Starting in New York and becoming nation wide graffiti has managed to pass state borders. In the United States there are traces of graffiti in big cities and also in the least expected towns. With the growth of graffiti the growth of patrolling, graffiti removal, and arrest have also increased. The police departments of big cities have tried cracking down on graffiti because it has become an “out-of –hand” issue that cost taxpayers thousand of dollar annually. The views on graffiti vary from city to city and from person to person therefore in some communities graffiti is considered an embellishment and in other communities it is considered a petty crime. By incarcerating graffiti artist we are just adding more people to the already overpopulated prisons in the US.
In the United States “There is currently not enough space in prisons for all convicted criminals to fully serve their sentences. This leads to the early release of offenders who are not ready to successfully reenter the community” (American Legislative Exchange Council). Graffiti artist that get arrested are occupying the space that is needed for convicted criminals to fully serve their sentences and go through the whole rehabilitation process. In New York ,the graffiti capital, there are 60 facilities, and there are three facilities expected to close by October (American Legislative Exchange Council). If all of their facilities are working at 100% capacity as of now and they close the three facilities there will be even more overcrowding in the remaining 57 prisons. California is another state that has a lively graffiti culture. In California there are 33 state prisons, one in particular in Chino, California is operating at 200% of its capacity (Jens Erik Gould / Los Angeles, 2011). This means that if this one prison is working at 200% the other 32 prisons are also operating at percentages higher than they should. This becomes both dangerous for the inmates and for the staff.
If graffiti becomes legalized the amount of inmates that go to jail because a crime will dwindle down to zero because the public art would not be illegal. In Philadelphia street art advocate ,Michael Cotton, has posted up an argument about the legalization of graffiti. He argues that it is unfair that graffiti is viewed in a negative light when in reality it is artwork that has “ a message and an expression of the artist. There are issues that are addressed in these pieces crying out for social, political, or economic reform. Others are created to beautify a community, or as a humorous piece for the community to stop and smile at..” (Cotton , 2012). He is trying to show that graffiti artist should not get arrested because they are not trying to harm anyone if anything they want to better their communities. By legalizing graffiti communities would benefit from narrative murals and vibrant colors and the already overpopulated prisons would not receive harmless artist that get arrested for graffiti.
The global context is different yet similar to the national context. Globally graffiti is accepted and legal in certain countries that’s why it’s different than nationally. There is a small similarity in that though, because in New York, Miami, and in Baltimore there are walls that have been preserved for artist to legally create artwork. Unlike in Bogota where street art is legal and encouraged all over the city in the US there is only certain walls, in certain areas, and if you go out of those areas you will be arrested because graffiti is illegal in all 50 states.