Americans? Why does America have such a large prison population?
Why does America have more people locked up in its 1,500 or so prisons, than any other country in the world? America has less than 5% of the world's population, but more than 25% of the world's prison inmates. China has well over a billion people, but only 1.2 million prison inmates. America has a population of 300,000,000.. but, it has 2.5 million prison inmates ( largest in the world) . The U.S. is the only country in the world that imprisons people for minor property crimes, like passing bad checks. "Burglars in the United States serve an average of 16 months in prison, according to Mauer, compared with 5 months in Canada and 7 months in England." Also, why is the sentencing so harsh? Other countries have more lenient sentencing, and lower crime rates. So, it's difficult to support tougher sentencing guidelines, in hopes they will deter potential criminals.
Where was 0bama, or even Holder?
Detective Melvin Santiago was a Jersey City police officer who was shot to death just a month ago, on July 13th. Santiago was white. His killer, Lawrence Campbell, was black. Does anyone recall Obama appearing before national television and calling for justice for Officer Santiagos family? Does anyone recall Eric Holder rushing to Jersey City to see that justice was done? How about Officer Jeffrey Westerfield. He was a Gary, Indiana police officer who was shot to death last month on July 6th. Westerfield was white. His killer, Carl LeEllis Blount, Jr. was black. Where was Obama? Where was Holder? Vermillion Parish Deputy Sheriff Allen Bares was gunned down by two men just last June 23rd in Louisiana. Deputy Bares was white. His two killers, Quintlan Richard and Baylon Taylor, were black. Was Obama outraged? Did Eric Holder rush to Louisiana to make sure that the family of Deputy Bares found justice? Or, maybe I just missed it. Over the past 60 days, there have been five reported deaths of police officers by gunshot in the US. Of those, four were white officers who were murdered by black men. Blacks complain that white officers threaten black men more aggressively on the street. These statistics speak for themselves. There were funeral services for each of these fallen officers. Were they attended by members of the White House Staff. No! Why? You can draw your own conclusions on that one, as well.
What are some future challenges faced by the correctional system in America?
There is an entire section devoted to cheating on homework. This is not that section.
What is the US equivalent of the Home Secretary (UK politics)?
The secretary of Homeland security is probably the closest thing.
Does the "Justice System" sentence minorities harsher than white people (Case in Point attached)?
This is one of the reasons most sentences in the US must conform to sentencing guidelines. Judges have much less discretion than they used to. However, that also prevents judges from being more or less lenient in circumstances where it is warranted even if not based on factors that shouldn't be considered. There is also a factor, particularly well documented in the case of drug sentencing, where crimes that are more likely to be committed by those without political power get tougher sentences. It's not so much a race thing, though it partially is as many of these laws are relics from a more racist time (there's still current racism, but it's much less overt and intentional among lawmakers). There is a high correlation between race and class, though, largely because of a combination of past racism and the tendency in a capitalist system for classes to persist through generations. Hence, blacks generally have less power (obviously that's changing at least somewhat, since the President is now black, but that doesn't do much good for most people). The best example is the disparity between the sentences for crack and cocaine. Crack is much cheaper and pushers sent it into black neighborhoods. Cocaine, far more expensive, was the drug of choice of businessmen. They were both devastating in the 1980's when they came on to the scene in massive quantities. But the response in the law, even though they are two forms of the same drug and very similar in most ways except price, the sentencing guidelines for crack are several times as long as those for cocaine because people who tended to do cocaine had political connections and politicians didn't want to send their high value contributors to jail.