Criminal Justice Reform Essay Example

The current political problem that I chose to address within this assignment is the trouble of criminal justice reform and the policies that come with it. I will be explaining the in-depth viewpoints of every individual that is involved with the topic of Criminal Justice reform. And how many individuals have a different viewpoint, it is agreeing or disagreeing with criminal justice reform concerning the prison environment. This first paragraph will be explaining what criminal justice reform is and how I will only focus on the political subject being prison reform. Which is a specific type of criminal justice reform that focuses on the policies of prison reform and how it has vastly affected many individuals in the United States 

What is Criminal Justice reform and why is it such a political issue surrounding the United States prisons? Criminal justice reform explains a wide variety of topics concerning criminal justice, but I will be sticking to the reform of prisons. This is due to the large discussion of the poor treatment of inmates in the prison system; leading to questions of it being reformed. To Start things of solely focusing on the United States (5% of the world population) but around 25 percent of it is individuals who are incarcerated (EJI)(Pfaff). This caused the spending budget allowance provided by the government to reach 87 billion dollars (about $270 per person in the US) in 2015 (EJI). And has continued to increase due to the level of incarceration rate increase due to the severity of crime rate (2.2 million people have been incarcerated today) (about 390% increase since the 1970s) (Kansal). Many individuals who are incarcerated today are convicted due to the lack of resources or the chance to obtain accessed help that can lead to multiple paths; being wrongfully convicted or receiving excessive sentences (EJI). 

You may be wondering why this political issue can specifically cause an issue in Texas. This is due to Texas being one of the leading states that have a large mass incarceration rate that continues to increase tremendously within the years. According to Hooks he states, “in 2000, the Texas prison population had quintupled over the previous twenty years... cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year to incarcerate with little clear benefit to public safety.”, which affected Texas significantly with mass incarceration. Hooks also addressed that “recent figures, our incarceration rate ranks higher than that of all but five other U.S. states.,” which seems like something that should be considered into account with prison reform.  

When viewing information regarding prison reform I believed in my own perspective that prison reform should be changed. This is due to the severity of it and the complications of individuals that have been incarcerated poorly or wrongly. The complete abolishment of prisons would not be a justifiable stance, but the alternative of supplying more options for inmates who have been imprisoned on nonviolent terms. This also involved imamates that can be easily reintegrated into society; helping them adjust to current living conditions/ environments. Around 2-10 percent of individuals that are incarcerated in the United States Prison system have been reported to be wrongfully incarcerated; meaning they are innocent. Another factor why prison reform should be revised is the fact that African Americans are incarcerated 5 times more than whites and Latin/Hispanic individuals (EJI). This continues onto the next paragraph as to why different culture groups believe that prison reform is a necessary need. 

According to many cultural groups that are the vast majority of incarcerated inmates; a significant percentage of inmates are African-Americans. African-Americans believe that there should be a reform surrounding the prison. This comes into the factor of questioning the racial disparity within the prison system; African Americans being around 13% of inmates. When viewing racial disparity towards sentencing, African Americans are likely to be jailed pending a trial (harsher punishment) (Kansal). Kansal states that youth, black and Latino males who are unemployed are subjected to particularly harsher sentencing compared to other offenders. This also comes into a factor that most Latinos and blacks tend to be prosecuted harshly due to their race/ethnicity and type of crime. For example, Latinos and Blacks tend to be sentenced harshly. The main argument that all diverse groups have is human rights; how being in prison strips away any human right an individual has. Instructing a prison reform allows inmates to live in a constructive environment that allows it to be less hectic and gives the  

While looking at information regarding individuals who oppose prison reform; they view that prison reform is unnecessary due to the crime rate decreasing. Which would mean that the incarceration rate would also decrease due to the number of individuals that are participated in violent activities. According to Hook Texas has set programs and new policies that have helped better prisons and jails. An example provided was providing funding for pretrial diversion programs for nonviolent offenders and bills that have helped free wrongful convictions. These programs and bills helped decrease the number of inmates, thus Texas being able to close three prisons. According to Pfaff, he believes that the situation of cutting mass incarceration does not have a factor in decreasing the crime rate. Pfaff states that “If we really want to scale back our reliance on prison, we need to change how we approach violence,” meaning if we want to reform the prison system, we simply cannot just cut majority of incarcerated individuals.  

When viewing each viewpoint, it can be determined that each group of individuals have their own viewpoints and we can disclose that there are many sides to the reform. Each side gives off examples and evidence on why each has a valid view on why or why not prisons should be reformed. Those who oppose the view that there has been enough reform and that the current standing of the prison system is at a good standing. And those who are all for new prison reform are viewing it as issues regarding racial disparity and the treatment of mass incarceration. And that incarcerated inmates have been stripped away from all their human rights, thus causing some to become more vulnerable and violent towards their environment.