The Death Penalty, Federal Vs Privatized Prisons, and The problem with the Prison system

Did you know that one in seven inmates on death row are actually innocent? No? Did you know that the United States has the highest mass incarceration rate in the world? What about the fact that Of the 6% of the United State’s population that is made up of men of color more than 60% are in prison, typically serving time far longer than their crimes should warrant? Still a no? Well then you’d better buckle up, we’re going for a ride.

Let’s start with the basics, What are Private prisons?

Private prisons are becoming more and more common as private organizations take over federal prisons and use them to make more money. The actual prisons are overcrowded and under cared for. Oftentimes cells, mess halls, and other general spaces for inmates are left dirty and unkempt, and the inmates are exploited to make the company more money, often serving 30 year to full life sentences in what are essentially sweatshops.

Federal prisons are not much better off.

Now, one of the largest issues with the incarceration rate in The US is the fact that a large percentage of these people being put in prison are people, typically men, of color, most of which being African American. It has gotten to the point where minor offences that shouldn’t be over a few months to a year in jail are costing these men upwards of five years with bail set so high they have no other choice but to let themselves be locked away.

There are and have been people on death row that could be proven innocent so easily but the courts do nothing! Since 1973 over 156 innocent people have been put to death in the US, and yet nothing has changed. Just yesterday Brandon Berard was put to death, even when seven of the remaining members of the jury that sent him out of this world agreed that he should not have been on death row.

The death penalty has been around in the US since the colonial days, and just like many things with our current government no one is really ready to bring it up to date with modern morals. The Death penalty is insane and inhumane, until 1977 execution in the United Sates was done by either electric chair, hanging, gas chamber, or even firing squad. However, lethal injection is no less inhumane, often being compared by experts to being buried alive and feeling fire in your veins.

Capital punishment does not deter capital crime, the death penalty must be abolished, and the prison system must be reformed!