Problems with Criminal Incarceration in the United States

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ABSTRACT
The size of the United States correctional facilities population has heavily increased over the past years, an aspect that resulted in many questions on the massive numbers of individuals sent to custody year as an efficient way of reducing crime rates in the society. This paper seeks to review the problems resulting from incarceration in the United States of America.
On the other hand, the paper aims to determine if the rapid growth of the incarcerated population in prisons act as an approach to reduce the growing crime rates and if these factors have any impact on crime rates. In this case, the paper will incorporate both the single and multiple regression models in estimating the relationships between burglary rates, robbery rates, and incarceration rates including other variables that include the GDP per capital, correlation expenditures, and unemployment as a percentage of the state’s costs.
The data clearly opines that correctional expenses and unemployment have an impact on the growing crime rates than incarcerations. The study also establishes that contrary to the common beliefs of the lawmakers, incarceration rates result in higher crime rates. Consequently, the study draws a conclusion that the increase in incarceration rates is an aspect that reduces no crime and addressing this issue may be a positive aspect in the reduction of the offense.
* Introduction
According to sources, the U.S spends more of its resources on crime prison systems than any other state in the world. The lawmakers believe that incarcerations are necessary constructs that are required to reform the growing crime rates in a bid to reduce the levels of crime rates. Given this, it is essential to establish that the maintenance of the prisoner’s population that stands at 1.6 million individuals turns out to be expensive, costs that the American taxpayers incur in billions every year (DeFina 650). Figure 1 clearly indicates that the numbers of incarcerated people in the American prison system from 1920 to 2006. This clearly gives an indication of the expenditures that are incurred by the taxpayers in a bid to maintain the prison populations that are growing and how this has resulted in the questioning of the efficiency of prison incarcerations as an approach aimed at correcting the population’s behaviors in the U.S.
Figure 1.1: Numbers of Incarcerated Prisoners in the United States of America
This research study, therefore, investigates the factors that contribute to the growing crime rates than the incarceration rates with the aim of developing approaches targeting managing crimes. On the other hand, the paper seeks to establish the factors that contribute to the growing crime rates as detailed in reports alleging that robberies with violence respond to the increasing incarceration rates as compared to nonviolent offenses which include burglary where criminals fail to use force in threatening the criminals (DeFina 651). In this case, it is detailed that the growing incarceration rates have limitations in reducing crimes, and factors such as correlation expenditures and unemployment have an impact on the increasing cr...