revise paper

American Prison Systems

American Prison Systems

Amy Hoekwater

GCU JUS250

Mar 18 2018

The fact that American Prison Systems are high over capacity is as a result of the phenomenon of overcrowding. Overcrowded. This is a situation whereby the demand for space in American prisons exceeds the capacity for incarcerated prisoners that have been incarcerated in the place (Pitts, Griffin & Johnson, 2013). One solution might be for sentencing of offenders to better utilize alternatives to incarceration. The main argument which has been on debate concerns the issue that the American courts are sentencing offenders to prison imprisonment rather than effectively making use of other programs like rehabilitation centres, probation and parole.

Research carried out in 2010, revealed overcrowding in American Prison Systems is a reality and at the end of that year the prison’s correctional facilities were housing over 1.6 million inmates. More research indicates that at least 25 percent of the states are over capacity. Examples of Alabama and Illinois which have 196 percent and 144 percent respectively above the maximum capacity (Pitts, Griffin & Johnson, 2013). Comment by Stephanie Hunziker: Fix grammar: sentence structure is redundant.

Operating overcrowded prisons of the United States experiencing overcrowding are IS expensive, inconvenient as well as dangerous to both those incarcerated and the corrections staff. employees. There are quite a number of problems that comes with overcrowding. in this prisons. First is that the conditions worsens the state of the prisons in terms of sanitation and the inadequacy of basic amenities including health care. This means that those within the environments of the prisons will suffer from lack of enough facilities. Comment by Stephanie Hunziker: ??

Also, spread of diseases is more likely. to happen. This has been witnessed before. Poor sanitation will invites diseases associated with lack of cleanliness like cholera, typhoid, among othersetc. This makes running of the prisons more expensive. They also becomes difficult to control. Comment by Stephanie Hunziker: They? Who are you talking about here?

Moreover, inmates and staff serving in the prisons becomes stressed. Congestion makes them uncomfortable at all. For example, staff finds it very difficult to manage and control many inmates. Finally, you find that the prisons will; be susceptible to violence and riots. Inmates or even staff will have to riot in protest of better services. With inadequate facilities, competition is likely to happen among the inmates which can end up in fights among themselves.

The US government should, therefore, come up with measures to curb this menace which is to torn the American Prison Systems in parts. There are some ways which the government can do this. First is increasing the space in prisons. This is done by building new prison rooms with increased capacity and putting the required facilities. Secondly, the government should find alternative ways of dealing with offenders who have committed less violent offences. The alternative methods the government should adopt include probation, parole, house arrest, restitution and community service, among many others. This will help in reducing the number of offenders who are incarcerated.

Another solution can be to reduce the period of prison sentences. This will reduce the overcrowding in prisons and allow for the government to conduct rehabilitation opportunities. In fact it will save the taxpayers some coins since with prisoners spending more time in prisons means that they are likely to use more resources, hence, a burden to the taxpayers (SpearIt, 2014).

Incarceration has been used so far though research indicates that it is not working effectively as expected. This is because keeping offenders in prison is seen to be a superior way of handling offenders. First is that incarceration is seen to change the offenders and be able to be accepted in the society once more. This means that other methods already mentioned seems inferior to incarceration. Moreover, imprisonment is seen to serve victims justice. In fact, victims will view as lack of justice if an offender is handed over to community service without undergoing punishment in prisons. Moreover, the other methods including probation, parole, house arrest, restitution and community service are complicated and may not be that effective. It leaves authorities with lack of control on the offender. It can also expose the society to more danger. This makes incarceration superior.

References

Pitts, J.M.A.; Griffin, O. H.; Johnson, W. W. (2013). "Contemporary prison overcrowding: short-term fixes to a perpetual problem". Contemporary Justice Review. 17: 124–139.

SpearIt. (January 1, 2014). "Economic Interest Convergence in Downsizing Imprisonment". Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. SSRN 2608698.