Keeping America’s Vulnerable Safe: Fixing the problem of overcrowding in our prisons
Introduction
The United States has the largest prison population in the world with about 2,193,798 people currently in prison.1 This amounts to about 737 people per 100,000 people The next highest prison population is in China where there are about 118 people in prison for every 100,000 people.The overcrowding of American prisons has been a political topic of discussion for quite some time. 18 states have reported that their prisons are operating at over 100 percent capacity.2 This issue has been caused by several different factors. One reason is the American perspective of those who have committed a crime. It is a common belief held in American society that those who have committed a crime should be put in prison and locked away. A second reason is the length of prison sentences given to those who have committed relatively small and non-violent crimes. And lastly, overcrowding in prisons is caused by high recidivism rates due to the decrease in use of rehabilitation programs in this country.3
With the amount of people in American prisons comes more risk and safety hazards. One safety hazard presented by this issue is the increased risk of disease and sickness for inmates and officers.This issue has been magnified due to the current global pandemic. The close quarters that inmates live in are similar to those in nursing homes and dorms in college. These communal living environments have allowed COVID to spread at a much higher rate. A second safety hazard is the increased number of assaults that occur. With more inmates comes more anxiety and stress for the prisoners. This leads to increased tension and therefore assaults. Lastly, there are resource availability problems (ie. food and housing shortages) caused by the overcrowding of prisons. By the time food reaches all the inmates it may no longer be at the proper temperature and may be even unsafe to eat. Additionally, with prisons being over capacity, many prisons have had to improvise on where inmates can live.4
Prisoners, although seen as outcasts of society because of their crimes, are a very vulnerable population, especially today during a global pandemic. It is easy to forget they exist and disregard the problems of overcrowding in our prisons. However, their voices should not be ignored and their crimes do not mean they deserve to be treated inhumanely.
In order to combat this problem of overcrowding and keep this vulnerable population safe, the United States should implement a policy of releasing prisoners who are terminally ill, old, or needed to take care of family members with no other guardian and who no longer pose a threat to society.
Background of the Issue
The first prison in the United States was built in Philadelphia in 1790. It was established by the Quakers as a form of nonviolent punishment. It was a place for prisoners to self-reflect and get spiritual guidance. After this, the prison system in the United States started to grow and spread across the country. From the beginning violence against prisoners was common. They were also subject to harsh living conditions. This sparked several lawsuits from prisoners and led to more regulation by the government.
Recently, this issue has been returning to the spotlight as America’s prisons are becoming more and more crowded. There has been a 500% increase in prisons and jails over the past 40 years. However, crime rates have not changed nearly as dramatically meaning that this increase is largely due to changes in laws and policies.
Causes of overcrowding
There are two main reasons we have started to see a dramatic increase in the number of people incarcerated.
One reason is that we started to send more people to prison. The War on Drugs officially began in the 1980s. This “tough on crime” approach has caused a substantial increase in the amount of people going to prison. Today, there are more people behind bars for a drug offense than the number of people who were in prison or jail for any crime in 1980.
A second reason is that people are getting longer prison sentences. Mandatory minimums on sentencing have made sentencing harsher and increased the amount of time people are incarcerated. The National Research Council reported that half of the 222% growth in the state prison population between 1980 and 2010 was due to an increase of time served in prison for all offenses.
Why is overcrowding bad?
Overcrowding is detrimental to prisoners and prison staff for several reasons. One major concern is the health of prisoners and staff. Prison administrators, when faced with rising populations, find it harder to adhere to or meet international standards and guidelines to ensure humane conditions for prisoners. The close living conditions allow disease to spread more easily. This became evident during the current pandemic. According to The Guardian, the COVID death rate in prisons is three times higher than outside. This should be a major concern for all Americans because those imprisoned still deserve to be safe despite the crimes they may have committed.
Overcrowding also leads to a lack of resources. The lack of enough staff and space in prisons causes many inmates to have increased anxiety and be more on edge. This leads to more violence among prisoners. It also means that prisoners are living in harsh conditions where there may not be enough housing, money, food, or other resources.
What is being done?
The number of people incarcerated has started to plateau over the last few years in the United States. This can be attributed to several legislative changes.
At the state level, one significant policy was California’s Proposition 47. This piece of legislation reclassified certain low-level property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Another significant policy was New York’s reformation of the Rockefeller drug laws. These laws imposed harsh mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug-offenses.
At the federal level, the United States Sentencing Commission voted to reduce excessive sentences for 46,000 people serving time for federal drug offenses. Congress also passed the Fair Sentencing Act which reduced the disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine offenses.
What more can be done?
There are two solutions to the problem of overcrowding: 1. Build more prisons. 2. Use policy reform to reduce the number of prisoners. Building more prisons is likely not a long term solution to this issue. It is also not a very cost effective solution.
The best solution going forward would be policy reform. If the United States adopted policies that would release those inmates that were old, terminally ill, or needed to support their family and no longer posed a threat to society, this would help reduce the problems of overcrowding. Also, the United States should have more tools to help prisoners re integrate into society so they do not return to prison.
Counter arguments
It is the American viewpoint that those who have committed a crime should be sent to prison. Imprisonment is a large part of the culture surrounding crime in this country. It is less about rehabilitation and more about a person being locked away and punished for their actions. Many people think that sending less people to prison and implementing lesser sentences is being “soft on crime” and prisoners are not getting the punishment they deserve.
Conclusion
Reducing overcrowding in prisons would help the United States financially. American taxpayers, pay on average, over $36,000 on a federal prisoner a year. This is an annual expense of over $5.8 billion a year for all federal prisoners in the United States.
Reducing overcrowding would also help keep prisoners and prison staff safer and healthier. It would reduce many of the problems associated with prisons today and help create an environment closer to the one that the Quakers envisioned when they established the first prison centuries ago.
Bibliography
1 World Prison Populations, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm
2 Niall McCarthy, “The World’s Most Overcrowded Prison Systems”, Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/01/26/the-worlds-most-overcrowded-prison-systems-infographic/?sh=4519da8d1372
3 Overcrowding of U.S. prisons raises cause for concern in CO, The Law Office of Care Enichen, https://www.carelawboulder.com/articles/overcrowding-of-u-s-prisons-raises-cause-for-concern-in-co/
4 Overcrowded Prisons and Officer Safety, The TASA Group, https://www.tasanet.com/Knowledge-Center/Articles/ArtMID/477/ArticleID/190/Overcrowded-Prisons-and-Officer-Safety
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJPH-04-2018-0014/full/html
2) You provide reasoning for the urgency of the issue in your introduction paragraph. I recommend perhaps combining some of these sentences into one sentence and explaining in further detail later.
3) You provide multiple research studies and statistics that support the issue. I believe the current action and counter arguments could utilize more explanation.
4) Once again, you mentioned but I believe you could go into greater depth on this issue.
5) I believe the arrangement is very well done. No suggestions here.
6) The subtitles are very brief but get the idea across in an efficient matter.
7) I recommend possibly shortening the introduction so you could elaborate later on in the essay.
The thesis is again very strong and clear what is meant to be achieved by a potential policy change in the prison system
I think the sources for the policy implementation were strong. However, I believe there is still room to expand on how this could work. For this section it is only mentioned that the prisons should be built or reduce the amount of prisoners but it doesn’t exactly state how this could be done. Perhaps in future drafts this could be expanded on.
This draft did address opposing views on it which I know is something I struggled with in mine. However, this section could also be elaborated on.
The structure and arrangement were perfect and requires minimal changes.
Again, I would state that in future drafts, possibly expanding on the topics I mentioned before could strengthen this essay. You are definitely on the right track though!