Solution to Overcrowding in Prison System



Solution to Overcrowding in Prison System

Introduction and Description of the Problem

The overcrowding of prisons has become a serious problem in majority of the prisons in United States. The number of inmates in the prisons is increasing day by day as the result of war on drugs and other initiatives. This has resulted in the overcrowding of the prisons which has led to further problems. The overcrowded prisons makes the inmates potentially more aggressive, increase stress levels amongst the staff, increase the unhygienic conditions and inhumane treatment of the prisoners. In the overcrowded prisons, there is a major chance of contagious diseases to spread amongst the prisoners as well as the staff. It also results in the creating psychological damage to the prisoners. By taking in more inmates than the prison can accommodate results in majority of the prisoners developing patterns of anti-social behavior, panic attacks, increase in stress levels which all results in violence and aggressive behavior.

The implementation of aggressive violence within the premises of prison has worsened the conditions of prison. The prisons are becoming overcrowded, sanitation is not adequate and there is a shortage of staff. For instance, in December 2001, in a prison setting, more than nineteen thousand inmates were being held in prisons that were made for only eight thousand people. The gangs and sub-groups are often able to carry out aggressive activities within the prison bars, due to a lack of safety and security within the prison setting, even with the assistance of corrupted officials (Palmer & Palmer, 2004). This is the reason why there is a strong need to address this problem and come up with effective solutions and strategies to overcome this growing problem.

Background Information

The increase in the number of drug related convictions and mandatory sentencing has led to the continuous growth of prisoners which are held in local, state and federal jails and prisons in the U.S. Though there are some local prisons that are still functioning as per their capacities, the federal and state prisons are very overcrowded. Some of the prisons even accommodate 33 % higher number of prisoners than their required capacity. According to the reports by Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the overall population of the jails and prisons in the U.S has almost reached the mark of 2.1 million last year which indicates the highest increase from year to year in the last four years. The report shows that there has been an increase of 57,600 more prisoners as compared to the stats of last year (Petersilia, 2000). A total number of women and men imprisoned till the end of the last year were 2,078,570 which show the increase in the number of prisoners held by the federal, state and local prisons. Federal and states prisons held about 1,380,776 inmates whilst the country and local municipal prisons held about 691,301 prisoners (Gobert & Cohen, 2001). From last year up till now, the number of federal and state prisoners has increased by ...