Discuss on Overcrowding in Prison

Overcrowding in Prison

name
ENG1020
Spring 2015

There are thousands of criminals incarcerated annually in the US resulting to overcrowding in correctional facilities. The average over crowding level among the states is 25% with Alabama at topping the list with its overcrowding percentage of 196% followed by the state of Illinois at 144% (Aborn, van den Toorn, Hockin, Jordon, Nayvelt & Finkelstein, 2009). This overcrowding poses adverse social and economic effects in the country that need to be addressed at the soonest possible time. Accordingly, overcrowding results to failures in the rehabilitation program as well as fiscal issues related to the tax payers’ money.
Incarceration has a two-fold purpose: the first is to limit the liberty of the offender so that he or she could never be able to commit further offense, and the second is to rehabilitate them so as to prepare them for their re-integration into the society. Imprisonment does not aim to remove the basic human rights of the offenders, this means that they should be provided with their basic needs and their human dignity must be kept intact. Overcrowding is perceived by social workers and other experts from related fields as a violation of the basic human rights. Putting offenders in overcrowded prisons could deteriorate their health. This problem is very serious considering that the majority of offenders come from poor families where serious health issues like HIV infections are common. In poor communities, the majority of the population has untreated diseases. These diseases get worse when they enter the prison. It also suppresses the realization of one of the purposes of rehabilitation, which is to rehabilitate the offenders. Nevertheless, the increase in numbers of incarcerated individuals makes hard for legislators and enforcers to devise ways meet the aims of incarceration by solving overcrowding. The main reason for this is the lack of resources (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2010).
Millions of dollars from tax payers’ pockets are allocated to federal prisons each fiscal year – money that can be spent on other more beneficial projects (Brown, 2006). Nevertheless, there are no other means to sustain prisons. If prisons are unguarded and unmaintained, social order could be put in jeopardy. The real challenge, therefore, is to allow the prisoners keep their basic human rights by avoiding overcrowding in prison, while at the same time minimizing the use of tax payers’ money in maintaining and increasing the number of correctional facilities. There are several proposals to do this (Schrank, 2013).
Samuels, La Vigne & Taxy (2013) proposed a solution that could meet the challenge. The proposed solution necessitates amendment of current and making new legislations. For the past few there has been a sudden huge increase in the number of drug convicts. This means that the majority of cases in the US are drug related. According to Samuels, et al. legislations can be made to shorten the sentence for drug-related crimes, even up to half of the current time span. They estimated that more than $2.5 billion can be saved from the federal budget. The second part of the proposed solution is the transfer of some prisoners to community correction centers. These legislations or initiatives can lessen the number of inmates entering prison. This second part of the solution, if implemented, can save more than $1.1billion dollars in 20 years timespan (Taifa, 2013). Nonetheless, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2010) explained that amendments and new legislations will not suffice in addressing the concern with prison overcrowding. It continued to explain that this problem transcends to the entire society, meaning that for it to be effective everyone should make a contribution to the solution in order to make it more sustainable. This means that the principle of sustainable development should be applied. Accordingly, all members of the community must become stakeholders of the cause. Panel Reform International (2013) explained that, aside from the continues influx of new drug convicts in prisons, another significant contributor to fast prison overcrowding is the number of recidivists. The primary reason for recidivism is the inability of the former convicts who have paid their sentences to re-integrate themselves into the society. There are diverse reasons for this difficulty in re-integration, but each member of the society such as the business owners are partly responsible. Decreasing the number of recidivists would, therefore, also significantly reduce the number of prisoners. This can be effectively done, through the active participation of the lay people, who can help former prisoners re-integrate themselves effectively.
The problem with prison overcrowding affects everyone. It even transcends the social and economic realms. Fortunately, there are possible solutions to this burgeoning problem. Such solutions include the active participation of people, amending current laws and rules, as well as the creation of new legislations. Nevertheless, it will not be easy to carry out all these reforms due to diverse factors. For example, a divide could result in legislating a law that will decrease the number of years for certain offences. The victims of the offenders might object to such propositions. In order to make the carrying out the previously discussed solutions, there must be an acknowledgement of the purpose of incarceration, which is to rehabilitate the offender so that he can, in the future, reintegrate him or herself into the society and become a productive individual.
Works Cited
Aborn,J.; van den Toorn, A.;Hockin,J.;Jordon,S.; Nayvelt, M. and Finkelstein, M. (2009). The California Prison and Rehbilitation System. Retrieved from: < https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/citypoverty/california.htm>.
Brown, E.G., Jr. (2006). Prison Overcrowding State of Emergency Proclamation. Retrieved from: <http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=4278>.
Panel Reform International (2013). Ten-Point Plan to Reduce Prison Overcrowding. Retrieved from: <http://www.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/10-pt-plan-overcrowding.pdf>.
Samuels, J.; La Vigne, N. and Taxy, S. (2013). Stemming the Tide: Julie Samuels Nancy La Vigne Samuel Taxy November 2013 Strategies to Reduce the Growth and Cut the Cost of the Federal Prison System. Retrieved from: <http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412932-stemming-the-tide.pdf.>.
Schrank, P. (2013). One nation, behind bars Eric Holder’s ideas for locking up fewer Americans are welcome, but do not go far enough. Retrieved from: < http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21583680-eric-holders-ideas-locking-up-fewer-americans-are-welcome-do-not-go-far-enough-one>.
Taifa, N. (2013). How to Slash the Cost and Size of Overcrowded U.S. Prisons. Retrieved from: <http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/how-slash-cost-and-size-overcrowded-us-prisons>.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2010). Why Promote Prison Reform? Retrieved from: <http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/justice-and-prison-reform/prison-reform-and-alternatives-to-imprisonment.html>.