Prisons Are Overcrowded With Inmates

There are two types of institutions in the United States, that is private and government ran institutions. The privately ran institutions are paid for from the states government and commonly a lower cost to the state. The down side however, is that these facilities can choose who comes in as an inmate or employee. The state ran facilities are a little more expensive than privately run facilities.

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).

The probation office has also reaped the rewards of halfway houses. Inmates that are released from prison, they will usually be required to have supervision by a probation officer. In the past when a felon violated a condition of their probation, there were very few ways to punish that person, and those punishments usually

An option for Community Based treatment can be unpaid community service, which offers them an opportunity to pay back the communities they have victimized and offended. In addition to the community work, “Community work can help offenders make a fresh start in life. Offenders given work opportunities and skills are less likely to reoffend and many projects incorporate accredited training. Community work can increase offenders’ self-esteem and well-being and give their lives new purpose and direction” (Corrections, Prisons & Parole). As they work on themselves and pay their debt to society, they improve the environment in the communities and they free money in the budgets that are in place to pay for these services. When less money is spent on cleanup efforts, it leaves room for improvement in other social

Community corrections have more advantages over incarceration and fewer disadvantages. Incarcerating people isn’t working that well and the biggest reason is the overcrowding of prisons. According to a chart in Schmalleger’s book, “prisoners compared vs. capacity” there has been overcrowding of prisons since 1980. We are putting more people in prisons than how much capacity they can actually hold. Not

According to McCollister, French, Inciardi, et al (2003) it is more cost effective to provide treatment rather than incarceration. One full year of treatment costs approximately $4,700 and one year of incarceration costs approximately $18,400. According to Alexander (2010) it has become lucrative for business to invest in prison labour. Resulting in free labour. This is a separate issue within itself which speaks more toward the racialization of the prison system in which there are more blacks in prison now then there were slaves at the heart of slavery. However, they have been criminalized to the degree that their incarceration is believed to be deserved even if it is for using drugs verses dealing drugs. There is no viewed difference. For example, during an interview at the Office of the Federal Public Defenders office, an inmate revealed they were putting together sophisticated computer technology for companies like Apple. This example alone provides a foundational knowledge that people that are incarcerated, have marketable skills for life outside of prison. Re-entry Training is vital to the inmates getting out of prison to get out of the revolving door and staying out of prison. Providing assistance to help a person establish and reach short term and long-term goals, is essential in ensuring that the people do not feel left

When the term corrections is mentioned, the thought of incarceration is the first to come to mind. This is the case for as of the end of 2013, there were 1,574,700 people serving time in state and federal penitentiaries (Carson, 2014, p.1). This alarming number gives reason for the need of alternatives to incarceration. Avoiding imprisonment does not translate to a lenient punitive sentence for the alternatives can just as easily repair harms to the victims, provide benefits to the community, treat the drug addicted, and rehabilitate offenders (FAMM, 2013, p.1). The use of programs that offer an alternative to incarceration can reduce the amount of people in the prison system that is living on taxpayers’ dollars.

There are over two million offenders incarcerated in the United States creating a strain on correctional institutions (Williams, 2014). The costs of incarcerating the full seven million offenders alone would deplete budget allowances into the red. The annual costs for one incarcerated offender is over thirty thousand dollars. The math is incomprehensible, housing over seven million offenders annually would require a budget of over two hundred billion dollars just for incarceration. In some cases, the costs are even higher, as noted from the text, in a maximum-security prison the costs could exceed one hound thousand dollars a year (Latessa & Smith, 2011).

Furthermore, with respects to monetary resources and cost-effectiveness, juvenile drug court is significantly less expensive than detention. When a juvenile is sentenced to a confinement facility, the cost could be anywhere from $32,000 to $65,000 per person. This is an enormous gap in cost, which can be attributed to the increased expenses that are related to potential detention expenditures. To further explain, a study in New York states that detaining a juvenile in a facility is fifteen times more expensive than any alternative, such as juvenile drug court. According to Gaudio (2010), “The Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that for every dollar spent on county juvenile detention systems, there was only $1.98 of “benefits” in terms of reduced crime and costs of crime to taxpayers. Diversion and mentoring programs, on the other hand, produced $3.36 of benefits for every dollar spent, aggression replacement training produced $10.00 of benefits, and multi-systemic therapy produced $13.00 of benefits (p. 7).”

Prisoners do not pay for their incarceration – the state and federal government does. The American tax payers pay for housing, food, clothing in both state and federal as well as private prisons, and supervision of these mostly non-violent drug offenders, both inside and outside prison. The tax payer provides the funds for local, state, and federal law enforcement to run their stings, and train their drug dogs and sting operatives, except in the off chance that they intercept a large amount of drug money, or take possession of larger drug dealers properties and vehicles bought with drug money, but rarely are these items sold at value. The burden to pay falls on the state and you, the tax payer, and the state is running out of money to spend on incarcerating an ever growing number of non-violent, drug related prisoners. (McVay, D., Schiraldi, V., & Zeidenburg, J., 2004)

If we are going to seriously consider an alternative solution to the financially murderous process of our current drug policies, one must take fiscal responsibility into consideration. A California governmental study showed that taxpayers save $7 for every $1 invested in drug treatment. The state's impartial Legislative Analyst says Proposition 36 can save California hundreds of millions of dollars a year, even after spending $120 million annually on treatment programs. In comparison, "The average cost to the taxpayer of California per inmate, per year is $23, 406." (Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997.) "The average cost of a full treatment program per client is $4,300." (National Treatment Evaluation Study, Center for Substance Abuse, 1997.) Beyond these statistics, "Currently, only 12% of the overall parole system budget is spent reintegrating paroles back into society." (Legislative Analyst's Office, Analysis of the '98-'99 Budget Bill, 2000.)

Jails depend on three main resources for operation which include the public, the local government, and the sheriff. Within the local power structure jails must compete for scarce resources with schools, hospitals, parks and other more popular facilities (Mays and Thompson, 1991). Prisons are maintained by the states or the federal government. Running a prison can be costly, so the logic behind prison fees is that

UCLA Drug Abuse Researcher M. Douglas Anglin said drug offender sent from correctional system into treatment saves a little more than 2,300 dollars per offender.

Prison overcrowding is one of the most burdensome problems plaguing our criminal justice system, but privatization is not the answer. The federal prison population increased by almost 800 percent between 1980 and 2013. (Pelaez, 2016).This is a much faster rate than the most state prisons could accommodate in their own facilities. In an effort to manage the rising prison population, many states began contracting with privately operated correctional institutions to house inmates. There are patterns of abuse, especially against the mentally ill in prisons operated by for-profit companies such as the Corrections Corporations of America also known as "CCA". Many of these for profit corporations have been accused of providing abysmal care to prisoners.

The cost of drug rehabilitation, when compared to the costs of incarceration, is the more economical choice. In some cases, the addict is held responsible for the cost of their own treatment program if they are able. In the case they could not pay, the cost to the taxpayers is roughly only one quarter the cost of jailing them for a year. For example, in California “a year in [jail] costs $23,000 per inmate, compared with a $3,000