There is a lot of interesting facts in this article, but here are some that stand out to me. There was a 7% decrease in the number of prisoners under state and federal jurisdictions at the end of 2016 from 2009. The number of federal prisoners decreased for 196,500 in 2015 to 189,200 in 2016. Nearly half of federal prisoners were sentenced for drug offenses. States prison population decreased 12,600 from the end of 2015 to the end of 2016. More than half of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent offenses in 2015. Alabama, Indiana, and Michigan are the states that had the largest decrease in their prison population. Another interesting fact is that females made up 7% of the total national prison population. I would have thought the percentage would be higher. Indiana and Alabama were the states that had the largest decrease, decreasing 500 female prisoners combined. Prisoners are sentenced to more than a year make up 97% of the total prison population. The is most of the prison population but, by the end of 2016 the number of state and federal prisoners who have been sentenced to more than one year in prison declined by 17,300. Females had the opposite statics. Females sentenced to more than one year increased by more than 700 prisoners in 2016. Hispanic prisoners sentenced to more than one year increased about 6,400 prisoners between 2015 and 2026. Non-hispanic black and white prisoners sentenced to more than one year decreased 2% by the end of 2016 with 10,000 fewer white prisoners and 12,600 fewer black prisoners. The imprisonment rate for the U.S population for all ages was the lowest it has been in 2016 since 1997. It decreased 2%from 458 prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages in 2015 to 450 per 100,000 in 2016 alone. State and Federal prisons were admitting 2,300 fewer prisoner in 2016. This is a 5% decrease that accounted for 96% of the total decline in 2016. I think it is really interesting how different sex, age, and race all effect that prison rates. -JU002
I agree that all the facts stated are very interesting and it is good to see decreasing numbers in these areas. It would be interesting to read an article about what is causing the decline in these certain areas and figure out everything that factors in. I hope we continue to see a decrease in our prison numbers because it does seem to be an issue. -arm002
I agree with arm002 in the fact that I would love to know why these decreases are occurring and what new strategies are being tested to lower these numbers even more. I am curious to see how much the difference between the number of male prisoners and female prisoners will change as more female offenders continue to surface. -Gamma002
The first statistic I saw upon reading this article was that in the year of 2016 there were a little over one and a half million state and federal prisoners in the United States. That alone seemed like a huge number and surprised me, but the article says that there were twenty thousand more prisoners the year before and that it was the lowest imprisonment rate since 1997. That in itself is crazy, but I would like to know if that trend has continued over the years and what the imprisonment rate looks like for the year of 2019. Another fact that I had found interesting was that upon looking at the chart of imprisonment rate by state and United States total, it shows that even though there was a decrease from 2015 to 2016, men's rates decreased by 1.4%, but women's rates actually increased by 0.1%. Women's imprisonment rate was not surprising because of how much it went up because 0.1% is not that much, but it is surprising to me that it went up at all. Will the female imprisonment rate keep going up the male imprisonment rate goes down or was this just a one time thing? Another rate that is declining is the amount of prisoners sentenced to more than a year. The article says the rate is down 1%, but that is not what I found interesting. I found it very interesting that the percentage of people sentenced over a year made up 97% of the prison population in 2016. I did not realize that would make up such a large portion of the population. It is great that it is decreasing, but there is still going to be so many people in our prisons over the next few years. Overall, it is great seeing that most areas are decreasing, but we still have a long way to go before we have fixed our population issue in our prisons. -arm002
I really like the questions you bring up in your response because I kind of thought the same thing when I read this article. I wonder if the females will slowly increase while the males decrease. Female offending is really kind of interesting to me because it seems overlooked in the world and I would like to know more about their statistics. You also mention how you would like to see if the trend of prison population decreasing is still continuing in 2019 and I too would like to know that myself to see if we are still doing everything to bring those numbers down. -wags002
The first thing I found interesting in the article was the chart that showed the prisoners under jurisdiction by state. Some states in this chart that really caught my attention were Texas and California. Texas and California had the most prisoners with Texas having 163,909, and California with 129,593. On the flip side states like Vermont and North Dakota had less than 2,000 prisoners. Another thing that I found interesting was that in 2015 an estimated 14% of sentenced prisoners were serving time in state prison for murder or nonnegligent manslaughter, and an additional 12% of state prisoners had been sentenced for rape or sexual assault. This is basically saying that one in four inmates in the state prisons were there for a violent serious crime. I also found interesting that in 2016 more than 21% of federal prisoners were non-U.S. citizens. This statistic seems very high to me; I wouldn’t expect almost a fourth of the inmates to be no U.S. citizens. Another statistic that stood out to me was that Sixteen percent of white male prisoners were age 55 or older, compared to 10% of black male and 8% of Hispanic male prisoners. This seems that the men's prison population is getting older. I found it interesting that a majority of states don't include prisoners held in private facilities towards their capacity for the prison population. However seven states including Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota all include prive facility prisoners towards their capacity. It makes me wonder why the other forty three states don’t do the same. Lastly, I found it interesting that The number of females sentenced to more than 1 year in state or federal prison increased by 700 from 2015 to 2016. I know the amount of women being incarcerated each year has been on the rise in the last couple decades, but an increase of 700 in one year seems pretty high to me. I think overall there was a lot of interesting facts throughout the article. I think it hit on a lot of the different points we have seen in previous articles. -CRJB002
I was also surprised by the high population of prisoners in Texas and California. In many aspects of the media, Texas is often displayed as a state where prisons are tough. The amount of those incarcerated for violent crimes within the states also surprised me. One in four of those incarcerated for committing violent crimes is a staggering number. This seems to be the trend in recent years as well. The aging prison population definitely needs to be explored. The costs of the aging population and the length of time they will incarcerated. –Zen002
I was also shocked about how many prisoners that are in California prisons but not Texas. Texas still has the death penalty so I wouldn’t be surprised they took the law very seriously. Texas is a state you wouldn’t want to get in trouble. But California I would think it was low because they legalized weed. Batman001
But California I would think it was low because they legalized weed. Which is a major issue in most states like Chicago where majority of there cases deals with some kind of drug issue. I was also shocked about how many prisoners that are in California prisons but not Texas prisons. Texas still has the death penalty so I wouldn’t be surprised they took the law very seriously. Texas is a state you wouldn’t want to get in trouble. Batman002
