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Prison overcrowding
Prison Overcrowding
Victoria Olivares
CJUS 601: Criminal Justice Program Evaluation
Professor Nancy Alleyne
December 16, 2022
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Prison overcrowding
Abstract
A major issue within the the American criminal justice system is overcrowded in prisons.
There are various reasons as to why including limited budget, facility upkeep, staff, healthcare,
and so on. While there might not be one sole solution there are small steps that can be taken to
reduce overcrowding. These solutions include mentality, shortening sentences, bail reform, and
implementing rehabilitation programs.
Key words: prison overcrowding, budget, mentality, bail reform, rehabilitation
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Prison overcrowding
The use of prison as a tool to control crime is based on two factors: deterrence and
incapacitation (Sundt et al., 2016). Deterrence argues that if the threat of punishment is swift and
severe it will dissuade individuals from committing the same crime. Incapacitation is the idea
that removing criminals from the street will stop them from committing anymore crimes. On the
outside, one can picture a place where a criminal goes to live out their sentence or till, they are
released early for good behavior; however, they don’t understand what it’s like on the inside of
said place.
The Issue
Some individuals hold the idea that overcrowding in prison is just the justice system
doing their job and taking care of the criminals and getting them off the street. Well, this might
be true to an extent, many these criminals are facing sentences that don’t fit the crime. A criminal
might be faced with 10+ years for a minor possession charge. The mindset surrounding courts
and prisons is believed that the focus should be punishing the offender for crimes and not for
anything else. The judicial system uses this mindset to give harsher punishments/sentences to
criminals than what’s necessary to try and deter them from reoffending. It thought that punishing
individuals to the fullest extent will force them to learn their lesson and not commit any more
crime, however, often times these harsher sentences put these individuals in a position where
they are forced to commit more crimes in order to survive.
Due to the combination of war on drugs and tough on crime mindsets has contributed to
the increase of incarceration (Patten, 2016). It’s believed that the diction behind tough on crime
has caused Americans to create an irrational fear of crimes which caused a major social problem.
The publics perception of crime is influenced mostly by media and political lectures and not
statistical information. This conception directly influences how individuals live their daily lives
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Prison overcrowding
and primarily influence the political system. This results in policies being formed without long-
term plans that lead to mass incarceration, overcrowding, quality of life diminishing, and cost
taxpayers millions to fund the issue longer.
Problems Due to Overcrowding
Budget
Overcrowding in prisons have severely cut the budget needed to sufficiently run their
operation. Budget cuts are regularly made which leaves little to no room to improve the prisons
or even to pay their staff. Most of the funding for prisons come from taxpayers. With a limited
budget, compromises have to be made that directly affect the prisoners; such things affected
include healthcare, food, and accommodations. This continues to diminish the idea behind
prisons, they were created to help rehabilitate individuals and help them become productive
members in society.
Facility Upkeep
With a limited budget the upkeep of facilities was left to the bare minimum. The cost to
maintain a clean environment for inmates is around hundreds of millions, however, even then
inmates are still not living in the best condition. Due to overcrowding, prisons have decreased
the maintenance and turned their focus on getting as many prisoners as they can in their prison.
This caused inmates to live on top of each other in their cells, a shortage of beds, and living
space. This reduces the likelihood that their basic human needs are being met. Regardless of the
crime committed, no one should be forced to live in unsanitary conditions where their basic
needs are not being met.
Staff
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Prison overcrowding
Due to a reduced budget, many prisons are experiencing problems of retaining staff and
hiring those to work in prisons. Today, prison staff is often found to be overworked and
underpaid. Often, staff is barely trained to handle the prison system and its hostile environment.
Overcrowding doesn’t only affect the inmates but also the staff in a physiological and
psychological way (Pitts et al., 2014). Prisoners are often denied help that’s needed due to
limited room and staff being equipped to help. The lack of staff to oversee rehabilitation
programs denies those inmates that are serious about being rehabilitated any chance to get out
(Pitts et al., 2014).
