Chelsea Williams

Pols 155
Professor Morris
3/3/2018
Backgrounder Assignment

A.
My main policy focus is mass incarceration within the United States and the subtopic I am
interesting in focusing on is the high rates of minorities or who are put behind bars
unfairly. I have chosen this topic and subtopic because I have a loved one who has received
unfair sentencing because of the case unjustified actions.

B.
The backgrounder on criminal justice reform provided a good source of information about
my focus and subtopic. I never knew that back in the 1830s law enforcement was more
voluntary and not really publicly funded and that the first police force was created in
Boston, Massachusetts. I think that’s a cool fact to know it gives real background on where
it all started. Police officers also have access to military equipment under a program called
1033 created by president Bill Clinton in 1996. There are two big issues within the justice
system which is the incidents that occur with the police force and the citizens there
supposed to protect and the high incarceration rates. While looking over the website from
the backgrounder paper I found lots of useful information. Statistics stated that the U.S. has
the most largest prison system in the country with 1 in 31 American’s is either behind bars,
on parole or probation. Back in the 1980s congress made minimum sentencing for drug
crimes but it has grew way larger since then.

C.
Article 1:
While searching for articles I came across a great one that pertains to my issue from the
website Sciencedirect. The article described how the mass incarceration rate can affect
your health and how the rate is so high in the United States. It goes on to talk about the
inequalities in our social justice system.

Article 2:
My number two article also came from the sciencedirect website. The article described
multiple things that deal with incarceration. Such as the laws of the prison system for
example the Jim Crow laws. It also mentions other important concepts of mass
incarceration for example the population of prisoners and sentencing in the U.S. compared
to other countries.
D.
The research I learned connects to the book in many ways. When it comes to dealing with
mass incarceration. Over the course we have learned about many things pertaining to such
as the incidents involving the police force and the citizens there supposed to be protecting.

List Of Sources

Christopher Wildeman, Emily A Wang,

Mass incarceration, public health, and widening inequality in the USA,
The Lancet,
Volume 389, Issue 10077,
2017,
Pages 1464-1474,
ISSN 0140-6736,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30259-3.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673617302593)

Matt DeLisi,
Mass incarceration is the style, mass offending is the substance,
Journal of Criminal Justice,
Volume 43, Issue 5,
2015,
Pages 404-405,
ISSN 0047-2352,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2015.08.002.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235215000781)