Overcrowding Problem in Prisons - Research Paper Example

Rising Prison Costs Due to Overcrowding 1) Introduction: Prison overcrowding in United States has placed excessive pressure on correctional services and facilities. A rising the population of the prisoner, together with declines in correctional expenditure, has resulted in overcrowding in prison which quite frequently go beyond the facility's maximum capacity. The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) conducted a National Inmate Survey in the year of 1995, and it found that, 26.4% of prisoners affirmed that they were presently sharing a particular cell with another prisoner. Also, 12% of those prisoners sharing a particular single cell felt intimidated by their cell-mate. The study is talks about the rising prison costs due to overcrowding. Prison overcrowding has numerous negative results and effects upon prisoners. “The U.S. prison system has exploded in size and economic importance during the past three decades, due to a variety of factors including mandatory sentencing laws and tougher drug enforcement efforts” (Krichhoff ). Prison overcrowding generates rivalry for limited resources, violence, higher rates of sickness, enlarged probability of recidivism and high suicide rates. Jail and Prison overcrowding has carried on to haunt United States and Canadian corrections services as the pressures of an rising prisoner population, together with the demand for lesser corrections costs, have resulted in a rising lack of living space for prisoners. Many reviewers, consisting of corrections officers, have viewed such overcrowded circumstances as dehumanizing and degrading for prisoners and contradictory to the present correctional reforms which give emphasis to maximizing the opportunities accessible to prisoners. 2) The Extent of Overcrowding in US: Prison overcrowding is a one of the grave problem indeed; in addition it is an elusive phenomenon though international and national players have dealt with it for decades. And also at the same time prison overcrowding appears ever to symbolize a various characteristic troubling the current prison since its discovery and invention in the 19th century. In the U S, jail and prison overcrowding had hit crisis and disaster percentages by the mid-1980s. Among the period of 1977 and 1985, the total development in federal and state prison inhabitants had increased by 68%; more than 10,000 state inmates were being imprisoned in local jails because of the prison crowding. During the same era the inhabitants of local jails had in excess of doubled. Though jail admissions were anticipated to level off by 1990, on the whole jail populations were still forecasted to carry on to grow all through the 1980s and 1990s, mainly as an effect of correctional and sentencing policy alterations which increased the duration of prison terms. However, in 1984, the whole corrections schemes of seven District and the states of Columbia were operating in court orders to decrease overcrowding. That same year, $1.7 billion was assigned for the improvement, development and building of corrections facilities and by 1985, 35 nations were concerned in the planning or building of 61,975 more beds. “There are different ways of measuring overcrowding. One is according to the amount of personal space per prisoner. Most prison systems have a figure for the capacity of their prisons and can indicate when their prisons are overcrowded. However, these figures are often based on local definitions of what is considered to be an acceptable amount of space” (Dealing with Prison Overcrowding). 3) Causes and consequences of Prison overcrowding in US. Causes: Prison overcrowding has major problem and also it is cyclical pattern in Connecticut arriving at a disaster point about each 10 years. The committee report demonstrated the majority of the reasons of prison overcrowding happened outside the jurisdiction and management of the Department of Correction and these compound issues and troubles cannot be addressed by a sole state agency. “In some extreme circumstances, prison overcrowding creates conditions that have been found to constitute ill treatment of prisoners within the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture). The report of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa stated in the report on South Africa (2004:54) that prison overcrowding “is by itself a human rights violation and occasions further human rights violations” (Griffiths & Murdoch 1). Specially, the program evaluation committee recognized five main reasons of prison overcrowding. They are: In spite of the decrease in arrest of the person and rates of crime, the numeral of offenders in jail or prison sustained to enlarge due to the “war on drugs”, augmented financial support for police, augmented role of sufferers and sufferer advocacy groups in the procedure of court, added bed capability in the correctional scheme, recidivism and technological infringements of parole and probation, harsher punishments for certain kinds of crimes, and tapering eligibility for community release and option sanction