The Pros And Cons Of Overcrowding 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).

Another current and future issue of concern for prisons and prison administrators stemming from overcrowding is prison violence. Prison researcher Stephen C. Light found that when conditions such as overcrowding worsen. Inmate misconduct often increases (Gaines & Miller, 2008, pp. 340).Prisoners often use violence as a way to show power or to control other inmates. Prison violence is a means of surviving for some inmates who think of violence as a deterrent against victimization or violence to acquire money or sexual favors. The correctional officers also have to resort to violence as a form of discipline or controlling prison gangs and riots.

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 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.

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.

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.

As we all know – there are tons of social issues within the entire world that Criminal Justice Practitioners deal with, most likely, on a daily basis. One of the many social issues I’ve chosen is Prison Overcrowding.

Mortimer Zuckerman, owner and publisher of U.S. News & World Report, where he serves as editor-in-chief wrote “Harsh Sentencing, Overstuffed Prisons--it's Time for Reform”, which he said “Too many people are in prison who should not be there. How many? Most of them! It is not that they are innocent of the offenses that put them there. It is that they are in prison mainly because we have criminalized vast areas for nonviolent offenders and compounded that with a distorted sentencing system.” The federal level, nonviolent offenders account for 90% of prisoners. Federal prisons today house nearly 40% more inmates than they were designed for, most of them repeat offenders. The overcrowding of prisons encourages the prison administration to focus on harsh and inhumane means of discipline to maintain control over the large number of inmates. Prisoners in overcrowded correctional settings interact with more unfamiliar people, under close quarters that offer little or no privacy, where their basic needs are less likely to be addressed or met. Overcrowding in prisons puts inmates under painful stress and reduces the services available to them. I believe that prison overcrowding can be reduced by Proposition 47, which made California the first state to make changes to the status of certain crimes that were once a felony into misdemeanors, including drug possession charges where the drug was solely for personal use, exempting their inclusion from the three-strike law. It would also

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

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.

Evidence shows that overcrowded prison conditions increase crime in these confines, such as inmates attacking guards. Instances like this happen in these unprincipled institutions daily across the United States, making overcrowded prisons dangerous to

Think about spending years locked up behind bars, sitting in a cell with two or three other inmates which was intended for just one person because of a drug possession misdemeanor years earlier. Unfortunately overcrowding in prisons is happening too much around the United States, and many inmates are serving sevier time for nonviolent crimes. Prisons have shortages when it comes to enough room, proper health care, money, and resources to support all inmates. The Bureau of Prisons claimed that institutions nationwide were 39% overcrowded in 2012 and the number is only expected to rise to 45% by 2018. When overcrowding occurs within an institution, the psychological state of an inmate is at serious risk. Stressful situations can cause an increase of depression and anxiety which may not

Although, prison overcrowding causes many dangerous conditions for inmates they also have to deal with the worsening of the prison conditions. According to the article Home Truths in the summer months when inmates are packed into hot, overcrowded, sweltering prisons this could wreak havoc on the inmates and staff. Even with moderate temperatures, ventilation can be a problem because of the great number of people, but it is especially critical when temperatures rise (Cobb 75). Federal court guidelines state that ventilation in all prison housing units should provide each prisoner with a minimum of 60 cubic feet of air per minute, at least one-third of which is outside air (75). Even though there are federal regulations in place for ventilation

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

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.