The Consequences Of Prison Overcrowding

More than two million people in the united states are in jail. (Does the U.S.) The united states holds about 25 percent of the worlds prisoners. That has caused overcrowding and money issues within the united states. From 1920 to 2012 the prison population increased from 170,000 to 1.5 million prisoners. That causes prisoner reform that supporters and critics are disagreeing about. (Tough on crime) The topic of prisoner reform has been debated for years now; there will always be supporters and critics who continues to debate this topic.

Overcrowding in our state and federal jails today has become a big issue. Back in the 20th century, prison rates in the U.S

America has a major problem with overcrowding in its prisons, and action needs to be taken. Since 1970, the inmate population in the United States has increased over 700%, far greater than the general population as a whole. This has led to declining quality of life within the prison system including 8th Amendment violations and it represents a needless drain on state finances. There is simply no value in keeping non-violent convicts in the prison system, sometimes for years. The costs are high, and there is very little benefit to America. The justice system needs to be overhauled to relieve the massive crowding in US prisons.

Have you ever been to prison before? Unfortunately it is not uncommon for many people in the United States to end up in prison at any given time in their life. Chances are, if you have not been to prison you know somebody that has been imprisoned, as America has the highest rate of incarceration in the whole world. Although America’s population only accounts for 5% of the world's population, we have the highest prison rate at 25% of the whole world’s incarcerated population (Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2015). Why do we continue to see these prisons overcrowded, and how exactly does this affect the inmates?

The United States of America has more people incarcerated than any other country on earth, a whopping 2,220,300 adults are currently locked behind bars. We have 500,000 more citizens locked up than China, a country 5 times our population run by an authoritarian government. From 1990 - 2000 the prison population increased by 1,000,000. The main reason for incarceration as a punishment in this country is rehabilitation, or so we have been told. In recent years an industry has developed that revolves around high incarceration rates and lengthy sentences, needless to say business is booming. The for-profit prison industry now makes millions off the backs of American inmates their families and every American taxpayer. The two largest

In 1996, Arthur Wallenstein reported that between 1995 and1996 the prison population had a 4.2% increase from 486,474 to 507,044. Overpopulation in prisons has caused many problems for the government since the 1700's. The entire prison system in twelve states is under court orders concerning the overcrowding of their penal system. The imprisonment rates his three to four times greater than some European countries. In 1994 alone, Kupers reports that there were over one million prisoners in America. Some prisons have dealt with this problem by turning gyms and recreational rooms into make shift dormitories. Problems with this include the terrible noise that echoed through the rooms, the inability to sufficiently clean the lack of privacy and the loss of facilities used to accommodate the excessive prisoners. In a New York prison had a population of 7,921, exceeding the limit by 88% according to Barbara A. Nadel's report done in 1996. In 1997, Johnson, Bennett, and Flanagan have reported that the prison rate in America has more than quadrupled since

For many decades the prison population in America has been increasing at an exponential rate. This has been attributed to several compiling factors. The majority of the consensus is that a combination of the war on drugs and the increased need for revenue to support the industrial prison complex/job/contracts has been to blame. Research tends to show that as more low level crimes have been assigned blanket sentencing, the disproportionate amount of non violent offenders have been imprisoned to a point where we jail more people per population than any other modern industrialized country on Earth.

The United State’s prison system was initially designed to punish and rehabilitate individuals whom were convicted of a felony or other serious offense. Inmates are sentenced for a certain amount of time, or the entirety of their life based on how serious of a crime that person has committed. The Idea of imprisoning a person as a form of punishment dates back to medieval times however, it wasn’t until right before the American Revolution humane prisons started appearing in this country. Today, prisons are more populated than they have ever been and are functioning not only as a place to reform people’s morals, but also as a highly profitable investment for the wealthy to exploit. The Prison system is so devoted to making

The United States is a country of inmates. With over 2.3 million Americans behind bars, it equates to almost one in every 100 Americans (Hunt, 2011). The United States makes up a little more than four percent of the world’s population. However, America has more inmates than the thirty five leading European countries combined. In 2013, the U.S. admitted 9,000 more sentenced prisoners than they released that year. (Carson, 2014). The U.S prison population has more than doubled over the last fifteen years, causing an extreme overpopulation and financial burden without any immediate solutions.

The Department of Justice breaks crime reductions down into three basic principles: punishment, corrections, and deterrents. Citizens in the United States tend to think of prison inmates as being segregated from society. There are walls with barb wire, and guards in towers with firearms in between inmates and civilization. Millions of prisoners are released each year, so today 's prisoners could be tomorrow 's neighbors so wouldn’t you agree that corrections should be the focus of the America 's prison system. Unfortunately, rehabilitation or corrections are not the focus and the United States focuses primarily on punishment.

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

The United States prison system is an institution which has undergone dramatic changes in its history, from being a short detention center between a criminal and their true punishment, to what was thought to be a place for wayward souls to be rehabilitated through isolation, hard work, and religious repentance so they could reenter society without committing crimes again, to a place of overcrowded conditions, corruption, and prisoner abuse that existed solely for the sake of punishment. Since the prison system reached that point, there have been numerous attempted reforms of the system, and while they all ultimately failed at their goal of completely overhauling the system, they have all at least partly contributed to what we see in the United

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

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.

Prison overcrowding occurs when the number of inmates incarcerated exceeds the capacity in that system. In the United States, this has become problematic, especially in state prisons. Criminal behavior and a variety of policies cause prison overcrowding, and it harms personnel, inmates, and taxpayers.