alternatives. Convicted prisoners were remaining imprisoned for a superior piece of their court-imposed jail sentences as a consequence of the shift from an undefined to a defined sentencing structure, removal of “good time”, formation of time-served values for eligibility of parole, and the enactment of numerous “reality in sentencing” initiatives. The violent approaches “tough on crime” supported by the government or legislator and that adopted by the judicial and executive branches divisions the criminal justice scheme to narrow its exercise of discretion and obtain a more conventional and less contentious approach to sentence or punishment. A lack of beds in jail, particularly pre-trial beds and high safety, forced DOC to operate at capability. Poor planning and a shortage of a precise inhabitant’s projection and offender wants examination contributed to the series of overcrowding and hampered DOC’s attempts to sufficiently plan for latest or prolonged facilities. The Consequences of Overcrowding: Prison overcrowding in United State can: infringe basic human rights, for example the right to life and to safety of the individual have potentially hazardous the effects of public health, by overcrowded accommodation in jail acting as an incubator for transferable illness for example HIV/AIDS and TB. Negatively influence mental health of the individual. Gravely affect the capability to control offense and aggression in the prison walls. Generate a dangerous atmosphere for the prison employees. Create it impossible to distribute minimum standards of air, light and privacy to the individual. Create it impossible to pursue least amount UN requirements on the division of men from ladies, young peoples from adult’s peoples, pre-trial from prisoners who convicted. “The evidence suggests that respiratory conditions in adulthood arise from a range of childhood housing-related factors. Evidence from good quality large scale studies points to a relationship between overcrowding in childhood and respiratory conditions in adulthood, but indicates that children are affected differently depending on age. However, the strength and independence of the relationship is unclear, due to lack of evidence on possible confounding variables” (The Impact of Overcrowding on Health & Education 9). 4) Increased Crime Rate and Capital Punishment in US: The crime rate is a main issue of the future. “Some parts of the USA appear to have both a high crime rate and a high imprisonment rate. Thus, international comparisons show that all four permutations are possible: high imprisonment rate/low crime rate; high imprisonment rate/high crime rate; low imprisonment rate/high crime rate; and low imprisonment rate/low crime rate” (Morgan 52). Crime is associated to robbery, bag stealing, theft, crime against foreign person, taxi scams, rape and sexual attack against foreign traveler, inducement, elusion of tax and replace rule, cheating, cyber offense, unlawful drug deal, household fighting, sexual nuisance, dowry and other rising crimes. The crime and the offences are growing. “The United States recently became the country with the most people incarcerated and the highest incarceration rate of any nation in the world. This high level of incarceration does not stem from abnormally high crime rates, but is instead linked more strongly to our nation’s sentencing practices and drug policies, both of which have been developed to be tough on crime” (The United States Versus the World 1). There is no explanation or reason behind increasing crime rate. Most of the crime rate is happening because of corruption problems. The lack of education and variation in principles can be considered as the main reason of rising crime rates in the cities. It is the responsibility of the government and the police officials to take appropriate actions to reduce the wipe out the crime and make the country to a corruption free country. “Capital punishment is the lawful infliction of death as a punishment and has been in use in America since 1608” (The Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty in the USA par. 2). The U.S. death penalty system at present is a complex system. The state legislature describes the formation of the system. “Since 2006, two U.N. treaty bodies, namely the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, have addressed the imposition of death penalty in the U.S” (Dakwar & Hill). 5) Rising Prison Costs: In the US, it costs regarding $2 to $3 a day to manage someone on probation or parole, whereas it costs approximately $45 a day to maintain a criminal in prison. On the other hand, these cost comparisons may be deceptive due to the dramatic alterations in supervision levels among correctional services and community plans. Caseloads in prisons average regarding five per officer, whereas the caseloads for society supervisors are concerning 107. “According to the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the U.S. prison population has grown from just over 319,000 in 1980 to nearly 1.5 million in 2005” (Abner 2). If parole and probation groups were to hire the further personnel essential to decrease caseloads to five, average per capita expenses would increase to regarding $40 a day, which is not much under the cost to confine somebody in a correctional service. 