Table of Contents
Prison overcrowding has been an issue for decades now. Prison overcrowding is when there is no more space for inmates inside prisons, which means inmates are stuck together in cells where they do not fit. This creates poor living conditions for inmates as well as more violence among the inmates and towards the correctional officers and guards too. Prison overcrowding brings many problems to society some of which we will discuss later on, there have been approaches to minimizing this issue but the solutions have been ‘ignored’. Prison overcrowding is a problem that has to be if not eliminated then decreased significantly. It affects inmates, correctional facility officials, and civilians.
Causes of Prison Overcrowding
Prison overcrowding happens when people constantly are being incarcerated. A question to ask why do people keep going to prison? Many factors come into play when answering that question. According to Edwin W. Zedlewski (1985), ‘Drug abuse is one of many causes of prison overcrowding.'(p.3). Individuals get incarcerated over drug charges, not only that but in some cases that may lead people to commit other crimes, why is that? Poverty. An article on iresearchnet explains how poverty is intertwined with all of these causes.
Where there is more poverty there isn’t proper education, so that leads people to look for jobs at an early age, but since there is a lot of people looking for jobs there aren’t enough employment opportunities, but people still need money, so they look for other ways to make money, they start associating themselves with untrustworthy people at times even thugs, that leads them to make the wrong choices and end up being locked up because they couldn’t find a job in the first place. In different areas poverty is the beginning of this cycle, not all areas though.
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Risks Overcrowding causes to all
Everyone is affected by prison overcrowding, inmates, correctional officials, civilians, society as a whole. “Prison overcrowding leads to inmates having poor health care, not having access to proper rehabilitation programs as well as poor education.”(Stephanie Baggio, Nicolas Peigne, Patrick Heller, Laurent Getaz, Michael Liebrenz and Hans Wolf, 2020, p.1) Simply not having the proper accommodations. These risks inmates suffer from lead them to cause violence, at the prison guards and within themselves.
Prison guards are the ones in charge of enforcing order, they have to deal with these inmates, that increases stress within themselves and staff members. That can lead them to have medical complications because of the kind of stress there submitted. Like said before prison overcrowding leads to having poor healthcare which also leads to diseases being spread around the prison, since there isn’t a proper way to treat them it affects everyone, diseases tend to be more common. The more prisoners there are in a state in prison the more mouths there are to feed, who pays for the stay of the inmates? Taxpayers do. If there are inmates taxes rise affecting those pay their taxes.
Ruiz v. Estelle
Living in inhumane conditions in a prison is a violation of a constitutional right. The 8th amendment to be exact. There have been reforms passed to help inmates have better confinement conditions as well as better healthcare. A very famous case that battled this issue was Ruiz v. Estelle. ‘This was a handwritten lawsuit written by David Ruiz suing the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) because of alleged violations to his 8th amendment for cruel and unusual punishment.'(Reynolds p.109) The lawsuit first began in 1972. There were 8 years of pre-trial, until Ruiz went to trial, a trial that lasted 129 days.
It’s important that other plaintiffs were also added to the lawsuit. The lawsuit ended in Ruiz winning the case, ruling the prison conditions were cruel and unusual punishment. This was only the beginning though, litigation lawsuits continued through the years, new policies had been enforced. It is fundamental to mention that the ruling Ruiz v. Estelle had overturned the hands-off doctrine enforced before. This litigation lawsuit brought many reforms and it was the one that had the most reach relating to prison conditions. This was a step forward for changing prison conditions, making them a bit more human.
Solutions
Throughout this research paper only problems regarding prison overcrowding have been discussed, now it’s time to talk about ways to solve or minimize this problem. ‘The effectiveness of various strategies employed to manage prison overcrowding varies, each with its shortcomings. Consequently, it is important to understand the need to utilize each of these strategies, in combination with others, to adequately address prison overcrowding.'(Pitts, Griffin, and Johnson, 2014, p.129).
To create a solution for this problem all ideas, all strategies should be contributed. Everyone begins by suggesting that more prisons can be built, yes it sounds like a good structural idea but as explained in a previous article ‘Prison construction is extremely expensive that would mean taxes would rise, the goal here is to also reduce crime. By building more prisons that won’t happen.'(Zedlewski,1985), If more prisons are going to be constructed it’s to match the tough sentences that already exist. The safest way to minimize this problem without affecting society too much is by looking for alternatives to incarceration.
Such as probation, a lot of inmates in prisons are there doing time for offenses that could be better administered. House arrests are a big one. This way the inmate doing house arrest depends on himself or his family and not a taxpayer. Proper rehabilitation programs can make a difference for those who get out of prison for them not to return.
Fines can help as they also deter people from committing an offense once again. Releasing the elderly inmates can also help reduce overcrowding this of course done with proper care. Seeing what kind of offense they’ve done and things. Doing these kinds of decisions with proper order is very important. It may seem like these solutions give many opportunities to those who may not deserve them, but this is about the bigger picture eliminating a much bigger and badder problem, prison overcrowding.
To conclude prison overcrowding isn’t considered to be the same thing for everyone. Some seem to have a different meaning, but something everyone should agree on is acting and solving or minimizing this problem. The solutions are there and well thought, by being organized these ideas can work and make prison a bit more humane, and as society crime can be reduced. It’s time so see prison overcrowding with seriousness.
References
- http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/forensic-psychology/sentencing-and-incarceration/prison-overcrowding/
- Pitts, J. M. A., Griffin III, O. H., & Johnson, W. W. (2014). Contemporary prison overcrowding: short-term fixes to a perpetual problem. Contemporary Justice Review, 17(1), 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2014.883844
- Reynolds, C. (2002). The final chapters of Ruiz v. Estelle. (Judicial News). Corrections Today, 3, 108.
- Stéphanie Baggio, Nicolas Peigné, Patrick Heller, Laurent Gétaz, Michael Liebrenz, & Hans Wolff. (2020). Do Overcrowding and Turnover Cause Violence in Prison? Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.01015
- Zedlewski, E. W. (1985). When Have We Punished Enough? Public Administration Review, 45(Special), 771–779. https://doi.org/10.2307/3135035
