America is going through a prison pandemic.

According to The Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2013 more than 2,220,000 American people were incarcerated. When our country has as many people in jail as the population of Lithuania, you should notice something is wrong. In 1925, only 91 thousand people were incarcerated, in 1940, 173 thousand were incarcerated and in 1960, it was 212 thousand.

So why do we suddenly have this influx of prisoners? In 1973, Nixon started the war on drugs, strengthening the nation’s drug laws in order to stop more people from getting addicted. Sounds great, right?

Well this was actually horrible, as millions of drug dealers and addicts, people who literally cannot stop using the drug, were thrown in jail. In fact, in 2013, over half the prison population was a non-violent drug offender, basically anyone in possession of illegal drugs.

According to Harp Treatment Center, many dealers are people who cannot hold a job. By locking them up, you are literally putting them in a position that makes it harder for them to get a job and integrate into society. Plus, many dealers get their drugs from another person who sells it to them. Even if you lock them up, the supply is still going to be around. Drug addicts are people who are addicted to it, and it’s not easy to quit. For many addicts who have built up a dependency on these drugs, not being allowed to take them can result in painful withdrawal symptoms.

These laws definitely do not decrease the amount of addicts in America, nor do they help the addicts integrate into society. This affects minorities a lot, as a report by the American Civil Liberties Union showed that although black and white men use illegal drugs in about the same amount, a black man is seven times more likely to go to jail for it than a white man.

Another huge problem is solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is a common punishment in prisons. When you are in solitary confinement, you are stuck in a room the size of a king size bed, and you just stay there. The human brain is like a hungry sponge, and we need stimulation to survive. If our brains don’t get stimulated enough, the brain can temporarily lose some of it’s functions, like your sense of time. Scientists estimate that only three days in a chamber like this can be mind-breaking. The problem is, prisoners are in solitary a lot longer than that, sometimes up to five years!

Symptoms of under stimulation include depression, muscle spasms, sudden violent behavior, and much, much more.

On top of it all, we have a justice system that uses bail. Bail is a system that has proven to be very unfair. If the person simply can’t afford the bail, it can be pretty horrible. A man who was accused of driving with a suspended license had to spend time in Riker’s island, one of the most high security prisons in America all because he couldn’t pay the bail. Compare that to millionaire Robert Durst. He was charged with multiple murders and avoided jail by paying a couple hundred thousand dollars. The bail system has changed from a fair punishment to a way to lock up the poor. It gets even worse when you realize that most jobs don’t accept people with felony charges, so it makes it even harder for these people to integrate into society.

The topics that I just covered aren’t even the tip of this injustice iceberg. Topics like rape, medical assistance, and prison privatization were cut to fit the word limit. One thing is for sure, America’s prison system definitely needs a reboot.