Prison Overcrowding Essay

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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. When we think about it this is one of the main reasons why taxes are sky rocketing out of the roof. Now, the question is, how can the issue of overcrowding prisons in the American correctional system be corrected? Looking at the stats, causes, and effects, of prison population we will determine how overcrowding can be corrected. First let’s take a look at the prison overcrowding statistics. According to the Bureau of justice statistics (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm), in 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year end — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults. About 70 percent of the persons under correctional supervision at year end 2008 were supervised in the community, either on probation or parole, while 30 percent were incarcerated in the nation’s prisons or jails. At year end 2008 a total of 4,270,917 adult men and women were on probation and 828,169 were on parole or mandatory conditional release following a prison term. State and federal prison authorities had jurisdiction over 1,610,446 prisoners at midyear 2008: 1,409,166 in state jurisdiction and 201,280 in federal jurisdiction. Local jails held 785,556 persons awaiting trial or serving a sentence at midyear 2008. An additional 72,852 persons under jail supervision were serving their sentence in the community. This is a very alarming rate! This is something to think

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