Ryan Lindeman

Morton
UWRT 1102
11/17/16

One of the greatest societal problems in the United States that goes overlooked is the
conditions in the criminal justice system. The United States contains about 4.4% of the worlds
population yet is home to around 22% of the worlds prison population (Lee). Most people
would agree that the fact that such a huge volume of Americans are incarcerated is a negative
condition for our society. It is expensive to maintain prisons with such a large amount of people.
It is detrimental to the well being and mental state of these individuals that we continue to
incarcerate for increasingly longer sentences. Our country would be better off if we could
somehow help a significant number of these people to rejoin society as a contributing citizen.
The US spends billions of dollars trying to keep our communities safe and crime free. What if
the US invested less money into the criminal justice system and experienced lower crime rates?
The best way to achieve this goal is through reform of our criminal justice system. The criminal
justice system should be reformed to better rehabilitate criminals and prevent recurrence of
crime.
The criminal justice system holds over 2.3 million people in federal, state and local
prisons. The main crimes that lead to incarceration are violent, property and drug crimes. There
are several reasons why so many people are incarcerated. One of the main reasons so many
people are in the system is drug related offenses. 1 in 5 people in prison are there for drug related

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offenses (Drug War Statistics). If the United States could limit the number of people that are
incarcerated for small drug offenses and focus on preventing the recurrence of drug offenses, it
would go a long way towards minimizing the negative burden that mass incarceration places on
our society.
A step towards limiting mass incarceration and the burden on the criminal justice system
could be legalizing marijuana. Marijuana is considered a relatively safe drug. No deaths have
been attributed directly to marijuana use (Drug War Statistics). In contrast, the legal drugs of
alcohol and tobacco combined have caused millions of deaths either as a result of direct health
effects, or in the case of alcohol, various impairments that cause different types of accidental
death. Alcohol and tobacco have also been proven to be far more addictive than marijuana. In
2015, 643,121 people were arrested for marijuana offenses. 89% of these arrests were possession
charges (Drug War Statistics). Our country spends billions yearly in law enforcement and
incarceration just for relatively minor possession offenses.
Legalizing the relatively safe drug of marijuana could not only limit the massive amount
of people in prison, but could also be a significant source of tax revenue. It is estimated that a
developed marijuana industry could produce nearly $28 billion in tax revenues local, state, and
federal governments (Ekins). With state and federal governments arguing about how to allocate
funds and balance budgets, more revenue from a relatively safe drug and less expenses from
housing and feeding more inmates for minor offenses should be a welcome reform. The

government could invest in infrastructure or education to better the lives of the individuals in our
society. The positives dramatically outweigh the possible negatives in this scenario.

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Beyond legalizing marijuana, we can do more to help limit the impact of the over
300,000 drug incarcerations. Preventing use of dangerous drugs before it begins is the most
helpful and cost effective method to prevent the enormous negative effects of addiction. When
people dont experience the horrible possible side effects from hard drugs such as loss of
employment, loss of financial stability, and loss of their sound mental health, they will be less
likely to resort to crime. Research suggests that every dollar invested in school based addiction
prevention will result in 18 dollars saved from potential addiction and criminal justice problems.
Hard drugs can lead to other types of crime and behavioral problems. Preventing drug use can
help prevent a significant amount of violent and property crime as well.
Complete and total prevention of drug abuse is impossible. When drug abuse occurs, we
as a nation should focus on how to rehabilitate drug users and break the cycle of addiction. In a
more modernized and effective system, drug offenses would be treated like the health problems
they are rather than purely crimes. It is estimated that while 22 million Americans need some
form of treatment for substance abuse, only 2 million receive a form of treatment (SAMHSA).
Trained professionals could be hired to work with people in the criminal justice system to
overcome their substance abuse problems. If more Americans and incarcerated individuals had
access to affordable and effective substance abuse treatment, the recurrence of many types of
crime and the massive costs of the criminal justice system would greatly diminish. One

