What Is Public Policy

Winston Wade
March 18, 2007
POLS: PUBLIC POLICY
TAKE HOME EXAM II
Family reunions usually occur annually depending on how large the family is. This is a time to eat great food, play fun competitive sports, and catch up on the lives of your family members that you don’t get to see often. While having a chance to actually think about what these events mean to me I noticed something starling. Each year I find out about a different family member, specifically black males, who’ve become incarcerated. This made me actually want to do some more research about the prison system.
The U.S has the most populated prison system in the world and they are mostly black. With the unequal over populated incarceration system there has to be a problem. Incarceration and solitary confinement in the United States has become a major public policy issue. [1] There is a problem with solitary confinement in the United States which is affects many. I want to look in to what is causing this problem along with why this problem persists. There are different languages, images and symbols used to frame this problem in a particular way but also used to promote a solution to the problem of the prison system being unequally racially and overpopulated. After the current policies that were put in place, for instance mandatory minimum sentencing, or the three strikes laws, you have to question if they are really helping the overall society in America or hurting it.[3]
In the early 1970s the prison population in the United States has increased at a very rapid rate.. There is a total of 2.2 million people behind bars. [2] The United States is recorded as the   country with most highest documented incarceration rate with close to 748 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents.   Usually prisons are operated by both federal and state governments. China, Which has a population that is four times the size of United States still has a smaller incarnation rate then the U.S. Along with the ridiculous number of...