When it comes to the prison system, the majority of Americans only know what they've seen in the movies and on TV. They believe that in prisons only the most dangerous and violent offenders end up locked behind bars for decades. For the most part whatever happens to these individuals in prison is off no concern to them. It’s a society of out of sight, out of mind. What people don't realize is that in reality it is a smaller percentage of inmates that are incarcerated that are violent and dangerous. Twenty-five percent are non-violent illegal immigrants, fifty-five percent are non-violent drug offenders, and about five percent are mental patients, and other types of non-violent crime. (Webb 164) It’s those non-violent inmates are the ones that have rehabilitative opportunities and a chance to re-enter society with a fresh start. But when you lump them all together society see’s them all the same, as violent criminals. So there’s no big push to try to get the system to change. We need prison reform to change these views. It’s necessary so that the nonviolent inmates can receive lighter sentences and also be separated from violent inmates so they can be reformed. A majority of these non-violent criminals end up serving equal or longer sentences than those in prison for violent crimes such as rape. That is because the sentencing guidelines, used by the criminal justice system, are very draconic when it comes to drug convictions. It was made this way in hopes of reducing the illegal drug trade in the 90’s, but in fact it’s had no effect and rehabilitative efforts in prison have little effect. Take this scenario, for example, based on federal sentencing guidelines. An individual who is a 24 year old middle class media producer, with no violent crime history, is sentenced to 55 years for a third strike marijuana charge (Mauer 702). He is then locked up with the murders, rapist, and violent gang members. There is no segregation. No differentiation. No protection. This new non-violent inmate is now prey and is a sheep among wolves. He will not benefit from the rehabilitative programs that are offered in prison even if he does attend them. This non-violent person either learns how to survive by joining the pack, or stands alone and lives in constant fear of his life. He will spend 55 years with rapist and murders with limited outside contact with the real world. His only daily contact is with other inmates. Do you think after 55 years in such an environment is going to produce a well-balanced ideal citizen? This is just one of many reasons why there needs to be prison reform. One fact that is important to know is that I was a Senior Officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. I worked in the prison system for 4 years and I have a lot of first-hand knowledge and experience that I will use in the writing of this journal. I spent time working at the Federal Penitentiary in Lompoc California and also at the Federal Penitentiary in Florence Colorado. In both places I saw many of the same problems that plague the entire US prison system. Despite billions of dollars being spent to “reform” the criminally inclined, the system was practically the opposite of that. Inside the prisons is a subculture that I could easily write a book on; a subculture that manipulates the system and easily corrupts, and makes more criminal, the new inmates that arrive. Instead of being reformed to become better citizens, they become informed on how to be a better criminal. This is easy to see as recidivism back into prison is very high. “Two thirds of inmates released return in 3 years” (Mauer 703 - 704). The reason for this is because you can’t reform the non-violent potentially malleable people to be moral, ethical, law abiding citizens when they are all locked up together with the violent career criminals. There’s a saying I'm sure you've all heard at some point in time “One bad apple spoils the whole bunch.” Well, imagine you have thousands of bad apples that have been rotting away for years and you throw some slightly bruised but possibly useable good apples in there. What do you think is going to happen? It won't take long at all before those apples are as rotten to the core as the other ones and there is not one part on that apple that you can save. And that unfortunately is what happens in most cases in our prison systems. One of the biggest problems I have with the prison system is the amount of people that get incarcerated and the lack of segregation based on the type of offense committed. I’ve seen first-hand the problems in the prison system that so many people don't know about because they are lead to believe the system is just. Why does that seem to be the case? The following are some incarceration statistics that I obtained from Peace Review: The Journal of Social Justice from an essay called "Mass Culture and the American Taste for Prisons" written by Eleanor Novek. The journal stat