Table of Contents
- 1 Why do prisoners tend to come from impoverished communities and why do they lack education?
- 2 How does being poor lead to potential contact with the criminal justice system?
- 3 Why is the incarceration rate increasing?
- 4 How is mass incarceration related to economic and social inequalities?
- 5 Why is Pil important?
Why do prisoners tend to come from impoverished communities and why do they lack education?
There are several reasons that inmates are less likely to have been educated, but a primary factor may be found in the fact that prisoners have a disproportionately high rate of learning disabilities. Living in a poor area often means access to lower-quality schooling.
How does being poor lead to potential contact with the criminal justice system?
Poverty is not only a predictor of involvement with the justice system: Too often, it is also the outcome. Criminal punishment subjects people to countless fines, fees, and other costs (often enriching private companies in the process). A criminal record, meanwhile, does lasting collateral damage.
How does poverty drive crime?
Poverty can also produce violent crimes because force is an easy way to get a large quantity of goods. Many impoverished criminals feel the hope of treasures is worth the possibility of being caught. Thus, poverty causes desire, and in turn, increases the crime rate (“Poverty and Crime” 1).
Why is the incarceration rate increasing?
A 2014 report by the National Research Council identified two main causes of the increase in the United States’ incarceration rate over the previous 40 years: longer prison sentences and increases in the likelihood of imprisonment.
The inequality is cumulative because the social and economic penalties that flow from incarceration are accrued by those who already have the weakest economic opportunities. Mass incarceration thus deepens disadvantage and forecloses mobility for the most marginal in society.
How does mass incarceration affect poverty?
Recent research indicates that, if not for the rise in incarceration, the number of people in poverty would fall by as much as 20 percent. People who enter the criminal justice system are overwhelmingly poor. Two-thirds detained in jails report annual incomes under $12,000 prior to arrest.
Why is Pil important?
Significance of PIL The aim of PIL is to give to the common people access to the courts to obtain legal redress. PIL is an important instrument of social change and for maintaining the Rule of law and accelerating the balance between law and justice.