Healthcare
Since prisons are not able to properly clean and maintain their facilities due to budget
constraints, this has caused inmates to come in contact with diseases and faces other health
issues. Sundt et al. (2016) stated in their article that overcrowding in California prisons caused
more waste production and more water usage that the state was unable to treat the water
properly. This caused waters and sewage system failures. Prisoners are often stuck in their cells
for 23 hours of their day which can take a toll on their health. These environments have likely
caused inmates to develop mental illnesses that are not properly diagnosed and often go
untreated.
This does not account for overcrowding in women prisons. Overcrowding has caused a
shortage of available programs to help women in prison and often results in women falling back
into addiction. Many women in prison are suffering from substance abuse, sexual and physical
abuse, and may even be pregnant while going into prison. The substance abuse and mental health
services administration was created as a way to provide help to individuals that suffers from
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Prison overcrowding
substance abuse or a mental illness while in prison and after they are released (Johnson et al.,
2015).
Increase in gang affiliation
While gang affiliation has always existed in prisons, with an increase of overcrowding,
more offenders are entering prison and forced to join gangs for protection. Overcrowding has
gotten so server in some cases that prisoners are resorting to sleeping in shifts for protection to
potential threats. Individuals are resorting to violence just to service in such conditions and
environments. This causes prisoners to gain more time on their sentences which causes the
behavior to be prolonged. Sundt et al. (2016) mentioned in their article that crowding in prisons
increased the likelihood of violence and in California prisons it was recorded that at least one
inmate per week committed suicide and even more died to preventable causes.
Recidivism Rates
During prison sentences, prisoners are often not given the option to better themselves to
become better citizens once they are released. Many inmates that leave prison find it nearly
impossible to succeed and often resort to committing crime again in order to be sent back to
prison. Society often makes it incredibly difficult for convicts to find housing and jobs to support
themselves. Inmates are not receiving rehabilitation that’s needed to become productive members
of society due to the overcrowding in prisons.
Mentality
The mindset behind criminal justice system is thought to be the removal of criminals
from society at any cost. This often means focusing more on punishment than the severity of the
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crime. This can be dated back to the beginning of judging one’s fate by a governing body. This
mindset can also be traced to racial discrepancies.
Significance
It’s important to remember the significance of prison overcrowding as it concerns the
taxpayer’s money and the overall quality of life received by those serving their time. It can also
show the consequences of bad policy making in the criminal justice system. Its no secret that the
United States tends to lock up more people per capita than any other nation. In fact, the rate of
those locked up are 698 per 100,000 (Sawyer & Wagner, 2019). Most prisons in the United
States hold more than double their capacity. Federal and State levels are being affected by the
massive increase of incarcerations; however, state prison populations are being more affected
due to prisoners being kept their the most. The United States spends more on the criminal justice
system than their educational system (Patten, 2016).
Literature going back decades have covered the massive amount of issues overcrowding
has caused. Scholar’s today are working to bring more attention to the unprecedented and
unparalleled size of the United States prison population (Guetzkow & Schoon, 2015). The courts
are finally opening up to the idea that change in the correctional system is needed especially
regarding the increasing prison population (Pitts et al., 2014). Sundt et al. (2016) stated in their
article that overcrowding has caused cases to be filled against California prisons for cruel and
unusual punishment and violating the 8th Amendment. As a result, California has created the
California Public Safety Realignment Act that mandates the reduction of their prison population
(Sundt et al., 2016).
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Prison overcrowding
Politicians that are trying to secure their positions adhere to the public’s beliefs regarding
crime and how to handle it as to not appear weak on crime. So, they introduce new legislation
detailing mandatory and determinate sentences, diminishes chance of good-behavior and time
served, and restricts early release programs. A good example would be War on Drugs, which
was the result of the public’s outcry over drugs. President Nixon declared War on Drugs and
deemed it to be public enemy number one; President Reagan continued this agenda as president
which caused incarceration rates to increase. During Reagan’s term, the population in prisons
had doubled, tripled, and then quadrupled. Hillary Clinton even publicly admitted that drug
policies failed, and the U.S. should take responsibility for the demand problem it caused
(Youngers, 2012).
