Action to Reduce Mass Incarceration in Florida
Executive Summary
This report reviews research on mass incarceration or imprisonment. Its anticipated outcome is to help in reforming Florida and the American justifications with reference to the number of incarceration times for wrongdoers within the criminal justice system. The State of Florida falls in the 10thposition in terms of incarceration. It falls below Louisiana, which has the highest incarceration rate.
Louisiana has of incarceration compared to States such as Minnesota and North Dakota, which are the only that have been found to record the lowest incarceration rate (Wagner, Sakala, & Begley, 2016). Incongruence is obvious between the States with lower incarceration rates and the ones that have recorded higher incarceration levels. This report evaluates this divide.
Through concrete research, it brings the political issue to light. The audiences being sought are lawmakers, the legislative body, and state governments. Calls are made for the audience to consider bringing the number of incarceration to similar levels throughout the United States. It advocates for the necessity to bring the rates down beginning with states with the highest rates of incarceration, namely, Louisiana and Florida. It also proposes the need for obtaining accurate rates of incarceration, for instance, parole and (Florida Commission on Offender Review, 2014).
Introduction
Do states with the highest rates of incarceration have higher levels of crimes that lead to a conviction? Even though the response to such an interrogative cannot be put forward explicitly, different policy frameworks and disparities in the dominant political views of any state may contribute to the witnessed variations in incarceration rates among States. This hypothetical position underlines the ultimate significance of this paper. It suggests the need for a policy that harmonizes the political and ideological positions from Republicans or Democrats across different states to bring down the rate of incarceration.
Thus, a reduction of the incarceration rates attracts the development of the that for punishing some crimes, which are currently handled and/or rehabilitated through incarceration. All States in America, especially those that have recorded a high rate of incarceration, for instance, Florida and Louisiana, should embrace such a policy. Felony and other offenses that contribute to mass incarceration may be addressed using alternative strategies such as community rehabilitation through an intermediate sanction policy framework.
Policy Options and Research
The term incarceration refers to the state of one being locked up in prison. In the US, incarceration is deployed as the mechanism for punishing and/or rehabilitating offenders who are found guilty of felony crimes coupled with other offenses. The term mass incarceration implies a high number of people who are confined in prison compared to the total population of any State (Taibbi, 2014). Tasliz (2011) asserts that America relies heavily on incarceration to rehabilitate or punish felony crimes, a fact that cannot be questioned. He further argues that the phenomenon is explosive to the extent that the vocabulary mass incarceration has been coined to describe it.
Different nations and States have different rates of incarceration. The US possesses the largest population of incarcerated citizens (Institute of Criminal Policy Research, 2016; Mahapatra, 2014). In terms of incarceration per capita, it falls in the second position after Seychelles. Although the nation (Seychelles) has a population of about 92,000, about 785 people were incarcerated in 2014 (Institute of Criminal Policy Research, 2016). In the case of the United States, for every 100,000 people, 698 were incarcerated in 2013 (Institute of Criminal Policy Research, 2016). Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration. Indeed, the statistical findings on the incarceration rate in the US vary according to States.
