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Over the most recent years, society has pushed for softer drug laws and to get rid of minimum sentencing for drug related crimes. If these efforts become fruitful, we could see a massive shift in prison population. A shift in prison population could lead to for-profit prisons finding a new way to make money, possibly leaving the whole idea behind or becoming more creating with the use of inmates.
President Clinton enacted the crime bill of '94 which entailed harsher punishments for crimes and provided billions of dollars towards expanding prisons.
Due to this, crime rates went down but the prison population skyrocketed and has continued to do so with the privatization of prisons in recent years.
During this period, prisons went under massive scrutiny. Political ideology paved the way for radical change within the prison system. Radical change started with a shift in policing and an expansion of the courts. From these changes things like the board of corrections was created to regulate prison conditions.
The drug trade grew during this era, creating overwhelming fear within the middle class communities. The fear stemmed from gang upheavals, gun violence, and hard drugs creeping into middle class neighborhoods. Due to this fear, an uprising of get tough on crime tactics became widely accepted.
The United States started with just a few small populated institutions like the Pennsylvania System and the Auburn Penitentiary but has expanded into thousands of private prisons with huge populations.
Our correctional system has been a long standing one, going through different stages at alarming rates.
Pennsylvania was on the forefront of the prison reform era. While incarceration was already a known punishment, the reformers aimed for a more structured system, bringing forth the first prison in American history, the Eastern State Penitentiary.
The penitentiary was the first of its kind to remove harsh punishment, allowing for inmates to reflect upon their crimes in solitude.
The New York system, along with the Pennsylvania system, aimed for rehabilitation through solitude. Unlink the Pennsylvania system, the NYS also used prisoners to do labor for the state. The NYS would become known as the first prison to profit off labor done by inmates.