Prison_Population

Checkpoint CJS Prison Populations The article that I found in the university library discusses incarceration, which has been known as one of   lawmakers' top priorities in the United States. “Beginning in the 1970s, the United States embarked on a three-decade long shift in its penal policies. In these years, the state and federal governments tripled the percentage of convicted felons sentenced to imprisonment and doubled the length of their sentences.”(Clear & Austin, 2009). As of the date of the article there are seventeen state reforms which are being introduced to decrease jail time, including marijuana enforcement law in Arkansas, which may or may not cause prison populations. The article addresses three main topics concerning the population maximization of our prison system. The article first discusses that the link between crime and incarceration rates which is not as high and as related as presumed by our policymakers. The second point made is the Iron Law of Prison Population which states that the only way to change the population in prison is to change the amount of people who go and how long each of them stay. The final issue discussed is the failure of the policymakers to actually distinguish this problem and address it directly. Many of the reforms being written are not addressing the amount of people sentenced and the length of sentences occurring. The article goes on to address how populations in prisons will affected by controlling how many go in and how long they are in once they go. It is all about the responsibility, the responsibility parents have, neighborhoods have, and the society has. It will be a harder cycle to break as it is directly related to the economy. Less prosperity, less people doing well, crime or the act of crime becomes a choice for some.