum sentencing to drug offender either give large fines or fined to probation instead of imprisoned for 5 to 20 years. The definition of sanity is doing the same thing time and again,yet expecting a different outcome. California has done the same thing with drug users for decades, while wasting billions of dollars and wrecking lives in process. Felony sentences for simple drug possession is overkill. furthermore, it is not deterrent,and like so many of the factor correction system, this felonies disproportionately impact communities of color. GUSII-789
This video is very interesting and skin crawling. I am in love with anything including criminal justice. This video blew my mind I didn’t know the united states arrest the most people I don’t know if that was a no brainer, but I had no idea that, that was the case. I knew about private prisons, but I didn’t know it was that bad as they mad it sound they made it seem horrible and a person should never ever want to go to a private prison. I watch a lot of criminal justice shows and I love how those news reporters agree that victimless crimes should not result in someone going to jail for their whole life. Simply because like the woman said there is a lot of people who are in prison who are not violent. With that being said, there are ton of drug dealers in jail for selling drugs and some of them are in there for their whole life. I think that’s crazy because a lot of people who sell those drugs are already felons and they feel like they cant find a good paying job so when they get out of jail or prison they go back to that fast money life because they feel like that’s the only way they are going to see that much money because when people get out of jail nobody help those people find good paying jobs because employers don’t want to hire them. Then its crazy because they mentioned 1 and 3 people black people are likely to go to jail or prison that is crazy like if society know that they should try to fix it and go to the projects and help those people or whatever the case is. I agree that prison should be for violent people and if you want people who are not violent to go away for discipline they should go to a different place like rehab or other places that will help those people in the future. I feel like this news article spoke to many people and many people will be able to agree to what they were saying because those are real life issue. -Jolly rancher
This video was very interesting and I thought it was very informative. As a student who is currently studying to go into the Criminal Justice line of work, it was quite the eye opener. Until this video, I had only heard stories of this. This video gave me statistics for the problem at hand and explained it to me in an understandable way as not to overwhelm me with numbers. It told of the United States’ staggering prison population which, according to the video, is higher than the second and third more populous cities in the United States. They would create the second largest city in the continental United States if they were to create their own city. This is obviously too high of a number and they gave a good explanation for this. This was explained by the war on drugs and how there is a large number of non-aggressive or nonviolent drug offenders and users in today’s prison. It was also stated that 38 different states have fewer people living in that state then the country and that one in every 35 people are under some kind of correctional supervision. It is because of these staggering number that it essentially “woke me up” in the ways that it really explained what is going on in the criminal justice system. They even put statistics in there to hammer in the point and give numerical proof of their accusations. Several question came to mind when I watched it. These questions were things like: Why are there so many people in the correctional system? Is this the fault of the law or something else? How do we fix this? Can we fix this? As a person going into the criminal justice line of work, is there anything I can do? This video also looked it the statistics of the incarceration rate of different races, and I saw some things that are not right like the incarceration rates of blacks (33.3%), Hispanics (20%), and those of Caucasians descent being only 4%. From these number, anyone would be able to tell of some sort of disparity in incarceration rates per race. It makes me wounded what is going on. I look forward to learning more about these in my class and getting answers that I do not know yet. The big question that came to my mind personally was, why is it like this today?
ReplyDelete- TheMarshall789
This is a sad truth as you had mentioned as this has many individuals prisoner in the correctional system losing out on freedom which is what many of us get to enjoy due to the point of view of per profit for those who are in charge of the private prison system. The root of the cause points to the money trail of who is profiting from this misfortune the way to overcome this as a nation is to show what the truth is for misdeeds of these individuals who only seek after this with the intent to have financial gain. Which effected the lives of these individuals. Also shown from this data as mentioned is that as a society we have more individuals who have certain racial features than others to have a higher outcome of facing legal trouble. This is sad as crime has no face but yet we treat it as if it does very sad.
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Deleteeagle789
This video blew me away by the number of incarcerated people. The fact that there are 4 states population worth, ( Houston, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Phoenix), of people in jail and prisons blows my mind. I understand that there are some hardened criminals in places like this for the safety of the society, but on the other hand there are people in for nonviolent crimes that should not even be there. In my opinion it is a waste of money to lock people up for petty crimes like having a small amount of weed on them. It is honestly just crowding up jails and prisons with people who are not a danger to society. I agree with the statement the woman makes about rehabilitation for these people behind bars. I do not believe that people who were arrested for prostitution and drug abuse type crimes should be placed behind bars. They should be helped in some way to get them back into society as a civil person. Now a days they are so concerned on keeping people in and making money like they mentioned, that they lost the true focus and that is to make them learn a lesson and get them back to being a part of the community and work. Another thing that was mentioned and I did not know was that the government tries to keep illegal immigrants in jail for as long as they can before deporting them again. I do not agree that this should be done. That is just another reason why the prisons are overcrowding. It makes no sense in the first place. The whole reason they are being deported is because they are getting away with not having to pay on stuff that any other American has to, yet then they make the citizens pay for them to be locked up before they are deported back to where they came from. To me that is a crazy waste of time and money. My over all take away from this video is the realization that everything is about profits and not about actually helping these people in some of the hardest times of their lives. This is almost sad in a way to think that we have lost focus on the fact that some of these people could be a working and functioning member of society with the right help, and instead we are turning them into harder criminals than before they went in. I am not oblivious to the truth that some of them will never change and you can not change them.
