Ironically, incarceration — along with liberty and opportunity — has become a defining trait of the United States. With about 2 million imprisoned individuals, America triumphs on the world stage with the world’s highest imprisonment rate.
The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on prisons, which are overcrowded and filled mostly with nonviolent offenders. The overall incarceration rate for Black Americans is five times higher than that of white Americans, demonstrating a serious racial discrepancy.
To effectively address the inequality and inefficiency of the American incarceration system, the federal government must reform inappropriately harsh sentencing practices, utilize existing prison resources for education and rehabilitation programs, and combat income inequality by imposing higher taxes on wealthy Americans. These solutions ensure a prison system that treats all people in the United States fairly, regardless of race or socioeconomic status.
Although harsher incarceration policies seem like the solution to restrict rampant drug crimes, they only perpetuate the overcrowding of prisons and fail to exterminate the problem of illegal drug use from its core. Prison overpopulation stems from Mandatory Minimums that require a sentencing minimum for a person convicted of a drug crime, regardless of individual situation.
Signed by Ronald Reagan in 1986 as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, Mandatory Minimums prolong the time in prison for individuals incarcerated for drug offenses, therefore leading to a rapid increase in America’s jail and prison population. Furthermore, Mandatory Minimums vary solely based on the type of drug involved in the crime and specifically targeted crack, leading to a higher incarceration rate for Black Americans, who were more likely to associate with this drug.
The federal government must abolish Mandatory Minimums and severe punishments for nonviolent drug offenses to alleviate prison overpopulation. Without mandatory minimums, courts can resume decisions on the severity and length of a conviction based on individual circumstances, avoiding punishments too severe for the crimes committed and possible racial inequality. The elimination of mandatory minimums, therefore, effectively reduces the prison population.
At the same time, new drug offenders will continue to replace imprisoned ones, resulting in a vicious cycle that only sends more people to prison for long periods without targeting the root of drug addiction and related crimes. The federal government can ameliorate high rates of drug convictions by increasing funding for public education programs, rehabilitation, and welfare programs for poorer communities, using a portion of the budget initially designed to build more prisons and jails.
Similar to an increase in school funding, improving Social Security, and expanding the food stamp program, the government can use its power to redirect resources to programs that educate the public about the harms of illegal drugs and help those who have difficulty detoxing.
Heavy taxes on higher-income Americans will also generate funding for the lower class, decreasing the severe income inequality and urban poverty that remained from the Gilded Age to today.
According to a report by the National Library of Medicine, poverty and drug crime directly correlate. Without government intervention in business regulation and taxation, workers get fewer wages but cannot unionize like in the Progressive Era due to more freedom given to businesses that weaken unions. Thus, the income gap between the rich and poor widens.
The poor are more likely to resort to using or selling illegal drugs, perpetuating a cycle of high incarceration rates that leads to high crime rates and more “neighborhood deterioration.” This incident occurred after a conservative wave swept over America during the Carter, Reagan and Clinton presidencies, resulting in a heavy disparity between socioeconomic classes and a rapid increase in drug crimes.
Apart from providing aid to low-income families — many of whom comprise minority racial groups — that might improve high Black American incarceration rates, the government must address and remove policies that maintain racial inequity to improve the American prison system.
Our country has maintained a history of racial discrimination, whether it is strong nativism against Chinese, Mexican, and Jewish immigrants, Jim Crow segregation of Black and white people, or violent lynchings of Black Americans during Reconstruction, during which the federal government ceased to take action. We must acknowledge unjust laws and enact better ones, such as school desegregation, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act, all made possible by activists pushing against injustice in the United States.
Due to policy changes in the late 1900s and racism that traces back to the beginnings of our nation, the current incarceration system in the United States is unjust and inefficient in addressing authentic problems in society. The real issue we face is the negligence and carelessness of current policies, which fail to recognize that drug users need help instead of prison sentencing.
Black Americans face imprisonment inequity due to indirect policies hidden within the system. By focusing on the well-being of our citizens — this applies to other current problems such as abortion, homelessness and the education system — instead of power disputes between political parties, America can finally advance towards greater justice for all.
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