The Pocatello Prison Siting Story - Essay Example

There are certain challenges attached to building a new prison. While there are economic issues to consider, there are political complications that also may cause hindrance in selecting an area as a potential site for a prison. One major problem that has taken severe shape in the United States is overcrowding in state’s prisons. That excessive number of prisoners incarcerated every year is reflected in the fact that although America consists of only 5 percent of the global population, the country’s total number of prisoners is about 25 percent of prisoners around the world (The Challenges of “realignment”, 2012).

This results in huge demand for building more prisons which leads to greedy bargaining of prison-guards union. Therefore, it is not surprising that state prisons have been exerting an enormous pressure on the state budget. Moreover, growing number of prisons in rural areas or small towns has also become a matter of humanitarian concern. Since most prisons in the United States are overcrowded, heath issues have taken a serious form. However, misery of the prisoners is always a subtle issue for the mainstream population in America as majority of state prisons is situated in remote locations from cities, often in deserts area inland which are dusty.

Even till a few years back, one acute problem occurred in the manner that double the number of prisoners were housed in a prison than is actually permitted, especially in the city of California. To deal with this crisis, in 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prisons should hold only that number of prisoners which will allow to sufficiently maintain humane conditions (The Challenges of “realignment”, 2012). The case study of the siting of the Pocatello Prison is one example that reflects the many ramifications (both political and rational) that arose from the decision of building a new women’s prison by the state of Idaho. For many