Account: Prison statistics
In the speech, you are asked to provide prison statistics. Remember that your speech should be delivered to business people at a seminar entitled “A Second Chance” hosted by the Texas Association of Business. Consequently, the prison statistics you give should be relevant to the US, the state of Texas and the context of business. These statistics are available in three of the four texts in your assign…
...
II: “Giving ex-cons a second chance on the assembly line”
Text II, “Giving ex-cons a second chance on the assembly line”, offers multiple prison statistics regarding the US, which raise awareness about the necessity of giving ex-cons a second chance.
According to the statistics mentioned by the writer, the US has the largest imprisonment rate in the world: “According…
...
III: “Can hiring ex-offenders make a business more profitable?”
Text III, “Can hiring ex-offenders make a business more profitable?”, mentions that “more than 65 million people in the US have a criminal record” (ll. 36-37). It also claims that prisons “house nearly 2.4 million inmates nationwide” (ll. 44-45), out of which “more than 600,000 are released from prison every year” (l. 38).
These statistics can be used to show that excluding so many peo…
...
IV: “Commentary: Is Texas wasting money by locking up so many people? Easy answer is yes”
Text IV, “Commentary: Is Texas wasting money by locking up so many people? Easy answer is yes”, also offers statistics related to the US prison system, but also specifically to the prison system in Texas, where you are to deliver your speech.
The text notes that “Texas has the largest prison population of any state in the country” (l. 10), with almost 145,000 people being imprisoned every year (ll. 10-11).
The text includes statistics about how much the prison system costs the state of Texas: “Texas spends about $3 billion a year on prisons. Keeping someone behind bars costs abo…