important factor in limiting the time that drug users spend behind bars is removing mandatory
minimum sentences for drug offenses. Due to sentencing laws such as mandatory minimums and
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three strikes youre out, the average prison stay has increased 36 percent since 1990
(Reforming Mandatory Minimums). Research shows a correlation between long prison stays
and increased recurrence of crime. Longer pretrial detention is associated with new crime even
after the case is resolved. A lot of these mandatory minimum sentences apply to low level drug
crimes and are once again contributing to the mass incarceration epidemic. Other low level
crimes such as shoplifting are felonies in many states. These crimes should instead be classified
as misdemeanors. When an offense is classified as a felony, the convicted person spends more
time behind bars and has more difficulty transitioning back into society. This also prevents law
enforcement from spending more of their time dealing with more serious violent offenders. If we
saved the money it costs to detain criminals for these minor offenses and spent it elsewhere, it
would benefit both the offender and the rest of society.
A possible solution in the criminal justice system would be separate drug courts for
individuals who are arrested only for drug related offenses. Drug courts could administer the
sentences for treatments and mandatory drug screenings. Drug courts would be more effective
and operate faster than more conventional criminal courts as they could face only drug cases and
get people the rehabilitative care that they need. The criminal justice system could effectively
use drug courts to limit the amount of time we lock drug users behind bars and maximize the
speed of complete recovery from substance abuse. These drug courts could greatly help those
who are suffering from substance abuse and separate them from violent offenders, whose crimes

are more directly harmful to society. Another important factor in reforming the criminal justice
system is prison conditions. Conditions in some prisons are not always conducive to the best
mental health
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for prisoners. (DeMoss) Overuse of solitary confinement in prisons can be counterproductive
when it damages the mental health of prisoners. Solitary confinement should be used less often
and not for less serious offenses. Human interaction will help former prisoners more smoothly
rejoin society with the social tools they need to succeed in our society. People who experience
more humane prison conditions will likely be more responsive to rehabilitation. Prisons should
have effective complaint systems where prisoners can report dangerous or unjust conditions and
treatment. Prisons should have inspections by a third party to ensure the health and safety of
prisoners.
When it is ensured that able bodied prisoners have safe, healthy living conditions and
access to healthcare, they should be required to work. Prisoners who do some form of
meaningful work will be much better off. This can help prisoners join the workforce with skills
and a work ethic that they have learned in the criminal justice system. Beyond helping prisoners
establish healthy self esteem and work skills, this can help us save tax dollars when prisoners
work on projects for the public good such as trash collecting and infrastructure work. Doing
meaningful work can help prisoners develop healthy self esteem and teach them to be
independent and self reliant. The valuable skills and lessons learned in these conditions can help
reduce the recurrence of crime and assist prisoners in obtaining skills they can use for a lifetime.

Prisons could go beyond requiring inmates to work, they could offer prisoners access to
education as well. Online GED and degree programs could be offered to inmates to help them
better themselves and their lives. Education might be the single most important resource for

Lindeman 6
prisoners because it helps their earning potential and broadens their horizons. If we could help
just a portion of prisoners to better their lives through education and obtain employment upon
their release it will be well worth the investment. Education could change the lives of these
prisoners drastically for the better. Many prisoners come from difficult circumstances where they
dont have access to good education. When prisoners complete online classes, they will be
qualified for better paying jobs and will be more independent and less likely to commit another
crime.
It is estimated that over half of the prison population is suffering from some form of
mental illness. When these people are locked away in prisons with no mental health treatment,
often their condition worsens (DeMoss). It would greatly help the criminal justice system if they
would offer their prisoners access to mental health care. Prisoners should be able to see medical
professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and/or counselors to receive diagnosis,
therapy, and counseling. It may seem like an expensive proposition, but it will actually save our
country more money in the long run. If prisoners have their mental health treated in their stay in
prison, they will be less likely to commit crimes and more able to seek employment after their
release.

