Rethink Of Prison Overcrowding

The U.S. prison system is one of many great controversies when compared to other correctional systems. America’s prison population has increased by 700% (2.4 million current inmates) since the start of the war on drugs in 1971. As a result of this “war”, people that fall into the racial minority have suffered as a direct consequence of unjust legislation. Our prison system is known for its overrepresentation of minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics. This unfortunately gives these groups of people a perennial negative stigma as a result. I argue that the U.S. prison industrial-complex emphatically displays signs of prejudice and racism and disproportionately incarcerates people of color at a rate higher than whites. Yes, there are skeptics who think “the left’s prison-complex” is wrong about their theory of mass incarceration but the statistical data and concrete facts in support of my argument are very compelling.

Prison overcrowding has been seen as a small issue in the eyes of big news organization however the problem may be breaking through your door soon enough. Many citizens have pushed several proposals on how to solve this problem but the state and federal government have denied all of these responses and have instead either freed criminals or have kept them as they were. Those who try and tackle problems like these often give up due to the fact that even more time and money may be needed to solve their wasteful solutions. Incentive programs such as work release and community service have only blinded law abiding citizens from the truth, that the government will not due what is necessary to de-escalate overcrowding in prisons.

The United States prison system is having a terrible time. In 2000 the US inmate population reached a record of two million. which means that 1 person in 140 in the United States was imprisoned. Over the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of inmates tripled, and the United States locked up mor people per capita than almost any other country, almost tying up with Russia for this dubious distinction. Incarceration rates are six times those of Briton and 17 time those of Japan. The rising numbers have made prisons a growth industry, California builds a new prison every year to keep up with the demand. The burden of imprisonment falls disproportionately on racial minorities. In California for example, a young black man is 5 times as likely

The Unites States of America’s prison system is a flawed mess. To open the eyes of our government we must first take a stand against unlawful government decisions, and show support for the greater good of society. What are our own tax-dollars paying for, what are the flaws in the justice/prison system, why is overcrowding in prisons causing tension, and what are ways our society and government can rebuild the system that has been destroyed over the years? Most criminals in prisons are not a danger to our society because they commit crimes just to use jail as a shelter, causing the overcrowding of prisons and wasting away of what we really should be paying for.

On the other hand, with this social issue comes a lack of public support. However, with the public being unaware of thy social problems that are occurring in our countries prisons. Many citizens consider that all crimes deserve punishment and that punishment means prison. With the inadequate educational efforts people assume the law and order aspects of the criminal justice in Canada is being attended to properly (CCJA). For example, when Canadians hear a proposal to increase taxes, everyone panics and doesn’t see why they should. People are unaware that the increase in taxes could possible help many Canadians in prison who human rights are being violated against. All things considered, overpopulated prisons are a social problem that should

    African Americans make up almost 15% of the population in the United States, yet they make up 40% of the population of incarcerated individuals. This is only one of several features that produces the corruption and failure of our system of punishment. According to a survey conducted in Grand Rapids, out of 25 people surveyed 20 of them knew someone who had been incarcerated (Poeder). One of the people surveyed that also was incarcerated themselves, replied that the system was “setup to fail” (Poeder). The United States has only about 5% of the population of the world yet we have a quarter of the world's ratio of people in cages. During this essay I will prove that our system of imprisonment is a disturbing, silent

Due to the “war on drugs”, prison overcrowding is becoming more and more of an issue, putting a strain on not just the law enforcement but our society as well. America has been implementing a “war on drugs” policy since the early nineteen – seventies. Since the creating of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 1973 under Richard Nixon, then the Office of National Drug Control Policy under Ronald Reagan in 1988, the United States has found themselves in an endless war and in constant debt huge amounts of money.

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).

Due to budget crises in states across the United States of America, state governments must cut funding to their punishment facilities causing overcrowding in prisons to increase every day. Overcrowded prisons pose a potential breeding ground for crime as hundreds of inmates are squeezed into small accommodations. Thousands of low-level offenders receive jail sentences each day, these criminals make up about a third of the inmates in the United States. In the words of Republican Governor Mitch Daniels of India, in the conservative National Review magazine, “We are imprisoning, in our most expensive spaces, more people for relatively minor, nonviolent offenses, like low-level property and drug violations. Some of our guests are not with the state corrections system long enough for any rehabilitation, substance-abuse counseling or job training to take place” (Katel). Evidently attention and change to this neglected criminal punishment system need to be addressed. This issue remains a troubling problem in our country, state governments offer the best possible solutions to prison overcrowding such as directing local officials to perform and improve prison construction, rethinking criminal law and responding to budgetary concerns.