This article had a lot of information about state and federal prison populations from 2015 to 2016. There were a lot of things I found interesting, one being that from 2015 to 2016 there was increase of 700 females getting the sentence of a year or more at the state or federal prison. This shows that females seem to be offending more and more are getting sentenced for more serious crimes. Females seem to be overlooked by a lot of people and the media when it comes to them committing crimes which shouldn't be the case because we need to hear about them that way maybe we could figure out how to decrease that number. Another thing I found interesting was that imprisonment rate has been the lowest since 1997 which is amazing. Its good to hear there aren't as many people in prison because that is a lot of money to keep everyone of them in prison. Another decrease was for all races the imprisonment from 2015 to 2016 which also is great to hear. One thing I was reading was that it stated that "96% of non-US citizens in state or federal prison were males" which shows that a lot of the immigrants coming into our country are males committing crimes. I would think that they should realize since they aren't US citizens they shouldn't be committing as many crimes and risking getting caught. However that does not seem like the case because the 96% of males are getting caught. Going off some more statistics from this article, it also stated that "11% of prisoners sentenced to a year or more were the age of 55 or older" which seems like a low number however I feel that percent should be lower than it is. I say that because I would think that after that age they should realize or get tired of going back to prison. If this means though that they have been in there so long that they are 55 or older then they will be costing the prisons a lot of money due to their aging. One last thing, going back to the female statistics, 25% of females in state prison as of December 31, 2015 were in for drug offenses compared to the males which was 14%. Both percent's on are the lower end however I am wondering why more females are in prison for drugs than males. It goes back to not knowing this due to not many people talking about the females and their crimes. So overall I found this article very interesting backed up with a lot of statistics. -wags002
I agree that females are getting overlooked, especially in the media for committing crimes. I think that in today's society it's just so common to associate crime to men, even though the women incarceration rate has been going up the last couple decades. I also think that it’s important for media to cover women's incarceration rate, because a lot of people don’t realize it's a growing problem. -CRJB002
I was also shocked about how many prisoners that are in California prisons but not Texas. Texas still has the death penalty so I wouldn’t be surprised they took the law very seriously. The amount of those incarcerated for violent crimes within the states also surprised me. One in four of those incarcerated for committing violent crimes is a staggering number. SH002
I agree that it is amazing that the prison rates are at the lowest in 2016 since 1997. It crazy to think how much it actually costs to put someone in prison. I also agree that females do get overlooked when it comes to crime. I think when it comes to crime you mainly think of a male, which is not always the case. JU002
One of the first things I found interesting was that the overall prison population is at a 7% decrease from the peak in 2009. The number was 1,615,487 inmates and dropped to 1,506,757 total inmates in 2016. The number of females made up around 7% of the national prison population by the end of 2016, a 100 inmate increase from 2015. The number of female inmates has increased in 26 states from 2015 to 2016. Another interesting statistic was the number of inmates with a sentence over one year. The total number consists of 97% of the prison population as of 2016. The number has been down about 1% or 17,300 from December 31, 2015 to December 31, 2016. The state prisons contained 1,288,100 inmates sentenced to over one year in prison. The number of inmates sentenced to over one year in prison had declined in 30 states. The next interesting stat was the number of sentenced prisoners per US residents of all ages, at the end of 2016. The number of sentenced inmates were 450 per 100,000 US residents of all ages. The imprisonment rate compared to the US population of all ages was the lowest since 1997, clocking in at 444 per 100,000 US residents. Around 12 states had higher imprisonment rates that were higher than the national rate of 450 per 100,000 US residents. Another fascinating statistic is how the incarceration rate for all races decreased for all races between 2015 and 2016. The rate of black adults being imprisoned had decreased by 4% from 2016 and 29% since 2006. The rates of white adults have decreased 2% between 2015 and 15% since 2006. The imprisonment rate for Hispanic adults as dropped just 1% since 2015 and 20% since 2006. Another fun statistic is the number of prisoners released by correctional authorities from state and federal prisons. The number of inmates being released has decreased from 2% from 2015, the number being down 15,000 releases. The last interesting stat is one tenth of all prisoners sentenced to over one year were aged 55 or older, the percentage being around 11%. -OUTATIME002
There were so many interesting facts to explore in this article regarding the prison population. The first fact I found surprising was that from 2015 to 2016, state and federal prison population decreased by 19,800. The number of those incarcerated in the federal and state prisons is an estimated 1,506,800. That estimates a more than a 1% decline. All points in the media seem as if crime is on the rise and one would think that the incarceration rate would reflect this estimate but in reality 2,300 less prisoners were admitted from 2015 – 2016. Another interesting fact to explore is the drug related offenses. Forty percent of federal prisoners are incarcerated for drug offenses while the majority of state prisoners (54%) are incarcerated for violent crimes. I would have thought that a higher percentage of state offenders would be incarcerated for drug offenses. Another fact worth exploring deeper is that prisoners sentenced to more than one year in prison make up 97% of the total prison population. This illustrates why it is important to look at the costs of rehabilitation when you figure that many of those sentenced will be spending a significant portion of their lives in these facilities. The other percent had either not been sentenced or had received less than a year. I also found it interesting to learn that there are 450 prisoners sentenced for more than a year in prison for every 100,000 residents of all ages. This represents a significant portion of our population. Consistent with other articles, the rate of women in prison has consistently increased as well. There was an increase from 2015 to 2016 of women incarcerated by 700. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this article is the differences in the ways the states collect this data. Each state has their own methodology in collecting the data. This can create a slight variation in the statistics but the general increases and premises can still be examined. I also found it interesting that some states, such as North Dakota and Oregon did not report their statistics to the study. While I think they would follow the national trends, there may be other factor such as their method of collecting data that may differ. –Zen002
This article surprised me in a lot of ways. It said that “This was a decline of 19,800 prisoners (down 1%) from year-end 2015. State prisons held 12,600 fewer prisoners in 2016 than in 2015, while the federal prison population decreased by 7,300 (down almost 4%).” The way news is reported on the radio and on TV the news reports make it seem like it would be the opposite. There was a Seven percent decrease since 2009. In 2016 the total national prison population for females made up seven percent. Another thing I found interesting was the number of inmates with a sentence over one year. The total number consists of 97% of the prison population as of 2016. Most people who are incarcerated have previously went to prison. Even if it was his or her first offense they most likely committed a violent crime. The rate of black adults being imprisoned had decreased by 4% from 2016 and 29% since 2006. The rates of white adults have decreased 2% between 2015 and 15% since 2006. The imprisonment rate for Hispanic adults as dropped just 1% since 2015 and 20% since 2006. I think that now we have more people trying to go to college, people have gotten smarter about what they do. Or maybe they seen their parents come from the system and don’t want to have to experience that for themselves first hand. The number of female inmates has increased in 26 states from 2015 to 2016. Which i think is because women have been always doing certain crimes. It’s just because now that we have equal rights laws that we find it more common that women are committing crimes. But most crimes involve a boyfriend because they cheated on her with her friend or someone she didn’t know. Another thing I noticed was “eleven percent of prisoners sentenced to a year or more were the age of fifty five or older”. Which i think if someone in that age group commits a petty crime they should be put on house arrest. But of course if it’s a violent crime they should be put in jail or prison. Batman002
