Essay on U.S. Incarceration: Rising Crime, War on Drugs, and Shifting Attitudes

Introduction

High American incarceration rates and the large number of people imprisoned in U.S. prisons and jails derive significantly from policymakers 'efforts to expand the use and length of jail sentences. Many variables have applied at various times as well. These include; rising crime levels in the 1970s and 1980s; efforts by police officers to prioritize street-level convictions of drug dealers in the "war on drugs". Lastly, shifts in prevailing attitudes about crime and prisoners that caused lawyers, jurors, and parole officers and other probation authorities to interact harshly with people convicted of crimes. The spike in U.S. incarceration rates over the last 40 years is primarily the result of rises in both the risk of detention and the duration of jail sentences, the latter being the primary cause since 1990. Such changes in effect, are a result of the prevalence of laws and guidelines in almost every state and the federal system. The changes provide for lengthy prison sentences for narcotics and violent crimes and criminal offenders, and the implementation of three strikes and truth-in-sentence statutes in more than half the states and the federal system (Travis et al., 2013). This paper seeks to discuss the increased rate of incarceration in the United States.

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Constitutional Issues Arising from Mass Incarceration

According to Gray (2017), the large number of American Criminal cases related to the Eighth Amendment, through a discussion would concentrate on the perception to be the key changes in the jurisprudence of the Eighth Amendment over time, particularly concerning the concepts described. In the early twentieth century, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment ban of "harsh and inhuman sentence, 'originating from the Bill of Rights Act 1689 United Kingdom, may extend to the duration of incarceration and state of detention, as well as forms of punishment.

Mentioning Weems v United States that engaged the Philippines through a clause similar to the Eighth Amendment and was to be understood by the court as being the same as the Eighth Amendment, for a total of 12 years 'incarceration for deception; a perpetrator remained to be bound, engaging in "severe and uncomfortable work" would be expected, deriving no support from a relative or relatives, possessing no marriage or parental privileges, or property rights. The court decided that an investigation of proportionality would be extended to issues involving the eighth amendment. It was further stated that the Weems clause was illegal because it was enforced "cruel in its abundance of incarceration" 'and because of the "degree and kind" of retribution. The court noted in its analysis of proportionality that degrees of murder was imposed less harshly than the minimum mandatory sentences specific to this situation (Gray, 2017). Proportionality was included in the Eighth Amendment, and the significance was considerably well thought-out in Solem v Helm where it was stated that "where the Court referred to proportionality as "deeply rooted" in common law jurisprudence, it quoted Magna Carta and its understanding as integrating the proportionality principle in British case law" (Gray, 2017).

Minimum sentence guidelines cannot be set down based on the fact that they were rendered as imprudent. The Eighth Amendment does not prescribe the adoption of any single penological philosophy, although over time, the concepts guiding criminal justice structures, although their perceived significance, have shifted. The main benefit of a federal system is that it allowed various states to follow their strategies in this respect; it complicated comparisons between states. (Gray, 2017).

Satellite-Based Monitoring Violate 4th Amendment Rights

According to Donohue (2017), the Theory of the Fourth Amendment no longer represents how the universe works. Technology pushed humanity into a modern age. Traits peculiar to a new environment break down the boundaries that have historically been relied on by the court to preserve individual privacy. Before the 1970s, it gave far less protection to anything individuals did in public or rendered clear to others. A straightforward interpretation of the text represented the teaching. The right of citizens to be safe in their homes implied just this, even as the right to be protected in one's papers gives communications extra security.

The ideas upon which the difference relied the danger faced by individuals performing things in public, in front of others, and the folly of ordering people to close their eyes, avoid their attention, or otherwise disregard their senses were interconnected. What was visible to others in public does not fall within the Fourth Amendment protections. If the government on the other hand, wanted to intervene with the sanctity of the house, outside the stressful conditions, it was required to meet a magistrate, show evidence of criminal activity under subpoena, and obtain a warrant detailing exactly what was to be checked for, including who or what was to be taken from the said place. In the real universe, at the home's edge, or the parchment that made up the packet, the line was a draw. What was inside a home or envelope was de facto private, while what was beyond the home's or envelope's physical borders was usually public, with certain exceptions (Donohue, 2017).

Conclusion

The United States launched a steep rise in the inmate population, and 30 years later witnessed and spiked in the incarceration rate by more than 400 percent. With substantial variance from state to state, a profile has arisen from American imprisonment that includes: a quantitative change in the size of incarceration; a categorical approach to the usage of incarceration in entire categories of crimes ends up as a specific choice in place of imprisonment; and a reshaping of the imprisonment system around a pattern of penal apartheid with little focus. It's hard to find clear proof that systemic imprisonment is being more approaching a worldwide phenomenon if we reach past the United States. There is limited, if any, proof in the developed world that states shift to mass imprisonment, and it is extremely high direct and indirect costs. This may be found crime-fearing policy nearly everywhere, although in most instances, particular structural influences, such as bureaucratic power of judicial decision-making or the influence of national civil rights norms, have created significant opposition to full-fledged mass incarceration.

I think that these institutional accounts of mass imprisonment are embedded in the particular communities in U.S. culture and are not readily exported to many nations, much more than the cultural and economic accounts. Though we could be the most significant single "cause" in moving the United States into mass incarceration, these other reasons help to understand why it may become a successful citizenship movement with wide participation from all facets of American society. The interpersonal partnership between scholars and the corrections professionals should be strengthened. Such collaborations are becoming more viable as gaps are growing in existing criminal justice systems and people across the political spectrum recognize the need for change. Social scientists would be influential in developing and testing evidence-based strategies under the restructuring of criminal justice.

References

Donohue L (2017). The Fourth Amendment in a Digital World. Georgetown University Law Center.https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2804&context=facpub

Gray A (2017). Mandatory Sentencing around the World and the Need for Reform. Retrieved from https://eprints.usq.edu.au/32773/1/NCLR2003_02_Gray.pdf

Travis J, Western B, and Redburn S (2013). The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. The National Academies Press. Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/read/18613/chapter/1