Ask any child or adult you encounter, and more than likely they can name a famous criminal who has been sent to prison. For those of us who have never committed a crime, jails and prisons are something we hear or read about, but have never personally experienced. Hit shows like “Lockup” give us a chance to embrace our curiosity of what it is really like to be thrown in jail/prison and be isolated from society. However, TV shows like Lockup have surprised many people because prisons don’t look as frightening as we may think; in fact, it appears the scariest thing about prison is the inmates themselves. This leads many to question whether or not prisons are harsh enough- and therefore effective enough. In this paper, I will uncover all aspects …show more content…
In a web article written by Portland State University, we learn that overcrowding is usually caused by “…harsher penalties for criminal activities, changes to laws…high recidivism rates and needed improvements to the penal system” (“Prison Overcrowding,” n.d.). Prison overcrowding is a serious issue that forces the inmates to double up in a cell and increases the risk of violence (“Prison Overcrowding,” n.d.). Many have tried to come up with a solution plan to prevent overcrowding including the Penal Reform International non-profit organization. They provide several suggestions including reducing sentencing lengths; they write “Prison sentences should be kept as short as possible…” (“Ten-Point Plan,” 2012.). In theory, this would sound like a wonderful idea for inmates- not having to serve as long of a sentence and going home early. However, many prisons are not as scary as they may seem and thus provide us a possible explanation of why so many criminals come back to prison after …show more content…
For this reason, it may not come as a surprise that surveys prove drugs in prison is highly common. The Washington Times (2010) reported that “Roughly 1,000 ‘drug incidents’- seizures of marijuana, heroin, and other drugs- are reported annually at California prisons” (“Drugs Inside Prison Walls”, 2010). This same article raises the question: “how do drugs enter the prison when the prisoners are searched upon arrival?”. Sadly, the Washington Times claims that corrupt officers have played a major role in the rise of drugs in prison (“Drugs Inside Prison Walls”, 2010). In fact, Richard Pillajo, who worked for a Florida state prison, was caught smuggling cocaine and other pills to sell to inmates (“Drugs Inside Prison Walls”, 2010). These findings point to the possibility that inmates may want to return to prison because it is easier to get ahold of drugs. In fact, in 2016 Adam Lusher, journalist for the Independent UK, investigated exactly how accessible drugs are in certain prisons; the title speaks for itself: “The prison where it is ‘easier to get drugs than bedsheets’ (Lusher, 2016). The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, stated “The stark reality is that prisoners told us it was easier to get illegal drugs in the prion than it was to get clothes or sheets” (Lusher, 2016). These findings are lead us to believe that many prisons across the world are
As of today, more than two million people are incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails, placing the United States with the highest incarcerated population in the world (Williams). A development of, approximately, the last forty years, this increase in prison population occurred when lawmakers abandoned rehabilitation and encouraged mandatory prison sentences, succeeding Nixon’s declaration of war on drugs (Western).
The US prison system is famous for its notorious inefficiency. While not being the largest nation in the world, America has the largest prisoner population, surpassing countries such as India, Russia, and China in both inmate population rates and numbers of inmates per 100,000 people. As it stands, there are over 2,100,000 incarcerated prisoners, with over 7 million being supervised as part of their probation period (World Prison Brief, 2015). According to McLaughlin, Pettus-Davis, Brown, Veeh, and Renn (2016), the total burden on the US economy for maintaining the prison system, including the social costs, exceeds 1 trillion dollars a year. US prison population began growing exponentially ever since the adoption of the so-called “War on Drugs” policy, declared by President Nixon in 1971, which was an attempt to curb the flow of drugs flowing into the country through the Mexican border. While this effort proved to be a failure on its own, it also significantly contributed to the increase of prisoner population in the US.
All through history the correctional framework has been seen as the vital method for managing culprits, however its capacity has changed all through time. It has served as a pit for confining suspected lawbreakers, a home for the vagrant, an organization for the crazy, a feared spot of notoriety, quarters for purging and restoration, and a multitude of listed charges. The trials and changes of history have created and molded the foundation that we perceive today. In a matter of seconds, the United States jail populace far surpasses that of some other nation on the planet. The political atmosphere, extreme on wrongdoing approaches, determinate sentencing, and expanding expense of detainment facilities have fundamentally expanded quantities of
“I, Casey Apao hereby certify that this Critical Thinking Scientific Paper is the result of my sole intellectual personal property.”