I agree with you one hundred percent. These statistics are surprising. What is the most surprising to me is that the decline of 19,800 prisoners (down 1%) from year-end 2015. State prisons held 12,600 fewer prisoners in 2016 than in 2015, while the federal prison population decreased by 7,300 (down almost 4%.The news, and social media says this is the complete opposite. -Jas002
This article has my feelings all messed up. The number of federal prisoners decreased for 196,500 in 2015 to 189,200 in 2016. Nearly half of federal prisoners were sentenced for drug offenses. States prison population decreased 12,600 from the end of 2015 to the end of 2016. More than half of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent offenses in 2015. Alabama, Indiana, and Michigan are the states that had the largest decrease in their prison population. State and Federal prisons were admitting 2,300 fewer prisoner in 2016. This is a 5% decrease that accounted for 96% of the total decline in 2016. I think it is really interesting how different sex, age, and race all effect that prison rates. The imprisonment rate for the U.S population for all ages was the lowest it has been in 2016 since 1997. It decreased 2%from 458 prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages in 2015 to 450 per 100,000 in 2016 alone. Women's imprisonment rate was not surprising because of how much it went up because 0.1% is not that much, but it is surprising to me that it went up at all. Will the female imprisonment rate keep going up the male imprisonment rate goes down or was this just a one-time thing? Another rate that is declining is the number of prisoners sentenced to more than a year. The article says the rate is down 1%. Another decrease was for all races the imprisonment from 2015 to 2016 which also is great to hear. One thing I was reading was that it stated that "96% of non-US citizens in state or federal prison were males" which shows that a lot of the immigrants coming into our country are males committing crimes. I would think that they should realize since they aren't US citizens they shouldn't be committing as many crimes and risking getting caught. the overall prison population is at a 7% decrease from the peak in 2009. the number of prisoners released by correctional authorities from state and federal prisons. The number of inmates being released has decreased from 2% from 2015, the number being down 15,000 releases. SH002
I like how you mentioned that in 2015 more than half of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent crimes and not low-level offenses. I thought the question you asked regarding the rise of female incarceration rates was interesting; will male incarceration rates keep decreasing as the female population rises? The fact that it’s going up at all makes me think it will continue to do so in the future. --coffeeplease002
The first fact that caught my attention in the article “Prisoners” was the very most important one to me. “More than half (54%) of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent offenses at year-end 2015, the most recent year for which data are available.'' I think that now these numbers are different. There are more people who are in prison for nonviolent crimes. The second important fact that caught my attention was, “ The number of females sentenced to more than 1 year in state or federal prison increased by 700 from 2015 to 2016.” The number of female prisons has increased in the last decade. There has been in increase women incarceration for violent crimes because women are going through tough times. Another quote that was surprising was, “The number of non-Hispanic white prisoners and non-Hispanic black prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year each decreased 2% from 2015 to 2016, with 10,000 fewer white prisoners and 12,100 fewer black prisoners.” This quote was very surprising to me because I thought there were more were lesser whites going to prison. This quote says, “Among females ages 18 to 19, black females were 3.1 times more likely than white females and 2.2 times more likely than Hispanic females to be imprisoned in 2016.” This quote is not surprising at all. There are always a higher number of blacks and hispanics imprisoned than white. The fifth quote that was very interesting is, “Among sentenced prisoners under the jurisdiction of state correctional authorities on December 31, 2015, 15% (197,200 prisoners) had been convicted of a drug offense as their most serious crime.” Ive done alot of research and noticed that there are millions of people incarcerated for drug related crimes. Most of them are incarcerated for marijuana. I think that it is ridiculous. Some people smoke weed after a long day of work to calm them. I do not think weed is associated with violent crimes being committed in the United States. Last but not least, More than half (56% or 6,300) of female federal prisoners were serving sentences for a drug offense, compared to 47% of males (75,600).n -Jas002
I thought the same way. Females that are sentenced 1 year was interesting because they said it increased and i would like how it increased. Also with the males it decreased. What are they doing to make it decrease and increase. The rates have changed over the years but it don't give them the right to do such thing. softball002
As I read the Prisoners in 2016 article, I thought it was interesting to know authorities of 2016. The number was 1,615,487 inmates and dropped to 1,506,757 total inmates in 2016. According to Ann Carson “ Findings in this report are based on the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) program, which collects annual data from state departments of corrections (DOCs) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on prisoner counts, characteristics, admissions, releases, and prison capacity." This means that they look for those counts and characteristics. I couldn’t believe that there is 97% of the total prison population in 2016. I thought it would be higher. Females sentenced 1 year increased more than 700 prisoners. Males prisoners sentenced to 1 year or more decreased in 31 states. I want to know they males have decreased and females have increased. The admission to state and federal prisons was unchanged between the years. Correctional authorities released fewer prisons for state and federal prisons in 2016. I thought it was interesting to see the jurisdiction notes on the states. I really want to know why North Dakota and Oregon did not report their statistics to the study. Softball002
So this article has my mind thinking all over the place; there is a lot of interesting and useful information regarding the prison populations but with all the different statistics being explained it’s a little confusing. It is very interesting to me that the imprisonment rates at the end of 2016 were the lowest since 1997, with 450 prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages and 582 per 100,000 U.S. residents age 18 or older. Prisoners that had been sentenced to more than 1 year made up 97% of the total prison population in 2016. The remaining 3% had been awaiting trial or had received a sentence of 1 year or less. It’s surprising to me that while the number of people in prisons is decreasing there are still some numbers in the system going up. Apparently the number of females sentenced to more than one year in state or federal prison increased by 700 from 2015 to 2016. Indiana and Alabama had the largest decrease in numbers, but 26 states increased their number of female prisoners (Kentucky was up 400). I really enjoyed reading the demographic characteristics. You would think with all of this research we could do more to actually lower the incarceration rates for good with rehabilitation centers and community service programs. One of the statistics said “Black males ages 18 to 19 were 11.8 times more likely to be imprisoned than white males of the same age. This age group had the highest black-to-white racial disparity in 2016.” Obviously this statistic isn’t super surprising but that’s only because we know a lot of black males ages 18 to 19 are probably living in poverty, in a neighborhood with little to no honest job opportunities and they most likely didn’t accumulate a high school diploma. Why do we allow so many young people to make these mistakes time and time again without help? If we want to lower crime and imprisonment rates in the unites states I truly think it begins with helping the communities that need jobs, resources, and better education etc. --coffeeplease002
This article also has my mind all over the place, so many impactful statistics squeezed so closely. It is amazing that the United States has been on the decrease in its prison population. In order to continue this decline we need to focus on who we are arresting and for what reasons. With finding alternatives to prison we can cut back on cost and using time locked in a cell. -KF002
