Final Paper Justin C Lee SOC305 Crime and Society Prof. Ekaterina Gorislavsky October 10, 2014 Overpopulation of our Prisons Prison overcrowding has become a very serious issue within the United States. Throughout the years numbers have grown at an alarming rate and each day our prisons become more and more unstable. Rates are growing for a number of reasons. More people are becoming incarcerated because of changes and improvements to the laws as well as the increase in law enforcement tactics to take crime off the streets. With these improvements comes the fact that our prisons are too small for the amount of people that are being put in jail, this includes county, state, as well as federal.
Jennifer Walls Prison Overcrowdings One of the biggest issues facing the American correctional system is prison overcrowdings. Prisons all over the America have become so overcrowded that it’s affecting many. A lot of people think that overcrowded prisons affect the inmates, the guards and the system. Those are many that are affected by the overcrowdings, but this is not all. Little known, overcrowding of prisons affect the American people, our economy and our lives.
The enormous growth in the national prison population has intensified the problems presented by the needs of mentally ill inmates. A report released by Human Rights Watch late last year—“Ill-Equipped: U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness”—examines in depth the situation of the adult mentally ill in state and federal prisons. The report is long and well-researched, blending material from legal documents, court records, academic studies, site visits, interviews and letters. Originally established in the 1970s to monitor compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords, Human Rights Watch has developed into a more broadly focused international observer of government policies and practices affecting human rights
The "three strikes" laws have filled up the nation's jails with people guilty of relatively minor offenses, causing overcrowding and frustration. In addition, the vigilante mood that overtook the country on 9/11 has led
Throughout most of the twentieth century, the dominant philosophies have been incapacitation, deterrence, and retribution. Prison overcrowding is one of the major global issues that we are facing today. Overcrowding is a major problem in the United States; however some countries have it worse than what we see, for example, Australia, Russia, Brazil, and most Asian countries see overcrowded prisons as a problematic issue. Housing more inmates in a cell than what it is designed for is common in the United States and anywhere else overcrowding is present. The average prison cell built today is at least 70 square feet, but only about 60 square feet are usable, resulting in only about 30 square feet of available space per prisoner if double celled (bop.gov) Since overcrowding is a major issue facing today’s prisons, it is sad to see that California’s prisons have the most overcrowded conditions, conditions so bad that it has been deemed a violation of the prisoners Eighth Amendment Right (the right against cruel and unusual punishment) To combat this problem, the Unites States Supreme Court has issued release of California inmates, in order to control the issue of overcrowding.
Sykes argues that institutional aggression is a result of the environment, and that it is occurs within prison institutions because they experience deprivation on a daily basis. These include deprivation of liberty, where the prisoners are deprived of their freedom, deprivation of autonomy, where the prisoners are deprived of their independence by constantly being controlled by officers and loss of security, where many of the prisoners feel insecure of themselves. This is then supported by Sykes who found that the potential threat to personal security increased the anxiety levels in inmates, even if the majority of prisoners were not a threat to them. However, inmates may cope with these struggles in a number of ways, including some prisoners isolating themselves in their cells, whereas others choose to rebel by being violent towards staff. A study supporting the deprivation model was carried out by McCorkle et al who found that overcrowding, lack of privacy and lack of meaningful activities leads to peer violence which shows that the environment and place, could be a significant factor influencing aggression within prisoners.
PRISON OVERCROWDING Julissa Bautista Bryant Stratton College CRJU105 Corrections- M. Sullivan Date: 3/2/2015 The United States is considered to have the highest incarceration rate in the world holding roughly millions people and the overcrowding of the inmates has become a major problem for the prison system. With the overcrowding in the prison the inmates have less to go around. Another effect the prisoners have with the increased population in the prisons is that it leads to illness and suffering. Prisoners who are in situations of over crowdedness there tend to be more aggression and competition for resources with less cooperation and more social withdrawal. Prison overcrowding is becoming a major financial and controversial problem in the United
Some prison overcrowding may exaggerate harsh and unpleasant conditions to the extent that they have become unconstitutional. One inmate claimed he was being subject to “cruel and unusual punishment due to overcrowding, excessive noise, inadequate heating and cooling, improper ventilation, unclean and insufficient restrooms, unsanitary dining facilities, etc” (Gaes). There have been numerous cases that have gone to the supreme court about prison facilities and their over crowdedness. Court orders have already forced the cutting loose of violent detainees awaiting trials or serving sentences in jails (Lauder). |Table 1 | |Cross-jurisdictional Comparison of Rates of Double-Bunking in Cells | | |
This enormous population has created severe prison overcrowding as well as an ever increasing financial burden on federal, state, and local governments. Furthermore, security, housing, and providing healthcare for such a large population has placed a substantial burden on correctional personnel and prison administrators as well (Bureau of Justice Assistance [BJA], 2001). The increasing demand for more prison space and prison facilities, while governments attempt to reduce correctional funding has sparked a crisis within the criminal justice system. As the corrections system began to take on public criticism in the early 1980’s, policy makers were looking for solutions and one such solution was to privatize state and local prisons. With promises to provide additional facilities, more secure facilities, more jobs and better jobs while reducing government spending, privatization looked as though it might be a viable solution.
Correctional Overcrowding in Indiana Indiana’s correctional facilities are extremely overcrowded. It’s not just the prisons either, it’s the county jails and work release centers as well. The population in these facilities has been growing for years while being ignored by the government. While there are many reasons for the increase in prisoners, recidivism is most likely the biggest reason. Unnecessary confinement is another big reason for the overcrowding.