ReplyDelete- ST789
It is crazy to think that the total number of incarcerated people in prisons exceeds the population of Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia and San Antonio. Locking people up for petty and small crimes isn't the right thing to do, like you said. Prisons should be for violent offenders who are a danger to society and shouldn't be allowed on the street. Those who are in trouble due to petty crimes should be helped mentally to be rehabilitated and to get them back and functioning well in society. I agree with the fact that we shouldn't keep illegal immigrants in prison for as long as we do. This doesn't help with the over-crowding issue we have today. paww789
DeleteIt’s hard to believe that the amount of people going through the criminal justice equals close to 6 million going through correctional system within the justice system. This is outstanding given the fact of many non-violet offenses and such as also people illegally being in the country being through into inccarraction instead of giving them impenetrate deportation. With this being stated as shown in the video with the exitance of the private prison some with the exitance of cluaseing with 95 percent of the beds must be full or states still pay for the unoccupied beds. Also, outstanding 1/3 black man have a likely hood of going into the correctional system when must the data show real change also said by the video 1/25 white men going into this system if the data shows bias than we as people have an existing bias that needs fix as crime is not bias. Also, a major point by this people individuals who do not have victims for their various crimes why imprison these individual’s what do they have to learn from being imprisoned because they never sought after damaging other individuals from the start of their offense being committed. This video points out the fact that we have more people going through this system than we do for 6 million that’s taking two majorly overcrowded cities in our country such as Chicago, and New York and throwing their entire population into this cycling system. The effect is what the video mention the “sad truth” we have a system that profits the private prison industry draining state and federal resources, but also has proven through the facts and data shows that the percent of people who reoffend are those who were non-violet offenders coming into prison for the first time. The message needs to be redirected by legislature’s looking at the data the facts at hand and understand these are more than just numbers these are people most are good people why lock up someone who would make a positive impact in the world for an individual that just needs some help in whatever capacity that would meet that individuals personal need. At the end of the day outside of these contracts and policies set in place what would bring change to the injustice done to these individuals is personally sitting down with these offenders one on one for lawmakers understanding what their going through, or seeing the effects this has on family friends or their personal lifestyle in general.
ReplyDeleteEagle789
This video was very interesting to me. I had no idea that 6.9 million Americans are behind bars. That is an astonishing number. It’s very hard to believe even. And when it is broken down by race it is even more unbelievable. only 1/25 white males end up in prison vs 1/3 of black males?That is crazy to think about. It’s even more crazy to think that over half of those people that are incarcerated are considered non-violent offenders, and are only in prison because of drugs or victimless crimes. I agree that our justice system only cares about money at this point and not whether or not someone has been rehabilitated or not. The whole point of prisons should be to make sure that all of the offenders can be rehabilitated and be able to go back out into the public and be civil. However, I don't believe our American system sees it that way. I believe that it is a waste of money for tax payers to pay money into the funding of prisons when they aren't even being used the correct way. I also agree with the fact that people that are in prison because of drugs or victimless crimes shouldn't be in prison, however, what do we do with them? Drugs will always be illegal, but do we give them probation? what about prostitution? A lot of people out there believe prostitution shouldn't even be illegal. I do believe drug offenses and victimless crimes aren't considered prison worthy, however you have to have an alternative. I don't ever remember prison numbers being this high, but I am still young and I wasn't paying attention to the prison numbers until recently. As a person who will be going into the criminal justice field, I wonder what kind of changes can be made or what kind of changes I can advocate to make. Because it is obvious that changes have to be made to the system, it is just a matter of whether people will go about to make these certain changes. It will take a while to make certain changes towards how we inaccurate people and how we sentence people, but i believe it can be done. The over-crowding of prisons I feel isn't a good thing, and maybe if the prisons have less people in them, then the chances of inmates being rehabilitated will go up. paww789
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on many things in the article and what you said. This video has brought to light some things that do not make sense and need to be addressed. This video has told of many things about the United States’ correctional system and the numbers and statistic really hammer in the point. Something is wrong. Some questions I asked myself after watching this video was why it is like that and how do I fix it. These questions are something I look forward to learning in the class and, perhaps, be able to do something about. It really is a disparity that all of these people are in the correction system and that most are there from non-aggressive drug abuse charges. I can only imaging the emotional cost on their families and the economic cost on the United States as a whole. –TheMarshall789
DeleteI agree with you in regards to the statement that you were shocked to see that there 6.9 million Americans behind bars. I also found it establishing when they broke it down by race, The fact that one in three African-American males will end up in prisons is crazy. Also made a good point by saying the system is not in it anymore for rehabilitation they are more in it for money especially the private prisons. The government needs to lessen the punishment for drug offenses and not care much about whether the private prisons are making money and focus more on rehabilitation. Are you see there is no reason nonviolent people or people that have not committed any crimes against anyone they shouldn’t be thrown behind bars.
