It’s natural for us not to be concerned and involved with our prisons in America, but is it right? For decades, our prison system has been on an upward slope of population, causing more to crop up around the country. America, in fact, has the largest prison population in the world to date. The effect of this seemingly clueless system has created something quite cruel and unusual. All throughout the U.S., corrections officers, who are supposed to protect the inmates from one another, are actually brutally abusing them mentally and physically. It’s time we realize that what’s happening in America’s prisons is unacceptable.

Rikers Island Prison Facility is a New York prison specifically known to have an excess amount of inmate abuse. In the past several years it has had several corrections officers go on trial for mistreatment among inmates. One of the officers even created his own special program to orchestrate a series of brutal beatings called “The Program.” The brutality and extremes of these officers are out of control and need to be handled properly.

Just recently, a video emerged on the internet showing a local man slowly dying on the cold floor of his prison cell. Just last year the man from Macomb, David Stojcevski, was arrested for a driving infraction and ended up serving a sentence for 30 days. It didn’t take long for Stojcevski to become go downhill. He was quickly put on suicide watch after losing 50 pounds and becoming mentally unstable. It is believed that Stojcevski was declined the right medical treatment which resulted in a undeniably cruel death.

Although many of these inmates were directly at fault for them being locked behind bars, we shouldn’t be treating them like senseless beings. If anything, inmates should be supported and encouraged — not beaten. Currently about 68 percent of our prisoners are eventually sent back to prison within three years of being released from their first sentence, according to the American Bureau of Justice Statistics. America’s inmates are trapped behind transparent walls the moment they set foot in a cell. If inmates were supported and helped to more benefit society then they are now, our society as a whole would be a better place to reside.

For years now, inmates locally and across the country have been treated with brutality and disgust, but it’s time to change the system. The correctional system in the United States must be re-evaluated, because with time, comes change.