Pitts et al. (2014) stated that due to the overuse of incarceration, it led to the inefficient
use of resources. Overcrowding has caused a plethora of issues for policy makers and the
government to address and fix as quickly as they can. However, many of them are perplexed by
their own polices and unable to decide what’s the best way to fix their mess. A few major issues
due to overcrowding include budget, facility upkeep, staff, healthcare, gang affiliation,
recidivism rate, and mentality.
Solution
There is no simple way to completely eradicate overcrowding however there are small
steps that could help decrease the population. Crime can not be eliminated entirely which means
more research need to be done to manage and reduce it. A universal policy should be created to
address all issues regarding overcrowding in prisons, showcasing small changes to combat the
issues. Steps that could be taken to help combat overcrowding include changing the mentality on
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Prison overcrowding
how society views criminals, shortening sentences and remaining consistent, bail reform, risk
assessment, prison reduction, and more programs to help reduce recidivism.
Changing Mentality
Changing others mentality on the prison system and reasons that created it in the first
place would have a major impact on reducing those entering prison. Today, the focus is more on
punishing the individual rather than rehabilitating them. This mentality doesn’t only affect
criminals going into the system but also the once coming out; often they are seen as social
outcasts and looked down on. Having others be more aware about prisons ability to have
programs that help inmates better themselves is a good first step in changing others mentality.
The public needs a more positive mentality about prisons and criminals; educating them on the
benefits that both can receive would help. Ryan et al. (2019) discovered in their study that when
a good support system is available for offenders who are released from prison, they are less
likely to be reincarcerated than those who don’t have the support.
Sentences
If nonviolent offenders where given shorter sentences, it would drastically reduce the
numbers that are currently in the system right now. This also frees up space for the serious
violent offenders to serve their time and hopefully give them more opportunities for
rehabilitation to later deter them from criminal behavior. Prison population is mostly made up of
drug offenders who were given harsher sentences during the early days of War on Drugs
(Youngers, 2012).
Bail Reform
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Prison overcrowding
One solution that’s been mentioned a number of times is bail reform, however its often
put aside due not fully understanding how it would help overcrowding. Bail reforms today lack a
key element: its ability to distinguish between minor and serious crime. The point of having bail
as an option is to keep dangerous people off the streets by having a judge set a high bail amount,
however, its only resulted in having those less economically sound server more jail time
(Baughman, 2020). Baughman (2020) stated that bail reform is a right afforded to one through
the constitution and state laws. Some believe that those with non-violent misdemeanors should
be aloud to go on their own validity unless under serious circumstances.
Risk assessment
A method to understand the sizable amount of people that are in prison goes back to to
understanding the population through risk assessment. This census would help us understand
why some offenders are currently incarcerated, what crime was committed, and the reason
behind why it was committed. This information can than be used in a risk assessment study to
learn if an offender is likely to offend again or not. While two offenders could commit the same
crime, a risk assessment would help learn more about the potential of recidivism. Viljoen et al.
(2018) discovered that risk assessments don’t have statistical data that it reduces crime, however,
they do help educate the professionals during the sentencing phases.
Prison reduction
The use of clemency and prison reduction approaches can substantially reduce the
number of offenders that are in prisons for sentences that don’t match the crime. Clemency is an
act of leniency; in legal terms it means pardoning an inmate or reducing their sentences.
Clemency is divided into two categories: pardons and commutation. Pardoning is granting an
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inmate a release from prison after serving their time while commutation is reducing a sentence to
a lesser one (Simon, 2016). Presidential and state officials are the two types of pardons.
Presidential pardon means that the president is able to grant pardons to inmates that committed
federal crimes; they can only be done for federal crimes. Using pardons and commutations could
significantly reduce the amount of longe sentences and eventually reduce the population to be
able to hold more violent offenders.
