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...... As the fledgling democracy attempted to take flight, it appears that the concept of equality was only for the elite portion of society. Although the documents upon which the United States was founded did not explicitly state that all men were created Equal only applied to a select few, the ideal was present as an accepted societal construct. The founding forefathers accepted the fact that equality was a consequence of wealth. Wealth equated power and power equated the ability to control others in such as way as to secure ones own position in the future
Equality the criminal justice system is one of most basic concepts that the United States proposes to hold dear. However, it is difficult to look at the class of criminals in prisons and argue that justice is handed out on an equal basis, regardless of class. When one examines the statistics behind the American prison system, they will find a disproportionate number of person incarcerated are from impoverished social backgrounds (Wacquant, 1998). Only 10-15% of those incarcerated are considered to pose a threat to society, if they were to be released (Wacquant, 1998). Yet, prison populations continue to rise by an average of 8%

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