6) Effect of Overcrowding: The effects of overcrowding on prisoners meant defining overcrowding and explaining what the essential effects of crowding may be on individual. Crowding has focused mostly on the social density and the spatial density of crowding. Spatial density is described as the quantity of space obtainable per person in a specific housing unit. Social density is described as the quantity of persons sharing a housing unit and is measured the issue which contributes the majority to the unfavorable effects of crowding. On the other hand, it has been recommended that density alone does not clarify the whole effects of crowding. The prison surroundings are illustrated by issues which can have unfavorable effects on individual prisoners. In the prison location crowded circumstances are chronic, people prone to disruptive behavior are collected, there is an absence of idleness and personal control and boredom may be common. There are the overcrowding has three kinds of effects on the daily prison surroundings. First, there is fewer of all to go around; consequently the similar resources and space are made to stretch even additional. The chances for prisoners to contribute in rehabilitative and self-improvement programs, for instance employment, academic and occupational training are curtailed. Lack of resources may apply to anything a prisoner may need to use, for instance washroom availability, television lounge seating, library books and recreational resources. The unavailability of resources may have twofold effects. One is the unpleasantness or frustration of being limited resource, and the additional is the information that competition and clash over limited resources frequently guide to violence and aggression. Another effect of overcrowding is on the person inmate’s performance. Crowding makes strain and this, in combination with other issues in prison surroundings, can heighten the unfavorable effects of crowding. Fear, Idleness, the incapacity to maintain personal individuality or to turn off unnecessary stimulation and interaction, for instance noise, every add to the pressure of crowding. The adjustment method for prisoners to manage with excess stress differs; it can be withdrawal, depression or aggression. Whatever method and prisoner decides to deal with crowding stress, normally they tend to be processes which do not improve the health of the inmate. The influence on interaction and social relations has been measured one of the most significant effects of prison overcrowding. The third effect includes a grouping of the correctional methods incapability to meet the enhanced demand for extra space and the resulting harm to person inmates. In an effort to manage with the limited space obtainable and the ensuing overcrowding, there has been a strong trend to misclassify criminals. To a convinced degree, overcrowding has resulted in criminals being categorized due to the space obtainable rather than the safety level and programs most appropriate for the criminals. The third effect contains a mixture of the correctional procedures incapacity to meet the improved demand for extra space and the resulting harm to person inmates. Basically, the effects of overcrowding make a vicious cycle for the prisoner. It begins with overcrowding, then the assignment to an unsuitable programs and facility. Currently the cycle creates every over again Crowding affects above a selected few prisoners in the prison surroundings. Crowding has been explained as an interactive variable, which may sometimes result, sometimes cause from or sometimes exacerbate the effect of other circumstances. Despite how the variable is categorized, it creates a choice of outcomes. Furthermore, substantial individual variations in responses to crowding have been making among a variety of ethnic, racial and socioeconomic groups. 7) Reforms to Overcome Overcrowding: The accessibility of observed information signifies that overcrowded prison situation are increasing the costs and generate situation opposing to some analysis that has improved actions to discover system of diminishing the overcrowding. Some of this effort is paying attention on adopting alteration in the plan and functioning of the present environment of alteration of the amenities. And some other are related to the method of reducing the figure of imprisoned criminals. “In fact, the 1994 Federal Crime Control Act includes a provision funding state alternative punishment programs. Nonetheless, the efficacy of such programs has not yet been proven” (Baker et al.). The following are some of the ways to reduce the overcrowding problems in prison:        A weakly designed physical environment may create irritation and decrease the safety of the imprisoned criminals. Working on the rule that a well adopted human design can place the phase for optimistic communication and better well-being, a better renewal of the prison can be started by the police officials and by the government of the US. The new design idea tries to reveal greatly of what has been studied from the examination into the result of overcrowding in the prison background.        