Delete-RHB789
I agree with you. Nearly half of the people who are imprisoned are being incarcerated for nonviolent or victimless crimes like drug charges, etc. Prison should be a place for people who actually have victims associated with their crimes and should have to pay for their mistakes. Also, race is an enormous factor when it comes to imprisonment. It should not be this way, but sadly that is the way it is in today's world. If one is not white, they are highly more likely to be put into prison compared to a white person, simply because of their skin color and nothing else.
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i do agree with you that some of the people in prison are with minor crime and nonviolent crime if the government do something they will save lot of resources that they spend keeping them in prison but this is not the way to free people to do more crimes but certain law should be implemented gusii 789
DeleteThe number of incarcerated people is completely unbelievable. I do believe that some people like violent offenders should be locked up in prison. There are so many things that can get a person sent to prison. Yes, there is such thing of getting out for good behavior but we don’t really hear about it. I didn’t know that undocumented immigrants were incarcerated for a while before getting deported back to where they came from. They come here to try and better themselves and help out their families back home. There is no point to have any immigrants in prison if they are getting deported. The deportation process makes it harder for them to come back into the United States LEGALLY. Deportation is something you can’t get off your criminal record. It isn’t fair to them to have to spend time in prison if they are getting deported. Deportation is already punishment enough for them in my opinion. You shouldn’t be able to blame them for taking resources but at the same time make money off of them by sending them to prison before deportation. They come to this country for a reason and that’s to change the way they used to live in. Immigrants don’t just come here because they want to move somewhere different. They come here because they don’t have the same opportunities where they come from compared to the United States. I really can’t believe that this happens to them. It is wrong in every way you can think of. Why are nonviolent offenders sent to prison? I know that there are some cases where nonviolent offenders should be in prison but it still depends on the crime and they should be separated from the violent offenders. In my opinion, keeping the nonviolent offenders in prison is only going to change. Everyone knows that there is a lot of violence in prison. Just because someone is in prison, doesn’t mean that the violence will stop at the door. You sometimes hear about gang vs gang violence, stabbings, and even guards being fought by the inmates. It is a totally different world in the prisons. I also believe that it makes people more aggressive than what they already were before they were put into it. I also do believe that being in prison does play a role in physiological matters. For example, solitary confinement keeps the prisoner to himself and with no one to talk to. I think it would be very mind numbing.
ReplyDelete-Chewbacca789
I agree with you on the notion that it is absolutely ridiculous that we incarcerate people before they deported form our country. It does not make much sense, especially from a funding standpoint as it costs us more money to incarcerate these individuals before we deport them back to their respective countries. I also agree with you on the fact that being deported should be punishment enough as it increases the difficulty of being able to come back to our country legally, especially because it is already hard enough to become a U.S. citizen if you are not born here anyway. Pack789
DeleteI agree. Half of the people who are being locked up for supposedly committing a felony such as drugs and illegally crossing the country are probably good people, who done bad choices. Yes drugs are bad, but there should be a more discrete discretion about incarceration people who really don’t belong in prisons. The system is so corrupt that we are at the point that no one is doing anything about it, nothing we can do, or not to mess with it. I don’t know what the real problem behind is, but there is something wrong happening. To many incarcerations, that look pointless. - LILPUMP780
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Deletei understand why they would hold them but not put them in prison. I can see why they would illegal immigrants into prison until the they get ahold of the foreign government until they can arrange for transport back to their country of origin. But you should only need a holding cell until transport back. JeepGuy789
DeleteThe amount of incarcerated people in the United States is quite frankly baffling, over 6.9 million people are either incarcerated or on parole. One crazy thing that I learned while watching the video is that many people who are illegal immigrants to our country are incarcerated before they are deported to their home country. In my opinion being deported would be punishment enough for the illegal immigrants because it then makes it harder for them to come here legally in the future. Quite frankly incarcerating them makes no sense in my opinion because it is just adding more bodies to our prisons or jails for no reason and it is something that tax payers such as myself have to pay for in the long run, considering most prisons are funded by tax dollars. Another cray statistic that was shown in the video is that only 1/25 of white males end up in prison as compared to the 1/3 of black males who end up in prison. This statistic is mind blowing as it shows, I believe, a deeper problem rooted within not only are corrections system but our justice system as a whole. I am not saying that our system is racist however there is obviously some sort of issue, perhaps the system as a whole is too harsh on black males who commit crimes and more lenient towards white males who commit crimes. Unfortunately, there are still many people who believe people of a different skin color than them are in some way different, which does not make much sense, and they are in turn harsher on the penalties given to those individuals. It was also stated in the video that many prisons have been bought by private owners and have thus created a trend where we see many prions being bought and operated by private persons and not run by the state or federal governments respectively. Tis can provide some positives to the system as the prisons do not have to rely on the government for funding and can often times function fine even through economic hardships. In my opinion, however this has cause more problems because now it has changed to be all about money as private prisons make more money when they have more inmates. I believe this has caused our mass incarceration numbers to increase at a rapid speed because these privately-owned prisons just want more inmates so they can make more money. I feel like this a one of the main reasons why we have seen more and more people being incarcerated each year. Pack789
ReplyDeleteI agree on what you are saying. We are both on the same page about the immigrants being held in prison before they are departed. Those immigrants are just bodies that don’t need to be put in that situation. I had no idea that it was happening to them. I was extremely upset at that fact because both of my parents were immigrants at a point in time. They became legal after a short period of time of being here. I’ve heard stories about others and their journeys on how they got to where they were. I also agree on what you were saying about the problems being not only in corrections but also in our justice system.
