America has one of the highest incarceration rates compared to other developed countries. Before putting the handcuffs on, let's double-check why they are placed. Criminals, as we call them, are people who have been found guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. They committed crimes that the general public believed required punishment or some sort of rehabilitation. Therefore, we send them to penitentiaries so that they can benefit from “time out” until they have served a sufficient sentence, equal to the crime they committed. They are us, just another American who has unfortunately disobeyed the law that requires us to live civilly with each other. That being said, we must keep them in mind when placing convicts in prisons and determine how to spend our resources to supply these prisons. Laws: Now let’s dive into the laws. There are two classifications of law in the United States that we voluntarily accept: The first concerns civil laws about our responsibilities to others. Civil infractions are typically violations of contracts, such as marriage, landlord-tenant disputes, or property disputes. The second category of law that we hold is that of criminal law; these are “rules of conduct that have been codified and carry standardized consequences in the event of violation” (Del Castillo, 2012). Criminal laws are divided into two sections and will be covered in this paragraph. Malum per se are criminal offenses that involve behaviors considered “naturally evil according to the sense of the civilized community” (Del Castillo, 2012). These include homicides, rapes, robberies and assaults. The Malum themselves require a violent mental state as they are considered destructive in nature. Malum Prohibitum is a "Public Welfare Offen"... middle of paper ...... e, it is widely used and accepted to the point that the US Constitution was written on cannabis paper. Works Cited Henrichson, C. and Delaney, R. (2012). The price of prisons: what incarceration costs taxpayers. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 25(1), 68-80. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/fsr.2012.25.1.68Trout, G. (2011). THE COST OF INCARCERATION: OHIO PRISONS. University of Toledo Law Review, 42(4), 891-901.Katel, P. (April 6, 2007). Prison reform. CQ Researcher, 17, 289-312. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/Conyers Jr., J. (2013). The explosion of incarceration. Yale Law & Policy Review, 31(2), 377-387. STELLOH, T. (2013). The Great California Prison Experiment. Nation, 296(26/27), 31-34. Wallace, G. (2012). THE REAL DEATH PENALTY: Insufficient health care in prison and how to fix it. Faulkner Law Review, 4(1), 265-297.