Mass Incarceration Across the Globe

Alaina Hanke Butler University
Faculty Sponsor(s): Lee Garver Butler University
This purpose of this website is to bring attention to the injustices of mass incarceration and explains how mass incarceration, as a form of legal punishment, strips away the freedoms of various demographics, races, and socioeconomic classes more than others. The goal is to bring more awareness to the issues surrounding the criminal justice system in the United States and to hopefully add to the movement of its reform. This website looks at the systems of incarceration in three countries: The United States, Venezuela, and Sweden, chosen for their distinct differences in their processes. Within each country, we looked at the unfairness within demographics, the treatment of prisoners, and the status of infrastructure. The United States and Venezuela have immense issues within their systems, whereas Sweden has a very successful system with a rehabilitative ideal. Using books, articles, and websites to investigate whether mass incarceration is an appropriate and successful form of punishment, we concluded that the answer is no. It is clearly important to incarcerate certain people for severe crimes, but the way the system in the United States works is that it punishes people for the most minor offenses, causing immense overcrowding. Those who become a part of the system, find it nearly impossible to get out because minor offenses have larger than necessary sentences. Mass incarceration is not a solution to decrease crime, so the United States and Venezuela need to move toward a rehabilitation system like Sweden.
Oral Presentation

When & Where

01:45 PM
Jordan Hall 301