Delete-Chewbacca789
I agree with what you are saying about the unfair treatment of illegal immigrants, because I believe the vast majority of them simply seek out a better life and more opportunities. I do wonder if the video did not explain why they are being held for so long on purpose. It probably takes a lot of legal work to deport people properly with collaboration from another country. however I am not certain on this. Just a thought. Maybe a better alternative to this would be updating the citizenship process and making a more time considerate option for people to immigrate. - Rudedogg789
DeleteI feel the number of incarcerations is not surprise considering the fact that society has changed a lot over the past of couple of years. She is right, why do we lock immigrants? They are getting put in prisons for crossing the country to make a better living. Also, drugs are bad, as we know; unless the drugs are prescribe from a doctor, which is okay. But, people who get looked up for going to prison, are not bad people. These are people who only made a bad decision. Not to mention, the amount of money that cost to only put one person in jails or prison is hectic. Indeed, race also plays a big role into this as well. Race is no were near a correlation to be sent to prison. 5 million people are a lot, and I am scared that the number could rise in the future. I understand the meaning illegal, and I also understand these people who are humans as well, who are getting locked up for something that, yes, is illegal to cross the border and than getting locked up is unbelievable. Who is to blame now in days? Because even though we can all point fingers, there is no point because our society is messed up, and partially because of stereotypes and media. We should incarcerate real criminals for a legitimate crime, than there is no problem. Also, I am a Hispanic who wants to be a future police officer and I want to make a change to this. To change for the common good, a change to see how the world thinks. I believe half of those incarcerated are in prisons because of drugs. I recall, not everyone is a bad person, they are just sometimes, and I hint SOMETIMES, they are just bad choices. But, this is how society is shape and prison system is corrupted. 6.9 million are on parole or probation, that’s a lot. Next, there are way more PROFESSIONAL ways to deal with immigrants, not just locking them before sending them to their country after several years. What’s the point? To make money? Very unprofessional. There are better ways, and nothing is being done. Surely, it cost money but doing things right, will improve the U.S. What happened to the first 10 amendments, what happen to the right that the people have? Some of those people don’t belong in prisons, the system is corrupt. - LILPUMP789
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you are saying. Why should a person be locked up for drugs when in reality it was just a bad choice. Also most of those people are addicted to those drugs so how is it helping them to lock them up forever and not giving them the help they need. You are correct in how there is so many different ways to go about handling certain situations. The thought about the amendments is so right because you're talking about people's rights that necessarily haven't done anything that bad. To me having a little bit of drugs on you is not a “bad” thing, it's not the right thing but you shouldn't be punished as harshly as what they are doing now. hollywood789
DeleteThis video was so eye opening to me based on all of these statistics. It is so hard to believe that there is around 6.9 million people going through the criminal justice system today. That was put into more perspective when they stated that is the size of Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San antonio combined. It is even crazier to think that most of those “criminals” are non-violent and they don't have any type of violent nature to them. People who commit nonviolent or victimless crimes should not be locked away, such as drug offenses or prostitution, but instead should be rehabilitated then sent back to the real world. When those non-violent offenders are locked away and set free they tend to reoffend. As they said in the video 60% of california offenders are more than likely to reoffend because they have been exposed to that type of nature in prison. Which to me is not hard to believe because I would say it is kind of like children, when they watch something the next minute they do it, but if you don't expose those type of non-violent offenders to a place that is violent then they won't offend and be more stable. It blows my mind that people who maybe have a small amount of weed go to prison, like it is so unnecessary. Your also spending money on people that shouldn't be in there. Another thing that does not make sense is why would you hold an illegal immigrant in prison before they get deported, the reason they are in there is that they were using our money. Why would you use our money to take care of them before they get deported? That is so hypocritical because you are preaching one thing then doing the other. It is a big waste of money for taxpayers because the money is not being used properly or not being used where is should. I also did not realize how high the statistics of different races that are in prison. I did not realize that their is a lot of african americans in the prison system. I knew there was a good majority but I did not know that there was that many. It's very interesting looking at these statistics because I can now see where the overcrowding of prisons is coming from. Its coming from people that shouldn't even necessarily be even close to being in there. Watching this video really showed me how big of a situation this is. hollywood789
ReplyDeleteI too thought it is a terrible thing to be putting people into prisons for things that they need help with. It is not going to help people to have drug addictions or who are prostitutes, like you mentioned. It is just hurting these people more than helping them in any way. I also was very shocked to see just how many African Americans there were being incarcerated. I knew there were a lot, but like you said it is just so shocking to put in perspective that one in three are in prison. Overcrowding is definitely a problem. If people weren’t so focused on making money and actually wanted to help people, it might actually help some of these situations.
