Prison Overpopulation In Prisons

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).

The overcrowding prison reflects that the inmate population has grown much faster than the funding for prisons, which is controlled at the state level. In most cases, state funding has not come close to keeping up with the rise in the prison population, leading to decrepit prison infrastructure that is wholly inadequate for housing such large numbers of inmates. Without capacity to house inmates properly, some prisons have resorted to having prisoners sleep in gymnasiums, and many have overcrowded cells to accommodate the extra bodies. This overcrowding has led to deteriorating cleanliness of prisons and declining safety. Today, non-violent prisoners are forced to live in close quarters with violent ones, and the results are predictable.

Overcrowding in prisons is causing prisons to shorten inmates recreation and personal time which ultimately results in more violence. Along with overcrowding comes the issue of more taxpayer money being spent on prison guards compensation. Lastly, one of the worst things that happens from prison overcrowding is that the availability to education programs is reduced as their primary focus is dealing with the amount of inmates not their education.

Prison overcrowding is a major problem in our criminal justice system and it continues to be a hotly debated topic as to how we should address the problem. One of the main reasons our prison systems have a problem with overcrowding is drugs. More specifically, the "war on drugs" started by President Reagan in 1982 brought a dramatic increase to the number of people put behind bars for drug offences. Mandatory minimum sentencing and truth in sentencing are two policies which have sent drug offenders to prison and kept them there for longer periods of time. The continuing crusade against drugs has apprehended hundreds of thousands of suspects who spend millions on drugs but the cost to incarcerate these non-violent offenders exceeds billions of dollars and much of that money is coming from the taxpayers ' pockets. One way to address this problem is to reverse the current trend of putting first time, non-violent drug offenders in prison and instead sentence these offenders to boot camp and counselling combined with family support.

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A paramount issue regarding prison populations in America, are the finances associated with running institutions of such magnitude. The cost of operations for any kind of incarceration facility is beyond exorbitant. The public overlooks the expenses of training employees, providing programs for inmates (vocational training, education, etc.), legal and medical assistance for inmates, maintenance and facility upgrades and etc. The funding for all this comes from tax payers at the local, state, and federal levels with assistance from federal programs and Congress. A better explanation is that local and state facilities are paid for by local and state taxes along with federal aid whenever it is attainable. Federal institutions are paid for through

With this being an important year for the 2016 Presidential Candidate elections, positions on certain topics can be the deciding vote for many Americans. Hot topics such as gay rights, immigration reform, and free education are dominating the debates and conversations of these politicians. However, there is one societal issue that is not being addressed enough; the current overpopulation of U.S prisons. Although this may seem like a topic that does not impact the country at large, with prisons overcrowded by almost 40 percent (Hunt, 2011), sentencing reform makes fiscal and humanitarian sense.

In the United States, prison overcrowding is caused by many issues. These include not enough room in prisons, increasing crime rates, and changes in the justice system’s laws. Causes of prison overcrowding may include: double-celling, prisoner misconduct, and psychological problems. By examining prison crowding, it is a problem but it is not known whether or not it will affect inmates. However, there

Overcrowding prisons are an issue that has been influencing the United States prison population for decades, however what is the true significance of overcrowding. As indicated by Jeff Bleich (1989) “the term overcrowding is repetitive, since crowding already refers to a higher level of social density than is desired”. An overcrowded prison is a shocking condition that causes outrage and dissatisfaction among detainees (Haney, 2014). This condition is so undesirable that one can consider it as unconstitutional. An overcrowded prison is commonly recognized as being the fundamental explanation behind appalling misconduct and the expansion of recidivism. According to Wagner and Sakala (2014), United States prison system “hold more than 2.4

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

Prison overcrowding continues to be one several challenges of criminal justice in the United States. Even though many prisons have been built to throughout the country to accommodate the growing numbers of inmates. The most prison overcrowding is a harsh reality in many jurisdictions and in the federal systems. One of the issues is the true definition of the prison capacity. The different types of capacities are rated capacity, operational capacity and design capacity. Rated capacity refers to the size of the inmate population that a facility can handle according to the judgment of experts. Operational capacity is the number of inmates that a facility can effectively accommodate based on an appraisal of the institution's staff, programs, and

When jails and prisons are built, like other buildings, they come with an occupancy limit for good reason. This is for the well-being of everyone in the building, but also, should there be an emergency and the building needs to be evacuated, everyone will be able to get out quickly and safely. If a building is overcrowded, there is a chance that with there being so many extra people in the building, that some people might get trampled, or trapped in the building. When it comes to jails, the number of people allowed to be in them is important because that accounts for the number of beds that are in the jail, as well as the number of resources in the jail for each person to live seemingly comfortable. Having an extra 132 people in a jail that was originally built to only hold 332 is very excessive and cannot be comfortable for anyone in it, nor is it safe for some inmates. Those who suffer from being mentally ill probably face the most issues with it. Being in jail is already the wrong place for anybody with a mental illness to be, but to be there and not have any personal space may trigger some people to act out, especially if that is not something that are used to.

With the 2,220,300 adults incarcerated in US state and federal prisons, prisons are beginning to exceed their capacities (Motavans 1). The ratio of prisoner to prison guard designed safe by the Untied States government is 3:1 for maximum security prisons, 5-10:1 for medium security prisons, and 50:1 for minimum security prisons. However, many federal and state prisons double the exceeded amount (Zuckermann 3). This not only poses a threat to the guards entrusted with maintaining order in the prisons but the prisoners as well. With the surplus of incarcerated criminals, the majority of which are non-violent offenders, sanitation conditions in prisons are declining (Pitts 126). The medical supplies distributed to prisons by the government are closely budgeted and allotted. With the increase of prisoners, the majority non-violent offenders, the medical supplies needed are stretched very thin. Moreover, with the dense overcrowding in prisons the water supply, used for consumption, cooking, cleaning and sanitary reasons e.g. showers, is limited. This not only leads to health concerns but can have an immense impact on inmate moral. The impact of these overcrowding conditions can lead to violence, rioting and even death (Pitts 125). To make matters

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.

Additional effects of prison overcrowding is the security of the prison. With a large population of prisoners, it is difficult to monitor with security checks and counts; the number of prisoners are greater than staff which makes this really difficult to keep track of every inmate. (Putman) The amount of contraband is also large in an overcrowded prison. There is no way to search the prisoners or their cells adequately in order to make sure that there are not illegal items in the prison. Because of this contraband, there is also more violence; prisoners sharpen their toothbrushes, and the prisoners use them as weapons. Inadequate housing results