Analysis

In this section, we will help you analyze the challenges in the US prison system using the sources included in the assignment. You can find some notes about the key points you might want to make about the issue, as well as suggestions for how you can find support for these points in the sources. 

An enormous number of prisoners compared to the size of the population

One of the challenges that the sources mention is the enormous number of prisoners compared to the size of the population, which makes the system extremely expensive to maintain. 

Using the sources to support your analysis

The source “How Our Criminal Justice System Targets Communities” explains that one of the challenges faced by the US prison system is the huge number of inmates, compared to the size of the population. Val Jones – author and political activist – claims that the US has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prisoners. He compares the situation with China, which has a population of over a billion people and far fewer prisons and inmates than the US. 

The source “How Our Criminal Justice System Targets Communities” also presents the challenges of maintaining an expensive prison system such as the one in the US. The cost of supporting an inmate is a hundred thousand dollars per year, which means that US prisons require a huge sum of money to house the...