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American prison system - Coggle Diagram
American prison system
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Causes
unfair sentencing: only because of race, income, gender, and many other factors, inmates are charged with different sentences.
mandatory minimum sentencing laws: minimum sentencing laws are a cause and a solution because although they don't help with deciding punishment based on what the judge deems as severe, they help reduce racist sentencing.
over representation of men: men are always seen as more of a threat and punished more harshly even though there are many women out there doing the same things who don't suffer the same fate
privatization of prisons: private institutions can do virtually anything to their inmates without government intervention.
overloaded judicial system: each trial is not given enough detail and some trials are deemed more important than others.
socioeconomic disparities: people who commit crimes in lower income communities are always snuffed out quicker than those with higher income who commit crimes because the police are looking for crime when they visit these low income neighbourhoods
institutional racism: institutional racism is the systematic distribution of power and resources with the benefit of white people in mind rather than people of color. This is a huge problem in the prison system because of the punishment given to people of color vs the punishments given to white people.
lack of government funding: the government does not give enough money for the prison facilities to be up to shape, and they also should give more money to those who are released and trying to get back on their feet.
effects
trauma: in prison, the inmates suffer and see terrible things everyday. Many of them are hurt in fights or raped.
feeds into stereotypes and racism: the amount of people of color who get arrested, especially black people feeds into racism because it makes the public feel as though these people are the most dangerous. But they don't see that these are just the people they talk about in the news.
deaths in prisons: Because of the lack of healthcare, the unfit living conditions, and fights, there are many deaths in prisons, especially now because of corona virus.
broken families: because of the traumas they suffer in jail, they are not the same when they get back. Also, it breaks families for them to become incarcerated in the first place.
solutions
more government funding: more government funding can bring better facilities and living conditions. It can also help get inmates on their feet faster after they are released.
regulation of privatized facilities: if there is regulation in these facilities, they won't be able to continue the harsh treatment they might be giving to their inmates behind closed doors.
better representation: if we gave more news coverage to the white people who are incarcerated, rather than just primarily the people of color, it can help solve the preconceived notion that people of color are more dangerous.
re-examine sentencing minimums: by just re-examining them instead of getting rid of them completely, we can help get rid of unfair sentencing without instilling racism back into the mix.