The topic of prison overcrowding as related to the war on drugs is important to society due to the fact that it is racially biased. The war on drugs seems to target minority populations that are concentrated in inner city areas.

Research related to the topic of prison overcrowding seems to show that a series of events has lead us to the current problem, the flooding of prisons across the country with drug offenders. The implementations of the war on drugs and the new penology, the practice of incapacitation of prisoners rather than rehabilitation, have both played major roles in the problem of prison overcrowding (Johnson, 1996).

This paper will focus on three major issues related to the topic of prison overcrowding. First, we will look at how prison overcrowding is effected by the racist war on drugs. Second, I will examine the social factors related to prison overcrowding, and third I will exam

Prison over crowding due to lack of rehabilitation

Lowering the standard for inmates to be paroled can be very detrimental to society due to the fact that violent offenders are being released in many of these states that do not have enough room to house both violent and drug offenders. This practice is placing murders and rapists back into society, while a person with nothing more than a drug problem is left behind bars.

The war on drugs is an issue of race that seems to target populations of inner city minorities. This issue, when related to prison overcrowding, gives us (society) a prison system that is full of minorities. These minorities are not being reformed. The issue is a matter of minorities that are becoming very cynical of the criminal justice system. A famous African American rapper, Tu-Pac Shecure, shows the way he feels about how the war on drugs targets minorities through his rap, ?we have a war on drugs so the police can bother me." This is the belief of many minorities that are filling the prisons across the country for drug offenses.

In 1971 there were fewer than 200,000 inmates in our state and federal prisons (Currie, 1998). By the end of 1996, we were approaching 1.2 million (Currie, 1998). The prison population, in short, has nearly sextupled in the course of twenty-five years (Currie, 1998). Current trends show a decrease in the number of violent crimes. However, the war on drugs has become the leading cause of prison overcrowding. Prison overcrowding is not a new problem, however, the fueling of the war on drugs and changes in punishment policies has led this problem to an epidemic that is growing out of control. In this section I will give a brief history of the war on drugs, as well as a brief history of the problem of prison overcrowding.

Some topics in this essay:
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