OVERCROWDING IN AMERICAN PRISONS (Research Paper Sample)

Overcrowding American Prisons Student’s First Name, Middle Initial(s Last Name Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor’s Name and Title Assignment Due Date Abstract Overcrowding in the United States prisons is a major issue of concern for the government. Sentencing guidelines, such as removal and/or replacement of the death penalty with life sentence with or without parole, the 1994 crime bill, mandatory minimum laws, and three-strike laws, filled prisons and aged the prison population. As jails and prisons became overcrowded, rehabilitation programs became less accessible. This increased the recidivism rate to an unsustainable level. Overcrowding increased stress levels for staff and inmates. Correctional staff already live in a constant state of alertness while inside the facility walls. Overcrowding multiplied the levels of stress causing shortages, which also affect recruitment efforts. All this has caused some facilities to shut down due to safety concerns for both inmates and staff. This is not an issue that is only affecting private or public-run facilities. One strategy to address these issues has been to simply release prisoners. Many states are using this as a temporary solution. The focus should instead be on enhancing and incentivizing rehabilitation programs, which is a primary goal of the justice system. Releasing inmates negates the retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation goals of the system and does not allow for programs to rehabilitate offenders. Therefore, recidivism is almost guaranteed, especially in the case of those convicted of more serious offenses. Overcrowding American Prisons High occupancy in the prison is a grave challenge, irrespective of the violation category. It is a substantial obstacle to educational, reintegration, and reformatory work. Baggio et al. (2020) highlighted that overcrowding in prisons is a significant concern globally because it involves the number of detainees surpassing the jail's capacity. The issue damages the inmates because it destabilizes the jail framework's capability to meet human needs, such as vocational activities, adequate accommodation, access to rehabilitation programs, and timely medical care (Jeglic & Calkins, 2022). Compared to the rest of the world, the USA presently has the most significant degree of incarceration, hence overcrowding in jails. Racial inequality and harsh crime policies have aggravated mass incarceration, causing the dysfunction of the criminal justice system. Stabilizing American correctional facilities requires an incentive-based rehabilitative system for those private and public institutions that operate these facilities. Define Overcrowding Surpassing Capacity Surpassing the capacity designated for the facility and the inmate-to-correctional officer ratio are the two aspects of overcrowding. The term that people frequently employ is the detainees' population surpassing the designed jail's capacity. Here, the criminal justice compels numerous individuals to reside in congested rooms with inadequate space to sleep, sit, or move for prolonged periods, which erodes human dignity (Mulgrew, 2023; Gordon & Larsen, 2021). According to Jeglic and Calkins (2021), the United States currently has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with approximately 2.3 million people in prisons and jails, which translates to a 500% increase over the last four decades. The state and federal prison population increased from 300,000 to 1.6 million between 1975 and 2007 (Spohn, 2020). At the end of 2021, approximately 5,444,900 people were under adult correctional systems supervision, a slight decline of 1% from 2020 (Carson & Kluckow, 2023). There was an increase for the first time since 2005 in the number of people in prison or jail, with figures indicating a rise from 660 per 100,000 prisoners to 689 per 100,000 in 2021 (Carson & Kluckow, 2023). There are slight declines in some cases, but the figures are still significant, leading to overcrowding.  Inmate-to-Correctional Officer Ratio The sudden increase in the number of prisoners without a corresponding increase in prison staff implies a spike in the inmate-to-correctional officer ratio. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) recommends that the number of inmates per correctional officer ratio should be at most 15:1. However, many of the facilities from the Mid-Atlantic to the Southeast regions have a ratio as high as 24.7 at the minimum security level (Lauria, 2020). This statement implies that a correctional officer has eight more inmates in some of these facilities over the recommended figure. Scholars consider it a problem affecting the staff's ability to meet the convicts' basic needs regarding family visits, living conditions, legal aid, and medical care (Klaufus & Weegels, 2022). The congestion presents difficulties that can adversely affect the attitude and performance of the personnel, interfering with their capability to meet their obligation professionally. Such definitions show overcrowding as an aspect that leads to possibly adverse concerns regarding prisoners' security, supervision, and safety.                 Dangers of Overcrowding to Inmates and Staff Overcrowding in jails augments the dangers of physical, mental, and psychosomatic ailments, as well as psychological apprehension. Váradi (2020) produced significant results showing that overcrowding is also a grave danger in interpersonal communication. Hence, it may propagate conflict circumstances, resulting in deviant behavior, nervousness, hostility, frustration, and even violent behavior against an individual if not handled well. The lack of adequate private space augments the threat of violence between inmates both directly and indirectly. Besides, the protracted placement in a single cell conveys the danger of impacting the psychological wellbeing of the convicted individual. Snacken et al. (2022) noted that the judicial system strips the imprisoned cohort of nearly all their rights. The prison discards several civil liberties, including the right to be free from discrimination and sexual harassment, receive mental and medical healthcare, and have access to court. Thus, overcrowding in prisons leads to violence among inmates and reduced mental and physical health.   Calls for Reform Some calls for action include a new administrative policy and hiring a formerly incarcerated person on the parole board. Fleenor (2023) argued that the new administrative policy should dictate a stage two parole hearing for each individual in jail for more than 25 years. Such a measure would offer at least one significant in-person chance for an applicant to show that they have carried out the needed steps to change themselves to individuals capable of and determined to reside within the confines of the law. Another call for reform is that enlisting a formerly incarcerated individual as a parole agent would provide vital insight to the Department of Correction team. Thus, a new administrative policy and employing a formerly jailed person are vital calls for action because they would bring hope to the hopeless and facilitate the process.     Goals of the Prison System and Criminal Justice System The four primary goals in response to criminal acts, including retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence, and incapacitation, have also led to overcrowding in U.S. prisons. Plantz (2023) noted that the four pillars aim to safeguard the citizens, thwart offending, and hold individuals liable for breaking the law. Even so, the emphasis on the four concepts has progressively resulted in rehabilitation programs playing a subordinate role to dogmas that support incapacitation and punishment. Deitch (2020) states that overcrowding occurs because the USA lacks oversight in its criminal justice system. The nation has a rare comprehensive and formal external oversight in the category of routine supervising and assessments of the conditions that impact the civil liberties of the convicts. Deitch (2020) further argued that the absence of mechanisms for external correctional oversight in the U.S. has made the nation an anomaly on the world stage. Most other Western countries, mainly the ones in Europe, have a vibrant mechanism implemented to conduct frequent checkups in all confinement areas. Thus, unlike the U.S., such nations have been able to tackle the issue of overcrowding since they are equipped to guarantee the mental and bodily safety of incarcerated persons, safeguard human civil liberty, and facilitate their rehabilitative advancement.       Removal of the Death Penalty Removal of the death penalty has also led to the overcrowding of prisons because individuals who would have received death sentences are sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, extending their incarceration duration. Consequently, they occupy space and continue to consume resources, considering there is no cycle where the execution process or alternative interventions create space for another offender. Their living circumstances further exacerbate the overcrowding problem because most of them live under conditions of extreme social isolation and enforced idleness. They have controlled human interactions, whereby they are allowed to engage very few people, such as the medical care providers, their attorneys, and the prison offiers. Abolition of these sentences and their subsequent conversion to life imprisonment has led to a rise in the average age of the prison population. Subsequently, they demand extensive medical care, considering that approximately 50% of inmates suffer from at least one medical condition in a year, and most of these conditions are related to psychiatric disorders (Rocha et al., 2020). As these inmates continue to age while in prison, they become more predisposed to other age-related illnesses, making it extremely expensive for the state to cater to the psychiatric conditi...