It will be your task to determine what makes the current prison system a failure. Rather than assert your opinion

Over the course of two weeks, you will be watching a documentary and reading different chapters/articles about current problems with the prison system in the United States. It will be your task to determine what makes the current prison system a failure. Rather than assert your opinion, I want you to think of this as simply offering information that demonstrates how the prison system has failed in the U.S. Pretend that your friend asked you why the prison system is problematic and you want to lay it out for them in a 5 paragraph essay. In other words, I don’t want to know how you feel about these topics for this paper, and you will have the opportunity to make an argument in your NEXT paper. For this, just define and describe the reasons why by providing information. This will be excellent practice for the expository essay on your WPE exam. In the WPE exam, you would be given the 3 reasons and you’d have to just deal with those, but for this, you pick your own out of the options used in the articles/chapters we read.

Tips:

• Your introduction should:
  • a hook that gets the audience interested.
  • Describe problems of the prison systems and maybe give a brief background
  • Have a thesis that follows the example above.
  • Outlines: In the textbook, you will find an entire section in the Cause/Effect chapter that details how to write a “One Effect, Multiple Cause” essay. It offers a perfect example of how to structure an outline for this paper.
• Your body paragraphs should:
  • Have a distinct focus that is different from the other body paragraphs
  • Have a topic sentence that states clearly what the entire paragraph will focus on and you shouldn’t stray from that
  • Have a transition
  • Include a brief explanation of the topic. For example, if you were to write about the loophole of the 13^thamendment, you’d have to explain what that is before going any further.
  • Must offer at least one piece of evidence from an outside source in each paragraph.That means you can quote, pull a statistic, or use an example from one of the sources I’ve provided or that you find on your own. If you use your own source, you need to create a works cited.
  • Needs to discuss the effects of these topics and explain why they matter.
• Conclusion
  • Should repeat your strong arguments in different words
  • Should speak about the problem of the prison system with slightly more emotion
• Generally
  • This is not about your opinion. You are simply explaining the causes and showing how they lead to the negative effect.
  • If you decide to talk about something that we haven’t discussed, then you will need to do research and cite your sources.
  • Keep your focus. Do not stray.
  • Avoid asking questions except in the intro. Instead, answer them.
  • Should be a 5 paragraph essay
  • Do not use “I” in this paper
  • Meet with me often and always!
  • Always be thinking about how this will help you with the WPE.

  Your introduction needs to have a hook–a quote, statistic, question, analogy, etc.–and the rest needs to establish why this is an important topic. I suggest that you give a little background–perhaps something about the prison system began with slavery, or about how it has recently become a source of monetary gain–and then consider the discussion surrounding mass incarceration and the prison system. You might bring up the difference between reform and abolition and what people say about both.Your thesis needs to clearly state the 3 reasons you think make the prison system a failure. It might consider:The prison system is a failure because of its roots in slavery, overpopulation, and the treatment of women.ORThe school to prison pipeline, the war on drugs, and solitary confinement all contribute to the failure of the U.S. prison system.

his body paragraph needs to have a transition in the topic sentence. The topic sentence needs to clearly state what specific failure you’ll be considering in the paragraph. You cannot stray from this. For example:

To begin, one of the major failures of the prison system is its direct connection to slavery.

You should follow the topic sentence with some context on the failure you’re considering. For example, if you wanted to discuss the connection to slavery as a major failure, then you would want to explain the history here–you might consider the Black codes or the loophole of the 13th amendment. In other words, you have to give some background and explanation as if your reader isn’t as familiar with the history as you are.

If you were going to write about the war on drugs, for example, you would have to give the background on that about how certain neighborhoods were intentionally bombarded with crack (which has a different punishment). You might bring up the 3 strike rule instead. Without this, how would your reader even know what the war on drugs is or how it contributes to a problem in the prison system?

After you’ve given the necessary background/context/definitions, then you should quote from one of the sources we’ve discussed or that you have found on your own. Maybe you want to throw in a statistic to support your claims. Maybe an expert said something that you think is really important. Maybe there is an example of someone who experienced this (that you’ve read about) that makes it clear that this really is a failure.

After you supply the quote, you need to explain why this is a problem and what the negative effects are. In other words, personalize it. Seeing one example or seeing a statistic doesn’t emotionally impact the reader or convince them of this problem. Your job is to make them see how significant this information is and how problematic the impact is. Do not just throw in a quote and then end the paragraph. NO NO NO.

End the paragraph with a sentence that connects to your thesis.

At this point, I want to see a revised intro and thesis, and a new body paragraph. If you haven’t made changes to the body paragraph you just submitted on Tuesday, that’s okay. To get full credit, I want to see a better intro and a new body paragraph.

If you have more, submit more, so you get more feedback!