America as a nation, is an absolute mess, full of contradictions, hypocrisy, and basically living up to absolutely none of its noble tenets, despite its proclamation that it is the last great hope of humankind. A case in point, is the fact, that so many are unnecessarily incarcerated and are therefore part of the carceral system and remain such for often extended periods of time. Somehow, America feels not the need to actually investigate why it has so much crime and criminals as compared to other western nations, or the reason why it insists that the best solution to such, is a punitive imprisonment system, which resolves not a thing. Basically, America seems to follow the tenet that out of sight is out of mind, which though true to a certain extent, reflects poorly on a nation that claims it is the fair bastion of liberty, freedom, and justice.
America locks up criminal after criminal, in which, the vast majority of these criminals, have not even been convicted by a jury of their peers, nor have had their fair say in a court of law, but instead have been coerced, pressured, tricked, intimidated, or compelled into a plea bargain to avoid an even more dire fate. It would be one thing, if the resources of those that are the prosecuting arm of the state, were somehow equivalent to those that are its defendants, but the contest is not ever fair, for those making up the prisons of America, are predominately the ill-educated, the poor, the downtrodden, minorities, and pretty much those that have nobody of power to champion their cause.
Yet, those that are locked into prisons and the carceral state, are only a portion of what ails America. For the other portion, so of, is all those that are effectively locked out of a good homelife, a good environment, good infrastructure, good schools, good neighbors, and good justice. These then, who have committed no crime, find themselves victimized from systemic racism, segregation, discrimination, manipulation, and the blatant unfairness of a society that does not play square by the rules, it so created in the first place.
In America, there are all sorts of laws, rules, and legislation that express great sentiments of fairness, opportunity, and hope for all; but in reality, these words on paper, are hardly ever lived to either the letter of the law or the spirit so of, but are merely seen as something to be taken into consideration at some future time, or some future place, but never ever effectively in the present.
There are two basic ways to keep specific people down, one of which is to lock them up, and the other is to lock them out. Either of these is effective, and when both are put in play, it is devastatingly effective; for those that are its victims, have no real good opportunity to find themselves ever to enjoy their fair share of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. Instead, they have been provided with a counterfeit nation, full of counterfeit sentiments, in which the end for them is known from the beginning, for they never had a chance, because those that are the actuators of this nation, want it just like that.