The sound made by talking, shouting, walking, televisions and radios is persistent in prison, are tough exterior such as smooth ground which reveal relatively than absorb noise. By adopting the utilization of sound absorbing resources the overcrowding problem can be controlled. Metal-on-metal associates should be prevented and reduced. The radio and television sound must be reduced by separating or dissolving audio resources.        The utilization of carpet, wall ornament and pillow chairs has been used not only to decrease the sound, but also to improve group communication. Studies explain that individual talk about confidential topic more explicitly in such delicately equipped situation than in a inflexible one with exposed base and walls and unbreakable seats. The overcrowding problems generally related with ringing cell doors and the frequent movement of the people staying in a cell component. There is a necessity to alleviate the structure of housing units that can occupy only six or seven prisoners. It was estimated that this would create the level of sound to be reduced little and quicker to bordering on that of a common housing setting.        Inmate observation and exterior organization have been prime matter in usual organization designs. The implementation of new design idea should give emphasis on the inmate task and the control. The new physical environment will provide inmates a variety of managing the behaviors, a better level of alleged privacy and power. Privacy, normally involves the control of entrance to self which was missing in the majority of earlier style prison. Much study has focused on privacy in the new design. There is a requirement for the reasonable amount of room with some extent of privacy for the inmates. The new design should include the personal bedroom for each inmate. Inmates will be permitted to enhance and organize their rooms and will have keys to their rooms, permitting power in the right to use their private space. The prison officials will have a master key; however this will not give consent to officials to lock inmates in their rooms. Defensive actions are common in every prison settings. Some of the inmates show the defensive actions and occupy in a certain area of the prison. In this situation, information and study need to be made on controlling such defensive actions while building a new design. Vocational training and education should be given to the inmates about the consequences of the abuse treatment. So that criminal offence can be reduced to some extend. “The net effect of sentencing reforms such as these is that offenders are sent to prison more quickly, and spend more time there before being released. In essence, American criminal justice is returning to the prison overcrowding crises that reforms a decade ago were meant to correct” (Baker et al. 20). 7) Discussion: Any kind of solutions that are bought for the overcrowding situation in the United States and Canadian improvement facilities success will not be achieved in just merely taking the inmates  to other prison. This is certainly not a best alternative to do. As unless these prisons are eligible for supervision nothing would be done to reduce the overcrowding situation of the prison which would directly affect the cost of the prison. In other case if there is a criteria on the type of offenders jailed in the prison, then there has to be special community related programs for supervision. United States has the highest number of imprisonment “529 per 100,000 of its population” (Prison Overcrowding). As compared to the United States Canada has substantially less number of people in prison. Which is around “130 per 100,000 it still ranks fourth highest in the world” (Prison Overcrowding). However the problems discussed in the crowding of the prison demands the focus of crowding is shifted from the traditional approach and shift to an entirely new correctional approach. Keeping people out of the jail that is not arresting them could be one the best solution to overcome overcrowding. And incase of arrest finding a solution to release them out of it. A crime where no one is harmed should be avoided from punishment. This would help many people from getting arrested. A large percentage of the prisoners who serve for short period in the jails are arrested for acts that do not necessarily harm others in the society like “noncommercial gambling, prostitution, deviant sexual acts in between consenting adults, public intoxication, procession, sale and distribution of illegal drugs, blue laws against doing business on Sundays, loitering, disorderly conduct and vagrancy. The process of discrimination means simply to wipe certain laws off the books, eliminating criminal sanctions by the stroke of legislations” (Prison Overcrowding in the United States par. 8).Some changes in the existing laws would help in the reduction of arrest and thereby reducing the crowd in