prison abuse topic proposal

While I have not been affected personally by prison abuse, nor do I know anyone who has, I cannot stand to watch the dehumanization of prisoners by guards. Frankly, I personally believe that we as human beings have a duty to value, protect, and respect human life and when it is getting taken advantage of-- we must step in. While in prison, inmates are exposed to a large range of injustice, from sexual abuse to monetary abuse. I hate to say the cliché argument of “prisoners are people too”… but they are. I did a project on prison abuse during my senior year of high school and was exposed to the many different effects it has on just about everyone. The people who are most affected or involved in prison abuse are simply the victims and the offenders, the inmates and the guards. Also greatly affected are the families of the inmates who watch their relative get treated like an animal. The inmates have no control of their situation and the guards turn a blind eye to injustice. Of the few cases that actually go to court for prison abuse, the overwhelming majority are won by the guards due to the “brotherhood” formed by the correctional officers. If I were to generalize an American’s view on prisoners an American would likely say that they are “violent offenders, they are in prison for a reason and they are getting what they disserve”. The fact is, the majority of inmates are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. What the average American also doesn’t know is how much money the taxpayers are contributing to the penal system. Over the past 20 years federal and state spending on the prison system has increased 570%--while spending on education has increased 33%. Where this money goes is to failed policies that are created and never enforced such as the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. In 2004 25 million dollars were appropriated to various prisons. Despite all of this money going to improve the penal system prison rape statistics increased. The prison rape elimination act does not work. The cost of housing one inmate is 20,000 dollars a year multiply that number by 2.3 million inmates and you see how big of a dent prisons make on an average American’s taxes. The policymakers also have a horse in this race. They make policy that is never enforced, not because it isn’t funded but because it is never implemented. The situation of prison abuse and who are the five most important viewpoints go as follows. The prisoners and their family members are two very large stakeholders with the least amount of power. The policy makers and the guards have most of the power and are abusing it. Lastly, the taxpayers are ignorant to the fact that their money is being pissed away. This situation sucks and I’m ready to try and tackle it again.