How Overcrowded Influence On The Prison System

According to statistical data found in the Bureau for Justice Records, there are a number of problems that most prisons in the country face. The records indicate that the number of adult federal and state inmates increased from `139% in `1980 to 260% (Walker, 1999). As a natural default, the United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. This in itself brings about one of the major problems that are faced in modern incarceration which is overcrowding in most prison facilities. The number of offenders in the country has increased rapidly over time while the country prison system has not really been able to cope with this rapid increase. Prisons intended for one or two inmates are now crowded with more than fifty individuals. Because of this most prisons are overcrowded and most of the facilities available are unable to cater for the needs of all the prisoners (Siegel, 2009).

As of 2015, 2.7% of adults in the United States were under correctional control, the lowest rate since 1994, however that is still roughly 6.7 million adults (Kaeble & Glaze, 2016). While the correctional population has declined, correctional facilities in the United States are still grossly overcrowded, with many facilities at or surpassing capacity. A report in 2010 by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation showed that on average, facilities were at 175% capacity (Brown, 2010). However, as of midnight on October 31st, 2017 the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported that their facilities, on average, were 132% occupied (Brown, 2017). Not only is prison overcrowding a burden on the facilities themselves, but also on the inmates. Prison overcrowding, that is, housing more inmates than the facility can humanely facilitate (Haney, 2006), places a strain on all resources throughout the correctional facility, including on the healthcare that’s offered, educational programs, and most dramatically on the physical space available to house inmates (Ekland-Olson, 1983).

Prisons socially isolate criminals to deter interference with the rights and freedoms of other members of the society. Under this isolation, the criminals are given another chance to reform their mistakes and come back form where they have come from and they argue that reforming the sentencing system will increase the number of criminals in the society

The current policies focus at the consistent social change since the traditional punitive orientation of the criminal justice system turns out to be ineffective. As the crime rates keep growing, the public demands the introduction of more severe punishment for offenders, while prisons are overcrowded. Moreover, the growing crime rates among juveniles increase the public pressure on the criminal justice system as the public demands the introduction of severe punishment and imprisonment of juvenile offenders. However, the penitentiary system cannot imprison as much population as the public demands at the moment, while the imprisonment turns out to be ineffective in terms of the prevention of crimes and recidivism. In such a situation, the public is unprepared to the essential social change, when the imprisonment should be replaced by other, less strict and repressive forms of punishment. Policy makers should have

Have you ever been to prison before? Unfortunately it is not uncommon for many people in the United States to end up in prison at any given time in their life. Chances are, if you have not been to prison you know somebody that has been imprisoned, as America has the highest rate of incarceration in the whole world. Although America’s population only accounts for 5% of the world's population, we have the highest prison rate at 25% of the whole world’s incarcerated population (Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2015). Why do we continue to see these prisons overcrowded, and how exactly does this affect the inmates?

No matter how you look at it, the prison system within the US holds too many people without valid reason. The last decade has seen a lot of states cut down on crime while also cutting down on their prison populations. In the years between 1999 and 2012, for example, both New York and New Jersey cut their prison populations by 30%, and crime rates fell “faster than they did nationally.”

He notes that with the increase in number of Prisoners in the American prison, the chance of having them reformed is slimmer than having them learn new criminal tactics. Downscaling jails is his offered solution to the rise in crime in United States and therefore he outlines plans on how the number of prisoners can be reduced in jails. This book is essential to this paper as it will offer firsthand information on jail management and the more specific steps of reducing the number of prisoners in American

Prison’s were established a long time ago to try to put an end to the rapidly increasing crime rate, however over time we are seeing the effectiveness of the most prisons decreasing. As a result of this epidemic, prisons have a higher recidivism rate and over 40 percents are currently operating over maximum capacity (Holder.) Through different types of research, we are finding out that our prison systems are no longer effective and there is a serious need for improvement. The United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population, yet we incarcerate almost ¼ of the worlds prisoners (Holder.)

America has one of the largest prison population and according to the bureau of the justice department. States and federal prisons held 1574700 inmates in December 2013.and it increased by 4300 inmates over the years end. More than two-thirds of prisoners were arrested within the first six months of release. These statistics show that prison as punishment alone do not work and some measures need to be but in place to decrease the population of inmates and recidivism. Prison should be used as both rehabilitation and punishment.

With the belief that the former policy of rehabilitation no longer sufficed to meet the needs of the countries growing criminal population, new policies enforced harsher punishments, longer sentencing ranges with the removal of early release privileges, and reinstated the practice of capital punishment (Miethe & Lu, 2005). For professionals in the field, who intend to make strides, which have a positive impact on the future of crime, it is critical for them to understand this history. It is simply not enough to know it. Within the patterns, there is a message and an answer of how to effectively deal with the crisis faced today as a result of the policy changes. The crisis of not only how to handle offenders, but how to appropriately deter

“Problem with Prisons is written by Allison Torres Burka. This article seeks to answer many questions about the problems American prisons face. The first questions is why are there so many prisoners in the United States versus the rest of the world. Allison talks to David Fathi, the director of the National Prison Project seeking this answer among others. David says that the prison overcrowding has racial and political roots. Allison also asked David, “What is the NPP doing to reduce the rate of incarceration? His answer was educating the public who vote for legislation that we can have a safe community with a fraction of incarcerated individuals. He advised that we model after other countries. Another question that was asked was; “What are

Consistently, state and government jails are filled to limit with peaceful crooks. This puts weight on parole sheets to discharge lawbreakers who under typical circumstances would not be discharged because of the way of their violations. Each State 's Department of Corrections needs to spend a greater amount of citizens ' cash each year for jail upkeep, prison guards and jail social insurance. The issue of jail over populace can without much of a stretch be put under control with the execution of the new advancements as of now accessible for remote observing what 's more, radio recurrence finding frameworks. Electronic observing and house capture has turned into a reasonable different option for imprisonment, probation, and parole

Hence, the environment of jails is declared to be responsible for turning the individuals into habitual offenders because of their stay with criminals. Theorists, psychologists and researchers have articulated different reasons behind the prisons’ being unable to play the active and powerful role of the reform house for prisoners.

My paper will discuss the problems and a few of the effects that prison overcrowding causes towards the inmates and the guards. I will first address the issue of violence that prison overcrowding causes. My next point will be the health of the inmates discussing both their physical and mental while in overcrowded prisons. Lastly I will discuss the physical and mental health of the correctional officers and how the job could lead to correctional officers having issues in their private life.

When it comes to prison overcrowding, many factors cause it to occur. Part of the overcrowding can be attributed both to specific policies. For instance, the “War on Drugs” has enacted harsher penalties for drug violations, directly increasing the number incarcerated. Part of this policy includes mandatory sentences, which indirectly affect the overcrowding. More people are incarcerated for longer periods, leading to conditions so inhumane that in 2011, the Supreme Court declared one prison violated the Eighth Amendment. While policies are partially responsible for overcrowding in prisons, criminal behavior also needs to be taken into account. The USA has one of the highest recidivism rates in the world—within five years of release from state prison, law enforcement rearrests 76.6% of inmates.. Many are arrested for violating parole, and some go on to commit entirely new crimes. Apparently, there is little motivation to staying out of prison, what with the minimal rehabilitation programs and general stigma laid on criminals in the work force. This makes the prison system, in itself, ineffectual, and the attempts to decrease inmate population similarly pointless.