America Behind Bars

Artists’ Statement

By: Griffin Arkilic, Ronae Lacey, Vanessa Mendoza Carillo, and Bethany Williams

The prison system on the surface seems to be a relatively sound system; putting prisoners away to separate them from society and punish them for their crimes, pretty simple. As we dig deeper, though we begin to see corruption, unjust imprisonments, fraud, robbery (from the companies on the outside opposed to the ones on the inside), overcrowded prisons, and the fact that the prison systems don’t work the way are supposed to, is disgusting. We have set up these systems not only to keep the general public safe but to make sure that people are put away with just cause. Look in the general prison population and you will find your rapists and other horrible people, but look a little closer and you will see that 51% of the federal prison population is filled with drug offenders! In some cases, these people do deserve to go to prison, but since the “War on Drugs” has started the Federal government has taken it upon themselves to put a few thousand non violent prisoners behind bars simply for minor drug charges. There is no perfect system, there is always room for improvement, but it comes to a point where things go too far. The prison system has turned the people in it into felons for life. They might of gone in there as nonviolent offenders, but come out toughened and worse than before. Even if they don’t come out worse than when they came in they will still be hard pressed to find work because they will be labeled as a felon. This is just a few examples of the faulty workings of the penitentiaries in America. There are several stances that can be taken on this particular matter, and they all have a right to be heard. These particular stand points include, but are not limited to…

–Too Many Prisoners, Not Enough Prisons

-The Problem With Private Prisons

–Fix People, Don’t Punish Them

–Annotated Works Cited