Even while our crime rate has fallen, our incarcerated population has climbed.

 

This is a in issue in America, and one we need to talk about as a society. One of the biggest issues we face today is the for profit prison systems lobbying to change laws to make it easier to put people into jail.

 

One example of how the private prison system uses laws to their advantage is the “three strikes law”, in which you receive life in prison after being convicted of three felonies.

the following are examples minor felony violations that are used to keep minorities in prison for an extended period of time.

• Curfew and Loitering- This is considered a felony and imagine if you are convicted of this three times while walking back from work. This is an example of how the system doesn’t care about the people but rather the profit.
• Vandalism- I know this doesn’t sound as a minor felony but in some cases vandalism isn’t destruction of property but rather a utilization of it to make public art.
• Possession of marijuana- In states where millions are being made and crime has gone down regarding Marijuana  people are receiving felonies off of a gram of this substance that shouldn’t be illegal.

another statistic is that in between the periods of 1990 and 2010 the number of private prisons increased by 1600%

This graph show the increase by how much money the private prisons are putting into lobbying and then the percentage of prisoners in their prisons increase.

 

This is a video by PBS discussing the private prison system

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/419/video.html