The Innocence Project

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

The Innocence Project is a non-profit organization. This organization is here for a reason! That reason is to bring justice to the people who are serving jail time for a crime they did not commit. You can get involved, donate, and read about cases. I am passionate about this, and I hope that once you learn more about the Innocence Project you will be as well.

Sources

"23. Number of US Prison Inmates Serving Life Sentences Hits New Record - Top 25 Most Censored Stories of 2013-2014." Project Censored. N.p., 01 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.

"Federal Bureau of Prisons." BOP Statistics: Average Inmate Age. N.p., Sept. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.

"Federal Bureau of Prisons." BOP Statistics: Sentences Imposed. N.p., Sept. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.

"Federal Bureau of Prisons." BOP Statistics: Inmate Race. N.p., Sept. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.

"The Psychological Effects of Long-Term Imprisonment | Sundiata Acoli Speaks - SundiataAcoli.Org - Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign (SAFC)." Sundiata Acoli Speaks SundiataAcoliOrg Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign SAFC. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

"The Effects of Incarceration on Mental Health." GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog. N.p., 15 Mar. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Y 2015 Budget Fact Sheets (n.d.): n. pag. Www.justice.gov. 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2015.

Flatow, Nicole. "One In Nine U.S. Prisoners Are Serving Life Sentences, Report Finds." ThinkProgress RSS. N.p., 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.

Federal Budget

http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/jmd/legacy/2013/09/07/prisons-detention.pdf

I've come across this document from a federal website. I thought this was interesting about how much the government spends a year on prisons. I personally believe that there is a relationship between the increase of prison inmates, and the budget.

How can we decrease the population? Is there any chance?

Over recent times there have been debates between Republicans and Democrats about how we can lower the number of incarcerated citizens in each state. I think the state and federal governments need to come to terms, and make some agreements that will help the country and their citizens.If they actually have a conversation then maybe they will be able to get something done. I don't think the government cares enough, and they need to start to. If they don't then the country will be on its way to destruction. Forget about wars and other problems in other counties, how about focus on YOUR country, and YOUR people that you are supposed to represent and hand up for!

To help decrease the population, I think the judicial system should go over most trials, that are older, and re-evaluate them. I also think that the inmates that are put away for non-violent crimes should be taken out, and be given a second chance at life. The government should have better parole officers for inmates that are eligible for parole. If the judicial system is paranoid then have the inmates and the officers have better communication and understanding.

The Effects

http://www.sundiataacoli.org/the-psychological-effects-of-long-term-imprisonment-194

In this article, written by Herman Bell in 2009, talks about the effects of a person that is in a long-term imprisonment. Bell writes this from his own personal experience from the 31 years that he has spent in prison. He does provide very good information that can help us understand what prisoners do go through mentally and physically while they are incarcerated. Some examples that Bell writes about are "you might pick at your skin, at your nose, or at both. You lack hygiene may cause noses to flair, people to talk about you, and even to avoid you." He describes that everyday is different depending on your type of mood. Bell also mentions what you imagine when you do get visitors from family, friends, or even attorneys. He says "A visit is like a dream and when it's over you wonder if it ever happened." I feel that this is what happens to anybody no matter what that person is going through.

Bell describes what he feels which gives us an understanding on what happens to the brain while being incarcerated for a long period of time. 

http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/prison-incarceration-effects-mental-health-0315137

This blog written in 2013 describes more in detail of the effects of a prisoners mental state. Zawn Villines provides information on how US prisoners are treated in prisons.

The Numbers

Statistics and Graphs
https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_age.jsp

This chart is based on age, and was updated on September 26th, 2015. As you can see the highest age gap for prison inmates are between the ages of 36-40. Within this age category the number is 37,593, and the percentage is 18.3%. This number shocked me because depending on the crime I would thought that the number of prison inmates would be around in the mid-late teen year and early 20s especially in the local news you normally hear about how young the criminals are. Although this chart provides great statistical numbers this is also vague.

Chart Label	Age Range	# of Inmates	% of Inmates
<18	Under 18	33	0.0%
18	Ages 18-21	2,305	1.1%
22	Ages 22-25	11,660	5.7%
26	Ages 26-30	26,718	13.0%
31	Ages 31-35	37,238	18.1%
36	Ages 36-40	37,593	18.3%
41	Ages 41-45	31,261	15.2%
46	Ages 46-50	22,328	10.9%
51	Ages 51-55	16,142	7.9%
56	Ages 56-60	9,856	4.8%
61	Ages 61-65	5,681	2.8%
>65	Over 65	4,693	2.3%

https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_sentences.jsp 
Updated in September 2015 the number of life sentence inmates is 5,387 which results a 2.8% average, and the death sentence is much lower ranking in 57 people. In the news we hear more about the death sentence. But, could the life and the death sentence equal each other? I think so because if you think about it if you are sent to prison for the rest of your life then you are going to die there so why not get rid of the death sentence. I think it's pretty much the same thing, but categorized differently.

Sentence	# of Inmates	% of Inmates
Less than 1 year	5,592	2.3 %
1-3 years	22,185	11.4%
3-5 years	25,861	13.3%
5-10 years	49,398	25.5%
10-15 years	39,579	20.4%
15-20 years	21,663	11.2%
More than 20 years	24,106	12.4%
Life	5,387	2.8%
Death	57	0.0%

http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Trends_in_Corrections_Fact_sheet.pdf

Sentencing Project provides information from 1984-2012. Although this is not recently updated these graphs give increasing amount of inmates serving life sentences. In 1984 there were 34,000 inmates serving time. Jump to 2012 there were 159,520 inmates. Is this a major issue? I think it is! The huge increase should question whether or not .

Not only did I come across this graph, I also came upon a graph observing racial background in prisons in 2012. Mostly the race that holds more prison life sentences are the African-American population holding a 47.2%. The White population holds a 34.7%, and lastly the Latino population with a 16% holding. We can view this as a serious matter or a racist issue. Lately we have seen many arrests shown on social media, and many of them look like a race issue. I think that there should be more information on what and why African-American people are in prison, and why the rate is high in 2012.

https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp

Jump to 2015 the race numbers have increased to where white inmates have increased up to 58.9%.



http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/09/19/2645781/prisoners-serving-life-sentences/

This was a blog written in 2013 that I found with more numbers and reasons why prisoners are serving life sentences. The author shows dedication towards this topic, and reading this post was interesting for me.

The Topic

http://www.projectcensored.org/23-number-us-prison-inmates-serving-life-sentences-hits-new-record/

This topic was interesting to me because of the information, and the statistics that Project Censored released. I have always been interested because I believe that our justice system is in a way a problem. On the news you always hear about someone being arrested and serving time for crimes, and most of them are harmless. In OUR society we can be arrested, and serving life sentences for pretty much anything, and in today's world it can be mainly be for our race or any other factor. I think we all have to take into consideration that it's an important topic to discuss.

It's important to know this information because we don't know anything! We don't know how many lives are effected by this, and we don't know what is causing this increase. Also, where do you think all prisons get this funding? For a vast majority they get funds from us. Yes that's right! Our taxes are used to pay funding.