Mass Increase in Incarceration 
The United States had just gone through a large scale amount of civil unrest, which leads to a civil rights 
movement of many Americans. As a country, we were not happy with how subpopulations were being 
treated, and it was during this that many positive changes in the country were being adapted into law. This 
also corresponded with a massive influx of men that were returning from the Vietnam war. The disapproval 
of the war, increased our growing distrust of the government to provide programs that could help individuals 
within the justice system. Many State-funded operations were seen as intrusive on the public, to include 
mental health facilities. There was also a large scale importation of drugs occurring in America. All of these 
items and more shifted our ideology rather abruptly in the United States, and we turned toward a more 
punitive approach to people in society that were getting into trouble. Collectively, we would consider this 
the “get tough era” on crime. This included the war on drugs (gang involvement), tougher sentencing 
legislation across the country, transinstitutionalization or transcarceration (the removal of many individuals 
from state mental health hospitals), and others. Collectively, these all had a large-scale increase in the prison 
population. 
Full Jails? 
It is 3:00 AM on a Sunday morning and Terry is getting force-released from jail because the jail is full. Force 
Releases occur when a facility is at its maximum capacity and a more serious offender is coming in. The decision has 
to be made in order to protect the community the facility is supposed to protect, but still, maintain the constitutional 
ALISON S. BURKE, DAVID CARTER, BRIAN FEDOREK, TIFFANY MOREY, LORE RUTZ-BURRI, AND SHANELL
SANCHEZ
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