Delete- ST789
The amount of people in prison is outrageous in the united states to the percentage of what the other countries in this world. Being that the number of people on parole and probation is at about 6.9 million which is a crazy high number for a country that has a population of around 300 million. With the prison being funded with or without the beds being filled with a body the state. I do not agree with the lady in the video about non-violet offenders should be released due it being a victimless crime, but I don't believe that there is a such thing as a victimless crime. Someone is always a victim even if it's the person is doing the drugs themselves the family is going to suffer. I say this because I have family that is addicted to drugs and he is going back to prison which make it difficult to say the no one was harmed in the use because the family of that individual is going to suffer for the actions they taken on themselves. I find it an insane number for sixty percent for the recidivism in the great state of California. I find it ridiculous that the rates for individual being black at 1/3 more chance, 1/6 Hispanics, and 1/25 white for your chance to go to prison which is terrible. this video was a eye opener for me to know how many people on parole/probation, which would mean that they are out on the street. JeepGuy789
ReplyDeleteI agree, the number of people in prison in the United States is crazy when compared to other countries. Makes you think what other countries are doing or have done to neutralize crime or perhaps overlook those things that we consider as crimes. I also agree that its ridiculous that 1/3 African Americans have more of a chance of going to prison as opposed to 1/25 white Americans. On the positive side of things we have system in place now it just needs some refining.
Deletecomment above pj789
DeleteThis video was very interesting in the sense that in open my eyes as to how much of a problem our incarceration rate is. I knew that we have more people in prison than any other country in the world however I never knew that the numbers and statistics were that high. The thought to the fact that we have 6.9 million people in the corrections system is astounding like they said in the video that is more than Los Angeles and Chicago combined. She mentioned in the video that we are detaining illegal immigrants before we are deporting them. Which brings up the really crazy argument in my mind that we are so worried about them taking up resources taking jobs and other things like that yet we still put them in prison. We all know who has to find those prisons, we as American citizens are the ones who are paying for the incarceration of all these people. I completely agree with this video when she talks about it’s crazy to think that we might keep illegal immigrants in prison before we deport them where it is simply just causing taxpayers more money and it doesn’t fix the problem of them taking resources. It was also very interesting to me that she talked about some of the reasons we do keep these illegal immigrants for a while rather than just sending them right back in that would be because private prisons are out to make money and the government supplies them with that money and most of these private prisons have a contract with the government to keep there prisons at 90% capacity and if they are they still charge the government the same amount. I know that state and federal prisons are overpopulated and I get the need for private prisons but I still don’t completely understand why the government agreed to the 90% capacity and having to pay that amount to these private prisons. The government should not want to have that many people in prison or to have tax dollars go towards that but, obviously private prisons are up to make money and they want as many prisoners as possible. Another statistic that really shocked me was that the national average for recidivism was about 50%. That was just kind of one of those things that really stood out and check me in this video for some reason I thought that number would be or at least should be a lot lower. I also couldn’t agree more when they talked about the fact that there way too many nonviolent offenders in prison. Very specifically drug offenders are in there because of the war on drugs and I’m not talking about dealers or drug lords we are talking about people who use them recreationally and don’t hurt people.
ReplyDelete^RHB789
Deletei also agree with the video when they were talking about the immigrants. How they took them to prison and then deported them. don't you think they have been punished enough by them leaving there homes and their living they have created and being taken away i think that they are wasting the tax-money instead of them just using to improve hospitals or schools. the government is not treating people right when it comes to prison and it was interesting that they are just taking them into prison just for government to make money instead of helping them get go to rehab etc..