The United States number of prisoners, state and federal decreased by over one percent for 2015 to 2016. In total, state and federal correctional facilities in 2016, had nearly 1,506,800 prisoners. The imprisonment rates are the lowest they have been since 1997. I think it is great that 2016 has been the fourth consecutive year to decrease in population of federal prisoners. Texas had the largest total incarceration rate in 2016, with a whopping total of 163,703. The state with the largest change is Alaska with a decrease of almost seventeen percent. The greater majority of the prison population is people that have been sentenced to more than one year. In 2016, ninety-seven percent of the population in lock up was because of more than a year of sentenced time. Fortunately this is the United States third consecutive year that prisoners sentenced more than just a year is on the decline. Only 47,200 out of the 1,506,800 prisoners held in 2016 were sentenced to a year or less time. I think that it is crazy that the rate of hispanic people arrested had increased even just by two percent from 2015 to 2016. The rate of imprisonment dropped four percent among african Americans and two percent among caucasins. Correctional facilities released 15,000 fewer people from state and federal prisons in 2016 than 2015. It is outraging that african American males, between eighteen and nineteen years old, are nearly twelve percent more likely to go to prison than white males of the same age. While African Americana females are over three percent more likely to get arrested than white females, and over two percent of hispanic girls the same age. Females of color, particularly African American, were imprisoned at nearly doubled the rate as white females. It shocking to see that the world may be imprisoning less among the years, yet racism still keeps a place in the correctional system. I am relieved that we are finding other alternatives than prison time. On the other side of things we need to ask ourselves why racism still rises. -KF002
Like we discussed in class. The prison system needs a reform we could save money if we let the minor issues go on probation and house arrest and save the system money instead of housing them in institutions like prisons or jail. Why there is such a different number then women in the system I think its society, that has brought them up wring. We are a broken system how we can repair that I dont’ know? But looking at some of the statistics it seems like Mississippi has some of the higher number of inmates. Could it be more impoverished poorer people down there just looking for a place to sleep ffor food and a cot? At least some of the states are releasing prisoners under conditions that they can get the number of inmate population down. One thing I noticed in this article is it mentioned the inmates older then 55. Last thing we need is keeping the older ones in at the cost of health care its a burden on our taxes. Something else I noticed is, why do we have more black inmates then we do white or hispanic. I know that most of the law breaking citizens are gangs from the inner city. There fore most of these would be younger black kids not knowing the right or wrong and just want a sense of self belonging due to joining a gang. Another in the article that caught my attention was inmates considered non citizens. Does that include military prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay? I guess it includes illegal immigrants and others of other nationality. We need to go back and look at the sentences of some of these violations and for drug offenders maybe give them a lighter sentence while the heavier offenses such as murder keep them behind bars. Keep the more dangerous off the street. As of juvenile detainment, I seen on one data sheet like Arizona has a high level of keeping kids under the age of 17 for detainment. Could it be illegal status or drug offenses I don’t know? It seems like in Illinois we have a high level of containment of the same age group from what the table said. Navy002
I do agree with your statement, they more money we spend on inmates seems arises more problems. I really don't understand the efforts to keep the inmates in jail, it is hurting ourselves financially and somewhat shooting ourselves in the foot, let's get the inmates who have committed nonviolent offenses and lets focus on the “big fish”
I do agree with your statement, they more money we spend on inmates seems arises more problems. I really don't understand the efforts to keep the inmates in jail, it is hurting ourselves financially and somewhat shooting ourselves in the foot, let's get the inmates who have committed nonviolent offenses and lets focus on the “big fish”-as002
We can save money if we give more leeway to the judges on certain laws that the offenders break that would keep our inmate population down and save tax payer money at the same time. Maybe at the same time get rid of private prisons and and save each state money and focus on rehabilitation programs for the minority offenders. Navy 002
I always knew men made up the majority of the prison population; however, I never realized that men had over 1 million more incarcerated than women. It is crazy to think that over 90 percent of the prison population is men while less than 10 percent is women considering the increase in female offenders. I was shocked to know Texas contributes the most to the high prison rates with over 160,00 prisons (including male and female). I would have expected New York, Florida, or Illinois to have the highest due to these states having big cities. I am proud of this country and the states because of the continuous and consecutive decreases in state and federal prison populations. It only decreased by 17,300 prisoners, which is only 1 percent, but 1 percent every year is hopeful and positive. I never realized how long the NPS has been around either. I would have assumed it was developed sometime in the 1980s; however, the NPS was developed in 1926. I found it interesting that state DOC’s are not reprimanded for not responding to the NPS survey. This survey is very important to our criminal justice system, so I would have assumed a penalty would occur if a state DOC fails to respond. I never realized the NPS also took data from the United States territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands. I would have assumed Puerto Rico could have been counted but I did not consider our other territories as well. I thought it was interesting that Florida made so many changes and revisions to the survey information they obtained for the NPS except in ways to record race and Hispanic Origin until 2016 when they adopted BJS ways. -Gamma002
I dont think its any surprise to any of us that Texas is the single most state to put away the most prisoners. It's been known for years that they have a tendency to throw the book at someone and hope that others who see it are steered away from committing any crime to the strict penalties that come along with them. FIRE002
Prisoners in 2016 are a lot like our prisoners today, a lot of the prisoners, are facing the same adversities as the prisoners 3 years ago. The same prisoners face life sentences, some who are convicted correctly and some who are convicted incorrectly. Many prisoners who are wrongfully convicted now face time that they will never see the light of day. And I also noticed how, some prisoners face time that they can be reduced into just as small as years and they would get the same out of it as they would if they only went in, in a short amount of time. Like a lot of prisoners, some individuals see this not as a rehabilitation center but as hell in some way. These prisons no longer offer or offer very minimal efforts to rehabilitate. Nonetheless, prisoners in comparison to 2016 and 2019, they have grown in over crowdedness and grown as such as not getting that treatment they deserve as humans. , I feel way more measures can be taken than just putting these individuals away. I hope we soon do away with this because it is wasting time and taking away people who necessarily don’t deserve it.I completely disagree with the jailing of individuals who can not pay off debts, we are already facing the overcrowding of prisons and jails, and for us to incarcerate people who just simply owe money in my opinion is irritating. as002
When you hear the number 19,800, you think of a large amount naturally. It could be 19,800 dollars for example which is a good sum of money for someone like me and my fellow classmates. Then you hear 19,800 people. Well now that's totally different then dollars. Thats a lot of babies that were born and a lot of hearts that are beating. What if I told you that was only 1% of prisoners under Federal and State jurisdictions. That is the first fact that absolutely blows my mind because that is so many people and still just a small fraction of prisoners in 2016. Who knows how much these statistics have changed in 3 years and will change in the coming years. The good news about that statistic is that those are the numbers of people who have been released back into society. Those who did their time and got to go home. Some will probably come back on repeat offenses, while others will become functioning members of society.