Prison punishments are not always the answer. A prisoner’s life can be simply depicted and directly related to the
Lastly, a solution to reduce overcrowded prisons is sending fewer people to prison for drug crimes. According to Joanna Woodburn “Approximately 100,000 people are arrested each year”(Woodburn). About half of them are drug offense. People caught with drugs always spend a long sentence and during that sentence they are unable to get the proper help they need, such as treatment programs. Some solutions that could be used is to have drug offenders serve shorter sentences. By having shorter sentences drug offenders can be released and sent to rehabilitation centers. WIth that, cells in prisons will empty at a much faster rate. These are some solution that has been implemented over the years in order to combat the problem of overcrowded prisons.
The number of people held in prison facilities across the world is increasing at a tremendous rate with each passing day. This comprises both the people who have already been sentenced and those that are at the pre-trial stage. The effect of this is an increase in the prison population which leads to the problem of overcrowding (Atabay, 2013).
Romaine, J. (2011, may). California Prison Overcrowding: How’s That ‘War on Drugs’ Working Out?. International Business Times,(), . Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/california-prison-overcrowding-hows-war-drugs-working-out-285805
In America, crime rates are going up and prisoners are being released from prison with a wrong sense of direction resulting in their finding themselves back behind bars within a short period of time after being released for an action that could have been prevented if the proper precautions had been taken. Prisons need to put forth the effort to resolve these issues and make America’s streets secure again. The criminal justice system in prisons is a rising concern in this country that is affecting many and it is time it was improved by reforming the inside of prisons, providing prisoners with more when released, and keeping them under surveillance after release to help ensure they will not return to prison, thus keeping crime at a lower rate.
Prisons are safe guards for the public against those who wish to harm or disrupt the progression of everyday life. Locking up prisoners for violent crimes has been the way of solving most of society’s problems in the twenty-first century, but now the issue of prison overcrowding has taken a toll on the United States Prison System. The range of those being imprisoned varies vastly, from violent crimes, such as murder, to drug addicts and minor crimes, such as petty theft. Is the justice’s system pushing too far in punishing these minor crimes? What about those with drug problems? Could these minor wrongdoings be fixed without prison time? While prisoners need to be punished for their crimes, legislatures need to focus on
"Whether you are a patient, a provider, a business, a health plan, or a taxpayer, it is in our common interest to build a healthcare system that delivers better care, spends healthcare dollars more wisely and results in healthier people. Today's announcement is about improving the quality of care we receive when we are sick, while at the same time spending our healthcare dollars more wisely" (-Sylvia Burwell). Although prisoners have a constitutional right to health care through the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, studies indicate that prisoners access to health care and the quality of that care are usually deficient. Chronic illnesses go untreated, emergencies are ignored, and patients with serious mental illnesses
Have you ever noticed the serious issue of prison overcrowding? Growth of prison inmates over the years. Since the late 1900 's the prisons have been filling rapidly and that has caused a huge problems in the 2000 's. Overcrowding is not as easy of a fix that everyone thinks it is there is way more to it and it is way more complex. There are many reason that the inmate population continues to grow. Throughout the years, there has been a huge debate on ways to lower crime rate so there won 't be as much people becoming inmates. Since the prohibition era, jails and prisons have took a huge jump in there population.There are many reason for these causes and very little is being done. Some of these causes are there are many repeat offenders
One reason for the eminent criminologist John Irwin to venture this project of writing a 380 page book on US prisons is because those over the last quarter of the century the number of prisons in the US has increased almost ten times. “The rate of incarceration zoomed from 100 to over 500 per 100,000. As a result of this expansion and the punitive ideology that underpinned it, hundreds of new prisons were built at a cost in the billions of dollars, and completely new prison regimens were introduced. In this book, I examine the causes of this binge, the new forms of imprisonment it produced, and the particular and broader effects it caused.”(Irwin, 1)
Prison overcrowding has been an increasingly vital issue since the mid-1970s. Due to many different factors that directly relate to confinement such as increased penalization for malefactions, deliberately monitored drug laws, new criminal offenses, and a high recidivism rate, a substantial amount of inmates have been deprived of decent treatment while other ill-mannered demeanor has broken out within the prisons. A few main causes of overcrowding include a substantial increase in returning customers and the effects of the “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law. These two factors play the greatest role in overcrowding as the numbers of inmates have gone on to double and then triple over the years. Overcrowding
Have you ever wondered why are prison systems are as bad as they are? Well that has a lot to do with prison overcrowding, it is a big problem in society today. There are at least 114 countries that the number of prisoners exceeds the official prison capacity. Prisoners are treated like animals in cages because of the number of people they have held in our prison systems. I’ll inform you about prison overcrowding, by talking about the number of prisoners who are parents, and the children that are affected. The poor prison conditions which the prisoners live. Last but not lease I’ll tell you about the things that have been done to reduce the prison population as we speak.