Camille Rosales

ENG 123
Prof. Fisher
Fall 2015
13 September 2015
Annotated Bibliography
Annotated Bibliography
Chang, Cindy, Joel Ruben, and Ben Poston. "Prop. 47's Effect on Jail Time, Drug Rehabilitation
Is Mixed so Far." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.
Cindy Changs discussed the negative effects of proposition 47. Proposition 47 is not
going to eliminate crime it postpone it. Offenders will become repeat offenders and they will not
be take the law seriously if they keep getting booked in jail just to get released again. They know
their necks are not on the line, but until these offenders realize they have hit rock bottom or hold
themselves accountable, the crime is not going to end.
The main point of this article is that Proposition 47 is not going to eliminate crime or
contribute to end mass incarceration. Letting the repeat offenders in and back out of prison is
going to take law enforcement in a circle, because without the proper treatment or a program,
offenders will continue to live a life of crime. Some criminal justice experts are hesitant to draw
conclusions about Prop. 47 because it is too soon to tell what the effects of the law will be and
what other factors will be increasing. Since November 2014, when Prop. 47 took effect; Los
Angeles Sherriff Departments narcotic possession arrests dropped nearly forty-nine percent,
whereas property crime went up ten percent. The Los Angeles Police Departments narcotic
possession arrests decreased nearly thirty percent and property crime went up seven percent.

Gottschalk, Marie. The Past, Present and Future of Mass Incarceration in the United States.
Criminology and Public Policy 10.3 (2011): 483-504. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.
In this scholarly journal, Gottschalk portrays the effects mass incarceration as made and
will make on the United States. She discusses that African American and Hispanic make up the
majority of the prison systems, due to injustice. Mass incarceration not only has effects on
offenders lives, but their families as well. Gottschalk argues that children who have criminal
parents are more likely to become a criminal themselves, by expressing aggressive behavior and
delinquency. Children are also more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. Lastly,
Gottschalk offers a possible solution to ending mass incarceration by reducing the
recidivism rate. The only way this can be effective is if states can get funding for parole and
probation programs.
Kaste, Martian. "Is It Possible To Let More People Out Of Prison, And Keep Crime
Down?" NPR. NPR, 16 July 2015. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.
Martian Kastes article discusses how Proposition 47 has impacted the state of California.
Proposition 47 has taken lower-level felonies turned into misdemeanors forcing almost 3,000
inmates out of prison as of last fall. Since Prop 47 has been in effect, there has increase in
burglary and theft, because that is the life reoccurring offenders know best. Law enforcement and
prosecutors do not think this reform is helping at all because it is putting ex-offenders out onto
the street without any proper help and care. It is not as simple as incarcerating crime doers to
eliminate crime off the street. This then affects the number of offenders in prisons leading to
mass incarceration.

Kastes main point in this article is not that ex-convicts are getting released out of prison,
but that they are entering the world without the proper help they need. This would be an
excellent contribution to eliminating mass incarceration because it would force the ex-offenders
to enter rehabilitation centers to guide them onto the right path. Based off the interview with an
Amity Foundation employee Eunisses Hernandez, offenders will continue to go back to prison if
they do not have the proper services to keep them from the crime of life they know. The only
way the state of California will know if this is a possible solution would be to try it.
Kilgore, James. Progress or More of the Same? Electronic Monitoring and Parole in the Age of
Mass Incarceration. Critical Criminology 21.1 (2013): 123-129. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.
James Kilgore summarizes the last three decades of mass incarceration as well as a
possible solution to make progress in ending it. Kilgore believes that mass incarceration rates are
so rehabilitation is being abandoned. This means that in the criminal justice system, punishment
is preferred over rehabilitation. Secondly, he argues that corrections have turned more into a
business plan because businesses receive profits from prison expansion. Prison corporations will
increase harsher sentencing laws and tougher parole regulations. Lastly, Kilgore discusses how
the race statics in prisons have switched since the 1970s. During the 1970s, two-thirds of
people who were incarcerated were white and only one-third were back, but as of 2009 the
statistics have reversed.
Kilgores solution to reducing mass incarceration is called Electronic Monitoring or EM.
Electric Monitoring places a GPS tracker on the inmate or parolee to track where they go on a

day to day basis. The United States criminal justice system has been executing EM for almost
twenty years, and it is a method that reduces the incarceration rate, yet keeps the public safe. If
EM is used correctly, it prevent offenders from getting themselves into situations that could
potentially them put back into prison. For most people, Electronic monitoring means house arrest
and they may not leave their home unless the receive permission from their supervisor.
Lehrer, Eli. Responsible Prison Reform. National Affairs. Nation Affairs, Summer 2013. Web.
8 Sept. 2015.
Eli Lehrer offers a detailed insight on the history of mass incarceration, its effects and
possible solutions to help hinder the issue. Lehrer discussed that the past two decades the
incarceration rates have increased, but the crime on the street has been cut in half compared to
the all-time highs. According to Bureau of Justice Statics, the total estimated spending on prisons
was nearly fifty billion dollars in the year 2010, which means roughly $500 a year comes from
the American household. Housing a low-security inmate to a maximum security inmate can
range from $10,000 to $100,000. Even though the crime rates are down, the cost of incarceration
is increasing.
The incarceration would be effective if the punishment for offenders and repeat offenders
made them feel sorry or guilty for the crime they have committed. An effective tool in the prions
that should be used is rehabilitation or other treatment programs to help these offenders from
committing the same crime again and to get them ready to re-enter society. In the United States,
parole officers, probation officers and other mental healthcare professionals are wiser than they
were a decade ago. Their main goal is to keep ex-offenders from committing crimes again, by

