In this course, you have looked at classical ethical theories such as utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. You have also examined different perspectives on ethical issues introduced by relat

Mass Incarceration and the Prison Industrial Complex

Amber Edwards

Sco 102

Instructor: Craig Allen

5/3/2020

Mass Incarceration and the Prison Industrial Complex

The United States experienced stability in the rates of imprisonment from the year 1920 to early 1970s. However, that has changed over the past four decades considering that the rates of imprisonment have multiplied. Currently, the United Sates has over 2.2 million incarcerated adults which is by far the largest population globally. The rapid increase of incarceration in the US for the past four decades has prompted various critiques including the question as to why there is a large population of incarcerated citizens.

The aim of this paper is to argue on the ethical issues existing with the mass incarceration particularly the breaches that occur minus ethics. Also the paper will discuss the constitutes of ethical behaviour within the U.S system by using Utilitarianism, Ethical Egoism, Deontology which will shed light on the concerns of mass incarceration as well as the prison industrial complex.

Incarceration is among the most applicable strategies to handle social issues which act as an interference to the poor. Generally, the problems are joined together and defined as crime. The most targeted population in this case are people of color (Wagner & Sawyer, 2018). Some of the impacts of the increased rates of incarceration are homelessness, drug addiction, mental illnesses, unemployment and many more. Generally, prisons do not make the social issues or crimes go away rather, they make people disappear. The practice of making people disappear away from immigrants the poor as well as racially marginalized societies has currently become a business.

The increase in the rates of imprisonment is among the most systematic applied government social program in the contemporary world. However, issues such as criminalization, social profiling and mass imprisoning of people of color is the main challenge in the criminal justice system. Another ethical concern is making mass incarceration a source of income or rather a business. Prison privatization is also another ethical concern which is the capital’s contemporary movement in the prison industry. Generally, government run prisons are typically in gross violation particularly in international human rights standards making the private prisons less liable. Incarceration is nothing less than slavery considering that a large number if these inmates offer labor services to a country without a living wage, bargaining power of even labor protections. Generally, labor is the only thing the imprisoners can withhold.

The breaches of ethics in slavery, racial profiling and using incarceration for profiting purposes in the prison industry are too much. Among the ethical breach that is reflective is the health in the system. Both mental and physical health of the inmates is a primary concern considering that a large number of the inmates suffer from chronic diseases, mental illness and even infectious diseases in comparison to the normal population. Besides, thousands of inmates released in the community every yearly have been reported to have an untreated communicable health condition or even an undiagnosed health concern. A large percentage of state prisons do not have a complete and reachable data concerning the health status of their inmates. The worst part is that, prisoners with mental illnesses tend to serve longer sentences with more disciplinary problems as they serve their sentence. Prisons should therefore have essential mental and medical care that is required by inmates because they end up suffering more painful symptoms as their health condition worsens.

The act of America’s prison system applies with the ethical perspective of Ethical Egoism considering that they are overly imprisoning their citizens with unsuitable justification that supports their action. Besides, private capital has been involved in the punishment industry which is all because of the profit potential making incarceration which has significantly impacted the U.S economy. Based on research, WCC increased its revenue from $138million to $210 million in the year 1997 (Wildeman & Wang, 2017). In comparison to the public correctional facilities, the increased profits in the private centres majorly depend on non union labor.

There have been numerous studies on whether the rates of crime have reduced over the past few decades due to mass incarceration and based on research, incarceration has resulted to an increase of crime in most states. Mass incarceration is unethical in one way or another considering that it causes more harm on the community than good. According to the utilitarianism theory, a deed is considered ethical when it produces more good for a large population of people (Bonnemains, Saurel & Tessier, 2016). Thus, mass incarceration is against the utilitarianism theory.

America should consider both Deontology and Utilitarianism ethics since they both provide insight of what is considered moral or not. Mass incarceration in that case is not an ethical standard since most people are racial profiled while other have been sentenced for crimes they did not even commit. Deontology theory on the other hand states that people are morally obliged to act in accordance of the set principles irrespective of the results. Prisoners face numerous health challenges including facing violence and injuries in prisons. Crime is just an excuse for the mass incarceration and breaking ot not practising ethical behaviours in prisons. For this trend to change, America must change its ethical standards and views first.

References

Wagner, P., & Sawyer, W. (n.d.). Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2018. Retrieved from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html

Wildeman, C., & Wang, E.A. (2017). Mass incarceration, public health, and widening inequality in the USA. The Lancet, 389, 1464-1474.

Bonnemains, V., Saurel, C., & Tessier, C. (2016). How Ethical Frameworks Answer to Ethical Dilemmas: Towards a Formal Model. EDIA@ECAI.