According to Incarceration Nation (2014) “The United States holds only 5% of the world’s population and has nearly 25% of its prisoners at about 2.2 million people”. This becomes an issue of space there are currently 1,518,559 federal and state prisons in the United States of America and only 192 correctional facilities across Canada as of 2006. According to the Bureau of Justice (2013) the Indiana State Prison facilities were created to house 32,075 inmates but at the end of 2013 they were holding upward of 48,653 inmates this is 16,578 more than what the system is supposed to hold. This intern creates a large amount of double celling which by law prisoners are supposed to get allocated a certain amount of space thus increasing the amount of issues that overcrowding is causing. Take for instance Tillery V Owens a case handled by the Pennsylvania Court of Appeals. They found that double celling violated the 8th Amendment under a “totality of conditions” analysis was the overall prison conditions consisted of dilapidated, overcrowded and unsanitary prison condition. So this becomes the biggest issue with overcrowding the prisons are becoming unsuitable for criminals to stay in but they have to serve their

Today, in America, some prisoners are living worse than some third world countries are for little crimes such as thief. Overcrowded prisons can literally be defined as placing more prisoners in a prison facility than the prison was built to maintain. Every prison has a recommended capacity for which they are to hold prisoners, since there is such an increase in offenders going to prison, these capacities are being ignored and the population of these prisons are significantly increased, making them overcrowded. Too many prisoners and not enough room. This country needs to spend more money to build new prisons. New prisons cost too much to build. There are more prisoners than the guards can control safely. Because of overcrowding some state prisons are sends their inmates down to local prisons. Some prison inmates are sleeping in hallways, storage rooms and even lavatories. Due to overcrowding some prisons are producing conditions so unhealthy it is against the constitution. Because the new prisons won’t be built for a while some prisons are doing the only thing they can, freeing inmates early. Another reason for overcrowding is that more people are going to jail for smaller, less offensive crimes. Because the number of people in prison, the educational programs are limited. Before the inmate was placed near his or her program but now they are placed where ever there is a bed. Some prisons are placing inmate wherever there can. Some prisoners need special education that is not

The United States holds more people in jails than any other country in the world. Welson suggest that it is beginning of 1970s when number of political and economic factors gave rise to prison growth. The criminal justice system make incarceration as a default solution to any criminal problem. Economic inequality gap, fears of crime, political fear regarding drugs and backslash against the gains of the civil rights movement were some of contributing factors towards increase in incarceration during 1970. The Prison overcrowding could be caused by variety of issues such tough crime laws, changing crime rate, changes to laws and improvement to law tactics. No matter what the causes could be there are some possible ways it can be reduced. These are changing mandatory sentencing laws with more flexible ones, encourage full employment a domestic policy and finally provide motivations for employers to hire ex-convicts.

Prisons today are pushed to their limits, both state, and federal prisons. Inmates are forced to live in unsanitary, unhealthy, unsafe, and poor conditions. Men and woman should not be made to sleep on floors, sleep in tents outside, or fight for a spot in a long line to shower. This issue needs to be addressed, and some states have proceeded to do so and have had great results.

There are many different types of people in prison. This includes race, religion, age, and nonviolent and violent inmates. “People who break the law are not all alike. They are an enormously diverse group of human beings.” says a sheriff at a prison in Illinois. Black individuals are imprisoned nearly six times the amount of white individuals. Latinos are two times the white rate. 13% of the U.S. population is black, 14% of the black populations are drug users, and 37% of the black prison population are in for drug use. (Wilson pg. 1 par. 9) Prison is full of many racists and black and white individuals are put in the same cell. Because of the higher black population in prison, if a fight breaks out between races, the odds are always in the black peoples favor. Also, prisons routinely put violent and nonviolent inmates together. This puts the nonviolent inmate in danger. Lastly, age differences have become an issue. When inmates of different ages, six years or more, are placed in the same cell, a fight is ten times more likely to happen. (Harris pg. 2)

In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). “One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world” (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the