The American Prison System Is A Vital Portion Of American...

Merriam-Webster defines prison as a building where people are kept as punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court. In the United States, there is a large prison system consisting of federal and state prisons. The American prison system is a vital portion of American culture. Crime runs rampant throughout our country and it is up to our prisons to punish people for these crimes, maybe even assist in loweingr the amount of crimes that occur. There are several different types of prisons, separated by gender, and differing through the amount of security depending on the type of prisoners. Prisons differ from jails as they are long term facilities; criminals may stay locked up in prison anywhere from a few months up to their†¦show more content†¦Numerous prison sentences last several years; even taking decades of a person’s life, for countless people prison is the only life they are familiar with. The U.S. prison system is necessary; however, the curren t question is whether it is effective. The prison system should be reformed so that the prisons are not overcrowded and that prisoners have an improved quality of life in and out of prison. The biggest issue with prisons right now is that they are extremely overcrowded. This problem is attributed to the rising crime rate. Currently the crime rate is fairly high, â€Å"Nationwide, law enforcement made an estimated 11,302,102 arrests in 2013† (FBI). Not all of these arrests were sentenced prison time, nonetheless thousands were. 631,200 people were incarcerated in prisons last year (Carson). Several people argue that the crime rate is lower than it has been, however the best crime rate is 0. Prisons aid in lowering the crime rate because criminals cannot commit crimes while they are locked up and currently there are around 2 million criminals not committing crimes (Prisoners), nevertheless once those prisoners are released they return to a life of crime. Statistics show, â€Å"two-thirds of prisoners will reoffend† (Criminal Justice). One of the main roles of prison is to rehabilitate prisoners so that they will not commit other crimes; however, it obviousl y is not working. To alleviate this problem, prisons should counsel prisoners and educate them on why crime is