The Reasons Behind Mass Incarceration in the United States

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. More specifically, despite only representing about 4.4 percent of the world's population, the United States houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners. But why? Why does the United States incarcerate individuals at a rate higher than that of any other developed nation? In this entry, I will discuss a few of the legal and cultural reasons for America’s mass incarceration epidemic.

On the legal side, the United States has many laws and policies that aim to sentence people to longer periods in prison. An example of this would be mandatory minimum sentencing; a policy that forces judges to sentence defendants to a predetermined minimum prison-term, which almost ensures that people will spend a very long time in prison for even small offenses. This also limits judges’ discretion and prevents judges from being able to assign sentences on a case by case basis. The United States also has laws and policies that aim to keep people in prison for as long as possible. An example of this is the truth-in-sentencing act; an act that gives private prisons incentive to keep prisoners incarcerated, by offering federal funding if most prisoners serve 85% of their sentences. This means that for-profit prisons will be incentivized to keep prisoners incarcerated longer.

There are also many cultural reasons why incarceration rates are high in the United States. Firstly, the United States has a very populist culture. This means that politicians try to appeal to the middle class by appealing to their worst instincts, and overexagerating the threat of crime. Pair this with the fact that prosecutors and judges are elected officials in the United States, and you get a situation where judges and prosecutors begin to adopt 'tough on crime' rhetorics in the hopes of being elected. In fact, according to Christopher Slobogin, Vanderbilt professor of law: “considerable research shows that both judges and prosecutors change their behavior, in a more punitive direction, near election time”. Additionally, the United States is (in some respects) a fairly conservative country. They have an overwhelming number of religious people, and this conservatism often translates to how criminal justice is enforced. According to studies done by Vanderbilt University, fundamentalist Christians are very likely to equate criminal behavior with sinful behavior. The same study concluded that an overwhelming amount of Americans believe that: “crime results from the defendant’s character and not from unfortunate or unjust circumstances”. This means that the public is very unlikely to sympathize with defendants, and since the pubic are the ones electing prosecutors and judges, these ideals are often reflected within the criminal justice system as well. Additionally, lobbyist groups have been formed to further influence elected officials into enforcing ‘tough on crime’ policies which lead to private prisons becoming more profitable.

Overall, there is a multitude of reasons (both legal and cultural) as to why the United States has such high incarceration rates. Hopefully, this entry was able to shed light on a few of them.

Note: Recently, I have been taking an online course about mass incarceration in the United States. This is what motivated me to write this article.