Building More Prisons Is Not The Answer To Ease Inmate Overcrowding
In the last two and a half decades, prison crowding has more than tripled in the United States.1 The rate of imprisonment has burgeoned to three and even four times that of Most European countries, while the development in holding facilities has remained negligibly shy.2 As a direct result, recent years have witnessed the growth of a new problem in America: substantial prison overcrowding. Efforts to keep overcrowding at bay have been historically simplistic, often propelled by ideas to simply build more jails; these propositions are fatally incomplete and static. Prison populations are on climactic rise as a result of various independent agencies, factors, and actions; legislation that increases penalties for criminal behavior, stiffer rules regarding minor infractions, deployment of police, and paroling policies are all separate factors that contribute to the overall dilemma of overcrowding. Because the problem of prison overcrowding is so broad, minor transformations like the addition of more prisons hold little hope for an issue demanding broad understanding and systematic change. Looking at the household problem of overcrowded prison, it is deceptively easy to assume prisons are civil houses with too many tenants; and,
By the mid-1990s, the Cold War had come to definitive end and troubles in the Middle East were on temporary hiatus; for a brief moment, the United States voting citizenry was able to focus its unfettered attention on domestic issues at home. Among their concerns were the transforming inner cities and associated stigmas of crime and danger; likewise, media attention to dangerous criminals on 24-hour news networks increased public attention to the problem of crime in America; the government responded. Clinton's three-strike rule, growing concern for sexual offenders and pedophiles, as well as increased gang and drug efforts have colored criminal justice efforts over the last few years; these modified and strong approaches have supposedly taken more criminals off the streets. They have certainly put people into prisons. Prison advocate and past-occupant Alonzo Cobb spent the greater part of the last century documenting a variety of prisons nationwide where the stressed prison population directly affects the criminal inhabitant. "The fact that crime rates have not fallen dramatically in response to such large increases in imprisonment has led commentators to label the increasing reliance on imprisonment a policy failure, recommending a moratorium on new prison construction, alternative correctional programs, or decriminalization of drug offenses."10 "The United States imprisons a greater proportion of its population than any other country in the free world," 4and by 1983, just the start of the prison serious overcrowding problem, the national prison population was already 439,000 inmates strong.5 This number was far more then the United States had ever recorded before, and already far more than with which it could deal. From the increase in the incarceration rate, it would seem a viable truth that crime rates would simultaneously go down, but they have not. "The rate of increase in the number of prisons now exceeds both the growth rate of the population and the crime rate."6 Criminal justice advocates, policy makers, and scholars alike all warn that perhaps the two themes are not isolated; the rise of gang-based crime, single-family households, and decreased economic opportunities are all determinants that may have increased to a precipitous rise in crime that the growing prison populations "may simply be masking."11 Although violent crimes were on steady increase for awhile,7 the large levels of incarceration do not appear to be numerically matched by vast decreases in crime; while simultaneous increases in crime rates would not reflect this, the overwhelming amount of the evidence suggests a disconnect between incidence and incarceration.8 While the USDJ's annual Crime in the United States suggested a stark rise in violent crime, the National Crime Survey indicated that "violent victimizations remained flat over the period, while properly crime victimizations fell by 30 percent."9 With little debate, despite the high increases in prison populations, crime in America was not on the stark decrease. According to the American Correctional Association and the American Public Health Association, 75 square feet is recommended per prisoner, not including day room and program areas.16 Additionally, larger dormitories should a lot more space per person because of their increased social density, and careful considerations should be made for the personal, physical, and mental health of a prisoner if his or her ability to be socially resuscitated for civic life holds any operable viability. "The absence
Some common words found in the essay are:
Crime Survey, United States1, Alonzo Cobb, Middle East, York City, Health Association, Eighth Amendment, Correctional Institution, San Quintin, prison overcrowding, criminal justice, Crime United, criminal justice system, justice system, crime rates, getting tough, prison populations, decrease crime rates, increased populations, increase incarceration, violent crime, direct result, getting tough crime,
Approximate Word count = 2389
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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