The second fact that I found interesting is that state facilities held over 1,500,000 inmates. These inmates are serving for crimes from petty offenses all the way up to felony murder which amazes me because theres such a wide range and diversity of people in states facilities. Another fact that caught my attention was that the Federal facilities only held 189,192 inmates. That's such a small number in comparison to the size of the states inmate population simply because the Federal programs house the bad of the bad. Another fact that i noticed was the female population only made up 7% of the total population. As we all know, the females are starting to commit the same crimes as men and doing it as much if not more so that's statistic surprises me because I thought it would be more than that. I also liked how they noted that 97% of these inmates were serving more than 1 year, which is a felony sentence.The last fact that jumped out at me was between the end of 2015 and the end of 2016, the black adult imprisonment rate dropped by 4% which means there's something changing whether it be new jobs available or even new housing opportunities to get the inner city individuals out of harm's way and give them a chance to do good. FIRE002
There is a lot of interesting facts in this article, but here are some that stand out to me. There was a 7% decrease in the number of prisoners under state and federal jurisdictions at the end of 2016 from 2009. The number of federal prisoners decreased for 196,500 in 2015 to 189,200 in 2016. Nearly half of federal prisoners were sentenced for drug offenses. States prison population decreased 12,600 from the end of 2015 to the end of 2016. More than half of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent offenses in 2015. Alabama, Indiana, and Michigan are the states that had the largest decrease in their prison population. Another interesting fact is that females made up 7% of the total national prison population. I would have thought the percentage would be higher. Indiana and Alabama were the states that had the largest decrease, decreasing 500 female prisoners combined. Prisoners are sentenced to more than a year make up 97% of the total prison population. The is most of the prison population but, by the end of 2016 the number of state and federal prisoners who have been sentenced to more than one year in prison declined by 17,300. Females had the opposite statics. Females sentenced to more than one year increased by more than 700 prisoners in 2016. Hispanic prisoners sentenced to more than one year increased about 6,400 prisoners between 2015 and 2026. Non-hispanic black and white prisoners sentenced to more than one year decreased 2% by the end of 2016 with 10,000 fewer white prisoners and 12,600 fewer black prisoners. The imprisonment rate for the U.S population for all ages was the lowest it has been in 2016 since 1997. It decreased 2%from 458 prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages in 2015 to 450 per 100,000 in 2016 alone. State and Federal prisons were admitting 2,300 fewer prisoner in 2016. This is a 5% decrease that accounted for 96% of the total decline in 2016. I think it is really interesting how different sex, age, and race all effect that prison rates. -JU002
ReplyDeleteI agree that all the facts stated are very interesting and it is good to see decreasing numbers in these areas. It would be interesting to read an article about what is causing the decline in these certain areas and figure out everything that factors in. I hope we continue to see a decrease in our prison numbers because it does seem to be an issue. -arm002
DeleteI agree with arm002 in the fact that I would love to know why these decreases are occurring and what new strategies are being tested to lower these numbers even more. I am curious to see how much the difference between the number of male prisoners and female prisoners will change as more female offenders continue to surface. -Gamma002
DeleteThe first statistic I saw upon reading this article was that in the year of 2016 there were a little over one and a half million state and federal prisoners in the United States. That alone seemed like a huge number and surprised me, but the article says that there were twenty thousand more prisoners the year before and that it was the lowest imprisonment rate since 1997. That in itself is crazy, but I would like to know if that trend has continued over the years and what the imprisonment rate looks like for the year of 2019. Another fact that I had found interesting was that upon looking at the chart of imprisonment rate by state and United States total, it shows that even though there was a decrease from 2015 to 2016, men's rates decreased by 1.4%, but women's rates actually increased by 0.1%. Women's imprisonment rate was not surprising because of how much it went up because 0.1% is not that much, but it is surprising to me that it went up at all. Will the female imprisonment rate keep going up the male imprisonment rate goes down or was this just a one time thing? Another rate that is declining is the amount of prisoners sentenced to more than a year. The article says the rate is down 1%, but that is not what I found interesting. I found it very interesting that the percentage of people sentenced over a year made up 97% of the prison population in 2016. I did not realize that would make up such a large portion of the population. It is great that it is decreasing, but there is still going to be so many people in our prisons over the next few years. Overall, it is great seeing that most areas are decreasing, but we still have a long way to go before we have fixed our population issue in our prisons. -arm002
ReplyDeleteI really like the questions you bring up in your response because I kind of thought the same thing when I read this article. I wonder if the females will slowly increase while the males decrease. Female offending is really kind of interesting to me because it seems overlooked in the world and I would like to know more about their statistics. You also mention how you would like to see if the trend of prison population decreasing is still continuing in 2019 and I too would like to know that myself to see if we are still doing everything to bring those numbers down. -wags002
DeleteThe first thing I found interesting in the article was the chart that showed the prisoners under jurisdiction by state. Some states in this chart that really caught my attention were Texas and California. Texas and California had the most prisoners with Texas having 163,909, and California with 129,593. On the flip side states like Vermont and North Dakota had less than 2,000 prisoners. Another thing that I found interesting was that in 2015 an estimated 14% of sentenced prisoners were serving time in state prison for murder or nonnegligent manslaughter, and an additional 12% of state prisoners had been sentenced for rape or sexual assault. This is basically saying that one in four inmates in the state prisons were there for a violent serious crime. I also found interesting that in 2016 more than 21% of federal prisoners were non-U.S. citizens. This statistic seems very high to me; I wouldn’t expect almost a fourth of the inmates to be no U.S. citizens. Another statistic that stood out to me was that Sixteen percent of white male prisoners were age 55 or older, compared to 10% of black male and 8% of Hispanic male prisoners. This seems that the men's prison population is getting older. I found it interesting that a majority of states don't include prisoners held in private facilities towards their capacity for the prison population. However seven states including Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota all include prive facility prisoners towards their capacity. It makes me wonder why the other forty three states don’t do the same. Lastly, I found it interesting that The number of females sentenced to more than 1 year in state or federal prison increased by 700 from 2015 to 2016. I know the amount of women being incarcerated each year has been on the rise in the last couple decades, but an increase of 700 in one year seems pretty high to me. I think overall there was a lot of interesting facts throughout the article. I think it hit on a lot of the different points we have seen in previous articles. -CRJB002
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised by the high population of prisoners in Texas and California. In many aspects of the media, Texas is often displayed as a state where prisons are tough. The amount of those incarcerated for violent crimes within the states also surprised me. One in four of those incarcerated for committing violent crimes is a staggering number. This seems to be the trend in recent years as well. The aging prison population definitely needs to be explored. The costs of the aging population and the length of time they will incarcerated. –Zen002
DeleteI was also shocked about how many prisoners that are in California prisons but not Texas. Texas still has the death penalty so I wouldn’t be surprised they took the law very seriously. Texas is a state you wouldn’t want to get in trouble. But California I would think it was low because they legalized weed. Batman001
DeleteBut California I would think it was low because they legalized weed. Which is a major issue in most states like Chicago where majority of there cases deals with some kind of drug issue. I was also shocked about how many prisoners that are in California prisons but not Texas prisons. Texas still has the death penalty so I wouldn’t be surprised they took the law very seriously. Texas is a state you wouldn’t want to get in trouble. Batman002
DeleteThis article had a lot of information about state and federal prison populations from 2015 to 2016. There were a lot of things I found interesting, one being that from 2015 to 2016 there was increase of 700 females getting the sentence of a year or more at the state or federal prison. This shows that females seem to be offending more and more are getting sentenced for more serious crimes. Females seem to be overlooked by a lot of people and the media when it comes to them committing crimes which shouldn't be the case because we need to hear about them that way maybe we could figure out how to decrease that number. Another thing I found interesting was that imprisonment rate has been the lowest since 1997 which is amazing. Its good to hear there aren't as many people in prison because that is a lot of money to keep everyone of them in prison. Another decrease was for all races the imprisonment from 2015 to 2016 which also is great to hear. One thing I was reading was that it stated that "96% of non-US citizens in state or federal prison were males" which shows that a lot of the immigrants coming into our country are males committing crimes. I would think that they should realize since they aren't US citizens they shouldn't be committing as many crimes and risking getting caught. However that does not seem like the case because the 96% of males are getting caught. Going off some more statistics from this article, it also stated that "11% of prisoners sentenced to a year or more were the age of 55 or older" which seems like a low number however I feel that percent should be lower than it is. I say that because I would think that after that age they should realize or get tired of going back to prison. If this means though that they have been in there so long that they are 55 or older then they will be costing the prisons a lot of money due to their aging. One last thing, going back to the female statistics, 25% of females in state prison as of December 31, 2015 were in for drug offenses compared to the males which was 14%. Both percent's on are the lower end however I am wondering why more females are in prison for drugs than males. It goes back to not knowing this due to not many people talking about the females and their crimes. So overall I found this article very interesting backed up with a lot of statistics. -wags002