the jails. This means actually removing of some laws from the books. The laws which include victimless crimes could be removed. Arrests for the procession of drugs are of large number in the United States jail. “About 85 percent of marijuana-related arrests are possession arrests. Every day, law enforcement officials waste their time and our tax dollars by arresting people merely for possessing the drugs” (Prison Overcrowding in the United States par. 9).This could be avoided leading space for criminals who are dangerous and violent and cause harm to the society by committing crimes such as rape, molestation  and murder. Probation is a law in which a person who is convicted of certain offence is let free with a condition that he would behave responsibly in future. It gives an offender a second chance to prove himself. Probation could help to certain extent. House arrest is another way though it has a lot of criticism. In this the offender is allowed to have all the luxuries of normal life including access to home appliances, internet and phone. He has to wear an electronic device called ankle monitor it is “a special electronic device that transmits a GPS signal to a base handset. This handset is connected to police central headquarters, and notifies the authorities automatically if the wearer moves outside of their allowed range” (Prison Overcrowding in the United States par. 10). Paroling is another option which could avoid the jails from overcrowding. If a prisoner is set free after serving the whole period of his sentence there won’t be any supervision on him thereafter. There is no guarantee that he would live a crime free life. But if a prisoner is released on parole the parole supervision officers would check his activities this avoids him in committing any crime further. Thus parole is beneficial in reducing jail overcrowding and crime in the society. 8) Conclusion: The overall research emphasizes that the overcrowding of prisons has a great impact on the economy of a country. The cost of the prison is incredibly higher than what was expected. Overcrowding of prison has become a major issue in United States. There are various factors that contribute to this issue but little could be done to tackle it. If people who commit minor crimes are taken under prohibition and if they are taken under house arrest this problem could be eliminated to some extent. If there is change in the current law system such as change in law of crimes which doesn’t have any victim could help to some extent as well. If more offenders are released on parole rather than being jailed would also benefit. If the amount of prisoners decreased then certainly there would be drastic improvement in the cost that is spend on the prisoners. There is a lot of expenditure involved even with a single prisoner. The amount spent on his food and other necessities is eliminated. The cost spend on the guards is reduced. The rehab expenditure is eliminated. This affects the economy of United States. The Taxpayers are also affected indirectly as they are the people paying for it. Thus if the overcrowding of the prison is checked the cost of the prison would ultimately be reduced. Works Cited Abner, Carrie. Graying Prisons. State News. 2006. Web. 03 May 2012. Baker et al. A Solution to Prison Overcrowding and Recidivism: Global Positioning System Location of Parolees and Probationers. University of Maryland. 2002. Web. 03 May 2012. < http://www.gemstone.umd.edu/teams/documents/innovative.pdf> Dakwar, Jamil. & Hill, Christopher. Capital Punishment in the United States. ACLU. 2008. Web. 03 May 2012. < http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/capital/cap_pun_in_the_us.pdf> Dealing with Prison Overcrowding. Guidance Note 4. International Centre for Prison Studies. 2004. Web. 03 May 2012. < http://www.prisonstudies.org/info/downloads/gn4-prison-overcrowding.pdf> Griffiths, Curt Taylor & Murdoch, Danielle J. Strategies and Best Practices against Overcrowding in Correctional Institutions. The International Centre for Criminal Law. 2009. Web. 03 May 2012. Krichhoff, Suzanne M. Economic Impacts of Prison Growth. Congressional Research Service. 2010. Web. 03 May 2012. < http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41177.pdf> Morgan, Neil. Overcrowding: Causes, Consequences and Reduction Strategies. n.d. Web. 03 May 2012. < http://www.unafei.or.jp/english/pdf/RS_No80/No80_08VE_Morgan1.pdf> Prison Overcrowding in the United States. Squidoo. 2012. Web. 03 May 2012. Prison Overcrowding. John Howard Society of Alberta 1996. 1996. Web. 03 May 2012. The Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty in the USA. CapitalpunishmentUK. n.d. Web. 03 May 2012. < http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/thoughtsUS.html#ethical> The United States Versus the World. Defending Justice. Political Research Associates. 2005. Web. 03 May 2012. < http://www.publiceye.org/defendingjustice/pdfs/factsheets/9-Fact%20Sheet%20-%20US%20vs%20World.pdf> The Impact of Overcrowding on Health & Education. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. 2004. Web. 03 May 2012. Read More