Prison Overcrowding And The United States

Since 1985, the Jail Populations have nearly tripled with the top 3 States that exceed incarceration rates being Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. Unfortunately, some jails face overcrowding everyday, and are forced to resort to denying prisoners or finding alternative means to reduce the number of prisoners. It is reported that most of the overcrowding occurs in urban jails (e.g. The Tombs in NYC, the Cook County Jail in Chicago, the Los Angeles County Jail and the Old District of Columbia Jail) (Siegel & Bartillo, 2014).

Prison overcrowding has become a serious problem within the United States. Despite the fact that the nation has opened or expanded almost three-hundred prisons in less than seven years, the average prison space available for inmates has dropped by over ten percent. Prison overcrowding has gotten worse. Especially as crime has become more violent. And drug related crimes have more often resulted in confinement.(Allen, Simonsen, Latessa 169) The overcrowding within the prisons has caused safety hazards and hazardous living conditions for the prisoners. Two different groups, such as Tough-Sentencing Supporters and Opponents are taking action to solve these problems at hand. Tough Sentencing Supporters say more prisons are needed to be built

Is keeping inmates by the hundreds in prison cafeterias instead of cells becoming the norm? This is what a documentary, Life In Prison: The Cost of Punishment, asks. It explores the lives of incarcerated peoples in three California state prisons, portraying the dire consequences of prison overcrowding. As of 2013, the total prison population in the United States was 2,217,000. This is nearly five times the total of 1980, 503,586. The United States has the largest number of incarcerated people in the world, and more than the next two countries combined (China and Russia). Its rate of incarceration is 698 per each 100,000. The issue of overcrowding in jails and prisons has become a growing problem nationally since the early 2000’s. It relates to the policy areas of Corrections and the Criminal Justice system, two very complex subjects. The criminal justice system has two distinct parts: federal and state, which only exacerbates the difficulty of addressing prison overcrowding. Here we will look at and try to understand the causes and effects of the overcrowding issue, as well as analyze what possible solutions are already out there. We will show that prison overcrowding is caused by ‘tough on crime’ policies as well as a shift in corrections models, combining many solutions, will allow this issue to be controlled.

A major issue in the United States corrections system is the over-crowding of are prisons. The United States Prison System and department of corrections have become an everlasting part of our justice system, but for various reasons confinement may be causing more harm than good. More and more Americans are being thrown in prison without any signs of being rehabilitated which is causing prisons across the United States to become over-crowded. According to Etienne Benson an assistant Professor. Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. M.A. Stanford University. A.B. Harvard University; at one point the main focus of incarceration was to rehabilitate, programs were put in place to ensure that prisons gain certain skills to recover and become a productive member of society. However, the United States has taken a step back due to tougher punishments on crimes committed. Prisoners must be treated fairly with dignity and respect help them rehabilitate and get them out of the criminal justice system. Although most

Over 2.4 million people call a state prison, federal prison, or local jail their home ( Prison Overcrowding). Not only are citizens frightened about the over populated prisons, but also the prisoners who have to live there for a period of time. Overcrowded prisons produce an amount of stress and physical problems to the

The purpose of this assignment is to take a look at an existing issue within the American criminal justice system which is prison overcrowding and its effects. Imprisonment is the primary means of punishment in American society for crimes (Ross, 2010; Verro, 2010). In fact, the incarceration rate in America surpasses several other developed nations, due to having over two million inmates presently serving time in prison (Brazell, Crayton, Mukamal, Solomon, and Lindahl, 2009; Vacca, 2004). The American criminal justice system was developed on the foundation of providing both positive and negative objectives in dealing with the criminal population. From history, it is known that previous concepts and procedures were based on English styles. However, with the rapid construction of penitentiaries and other facilities, it was soon discovered that the approach practiced in England was proven to be ineffective in dealing overcrowding and other issues in America.

The United States imprisons more people than any other nation in the world to make the country a safer place to live in. For example, California’s “three strikes” this law is for repeat offenders and that they are mandatory to be sentenced after three times of committing crime, and New York adopted the “Broken Windows” strategy that an arrest and prosecution are mandatory for all crimes major and minor (ALEC). Overcrowded prisons are a major problem that have been afflicting the United States for quite a few decades now. The cause for the overcrowding in the US prisons is uncertain, however there are a lot of conjecture based on researches that have been done and believes of comparison from the past to be causing the overcrowding. Overcrowding

Prison overcrowding is one of America's most serious criminal justice issues. The problem is because of insufficient jail and prison space, for which the solution is to build more

In conclusion, taxpayers in the community should not have to spend more money to help build bigger prisons, especially since there are other solutions to prison overcrowding that are positively effective for both the inmates and the taxpayers. The paragraphs above provide information on ways to reduce prison overcrowding as well as saving the taxpayer’s money. So far, solutions other than building bigger prisons have proven to be successful. With the introduction of privatizing some of the state’s prisons and the constant usage of educational and drug addiction programs, the problem of prison overcrowding will gradually

This paper will discuss prison overcrowding and what type of numbers have come about over the years when it comes to inmates being imprisoned. It will discuss the cost of a prisoner annually as well as the decision to add verses build when it comes to new facilities. The overcrowding in one particular prison will be touched on as well as whose responsibility it is for upkeep. It will discuss how funding plays a role in overcrowding as well as the “three strikes” rule in California and how big of an impact it has made on the prison system. Lastly, society’s choice to vote will be touched on as how large of a determining factor it is in overcrowding prisons.

Growing up we know that a prison is a place where bad people that committed crime goes to. Throughout the year’s prisons start to be overcrowded, underfund and crimes rate being off the charts. How do we fix? I believe it can be fixed if we shorter sentence and rehabilitate the prisoner. Most prisoner growing up not having some kind of education and some prison don’t have the fund to give them a chance to have one. Officers should be more aware of the situation happening in their prison. These are some of the reason we need to address in our prison system.

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).

Many people have come up with different ideas as to what can be done to stop prison overcrowding. One solution is that we could just, “build more prisons.” This, however, only creates a temporary solution for a seemingly permanent problem. Once more criminals are convicted, over time, that prison will be overcrowded as well. The more prisons we build, the more we pay in taxes.

Eric Holder’s article describes how America has an unnecessarily large prison population. Eric Holder, Barack Obama’s attorney-general, argues that our nation’s prison system is “both ineffective and unsustainable”. Most of the nation’s prisons have reached capacity because “low-level, non-violent” drug suspects are being imprisoned. The author includes pictures to support his argument. This article will help me argue that refraining from imprisoning petty offenders can help solve the prison overcrowding issue in the United States.

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