…A land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.

This American dream famously defined by James Truslow Adams has seemingly resurged following the global economic downturn of 2009. In the TIME magazine article ‘Surprise: The Economy Isn’t as Bad as You Think’, Roger Altman declares one of the main reasons for the economy growing is that “social trends are moving forward”. Altman defends this claim with the drop in crime rates with data collated from the FBI.

The overall crime rate has plummeted by 45% since peaking in 1991 and by 13% just since 2007.

How has this become possible?

Altman paints us a rosy picture

crime-fighting technology, better policing, aging societies, growing urban populations and declining usage of hard drugs

Humbug.

The 2013 National Drug Threat Assessment Summary released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) revealed

both heroin and meth trafficking are increasing across the U.S./Mexico border—and that Mexican cartels, which the DEA refers to as Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), are expanding into the far reaches of the United States.

Altman postulates his idea

For many Americans, the drop in crime has resulted not only in a much higher quality of life but in a reduced economic burden as well. Safer cities generally mean stronger urban economies

Aah! A higher quality of life, and safer cities. This is music to my ears. We as a society are accomplishing our American Dream. Huzzah!

Alas, this utopia has a dark side.

The omnipresent and menacing eye of the government, dubbed as Total Information Awareness (TIA) system in BBC television drama The Last Enemy, has become a reality. Law enforcement agencies and officials are now using powerful new data points to aid their surveillance programs. Under the guise of better policing, the federal government knows what you search for on Google. So don’t be too scandalized when you read about this innocent couple who were visited by Cops after Google searching for ‘Backpacks’ and ‘Pressure Cookers’.

There is plenty evidence of police brutality and racial profiling which has recently led to protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

Regretfully, this is just the tip of colossal problem. John Oliver calls it the “Broken American Prison System” on his show ‘Last Week Tonight’. The drop in crime rate Altman cites excluded to mention that the incarceration rate in the U.S. is the highest in the world, housing a whopping 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. To keep in check the economic burden of maintaining these prisons, the U.S. has outsourced many of its prison services to corporations who promise to reduce costs and propagate recidivism.

Watch the full clip below.

As arrest records rise, Americans are finding that its consequences can last a lifetime. The Wall Street Journal reports that even if charges were dropped, a lingering arrest record can ruin chances of a job. Some 77.7 million people in the United States have criminal records on the FBI’s database. And that’s something that should concern quite a few of us.

Is all hope lost? Are we sentenced to live a reenactment of 1852’s Britain from ‘Bleak House’? I found the first glimmer of hope from JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA)

They are an organization dedicated to cutting the US prison population in half by 2030 while reducing crime. JLUSA aims to:

Develop and support formerly incarcerated leaders. Build and sustain an engaged national membership. Drive policy advocacy efforts on federal, state, and local levels.

Sitting on a cushy sofa surfing high-speed internet, it’s easy to fancy:

if anyone can win through hard work and effort, anyone who doesn’t win, therefore deserves to be poor.

The rehabilitation of those incarcerated is no easy task. In the past year I have learned about the perils and adversity which pushes the poor to conduct an unlawful act through my volunteer work with Ruraq Maki. While helping them increase visibility within the communities, I have discovered that there is still a spark of hope left.

Amanda Smiles, the founder of Ruraq Maki holds skill-development workshops for incarcerated women in Peru’s Yanamilla Prison.

These women have had no access to education and find the only way they can support their families is by trafficking small quantities of drugs.

By creating economic opportunities for these women, Ruraq Maki presents them alternative employment options to the drug trade.

It’s no longer easy for me to not care about prisoners. What about you?