Delete-justice789
This video is very informative and disturbing. The fact that 6.9 million people are being funneled through our criminal justice system is insane. The fact that you can fill a state with that many people really should be a wake up call for us as Americans in my opinion. If that's not enough the fact that the spending on federal prisons has raised an outstanding 6oo% since 1980, perhaps more than that now since that number was stated in 2014. There are people who do not fit into society, for instance violent offenders,but to throw in drug offenders, illegal immigrants, and any other non violent offender to spend there lives behind bars is just feeding the mass incarceration monster we have created. I enjoyed the statistics they used in this video because it put a clear picture on the problem. The fact that race plays a card in who gets there lives taken away is sad, and in many ways shows the need for growth within our criminal justice system. I wish they would have stated more on what new and innovated ways are being implemented, or perhaps I missed it. It seems, in my opinion, that the focus should evolve from incarceration to rehabilitation. I believe that everyone messes up in some way and if its possible to rehabilitate and show a better way of life that would be a far more productive use of time and funds. One thing that really stood out to me was that illegal immigrants are incarcerated for a period of time before they are sent back to their home country. It seems to be a very unnecessary action, but as the video stated for some private owned prisons theirs money involved. All of this is really eye opening.
ReplyDeletepj789
I also found it interesting that they kept illegal immigrant in prison for so long. I wonder what takes them that long to deport them. It is also crazy to think that we could have an entire state just made of people that have been incarcerated. I also would have liked if they talked more about what the government is trying to do to fix this issue, and as you also pointed out is sad that race seems to play a race in who gets incarcerated. I would like to see a fix to that issue if at all possible. -dp789
DeleteWhile the facts presented in this video may be accurate I have a lot of problems with this video. I think that we do have too many people in prisons for nonviolent crimes. However I don't think there is a such thing as a true victimless crime, at some point someone somewhere is getting affected by the offenders actions even if its not directly. I think the correct way to handle "victim-less" crimes would be to legalize said crime, such as prostitution and non life threatening drug use while the government taxes and controls them, instead of incarcerating the offender. This video did make me question a few things, like is this news organization biased to one side? It certainly felt like they were biased the way they were speaking, and they only offered one sided opinions on the problems they spoke of. for example they brought up how illegals are detained for periods of time before they are deported, and acted like it was a crime against their basic human rights. When in reality it probably takes our government a long time to relocate those people and figure out what to do with them. Another example of them being biased is when they showed the statistics on how many people of each race were incarcerated. While their statistics may have been accurate they sensationalized and heavily implied there is inherent racism in the criminal justice system. when in my opinion I think it has more to do with socioeconomic status. not to say racism doesn't exist on a personal level in some instances of the criminal justice system, but I certainly don't think its close to the leading cause of minorities being incarcerated. I did some more research to see if this news outlet was a reliable and unbiased source, and what I found on (http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-the-young-turks-a-reliable-source-for-news) and (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-young-turks/) makes me take what they are saying less seriously. A news outlet should present you with information correctly without pushing any agendas, or trying to appeal to a certain demographic. Overall, while I personally did not like the video because of the bias, the statistics and information they showed were accurate and alarming, however I think they were more worried about pushing an agenda and sensationalizing the problems they brought up than actually informing and offering explanations to our current problems within our criminal justice system. - rudedogg789
ReplyDeleteThe video taught me a lot of information. The video talked about how there are 6.9 million people that are on probation, in prison or on parole. That is a large amount of people, and the number seems even larger when compared to the fact that 38 states have less than 6.9 million. Also, that is more than the number of people that live in Chicago and L.A. combined. That just shows to me that there are so many people out there that are being incarcerated by the U.S. The guy in the video talks about how we could have 52 states and how 2 of the states would just be people in prison. The demographics of the people being incarcerated is also interesting. The video says that 1 out of every 3 black males, 1 out of every 6 Hispanic males, and 1 out of every 25 white males are incarcerated. It is interesting to see why the ratios are so different between the ethnicities. It would be nice to know the cause of the difference, and be able to see if it was something that could be changed, and hopefully not racism. The people in the video seem to see the number of incarcerated people as a problem. They say it is a problem because it is costing the government a large amount of money, and as the tax payers we are helping to pay towards that. They also said that part of the problem is private prisons. Private prisons cost a lot of money and charge the government more money than they need, and some of them are for-profit so they are trying to earn money. In the video they also talked about how private prisons could have in their contract that if 90% of the beds are not being occupied, the government still has to pay for those beds. The video also tried to come up with a solution to the problem. A solution they gave was to try to not keep as many people in prison. They talked about how illegal immigrants are kept in prison for a couple years before they are deported, and how that is taking lots of money just to keep them in jail. They also talked about not putting people that made “victimless” crimes in jail. It was interesting to me that the man in the video talked about letting go of some of the “victimless” people, but keeping other people that just did financial fraud. -dp789
ReplyDeleteThis video states some very intriguing facts about how our criminal justice system in the U.S. is working. For example, the fact that 6.9 million people are either in jail or on probation/parole is amazing to me. Also, a good amount of these people are doing their time, whether it be behind bars or on probation/parole, for nonviolent crimes and offenses like drug charges. The people who should be in prison should be people like murderers, rapists, etc. who have committed crimes that involve actual victims. People who commit victimless crimes like doing drugs should not be put into prison, like the video states, they should be sent to rehab to try and help them improve their health and possibly get over their addictions and things of that nature. Another item that was discussed that I found very interesting from the video was the fact that prisons are shifting their focus from imprisonment/punishment and rehabilitation of the prisoners to mainly just imprisonment/punishment. Prisons are not trying as hard to try and actually fix and help their prisoners. This could potentially cause a problem as time goes on. Without rehab, prisoners will just be released from prison with the same mindset and attitudes that they were put into prison for. By not focusing on rehab, prisons are releasing dangerous people that need help back into the public and are far more likely to commit the same crime or a similar one again. Furthermore, public money is being wasted rather than saved on prisons overall, but especially on private prisons. Some of everyone's taxpayer money goes towards prisons to keep them up and running. Private prisons claim that their facilities are saving taxpayer money. However, this is not the case. In fact, private prisons are using a lot more money than they really need to, wasting public taxpayer money instead of using it all wisely or putting it somewhere that would prove useful. One statistic really jumped out at me during the video. 1/3 of blacks are likely to be sent to jail, compared to whites where the stat is only 1/25. These numbers show how even though people believe that racism is dying, it is still very much alive and around today. Someone should not be more likely to be imprisoned simply because of their skin. These facts are just a few among man that show how corrupted the U.S criminal justice system is today and how it really needs to be looked over and corrected.