giving them the ability to survive outside of prison. The way this is achieved is through the funds
and contacts they are given to survive.
Martin, Rachel. Driving Straight, Giving Back: Rebuilding a Life After Prison. NPR. NPR,
19 July 2015 Web. 8 Sept. 2015
Rachel Martin interviewed three ex-offenders and their stories on how they have turned
their lives around for the better. Former inmates Jason Hernandez, Robert Taitt, and Jaqueline
Whitt used social services to transition their lives from prison back into society. Whitt had gone
to prison twice for burglary and theft charges. After her second release, she entered a mental
health service to help her be the first one in her family overcome addiction. Taitt was serving ten
years for robbery and once he was released he was linked into educational services which lead
him to becoming an English major at John Jay College in New York.
Lastly, Hernandez was facing twenty years to life for a conspiracy of distributing a
controlled substance. He had been in prison for seventeen years until President Barack Obama
commuted Hernandezs sentence from life without parole to twenty years. Hernandez is now
mentoring young people who have faced juvenile detention, hoping to change their lives.
Eventually, he would like to start his own program for kids who had a rough start on the wrong
path.
Osler, Mark. "Christians and Mass Incarceration." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com,
25 Sept. 13. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.

Mike Olser offers the Christians should view mass incarceration. For
Christians, the criminal justice system breaks the rule of compassion and
morality, and does not match the teaching and actions of Jesus. Mass
incarceration should be opposed by most Christians because who Jesus was
and he died for our sins to show us how much he loves us. As Christians, we
should empathize with offenders and show mercy not only on them, but one
another. By portraying those actions, Christians would be following the
teachings an actions of Christ.
According to Olser, criminal law should be an issue Christians should be
participating in. Christs life did not happen at random, because his life
taught Christians what is eternally important. The way Olser relates Jesus
life to the criminal justice system is Jesus plays the role of the criminal
defendant and God planned the He be persecuted and even executed to
show Christians they need to follow the morals of their hearts.
Roeder, Oliver. "Releasing Drug Offenders Won't End Mass Incarceration." DataLab. Nick
Silver, 17 July 2015. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.
Oliver Roeder discusses the United States prison population, how it has increased and its
effect on mass incarceration. According to President Obama, we have put more nonviolent drug
offenders in prison than ever and they are the reason why the prison population is so high. Prison
sentences for drug offenders are not the only contributing factor to mass incarceration, for it is

just a part of the bigger picture. The other reason for such high the populations are the offenders
who committed violent crimes who are given longer and possibly harsher sentences.
Shea, William. An Effective Solution to the Justice Systems Revolving Door. Freedom
Magazine. Mar. 2008. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.
In this article, William Shea interviews criminal rehabilitation expert J. Diaz to discuss the
positive effects of rehab in prison. Diaz supervised thirty of who were considered the most
dangerous men in prison. These inmates were on heroin for over from ten to twenty-five years
and were still on heroin while they were still in prison, but that changed. Diaz supervised the
Criminon program and all the inmates who have gone through this program have seen
miraculous changes after this program.
It seems as though the Criminon program uses emotional manipulation to help the inmates
realize they are more than the crimes they have committed. First, they discover when the inmate
as lost their self-respect, then leading them to feel remorse for what they have done. The next
step is to find out what caused the criminal behavior and the inmates learn how to communicate,
cope with negative influences and improve conditions to their lives. Criminon has changed lives
for the better because it reduces the chance of an ex-offender to be re-incarcerated.
Taylor, Michael. Crimes and Misdemeanors: California Reverses Course on Its "Lock 'Em Up"
Policy. California Magazine. n.p., 13 Nov. 2014. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.
Michael Taylor offers insight on the effect of Proposition 47 on mass incarceration.
Federal court orders started forcing state prions to reach up to 200 percent of capacity, thus

giving all hope into prop 47. Also, the Supreme Court ruled the state of California to reduce their
prison population by shifting the inmates with lower offenses into county jails to reduce
overcrowding in the prisons. Lenore Anderson, former San Francisco prosecutor who support
Proposition 47, argues that changing lower-level felonies in to misdemeanors will give offenders
a second chance to contribute to society positively. California Police Chiefs and District
Attorneys are against Prop. 47, but they are going to enforce it because it is part of the law.
Western, Bruce. The Challenge of Mass incarceration in America. Bulletin of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences 62.2 (2009): 25-26. Web. 9 Sept. 2015.
Bruce Western describes what seems to be a majority of the criminals in our United
States prisons. Western discussed that the incarceration rate as of 2009, was five times higher
than it was in the 1970s. This led the United States to have the highest incarceration rate in the
world. The main populations of the inmates that are incarcerated are young men who have little
schooling; thirty five percent of which are African American. Also, the men who come out of
prison have less chance to get a job due to their past, which may lead them into possibly reentering prison.