ReplyDeleteI agree that females are getting overlooked, especially in the media for committing crimes. I think that in today's society it's just so common to associate crime to men, even though the women incarceration rate has been going up the last couple decades. I also think that it’s important for media to cover women's incarceration rate, because a lot of people don’t realize it's a growing problem. -CRJB002
DeleteI was also shocked about how many prisoners that are in California prisons but not Texas. Texas still has the death penalty so I wouldn’t be surprised they took the law very seriously. The amount of those incarcerated for violent crimes within the states also surprised me. One in four of those incarcerated for committing violent crimes is a staggering number. SH002
DeleteI agree that it is amazing that the prison rates are at the lowest in 2016 since 1997. It crazy to think how much it actually costs to put someone in prison. I also agree that females do get overlooked when it comes to crime. I think when it comes to crime you mainly think of a male, which is not always the case. JU002
DeleteOne of the first things I found interesting was that the overall prison population is at a 7% decrease from the peak in 2009. The number was 1,615,487 inmates and dropped to 1,506,757 total inmates in 2016. The number of females made up around 7% of the national prison population by the end of 2016, a 100 inmate increase from 2015. The number of female inmates has increased in 26 states from 2015 to 2016. Another interesting statistic was the number of inmates with a sentence over one year. The total number consists of 97% of the prison population as of 2016. The number has been down about 1% or 17,300 from December 31, 2015 to December 31, 2016. The state prisons contained 1,288,100 inmates sentenced to over one year in prison. The number of inmates sentenced to over one year in prison had declined in 30 states. The next interesting stat was the number of sentenced prisoners per US residents of all ages, at the end of 2016. The number of sentenced inmates were 450 per 100,000 US residents of all ages. The imprisonment rate compared to the US population of all ages was the lowest since 1997, clocking in at 444 per 100,000 US residents. Around 12 states had higher imprisonment rates that were higher than the national rate of 450 per 100,000 US residents. Another fascinating statistic is how the incarceration rate for all races decreased for all races between 2015 and 2016. The rate of black adults being imprisoned had decreased by 4% from 2016 and 29% since 2006. The rates of white adults have decreased 2% between 2015 and 15% since 2006. The imprisonment rate for Hispanic adults as dropped just 1% since 2015 and 20% since 2006. Another fun statistic is the number of prisoners released by correctional authorities from state and federal prisons. The number of inmates being released has decreased from 2% from 2015, the number being down 15,000 releases. The last interesting stat is one tenth of all prisoners sentenced to over one year were aged 55 or older, the percentage being around 11%. -OUTATIME002
ReplyDeleteThere were so many interesting facts to explore in this article regarding the prison population. The first fact I found surprising was that from 2015 to 2016, state and federal prison population decreased by 19,800. The number of those incarcerated in the federal and state prisons is an estimated 1,506,800. That estimates a more than a 1% decline. All points in the media seem as if crime is on the rise and one would think that the incarceration rate would reflect this estimate but in reality 2,300 less prisoners were admitted from 2015 – 2016. Another interesting fact to explore is the drug related offenses. Forty percent of federal prisoners are incarcerated for drug offenses while the majority of state prisoners (54%) are incarcerated for violent crimes. I would have thought that a higher percentage of state offenders would be incarcerated for drug offenses. Another fact worth exploring deeper is that prisoners sentenced to more than one year in prison make up 97% of the total prison population. This illustrates why it is important to look at the costs of rehabilitation when you figure that many of those sentenced will be spending a significant portion of their lives in these facilities. The other percent had either not been sentenced or had received less than a year. I also found it interesting to learn that there are 450 prisoners sentenced for more than a year in prison for every 100,000 residents of all ages. This represents a significant portion of our population. Consistent with other articles, the rate of women in prison has consistently increased as well. There was an increase from 2015 to 2016 of women incarcerated by 700. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this article is the differences in the ways the states collect this data. Each state has their own methodology in collecting the data. This can create a slight variation in the statistics but the general increases and premises can still be examined. I also found it interesting that some states, such as North Dakota and Oregon did not report their statistics to the study. While I think they would follow the national trends, there may be other factor such as their method of collecting data that may differ. –Zen002
ReplyDeleteThis article surprised me in a lot of ways. It said that “This was a decline of 19,800 prisoners (down 1%) from year-end 2015. State prisons held 12,600 fewer prisoners in 2016 than in 2015, while the federal prison population decreased by 7,300 (down almost 4%).” The way news is reported on the radio and on TV the news reports make it seem like it would be the opposite. There was a Seven percent decrease since 2009. In 2016 the total national prison population for females made up seven percent. Another thing I found interesting was the number of inmates with a sentence over one year. The total number consists of 97% of the prison population as of 2016. Most people who are incarcerated have previously went to prison. Even if it was his or her first offense they most likely committed a violent crime. The rate of black adults being imprisoned had decreased by 4% from 2016 and 29% since 2006. The rates of white adults have decreased 2% between 2015 and 15% since 2006. The imprisonment rate for Hispanic adults as dropped just 1% since 2015 and 20% since 2006. I think that now we have more people trying to go to college, people have gotten smarter about what they do. Or maybe they seen their parents come from the system and don’t want to have to experience that for themselves first hand. The number of female inmates has increased in 26 states from 2015 to 2016. Which i think is because women have been always doing certain crimes. It’s just because now that we have equal rights laws that we find it more common that women are committing crimes. But most crimes involve a boyfriend because they cheated on her with her friend or someone she didn’t know. Another thing I noticed was “eleven percent of prisoners sentenced to a year or more were the age of fifty five or older”. Which i think if someone in that age group commits a petty crime they should be put on house arrest. But of course if it’s a violent crime they should be put in jail or prison. Batman002
ReplyDeleteI agree with you one hundred percent. These statistics are surprising. What is the most surprising to me is that the decline of 19,800 prisoners (down 1%) from year-end 2015. State prisons held 12,600 fewer prisoners in 2016 than in 2015, while the federal prison population decreased by 7,300 (down almost 4%.The news, and social media says this is the complete opposite. -Jas002
DeleteThis article has my feelings all messed up. The number of federal prisoners decreased for 196,500 in 2015 to 189,200 in 2016. Nearly half of federal prisoners were sentenced for drug offenses. States prison population decreased 12,600 from the end of 2015 to the end of 2016. More than half of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent offenses in 2015. Alabama, Indiana, and Michigan are the states that had the largest decrease in their prison population. State and Federal prisons were admitting 2,300 fewer prisoner in 2016. This is a 5% decrease that accounted for 96% of the total decline in 2016. I think it is really interesting how different sex, age, and race all effect that prison rates. The imprisonment rate for the U.S population for all ages was the lowest it has been in 2016 since 1997. It decreased 2%from 458 prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages in 2015 to 450 per 100,000 in 2016 alone. Women's imprisonment rate was not surprising because of how much it went up because 0.1% is not that much, but it is surprising to me that it went up at all. Will the female imprisonment rate keep going up the male imprisonment rate goes down or was this just a one-time thing? Another rate that is declining is the number of prisoners sentenced to more than a year. The article says the rate is down 1%. Another decrease was for all races the imprisonment from 2015 to 2016 which also is great to hear. One thing I was reading was that it stated that "96% of non-US citizens in state or federal prison were males" which shows that a lot of the immigrants coming into our country are males committing crimes. I would think that they should realize since they aren't US citizens they shouldn't be committing as many crimes and risking getting caught. the overall prison population is at a 7% decrease from the peak in 2009. the number of prisoners released by correctional authorities from state and federal prisons. The number of inmates being released has decreased from 2% from 2015, the number being down 15,000 releases. SH002
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that in 2015 more than half of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent crimes and not low-level offenses. I thought the question you asked regarding the rise of female incarceration rates was interesting; will male incarceration rates keep decreasing as the female population rises? The fact that it’s going up at all makes me think it will continue to do so in the future.