ReplyDelete-Fozz789
I didn't realize about the way they are dealing with them. Like you said they need to help them in everyway possible and if that means they have keep them out and put them in rehab facilities them that is what they are going to have to do. They cant keep letting people back on the street without getting them help because this is doing noting for our society. We need to see what we can for them and see if we can help them live out the rest of there lives and help them get a job so they don't end back up in prison. Gator789
DeleteIt's sad to say that we do have to many people in our prisons. There is no reason to have that many. There are 6.9 million people in prison or on parole in the US. We are locking people up on crime that are not that serious of crime and we are crowding the prison system. We are trying to make people face the things that they did like drugs and and then we are going to put them in the prison system and then we don't have room so we let the murder out that his time was almost up and he does the same crime again. We need to have a system were they get a penalty but don't have to go to prison. 38 US states are home to fewer people than what is in the criminal justice system. When you look at that number and see that it should never be that bad. The system is trying to keep people in the system to let them realize what they have done and that is not right if they only had some drugs on them, i mean i know it's not right but they didn't murder anyone so why make them sit in prison when they could be out getting rehab or something to get them on the right path. When you look at the majority of people in prison you see colored people and the reason for that is that they only see them as troublemakers and they don’t see them as the person they are they automatically assume they are bad without knowing them. Prison should be only for murderers and rapist and other serious crime we don't need people that have drug offenses in the system and we need to get this handled real quick before to many people are in there and we have no other room to put them. Gator789
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is very sad to even say or think that we have 6.9 million people in prison. That mean there is 6.9 million people who aren't with there family and some of that 6.9 million are non violent offenders who are in prison away from their family for stuff like drugs which is little compared to murder its little compared to offense that hurt people. I agree with you t hat prisons should only be for murderers and rapist. I feel like prison should be for people who are a threat to society. Yet there are some murders and some rapist who are walking these streets today while there are people who sold a pound of cocaine in jail for life. It make no sense to me maybe it will one day maybe it wont. I feel like someone with a lot of authority should fix that because its messed up and very sad. I agree that the system is trying to keep people in the system to let them realize their wrong doing if they only sold drugs. I feel like they arrest people for drugs they give them the most time just because they weren't suppose to be doing it and they got caught. It is so crazy it just makes me shake my head when I think about it.
Delete-Jolly Rancher
I knew that there was violence in the world and that people were being punished and put into prison to keep people safer, but not as much as 6.9 million people in prison. It is almost unbelievable that the number of people in prison or probation exceeds the amount of the two largest cities in the states. It is mind-blowing to me that immigrants are being imprisoned then deported after. I had no idea that this is what people had to go through before they were forced to leave. I find that it is best to deport them instead of imprisoning them since they are already being punished by having to leave the life they built here. Using the money to prison they could be saved by just deporting them back instead of having more people in prison increasing number just to make more money off tax payers. It is also unfair that taxpayers have to fund nonviolent criminals when instead they could use that money in different ways to help other things that are more important and could benefit the society as a whole. For example, instead of placing people in prison, people with drugs could be forced rehab. another thing that caught my attention was the news reporter talked about people who are in prison for a non-violent crime have been punished so much that they start to become violent which brings to the fact that they should be rehabilitated instead, there have been so many people going to prison for something so small I think that it is a waste of tax money that is not even used as an important way to help the country in any way. I also think that private prisons should not get money for beds that are empty and it is not fair to prison people in them just to fill the beds and make money. The statistics shown in the video of 1 out of 3 black people or 1 out of 6 Hispanics and 1 out of 25 white people are incarcerated. It is sad to see such numbers since on a personal view I still see racism and people who are quick to judge others based on stereotypes. I feel like that man’s comment saying we win was a bit aggravating to me personally even the other reporter seemed to be surprised by his reaction I do not think that people who are minorities are treated fairly in courts and are more likely to get tougher sentences.
