America’s Mass Incarceration in 2025: A Threat to Public Health and Safety.
“Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is often cited as the definition of insanity. By that measure, then, America’s approach to solving crime is as insane as it gets.”
Three years after this stark assessment appeared in a 2022 Teen Vogue article by Olayemi Olurin, it remains frustratingly accurate. Despite mounting evidence of systemic failure, the United States continues to double down on mass incarceration while expecting different outcomes. What was once a textbook definition of insanity has now evolved into something far more dangerous: a full-blown public health crisis.
The Scope of the Crisis
The scope of this crisis has become impossible to ignore. Mass incarceration doesn’t merely harm nearly 2 million incarcerated individuals - it creates rippling effects that damage communities, families, and society’s overall well-being. Research from the Vera Institute reveals that each year spent in prison leads to a two-year decline in life expectancy. Meanwhile, relatives of incarcerated individuals face increased risks of hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes. When families have multiple members incarcerated, the health toll becomes even more severe, resulting in a 4.6-year reduction in life expectancy (Dholakia, 2025).
Beyond Individual Families
The public health implications extend far beyond individual families. Communities with high imprisonment rates experience elevated rates of anxiety, depression, and other health issues. Mass incarceration degrades social cohesion and increases chronic stress, creating what researchers describe as neighborhood-level health damage. The COVID-19 pandemic starkly illustrated this reality when jails and prisons become breeding grounds for the virus, with infection rates eventually spilling into surrounding communities.
Even correctional staff suffer the consequences of this broken system. They experience the second-highest rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after U.S. war veterans and double the suicide rates compared to police officers. Low pay, insufficient training, and harsh working conditions make hiring and retention nearly impossible, further degrading conditions for everyone involved.
A System in Crisis
The numbers paint a damning picture of systemic failure. Despite an estimated annual spending of $300 billion on policing and prisons, police solve only 2% of all major crimes. More than 80% of arrests are for misdemeanors and nonviolent offenses, yet the system continues warehousing people in conditions that virtually guarantee their return to the same struggling communities that initially failed them. Nearly 60% of the incarcerated population consists of Latino and Black individuals (Olurin, 2022). Although these communities represent a much smaller percentage of the general American population, the racial disparities in health outcomes, creating a perpetual cycle of harm across generations.
The Inescapable Truth
It is clear that what happens within jail cells and prison walls affects us all. A system designed to keep us safe is undermining our public health and security. We are neither safer nor healthier because of mass incarceration. The use of a retributive approach through mass incarceration is not just morally bankrupt - it is a public health disaster that undermines the very safety and well-being it claims to protect. Continuing to expect different results from the same failed approach is not only insane but unconscionable. Our collective health depends on choosing different path forward.
Works Cited
Craig, Miltonette Olivia, et al. “Incarcerated in a Pandemic: How COVID-19 Exacerbated the ‘Pains of Imprisonment.’” Criminal Justice Review, SAGE Publications, 27 July 2023, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10375228/.
Dholakia, Nazish. “Mass Incarceration Is a Public Health Crisis.” Vera Institute of Justice, 17 June 2025, www.vera.org/news/mass-incarceration-is-a-public-health-crisis.
Olurin, Olayemi. “Mass Incarceration Is a Cruel, Expensive, Ineffective Approach to Addressing Crime.” Teen Vogue, 21 Dec. 2022, www.teenvogue.com/story/mass-incarceration-expensive-cruel#:~:text=Politics-,Mass%20Incarceration%20Is%20a%20Cruel%2C%20Expensive%2C%20Ineffective%20Approach%20to%20Addressing,t%20question%20about%20mass%20incarceration.&text=Doing%20the%20same%20thing%20repeatedly,as%20the%20definition%20of%20insanity.
