The other day I was sitting in my usual coffee shop, sipping my ridiculously caramelized macchiato and staring at my bleak word document that, hopefully, would start to resemble an essay. To my left, a young couple seemed to be arguing about politics.

"Our incarceration system is doing its job. People are just whiny little babies who like to complain," said the gentleman.

"Not even, Jeff! The prisons are so cruel and unjust! I don't even know what you're talking about," responded his girlfriend.

In October of 2013, the United States had the highest prison incarceration rate in the world. With a 500 percent increase in incarceration rates in the past 30 years, the United States had a record-breaking 2.2 million prisoners in the system. Comparatively, the United States hosts about five percent of the world's population, yet it houses 22 percent of the world's prisoners. That's a pretty devastating statistic.

Within the prison population, 90 percent of males make up the population and are 14 times more likely than women to be incarcerated. Detention rates are highest for people between the ages of 20 and 40, and about 70 percent of these inmates didn't complete high school. The average state prisoner has the education foundation of a 10th grader.

With these numbers reaching epic proportions, it goes without saying that our prison system houses a considerable portion of our population. So, how do we treat these inmates?

Well, first, their healthcare is disheartening at best. Not only do they have higher rates of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis than the general population, but chronic diseases such as diabetes are rising at alarming rates.

As if that weren't enough, inmates suffer physical abuse the likes of which has been compared to sadistic interpersonal terrorism. In 1995, a federal judge in California found a pattern of assault with deadly weapons, assault by fellow prisoners and guards, and abusive use of protective weapons like stun guns and tasers on inmates. Furthermore, the climate in prisons propagates an environment in which there is little supervision of guards, thus leading to an abusive atmosphere wherein inmates are raped, beaten, and sometimes killed.

As if that weren't enough, when prisoners are released, they struggle to find living quarters, sustainable work, and grapple for a stable living and meager means. In a study conducted by the Vera Institute of Justice, 13 of 66 New York inmates expected to have a place to stay after being released from prison. Furthermore, the same study revealed that 50 out of 66 of those inmates, after living in the same quarters for a few months, they were kicked out and left on the streets with no money, no way to earn a living, and nowhere to stay.

The lack of stable reentry programs creates an environment in which prisoners are forced to work low-wage, low-quality jobs or revert back to the crime community that landed them in jail in the first place. Because of this, we have created an environment in which 77 percent of inmates are rearrested post-release.

So, what is the cause of this endless cycle of incarceration?

It all started with the war on drugs launched by the Nixon administration. During this time, incarceration rates quadrupled in the United States. Additionally, the race gap widened, creating a stunning 10-fold statistic where black men are sent to prison at ten times the rate of white men. This created a racial disparity that pitted white communities against blacks, and also created a complex judicial system in which drugs were brutally prosecuted. For example, if one were arrested for marijuana possession, there was a chance that he/she could be sentenced to life in prison. If you were a black man, your chances were even more bleak.

Since the introduction of the war on drugs, our police force has adopted the mentality of a military task force. With the Patriot act, officers now have access to military-grade weapons that have led to increased rates in arrests and police brutality.

So to those of you who would believe that our prison system is a lawful, crime-fitting environment for our fellow Americans, you are wrong. It propagates violence, racism, and a lack of stability that creates a likelihood for recidivism .