Delete--coffeeplease002
The first fact that caught my attention in the article “Prisoners” was the very most important one to me. “More than half (54%) of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent offenses at year-end 2015, the most recent year for which data are available.'' I think that now these numbers are different. There are more people who are in prison for nonviolent crimes. The second important fact that caught my attention was, “ The number of females sentenced to more than 1 year in state or federal prison increased by 700 from 2015 to 2016.” The number of female prisons has increased in the last decade. There has been in increase women incarceration for violent crimes because women are going through tough times. Another quote that was surprising was, “The number of non-Hispanic white prisoners and non-Hispanic black prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year each decreased 2% from 2015 to 2016, with 10,000 fewer white prisoners and 12,100 fewer black prisoners.” This quote was very surprising to me because I thought there were more were lesser whites going to prison. This quote says, “Among females ages 18 to 19, black females were 3.1 times more likely than white females and 2.2 times more likely than Hispanic females to be imprisoned in 2016.” This quote is not surprising at all. There are always a higher number of blacks and hispanics imprisoned than white. The fifth quote that was very interesting is, “Among sentenced prisoners under the jurisdiction of state correctional authorities on December 31, 2015, 15% (197,200 prisoners) had been convicted of a drug offense as their most serious crime.” Ive done alot of research and noticed that there are millions of people incarcerated for drug related crimes. Most of them are incarcerated for marijuana. I think that it is ridiculous. Some people smoke weed after a long day of work to calm them. I do not think weed is associated with violent crimes being committed in the United States. Last but not least, More than half (56% or 6,300) of female federal prisoners were serving sentences for a drug offense, compared to 47% of males (75,600).n -Jas002
ReplyDeleteI thought the same way. Females that are sentenced 1 year was interesting because they said it increased and i would like how it increased. Also with the males it decreased. What are they doing to make it decrease and increase. The rates have changed over the years but it don't give them the right to do such thing. softball002
DeleteAs I read the Prisoners in 2016 article, I thought it was interesting to know authorities of 2016. The number was 1,615,487 inmates and dropped to 1,506,757 total inmates in 2016. According to Ann Carson “ Findings in this report are based on the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) program, which collects annual data from state departments of corrections (DOCs) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on prisoner counts, characteristics, admissions, releases, and prison capacity." This means that they look for those counts and characteristics. I couldn’t believe that there is 97% of the total prison population in 2016. I thought it would be higher. Females sentenced 1 year increased more than 700 prisoners. Males prisoners sentenced to 1 year or more decreased in 31 states. I want to know they males have decreased and females have increased. The admission to state and federal prisons was unchanged between the years. Correctional authorities released fewer prisons for state and federal prisons in 2016. I thought it was interesting to see the jurisdiction notes on the states. I really want to know why North Dakota and Oregon did not report their statistics to the study. Softball002
ReplyDeleteSo this article has my mind thinking all over the place; there is a lot of interesting and useful information regarding the prison populations but with all the different statistics being explained it’s a little confusing. It is very interesting to me that the imprisonment rates at the end of 2016 were the lowest since 1997, with 450 prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages and 582 per 100,000 U.S. residents age 18 or older. Prisoners that had been sentenced to more than 1 year made up 97% of the total prison population in 2016. The remaining 3% had been awaiting trial or had received a sentence of 1 year or less. It’s surprising to me that while the number of people in prisons is decreasing there are still some numbers in the system going up. Apparently the number of females sentenced to more than one year in state or federal prison increased by 700 from 2015 to 2016. Indiana and Alabama had the largest decrease in numbers, but 26 states increased their number of female prisoners (Kentucky was up 400). I really enjoyed reading the demographic characteristics. You would think with all of this research we could do more to actually lower the incarceration rates for good with rehabilitation centers and community service programs. One of the statistics said “Black males ages 18 to 19 were 11.8 times more likely to be imprisoned than white males of the same age. This age group had the highest black-to-white racial disparity in 2016.” Obviously this statistic isn’t super surprising but that’s only because we know a lot of black males ages 18 to 19 are probably living in poverty, in a neighborhood with little to no honest job opportunities and they most likely didn’t accumulate a high school diploma. Why do we allow so many young people to make these mistakes time and time again without help? If we want to lower crime and imprisonment rates in the unites states I truly think it begins with helping the communities that need jobs, resources, and better education etc.
ReplyDelete--coffeeplease002
This article also has my mind all over the place, so many impactful statistics squeezed so closely. It is amazing that the United States has been on the decrease in its prison population. In order to continue this decline we need to focus on who we are arresting and for what reasons. With finding alternatives to prison we can cut back on cost and using time locked in a cell.
Delete-KF002
The United States number of prisoners, state and federal decreased by over one percent for 2015 to 2016. In total, state and federal correctional facilities in 2016, had nearly 1,506,800 prisoners. The imprisonment rates are the lowest they have been since 1997. I think it is great that 2016 has been the fourth consecutive year to decrease in population of federal prisoners. Texas had the largest total incarceration rate in 2016, with a whopping total of 163,703. The state with the largest change is Alaska with a decrease of almost seventeen percent. The greater majority of the prison population is people that have been sentenced to more than one year. In 2016, ninety-seven percent of the population in lock up was because of more than a year of sentenced time. Fortunately this is the United States third consecutive year that prisoners sentenced more than just a year is on the decline. Only 47,200 out of the 1,506,800 prisoners held in 2016 were sentenced to a year or less time. I think that it is crazy that the rate of hispanic people arrested had increased even just by two percent from 2015 to 2016. The rate of imprisonment dropped four percent among african Americans and two percent among caucasins. Correctional facilities released 15,000 fewer people from state and federal prisons in 2016 than 2015. It is outraging that african American males, between eighteen and nineteen years old, are nearly twelve percent more likely to go to prison than white males of the same age. While African Americana females are over three percent more likely to get arrested than white females, and over two percent of hispanic girls the same age. Females of color, particularly African American, were imprisoned at nearly doubled the rate as white females. It shocking to see that the world may be imprisoning less among the years, yet racism still keeps a place in the correctional system. I am relieved that we are finding other alternatives than prison time. On the other side of things we need to ask ourselves why racism still rises.
