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.
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.
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 | | |
"Overcrowding has overtaken the limited resources of prison staff, imposed demands well beyond the capacity of medical and mental heath facilities, and created unsanitary and unsafe conditions that make progress in the provision of care difficult or impossible to achieve." (2) San Quentin State prison isn't the only prison in the United States violating prisoner's rights. Prisoners all across the nation suffer from bugs and vermin, dampness, exposure to hazards, too hot or
Many correctional facilities are operating under hazardous conditions, which include operating past the maxim capacity. According to (Stelloh, 2009). Overcrowding in prison inmate to inmate violence appears to be closely related as well as intolerable living conditions, which contribute too many of problems in prison, which seem to be unconstitutional. The issues of prison overcrowding can be solved in the future by giving judges greater discretion over sentencing and by allowing more prisoners to reduce their sentences through credit for good behavior. The government or the state can built more prisons in order not to have an overcrowded prison.
Overcrowding aggravates the natural conflicts that rely within the prison walls which then escalate violence. When working with criminals on an ongoing basis, it may cause corruption to occur with some of the inmates within the institution that ends up allowing drugs and weapons into the facility degrading it’s performance. The internal environment of a prisons primary influence towards management and custody include the following, the inmate social culture, the prisons physical environment, and prison staff culture. Then the external environment interacts with the internal environment that also influences management and custody by the following, the civil service department, which makes the rules for employees, employee organizations, and unions, which represent their members interests, rehabilitation advocates, such as those sponsoring particular behavioral science, educational, or religious interventions inside the prison. Prison environment changes can be in the rational and economic view, in which material rewards controls are provided in the direction people are in need of it.
People should not be treated like animals for past transgressions. No one person is perfect and everyone is subject to mistakes, and, at times, even breaking the law. Prison overcrowding has been a problem that has burdened the U.S. prison system since its beginning. From my experience of going through basic training for the military, keeping too many individuals confined in small quarters for long periods of time starts to breed aggression, fear, and, ultimately, violence. Also, individual medical and psychological needs tend to be overlooked when an already overwhelmed system is flooded with an influx of people.
Introduction The problem with respect to overcrowding has tremendously affected the different states in the United States of America. Indeed, there are a number of issues that commonly arise as a result of prison overcrowding. These issues include the worsening of conditions in the prisons such as the decline of basic and sanitation services rendered to the inmates, the spread of diseases, increased stress levels amongst the members of the staff and the inmates as well and finally, the increased risk of violence and riots occurring within the different correctional institutions. The most important issue, however, pertains to the fact that prison overcrowding violates the right of the inmates against unreasonable punishment. It is in this respect that a number of solutions have been proposed to address the problem.
There is also evidenced failure in the government’s efforts in enforcing safety standards. This is one example indicating the constraints of the law in its timely and effective response to serious safety hazards in the workplace for the less fortunate in society (Reiman, 1979). Although these issues are evidenced in every life, they are rarely responded since attaining the results through the set out legal system requires professionalism, skills, resources and influencing in the effort of identifying a loop-hole in the system and in the process oppress the poor even more. Since poor people cannot access any of the above, they often get to suffer for crimes they did not commit. The article further alludes to racial prejudices in the judiciary system citing
Why are prisons bursting at the seams? According to Joe Romaine of the International Business Times, it is because of America’s “insane drug laws,” which are doing more harm than good (Romaine). Many people may argue that drug offenders are getting what’s coming to them— they broke the law, and therefore it is part of their consequence to suffer through the overcrowded “cruel and unusual” incarceration. Individuals who argue this point are mistaken because although criminals should indeed receive punishment for their actions, there comes a time when a line of propriety is crossed. The ‘war on drugs’ has become a harsh and unnecessary measure that frankly costs American taxpayers far too much money.