In the United States, the American criminal justice system holds more than 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 942 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails. In recent studies, it is shown that the United States has 25% of the world’s population in prison. The change in sentencing law and policy explains a 500% increase in incarceration over the last forty years. The drastic increase resulted in prison overcrowding causing the expansion of the prison system. Within the United States corrections system, there are several trends in which take place. Since the 1980s, the War on Drugs resulted in dramatic growth in incarceration for drug offenses. The numbers went from as high as almost 41,000 people in 1980 to 470,000 people in 2015. A significant amount of the U.S prison population is made up of people incarcerated on a drug conviction.
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Incarceration is the practice of imprisoning those that violate the common law. The history of imprisonment in America can be traced back to the European system that originated in England, France, and Holland. This was during the period when early colonists first arrived in the country. The basic concept of common law included a set of rules designed to help solve problems in society, concluding in rulings that had been made by judges. During this time, there were several methods of punishment that existed, majority of which relied solely on public shaming. The purpose of this method was to illustrate a lesson to the offender, with the intention that this lesson would help prevent future crimes. One of the significant changes between punishment back then and today is some of the frequently used methods were physical. This included whipping, branding, cutting off body parts, and placing people in the pillory. For crimes that were heinous like rape and murder, convicted felons were punished by execution through public
Incarceration is the practice of imprisoning those that violate the common law. The history of imprisonment in America can be traced back to the European system that originated in England, France, and Holland. This was during the period when early colonists first arrived in the country. The basic concept of common law included a set of rules designed to help solve problems in society, concluding in rulings that had been made by judges. During this time, there were several methods of punishment that existed, majority of which relied solely on public shaming. The purpose of this method was to illustrate a lesson to the offender, with the intention that this lesson would help prevent future crimes. One of the significant changes between punishment back then and today is some of the frequently used methods were physical. This included whipping, branding, cutting off body parts, and placing people in the pillory. For crimes that were heinous like rape and murder, convicted felons were punished by execution through public