ReplyDelete-KF002
Like we discussed in class. The prison system needs a reform we could save money if we let the minor issues go on probation and house arrest and save the system money instead of housing them in institutions like prisons or jail. Why there is such a different number then women in the system I think its society, that has brought them up wring. We are a broken system how we can repair that I dont’ know? But looking at some of the statistics it seems like Mississippi has some of the higher number of inmates. Could it be more impoverished poorer people down there just looking for a place to sleep ffor food and a cot? At least some of the states are releasing prisoners under conditions that they can get the number of inmate population down. One thing I noticed in this article is it mentioned the inmates older then 55. Last thing we need is keeping the older ones in at the cost of health care its a burden on our taxes. Something else I noticed is, why do we have more black inmates then we do white or hispanic. I know that most of the law breaking citizens are gangs from the inner city. There fore most of these would be younger black kids not knowing the right or wrong and just want a sense of self belonging due to joining a gang. Another in the article that caught my attention was inmates considered non citizens. Does that include military prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay? I guess it includes illegal immigrants and others of other nationality. We need to go back and look at the sentences of some of these violations and for drug offenders maybe give them a lighter sentence while the heavier offenses such as murder keep them behind bars. Keep the more dangerous off the street. As of juvenile detainment, I seen on one data sheet like Arizona has a high level of keeping kids under the age of 17 for detainment. Could it be illegal status or drug offenses I don’t know? It seems like in Illinois we have a high level of containment of the same age group from what the table said. Navy002
ReplyDeleteI do agree with your statement, they more money we spend on inmates seems arises more problems. I really don't understand the efforts to keep the inmates in jail, it is hurting ourselves financially and somewhat shooting ourselves in the foot, let's get the inmates who have committed nonviolent offenses and lets focus on the “big fish”
DeleteI do agree with your statement, they more money we spend on inmates seems arises more problems. I really don't understand the efforts to keep the inmates in jail, it is hurting ourselves financially and somewhat shooting ourselves in the foot, let's get the inmates who have committed nonviolent offenses and lets focus on the “big fish”-as002
DeleteWe can save money if we give more leeway to the judges on certain laws that the offenders break that would keep our inmate population down and save tax payer money at the same time. Maybe at the same time get rid of private prisons and and save each state money and focus on rehabilitation programs for the minority offenders. Navy 002
ReplyDeleteI always knew men made up the majority of the prison population; however, I never realized that men had over 1 million more incarcerated than women. It is crazy to think that over 90 percent of the prison population is men while less than 10 percent is women considering the increase in female offenders. I was shocked to know Texas contributes the most to the high prison rates with over 160,00 prisons (including male and female). I would have expected New York, Florida, or Illinois to have the highest due to these states having big cities. I am proud of this country and the states because of the continuous and consecutive decreases in state and federal prison populations. It only decreased by 17,300 prisoners, which is only 1 percent, but 1 percent every year is hopeful and positive. I never realized how long the NPS has been around either. I would have assumed it was developed sometime in the 1980s; however, the NPS was developed in 1926. I found it interesting that state DOC’s are not reprimanded for not responding to the NPS survey. This survey is very important to our criminal justice system, so I would have assumed a penalty would occur if a state DOC fails to respond. I never realized the NPS also took data from the United States territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands. I would have assumed Puerto Rico could have been counted but I did not consider our other territories as well. I thought it was interesting that Florida made so many changes and revisions to the survey information they obtained for the NPS except in ways to record race and Hispanic Origin until 2016 when they adopted BJS ways. -Gamma002
ReplyDeleteI dont think its any surprise to any of us that Texas is the single most state to put away the most prisoners. It's been known for years that they have a tendency to throw the book at someone and hope that others who see it are steered away from committing any crime to the strict penalties that come along with them. FIRE002
DeletePrisoners in 2016 are a lot like our prisoners today, a lot of the prisoners, are facing the same adversities as the prisoners 3 years ago. The same prisoners face life sentences, some who are convicted correctly and some who are convicted incorrectly. Many prisoners who are wrongfully convicted now face time that they will never see the light of day. And I also noticed how, some prisoners face time that they can be reduced into just as small as years and they would get the same out of it as they would if they only went in, in a short amount of time. Like a lot of prisoners, some individuals see this not as a rehabilitation center but as hell in some way. These prisons no longer offer or offer very minimal efforts to rehabilitate. Nonetheless, prisoners in comparison to 2016 and 2019, they have grown in over crowdedness and grown as such as not getting that treatment they deserve as humans. , I feel way more measures can be taken than just putting these individuals away. I hope we soon do away with this because it is wasting time and taking away people who necessarily don’t deserve it.I completely disagree with the jailing of individuals who can not pay off debts, we are already facing the overcrowding of prisons and jails, and for us to incarcerate people who just simply owe money in my opinion is irritating. as002
ReplyDeleteWhen you hear the number 19,800, you think of a large amount naturally. It could be 19,800 dollars for example which is a good sum of money for someone like me and my fellow classmates. Then you hear 19,800 people. Well now that's totally different then dollars. Thats a lot of babies that were born and a lot of hearts that are beating. What if I told you that was only 1% of prisoners under Federal and State jurisdictions. That is the first fact that absolutely blows my mind because that is so many people and still just a small fraction of prisoners in 2016. Who knows how much these statistics have changed in 3 years and will change in the coming years. The good news about that statistic is that those are the numbers of people who have been released back into society. Those who did their time and got to go home. Some will probably come back on repeat offenses, while others will become functioning members of society.
ReplyDeleteThe second fact that I found interesting is that state facilities held over 1,500,000 inmates. These inmates are serving for crimes from petty offenses all the way up to felony murder which amazes me because theres such a wide range and diversity of people in states facilities. Another fact that caught my attention was that the Federal facilities only held 189,192 inmates. That's such a small number in comparison to the size of the states inmate population simply because the Federal programs house the bad of the bad. Another fact that i noticed was the female population only made up 7% of the total population. As we all know, the females are starting to commit the same crimes as men and doing it as much if not more so that's statistic surprises me because I thought it would be more than that. I also liked how they noted that 97% of these inmates were serving more than 1 year, which is a felony sentence.The last fact that jumped out at me was between the end of 2015 and the end of 2016, the black adult imprisonment rate dropped by 4% which means there's something changing whether it be new jobs available or even new housing opportunities to get the inner city individuals out of harm's way and give them a chance to do good. FIRE002