ReplyDeletejustice789
I agree with you when you say it is unbelievable how many people are incarcerated. I could not believe it when the lady said that many people have been in the corrections system. I also agree with you when you say about how it is unfair for us taxpayers to pay for the nonviolent criminal. I understand that just deporting the immigrants back to their country would save money but what if they do violent crimes and we just deport them. Do we not get any justice for the crimes that committed? I heard about a illegal immigrant who recently killed I think two cops and he regrets not killing more. What would happen if we just deported him back and he just kept coming back into the United States and killing more cops? Would we let him keep doing it by deporting him back or would we make him do time for the crimes that he committed? The people with drug problems, I think should be forced into rehabilitation as well.
Delete-jw789
From watching this video I found some of the things surprising but also not surprising that was talked about. I have also found it interesting and very informative. I can believe we have many people incarcerated and/or on parole but I did not imagine it would be six point nine million people who would be incarcerated and/or on parole in the United States. It is honestly very depression that the United States has enough people in the corrections system that exceeds Los Angeles and Chicago combined or Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Antonio combined ranging from non violent crimes to violent crimes. When she talks about the “undocumented immigrants” many people say that they use a large part in the taxpayers taxes or our resources just because we keep them so long in prisons before they are deported. I understand that the for-profit prisons make an income off of them. The thing I do not understand is why she does not consider the fact that some immigrants commit violent crimes. If they are wanted throughout the United States and we just send them back to their home country the other states in America can not get justice for the crimes that the immigrant committed, basically the immigrant gets a free ride back home to possibly sneak back in and commit more violent crimes under a new alias. As the video continues and towards the end she talks about prison being reserved for the ones who commit violent crimes versus prison being for all of the violent and nonviolent crimes. I remember reading in my intro to criminal justice system textbook those who were incarcerated for nonviolent crimes ended up going back to prison for violent crimes just from what those people learned from the other people in prison. I personally think that the violent and nonviolent convicts should be seperated to help prevent future crimes that could be committed from both parties.
ReplyDelete-jw789
ReplyDeleteAnonymousJanuary 23, 2018 at 8:28 PM
The video is actually inspiring to the people of american community and whoever is watching this rise a question on his mind on how is this happening and why.This video might change minds of alot of people in committing clime in that the government still have a place to whoever committing any clime. the population as it is said i very high 6.9 is higher number to be in prison. some of this people have families that are left home struggling for the living. Drug crime is becoming more popular in united states at least large number of people are taken to jail in drug related crimes and most of them are young generations. To my opinion like she said its better to eliminate some of the prisoners from prison and nonviolent crime makers to reduce the number of population in prisons. in the other hand by doing this the federal and state will save the resources to other institutional other than spending it to mass population of people in jail.Also the point of locking the immigrants for certain period of time before deportation this is waste of time and money. instead of them staying in prison or jail that long its better for them to be released and go back to their countries on the other hand the country saves money from keeping them in prison. another question that comes to my mind when i was watching this video was, why are so many people are locked up for drug crime? According to my understanding the answer has alot to do with federal mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. judges are maybe supposed to do minimum sentencing to drug offender either give large fines or fined to probation instead of imprisoned for 5 to 20 years. The definition of sanity is doing the same thing time and again,yet expecting a different outcome. California has done the same thing with drug users for decades, while wasting billions of dollars and wrecking lives in process. Felony sentences for simple drug possession is overkill. furthermore, it is not deterrent,and like so many of the factor correction system, this felonies disproportionately impact communities of color. GUSII-789
This video is very interesting and skin crawling. I am in love with anything including criminal justice. This video blew my mind I didn’t know the united states arrest the most people I don’t know if that was a no brainer, but I had no idea that, that was the case. I knew about private prisons, but I didn’t know it was that bad as they mad it sound they made it seem horrible and a person should never ever want to go to a private prison. I watch a lot of criminal justice shows and I love how those news reporters agree that victimless crimes should not result in someone going to jail for their whole life. Simply because like the woman said there is a lot of people who are in prison who are not violent. With that being said, there are ton of drug dealers in jail for selling drugs and some of them are in there for their whole life. I think that’s crazy because a lot of people who sell those drugs are already felons and they feel like they cant find a good paying job so when they get out of jail or prison they go back to that fast money life because they feel like that’s the only way they are going to see that much money because when people get out of jail nobody help those people find good paying jobs because employers don’t want to hire them. Then its crazy because they mentioned 1 and 3 people black people are likely to go to jail or prison that is crazy like if society know that they should try to fix it and go to the projects and help those people or whatever the case is. I agree that prison should be for violent people and if you want people who are not violent to go away for discipline they should go to a different place like rehab or other places that will help those people in the future. I feel like this news article spoke to many people and many people will be able to agree to what they were saying because those are real life issue.
ReplyDelete-Jolly rancher