A serious issue that falls under the umbrella of criminal justice reform is changing the
way we approach youth criminal justice. Youth correctional facilities or the other terms they go
by are often just slightly modified prisons. The same challenges that plague adult prisons apply
to the youth facilities: high costs, high rates of recidivism, poor institutional conditions
(McCarthy). Brain science can explain why youth need a different approach to be more
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successful in correcting their behavior. Youth are less able to regulate their emotions in stressful
situations and are less capable of making decisions based on outcomes in the future. Youth that
are locked up in prisons are withheld basic things that are needed for their development. Youth
need peers that model prosocial interactions, adults that give them positive interactions and
supervise them, and opportunities for academic success. These failed institutions could be
replaced with community programs that could be cheaper and more effective in helping troubled
youth. A youth correctional facility could be replaced with something more like a big house
where the youth can live with other youth his or her age as well as trained
psychologists/counselors who can help assist the youth in his or her development. The youth can
still have a regimented schedule but with more access to academic resources and more social
interaction. These reforms will help prevent youth from resorting to a lifetime of criminal
activity and give them the tools they need to succeed in society.
An important step in criminal justice reform includes closing and replacing private
prisons. Private prisons tend to be more poorly run than government prisons. The conditions in
these prisons are usually worse and even abusive (Savage). These prisons do not help save much
on cost and do not provide nearly the same volume and scope of rehabilitation services that

government prisons provide. Private for-profit prisons served a purpose in the late 1990s when
prisons were vastly overcrowded due to higher crime rates, but now that crime rates are near
record lows, we should assure that private prisons are phased out due to their ineffectiveness and
poor conditions. With privatized prisons out of our system, we can reduce costs and improve
conditions for all prisoners and help them get back on track to recovery as soon as possible.
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The reforms that have been discussed will greatly ease the severe problems in the
criminal justice system. When a country can limit the amount of people that they incarcerate,
they can help their society in many ways. Whether you want to focus on the economic effects or
the human effects, the benefits to criminal justice reform are clear. Billions of dollars that would
normally be spent in law enforcement and prison expenses could be spent in other more
beneficial ways. When criminals receive proper rehabilitation including mental health resources,
impactful work experiences, and education, they will be less likely to commit crimes and more
likely to be independent, contributing members of society. Criminal justice system reform can
give people a second chance who desperately need it, and benefit everyone in the long term.

11/14/2016

Dear reader,

I have chosen to write about the condition of the criminal justice system in the
United States. I decided to form my paper in an argument about reforming the criminal
justice system. I chose to write my paper in this genre because through my research on
incarceration I discovered how expensive, ineffective, and outdated our criminal justice
system seemed to be. I decided that I could effectively convey the reforms that seemed to
be necessary to help improve our criminal justice system and also our society, and that I
could find ample sources and factual texts to back my claims. I hope that through reading
my argument and accompanying texts, readers will open their minds to the facts and
arguments that I present and come to their own conclusions about this serious societal
issue.

Sincerely,

Ryan

Works Cited
DeMoss, Dustin. The Nightmare of Prison for Individuals With Mental Illness. The Huffington
Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25 Mar. 2015,
www.huffingtonpost.com/dustin-demoss/prison-mental-illness_b_6867988.html.
Drug War Statistics. Drug War Statistics | Marijuana Statistics | Mexico Drug War Deaths |
Drug Policy Alliance, Drug Policy Alliance, www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Causes_of_Death#sthash.MZcetn5a.dpbs
Ekins, Gavin, and Joseph Henchman. Marijuana Legalization and Taxes: Federal Revenue
Impact. Tax Foundation, 12 May 2016,
taxfoundation.org/article/marijuana-legalization-and-taxes-federal-revenue-impact.
Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. Does the United States Really Have 5 Percent of the Worlds Population
and One Quarter of the Worlds Prisoners? Washington Post, The Washington Post, 30
Apr. 2015,
www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/04/30/does-the-united-states-reall
y-have-five-percent-of-worlds-population-and-one-quarter-of-the-worlds-prisoners/.
McCarthy, Patrick et al. The Future of Youth Justice: A Community-Based Alternative to the
Youth Prison Model . Oct. 2016

Reforming Mandatory Minimums - Law Enforcement Leaders. Law Enforcement Leaders,

lawenforcementleaders.org/issues/reforming-mandatory-minimums/.
SAMHSA, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. Substance Use and Mental
Health Estimates from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Overview of
Findings. The NSDUH Report: Substance Use and Mental Health Estimates from the
2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Overview of Findings,
www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/nsduh-sr200-recoverymonth-2014/nsduh-sr200-r
ecoverymonth-2014.htm.
Savage, Charlie. U.S. to Phase Out Use of Private Prisons for Federal Inmates. The New York
Times, The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2016,
www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/us/us-to-phase-out-use-of-private-prisons-for-federal-inm
ates.html.