Overcrowding in Prisons and Possible Solutions
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OVERCROWDING IN PRISONS/JAILS
Introduction
There is a growing concern over the state of our prisons. The question being asked if prisons are really places where delinquents transform, why are the numbers increasing instead of reducing? Is it that crime rate is rising as days go by? Do we have prison mongers? There are more questions than answers concerning this issue.
The aim of this paper therefore is to find out the reasons for prisons overcrowding and possible remedies to this. Richardson of Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition (SHaRC) says this about overcrowding in prisons, “In 2004 the united states surpassed Russia in incarceration rates to become the world leader. With 2.2 million inside and upwards of 7 million either on parole, probation or awaiting trial, 1 in every 33 people in the US is now under state control or the number is growing.” His question is, “If incarceration worked, wouldn’t we see the numbers going down?”
The state of prisons/jails
An article about Alabama state of prisons states that the United States imprisons more people than any other nation in the world. The article says that a report by Pew Center on the States indicates that in the year 2008 one in every one hundred adults in the US was living behind bars. They argue that this rising numbers is a result of America trying to “incarcerate our way” out of crime.
Reports project an increase of 13% of the prison population in the US by the year 2011. This is expected to cost taxpayers around $27.5 billion. The report adds that in the same time, 4 million people will be on probation or parole. Away from the states, BBC reports in Scotland also points to the same problem, overcrowded jails. David Strang while inspecting the prisons in the country reported that one of the prisons was holding 23 more prisoners than the capacity of 103. According to his report, the prison was built more than 100 years ago and was famed as the most overcrowded prison in Scotland. As a result, the Scotland government was in the process of building more prisons. MrStrang said a time for change for Scottish Prison Service had come.
Mangino (2012), reports that more than 6.6 million people are in prison, jails or under community supervision. He says that incarceration costs taxpayers $65 billion every year. This according to him has forced legislators to think critically on crime.
Madison times reported that the population in prisons grew by 9.5 percent outranking the growth in infrastructure, which was estimated to be 7 percent. Harley Lappin, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons told the US Sentencing Commission in 2011 that the severe crowding had resulted in double or triple bunking inmates. This implies that the prison infrastructure was far much overstretched. He said, “As of January 2011, 94% of high security inmates were double bunked, and 16% of medium security inmates and almost 82% of low security inmates were triple bunked or housed in space not originally designed for inmate housing.”
This state of affairs is a dangerous situation not only for the inmates but also for the prison staff. Inmates can get frustrated and thus leading to more crime within the prisons. This can also imply that incarceration does not achieve the goal of reforming the criminals and therefore there is a high likelihood of them being taken back to jail even after their release. There may also be a danger of violence against prison staff. This is more so because the rising numbers of inmates suggest understaffing is also another problem affecting the prison system.
Reasons for overcrowding
SHaRC identifies several reasons in relation to increasing numbers in prisons. First, they claim that profit motive which affects the whole society has also been seen as a factor in the rising numbers in prisons. They argue that corporations to please shareholders have used the state and counties contact for medical services, provision of meals, clothing, canteen and other items. According to them, “empty prisons do not generate profits.” Second, they cite mass round up of illegal immigrants and noncitizens as a reason for this overcrowding. When every offender is sent to prison, then overcrowding will continue being a perpetual problem in prisons. A report on the states of prisons cites high recidivism rate, high rate of offenders returned to prisons for violating or unsuccessfully completing community supervision. New criminal offences added to penal code, war on drugs, harsher penalties types of offences and increased role of victim and victim advocacy in the court and parole process are some of the reasons causing prison overcrowding.
Another reason is that most of the offenders spend their sentences in prison. This in turn results in more space being taken by those who would otherwise be out on parole. This rise in numbers in prisons implies that even as the already convicted offenders spend most of their sentences in prison, new offenders are also being added to the list. The prison facilities are not expanding at the same rate the offenders are being sentenced. In addition, there has been an aggressive tough approach on crime. This means that more offenders find themselves in jail as a result. The judiciary system in this case is sending more people to prisons and thereby increasing the numbers that spend their time in jail.
Another problem is that of poor planning. There are no accurate population projection and offenders needs analysis. This implies that prison facilities are not added in proportion to the number of offenders thus resulting to the increasing populations in many prisons. These populations can hardly be handled by the existing facilities.
SHaRC also identifies war on drugs as a reason for the rising population numbers. They argue that the launching on the war on drugs 3 years ago has led to a rise in prison population. They argue that 70 out of 75% of people in prison are drug war prisoners.
Low income among certain communities has seen crime rise. SHaRC says that when the Chicopee women’s jail was proposed, sweeps of sex workers in the Springfield increased.
Possible solution
With this rising numbers of prisoners, then something needs to be done to correct this state. One cannot ignore the state of the prisons. If nothing is done, there will be escalation of a crisis that is gaping. Authorities need to rethink their strategies on how to deal with the vice and provide long lasting solutions to the state of our jails/prisons. A report on state of the prisons suggests the following remedies to the situation. One, prisons should be expanded. The report suggests new prison beds be added, disproportionate amount of criminal justice resources focused on most punitive sanction and services be concentrated primarily on small percent of offender population in prison.
The report suggests the use of community corrections. They suggest systems of graduated sanctions to provide supervision, treatment, rehabilitation, victim restitution and public safety. In addition, prisons and jails should be well funded and there be an emphasis on reducing crime and recidivism. The report points at services being concentrated primarily on majority offender population supervised in the community.
The report recommends that the mission of the state’s community corrections strategy shall be: “to assist the court and/or parole board in assessing offenders’ suitability for community placement and, once offenders are placed in the community, to enforce the court-ordered sanctions, protect public safety, assist offenders’ rehabilitation, and support the rights of their victims.” The report also suggests that a task force responsible for evaluating, in accordance with the recommended community corrections policy, the criminal processing at the felony level be established.
Conclusion
The rising numbers in our prisons is a crisis that needs to be addressed with utmost urgency. There is no doubt that the rising populations also leads to rising crimes. This can be attributed to competition for limited resources. New crimes arise every day that are being added into the penal system. This therefore points to a great need to rethink about our penal code as well as our judicial systems. A redrafting of prisons as correctional facilities need also to be worked on urgently to ensure that prisons serve the original goal of their establishment, rather than creating more hardened criminals.