Prison Overcrowding And The United States - 1555 Words

Nelson Mandela once said, â€Å"It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.† The prisons in the United States have been overcrowded for many years and require a change in order to fix this. Some of the main causes for prison overcrowding that will be covered in this paper are mass incarceration, long sentencing, recidivism, and prisoners of drug crimes. Overcrowding of prisons in the United States is a major issue that affects not only the prisoners themselves, but taxpayers and politicians. Although there are many different solutions to prison overcrowding such as building more prisons, alternative and shorter sentences, etc., the issue is still prevalent. Some feel the best way to deal with overcrowding is to build more prisons to accommodate the large influx of prisoners. Others feel the best mode of action to solve this problem is through shorter, and alternative sentencing, which frees up space for serious offenders of the law. This paper argues that shorter, and alternative prison sentences are the most effective way to reduce the prison population in the United States. Prisons and their overcrowding is a controversial topic not to be taken lightly. There are an incredible number of people in American prisons today. For example, according to Peter Katel, there are more people in prison right now in the United States than any other country. TheShow MoreRelatedPrison Overcrowding : The United States1535 Words   |  7 Pages 2017 Prison Overcrowding The United States has the highest number of incarcerated individuals than other countries. Offenders are arrested every day for minor and major offences such as murder. America is hard on crime. When someone breaks the law the criminal justice’s system seeks an eye for an eye. Prison overcrowding has become a major problem in the United States, it is very expensive to house an inmate and there are other methods to punish offenders without sending them to prison for extendedRead MorePrison Overcrowding And The United States994 Words   |  4 PagesPrison Overcrowding In the United States, there’s two types of incarcerations: jail vs prison and federal vs state. The key difference between all prison systems is the size, location, and quantity of inmates and the crime rate in each area. Overpopulation has been an issue for a while mainly because for the safety for the inmates, the Three Strike Law, and also, society feeling that rehabilitation isn’t what they want for convicted felons. In the future, the system of corrections should decreaseRead MorePrison Overcrowding And Its Effects On The United States Essay1605 Words   |  7 PagesPer Derek Gilna’s report on Increase in Federal Prison Population, Overcrowding, prisons have become overpopulated throughout a five-year span from 2006 to 2011 (Gilna, page 48). Prison overcrowding has become a plague in the United States for some time now. The US Bureau of Justice Statistics shows more than two-million adults are incarcerated in US federal and state prisons. There are many rea sons that prisons are becoming overpopulated but not such a certain cause. To fix the problem, attentionRead MoreThe Effects Of Prison Overcrowding On The United States Essay1713 Words   |  7 PagesThe United States has the biggest imprisonment rate on the planet, and paying a high cost for it. Detainment strength finished in the mid-1970s when the jail populace expanded from 300,000 to 1.6million detainees, and the imprisonment rate from 100 for each 100,000 to more than 500 for every 100,000. Nonetheless, there is by all accounts little relationship between the wrongdoing rate and the imprisonment rate (Clear et al., 2013). One of the causes of prison overcrowding comes about because of theRead MoreOvercrowding And Its Effects On The United States Prison System1178 Words   |  5 Pages Overcrowding prisons are an issue that has been influencing the United States prison population for decades, however what is the true significance of overcrowding. As indicated by Jeff Bleich (1989) â€Å"the term overcrowding is repetitive, since crowding already refers to a higher level of social density than is desired†. An overcrowded prison is a shocking condition that causes outrage and dissatisfaction among detainees (Haney, 2014). This condition is so undesirable that one can consider it as unconstitutionalRead MoreEssay about American Intervention: Prisons in the United States576 Words   |  3 Pageshelp of our own concerning our prisons. First, we could use help with overcrowding. Next, minor flaws in our justice system that contribute to overcrowding. Finally, the condition of some of our prisons don’t make them seem like they are not prisons at all. In the United States, prison overcrowding is caused by many issues. These include not enough room in prisons, increasing crime rates, and changes in the justice system’s laws. Causes of prison overcrowding may include: double-celling, prisonerRead MorePrison Overcrowding Essay1184 Words   |  5 Pages Prison Overcrowding Nicole Neal American Intercontinental University Abstract This research paper is to explore the impact of prison overcrowding. The United States has a, what seems to be everlasting, prison overcrowding problem. Not only does the United States have this dilemma, but also many other countries have overcrowded prisons as well. Many issues need to be addressed; ways to reduce the prison populations and how to effectively reduce prison cost withoutRead MoreTheu.s. State Prison System965 Words   |  4 Pagesproblem in the Unites State Prison system because of overcrowding. First I am going to talk about what cause the overcrowding in the Prison system. After that I will talk what are the affect we are facing now days for overcrowding in the prison system. Than what should we do to stop prison to get overcrowding and how is going to help out society. Now we going to talk about the reason why our prison is overcrowding in the United State. According to (â€Å"What Causes Overcrowding,† 2011) the first mainRead MoreEffects Of Prison Overcrowding1345 Words   |  6 Pagesthat prison overcrowding causes towards the inmates and the guards. I will first address the issue of violence that prison overcrowding causes. My next point will be the health of the inmates discussing both their physical and mental while in overcrowded prisons. Lastly I will discuss the physical and mental health of the correctional officers and how the job could lead to correctional officers having issues in their private life. Prison Overcrowding has become a major issue in the United StatesRead MoreThe Overcrowding Of The Correctional Facilities1730 Words   |  7 Pagesthreat to maintaining this balance is the overcrowding of prisons. In 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled that massive overcrowding of California prisons violates its prisoner’s eighth amendment right protecting them from cruel and unusual punishment (Boylan, 2015, p. 558). At the time California’s correctional institutions were at double their capacity, housing over 155, 500 prisoners in only 33 institutions (Specter, 2010, p. 194). The overcrowding of correctional facilities is one of the