Issues in corrections - Essay Example

According to research, the correctional systems are running out of ideas on how to manage the issues affecting the correctional systems. The United States of America correctional systems are believed to be one of the most advanced prison system globally. This is because of the increased crime rates in the country. However, like other countries globally the American correctional system faces many issues that tend to be hard for the legal system to handle. There is one major issue of overcrowding in the prisons that have been caused by high crime rates, harsh laws made by the legal system for certain offenses, high rate of criminals returned to jail for committing felonies and long term sentences for certain offenses (Scott, 2010).

The rate of the population of inmates is growing faster making it hard for the prisons to hold the capacity. The issue of high population in prison has pushed the legal system to set free the well-behaved criminals in prison, which has posed a threat to society (Scott, 2010). The law is forced to release the criminals to create space for the other criminals. Criminals serving long sentences are freed through good behavior and presidential pardons. Alternatively, according to researchers, some prisoners are pretenders who only pretend to behave well so that they are set free and proceed to carry out their vengeance on the witnesses who testified against them in court.

The problem for the correctional system not being able to accommodate the criminals until they are has posed a major threat to society. Over population in the correctional system has also led to various problems to the inmates. The inmate’s health is at risk due to various airborne diseases caused by overcrowding. Diseases can also emerge from the dirty toilets shared by the large number of prisoners. Prisoner’s health has also in turn affected the economy of the country trying to treat various diseases that arise among prisoners like HIV/ AIDs,