Recidivism Programs
Having more programs available in prison that focus on skill like how to write a resume,
applying for jobs or housing, and paying bills could help significantly reduce the recidivism rate
in our system. This is beneficial as many inmates were never taught how to do these things while
they were on the outside. These programs have the potential to help individuals prepare for life
outside prison while also teaching them how to be productive members of society. Walters
(2019) talked about the creation on Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program (FIT) in North
Carolina that helps released offenders gain access to healthcare, social services, and other
supports. With more of these programs available across United States it allows future employers
to see their progress and work experience.
Do Nothing
If no changes are made to fix overcrowding the problem will never be fixed. While
overcrowding in prisons will never fully be fixed, if nothing is done overcrowding will only get
worse for prisons. As stated previously, each year prisons get more and more prisoners which
will only get worse if no solutions are implemented. This method would cost little to nothing
budget wise since nothing would be done, the budget would remain the same and all issues
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Prison overcrowding
surrounding this would only get worse with time. The department will suffer more as issues
continue to grow and worsen. Staff is already suffering due to budget restrictions and high
turnover, Pitts et al. (2014) stated that not only are the prisoners suffering but staff also suffers.
Incremental Approach
Gradually implementing solutions allows change over time. As stated before,
overcrowding will never fully be gone, but with small steps and changes will allow the problem
to hopefully be fixed. Implementing fairer sentencing and recidivism programs is a great start.
These two solutions would have the best impact on reducing overcrowding. Fairer sentencing
would not only reduce overcrowding but also help with budgeting since nonviolent offenders
would be spending less time in jail allowing that money to be used elsewhere, like recidivism
programs. While recidivism may cost more money than the system wants, in the long run it
would help reduce the number of prisoners in prison and reduce reoffending. These programs
allow those in jail to be able to succeed once they are out and some programs can reduce
prisoners sentencing which helps overcrowding. Not having nonviolent offenders serving time in
prisons would free up room in prisons and allow staff to monitor prisoners better. Gradually
implementing just these two solutions would slowly change other aspects and issues due to
overcrowding.
Full Implementation
Full implementation of all solutions would have most impact on overcrowding in a short
time frame. This method would cost the most for the system and a need for a higher budget
would be greater. However, implementing all the solutions mentioned above would take a great
deal of time, patience, and dedication. While some solutions could be implemented right away,
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like fairer sentencing and programs in prisons, some will be harder, like changing others
mentality. Changing how others think and believe will not only take time but also money to
better educate people on why we need this and how the change will help. As of right now most
people want to just punish individuals instead of helping them get better, if we can educate them
on why rehabilitation is needed than slowly we can reduce the number of individuals entering
prisons and help reduce overcrowding.
Christian Worldview
In the Bible, we are taught that human nature is prone to sin. With that being said, not
every sin is a crime, but every crime is a sin. God places individuals in governing positions as he
believes they are the ones capable of getting the job done in a way he see’s fit. Romans 13:1-4,
“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from
God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority
resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers
are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what
is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if
you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger
to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”
Conclusion
Now that the various issues have been discussed which include limited budget, facility
upkeep, healthcare, gang affiliation, and so on, its evident the impact it has on prison
overcrowding. Many inmates are seen as criminals and not as human beings, often thrown in a
cell, and forgotten about until released. They are often left in poor environments, exposed to
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violent situations, and are released with no outside skill sets to help them survive. While no real
solution exists to get rid of overcrowding, there are steps to help reduce it. These steps include
changing mentality, shortening sentences, bail reform, rehabilitation programs, and so on.
Prisoners do not deserve to be in these harsh, deadly living conditions; hopefully with these steps
they can reduce the prison population in America. While most people would rather do nothing
about the problem, that will only increase the prison population and make overcrowding worse.
Incremental approach would be best both long term and financially. Implementing one or two
solutions will gradually help overcrowding and other issues due to the problem. Full
implementation of all solutions would cost the most however it’s the fastest way to fix
overcrowding.
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