Introducing the U.S. Prison System ~ Types, etc. >

The U.S. prisons are divided into six categories: under the jurisdiction of state welfare bureaus; under the jurisdiction of state social services bureaus; under the jurisdiction of state public ****security bureaus; under the jurisdiction of state social services bureaus and welfare bureaus; under the jurisdiction of independent bureaus of prisons; and under the jurisdiction of state boards of supervisors.

There are 5,000 prisons and detention centers across the U.S., employing 420,000 guards and staff. Criminal justice experts say that heavy sentencing, record numbers of drug offenders, and high crime rates have resulted in the U.S. having one of the world's highest rates of both prison population and incarceration (as of 2015).

Criminal justice reform has become one of the pressing issues in contemporary America. Policymakers need to confront the criminal justice crisis head-on. We must change this pessimistic status quo.

With 4,500 laws in the federal criminal code, and not including the government's rules on criminal penalties, the list of federal offenses is so long and vague that people are at risk of violating many of the federal laws without realizing it in their daily work or business.

EXTENDED INFORMATION:

A U.S. Department of Education survey found that between 1979 and 2012, state and local local government spending on elementary and secondary education increased 107 percent, while spending on criminal penalties increased 324 percent.

Eleven states spend more money on prisons and detention centers than on public colleges and universities, according to a new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Those 11 states are Michigan, Oregon, Arizona, Vermont, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Today the U.S. prison system nationwide employs more people than any Fortune 500 company in the world, and in the 1990s the U.S. spent about $30 billion to build new prisons.

To this day, the U.S. continues to invest more than $30 billion annually in prison operations and maintenance, totaling nearly seven times the amount the U.S. invests in its education system, creating such a large "prison GDP.

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