The American Prison Population

Men at Kansas City Release Center Worry as Prison Plans to Move In", the article covers an important part of life in cities. That is when buildings come to the neighborhood. Although the prison does not seem like it would be accepted by the townspeople, what is would replace (a halfway house), would make it so that way the prison seemed the best option and the lesser evil. All is not good in the area however.

The men part of the halfway house may not find a suitable alternative. This could lead to them being homeless. What is interesting to note is that that main reason for the prison and not the release center is overcrowding in prisons. The writer stated because of the increase in inmate population and overcrowding, there is less space for prisoners, hence the need for the additional prison. What is also being ignored is the fact that most of these men whether in a release center or prison, are not receiving the help they need to become better people. Everything seems to be done to the detriment of prisoners including building more prisons to house them. This could detail a big problem within the country.

The next one is "Correction Officers Show Solidarity for Rikers Colleagues on Trial" and offers a look into what may happen on the inside. So often people get an outside perspective on an issue. In this article, one gets to see an inside perspective, at least from the perspective of employees. Correction officers work for the government or company as they oversee the processes of a prison. Sometimes things get out of control and things must be handled before corruption sets in and people are treated unfairly. Jahmal Lightfoot is one of those people to be treated unfairly and has suffered orbital bone fractures.

Jahmal's injuries helped shed light at the attempted cover-up. Although this is a NYC jail complex, there is corruption afoot in terms of tampering with physical evidence and official misconduct. Especially considering some of these correction officers want to stick by their friends regardless of whether their actions were moral or not. This show how important likability is versus morality.

What this means is, a person can do bad things and still be accepted and defended. This is because that person is likable. A likable person can generate loyalty even amidst a poor sense of morality.

This provides a nice Segway into the next story seen on YouTube about prison changes. Trump aims to increase prison sentences, adding to the problem of overcrowded prisons. All of these problems seen from adding new prisons to corrupt corrections officers come as a result of having too many prisoners. Yet, policy changes introduced by President Trump, aim to increase the number of prisoners in prison due to lengthier criminal sentences. This could have negative consequences on many levels. The people that will suffer the most from these changes are prisoners and their friends and family.

Under Obama, the federal prison population dropped from 220,000 to 190,000, a 30,000 drop. However, under Trump, the prison population may increase and the population segment most affected could be minorities. The 'War on Drugs' seems like the way most prisoners will be added to the prison population and stricter drug policy may lead to additional arrests. Trump essentially has allowed prosecutors to gain leverage by giving larger sentences to get the kind of information they need. However, this kind of information may be inaccurate due to the fear of conviction. This may mean more innocent people may go to jail unnecessarily.