Abstract
Prison Overcrowding has been the number problem facing the penal institution in many countries around the world. As argued by the Director-General of English and Welsh (1990), that prison overcrowding is an indispensable precondition of sustained and universal improvement in the penal institutions' conditions. They are several causes that correctional institution to run out of services like healthcare, accommodation, and food. Prison overcrowding has led to so many menaces in the penal institution, more so contributing to the poor conditions of these institutions.as reported in 115 nations in the world, and prisoners exceed the capacity of the correctional institution. Even though prison overcrowding is a seen as a negative impact, some people also believe it to be a positive. Some people believe that this shown that the justice system of a nation is working, and crime breakers face the law.
Introduction
As discussed by various researchers and scholars, more than twenty national penal institutions system accommodates twice its capacity. Also, among these national penal institutions has a capacity between 150% and 200% capacity. With these figures, it clear that most nations have these common problems for overcrowding, and thus is not something new but rather what many countries have learned to live with it ("Prison overcrowding," 2013) .
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Prison overcrowding is not something new, and it has been in the past and present. Many studies in the past and the present have been done to look into the causes of overcrowding and what can possibly be done to reduce congestion in penal institutions. Nonetheless, overcrowding has resulted in many challenges, which include increase crime rate within the prison, poor sanitation, staff being overworked, rise of mental problems, rising cases of violence's within the inmates, and the spread of communicable diseases (Hough, Allen, & Solomon, 2008)
Overcrowding in penal institutions hinders the provision services and effective running of programmed such rehabilitation, formal education and vocational training, and recreational activities like sports. Since such services are delayed, the correctional facilities will be a hard rock to achieve and, more so making the institutional incompetent with what the laws of any state or nation require them to do. Even if these services are provided, not all prison inmates will be in a position to access these services, making them idle and thus making and thus, engaging in backdoor crimes like drug traffic. This happens because the prisoners have time to plan since they have no duties assigned to them. Moreover, if a prisoner has finished his or her jail term without the correctional services, they are high chances he or she maybe engage in the same crime, thus making the penal institution worthless (MacDonald, 2018).
As noted by UNODC (2013), prison overcrowding in many nations has made it difficult and problematic in providing health services and a secure environment for prisoners. It has led to insanitary, hazardous conditions that are harmful to the physical and mental well-being f of prison detainees. Moreover, prisoner’s caretakers are also not immune to the risk of this harm since they are exposed to unsanitary and inadequate healthcare in the prisoners (MacDonald, 2018) .
As reported by World Prison List (2016), the number of prisons detained around the world has reduced, especially in Europe, North and South America, and some parts in Africa and Oceania (MacDonald, 2018). Even though they are reported to decrease, they are nations still report high numbers of prisoners like Turkey, the Caribbean countries, and Russia, where the number of prisoners is still very high. With this report, they are 10.3 million overcrowded people held in penal institutions around the world.
Prison overcrowding has also led to increasing taxations to the taxpayers. Since the number of prisoners is higher, taxpayers have to pay more in order to prove to fund to the penal institutions. A researched down by Vera Institute has shown that millions of dollars are being set aside for correctional institutions for the maintenance of prisoners' programs and also paying off the staff. Since the more the prisoners, the more the staff thus, more staff need to be employed. With this, it has some negative impact on the growth of the country since the money that should have been used to build the country’s economic growth is being spent on the penal institutions(MacDonald, 2018).
Countries' populations are among the key things that contribute to prison overcrowding. In America, for instance, El Salvador is among the countries with the highest prison overcrowding. As from its dense population, the crime rates are higher, and therefore, many people getting into prison. With such populations, there are believed to be a lot of hell inside the El Salvador prisons ("Unbelievable Hell Inside El Salvador's Prisons," 2017). Maintaining law and order in such penal institutions is really hard, and much has to be put in place.
With overcrowding in the penal institution, they have been increased mental illness reports to individual inmates. This has been caused by frustrations and the mental torches individual are going through inside the correctional facilities and since they can any attention from the staff since they are also overworked in the part. Also, the spread of disease, especially communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, has been on the rise in the penal institutions. More so, the case of the spread of HIV among prisoners has been increased; this is caused by the penal institution not providing or limit the provision of protection (MacDonald, 2018).
Reforms to the Penal Institutions
Aims towards reducing prison overcrowding in many nations are the top priority. As suggested by MacDonald, (2018), that more prison units have to build and also using reforms such as amnesties, and early release should be employed. Though these suggestions do not provide a long-term solution to prison overcrowding, they have been used in some nations. The council of Europe in 1999 first tried addressing the issue of penal institutions, and in 2016, the White Paper (MacDonald, 2018).
The White paper reforms 2016 was all about solving the issues of prison overcrowding with short-term solutions but instead looking down deep to the case of a rising population in the penal institutions. The White Paper Reforms 2016 suggested d the use of custody to dentitions to reduce the prison overcrowding. Moreover, it recommended the amendment of national penal law decriminalization of some crimes, provision of alternatives sentences like community sentences, and monitoring of penal offenders by private and independent evaluators (MacDonald, 2018).
As argued by MacDonald (2018,) both the EU white paper (2016) and UNODC (2013), that the judicial systems should make some reforms to improve their efficiency, giving of fair sentencing policies. Also, reforms should target long term plans for crime prevention and reduction; this will help reduce the number of prisoners taken in for crimes ("Prison overcrowding," 2013) .
Although mothers and children have registered the smallest number of ratio of prisoners, they increase the total number of prisoners in the penal institutions' many suggestions have been made regarding the treatment of such prisoners since they as treated as vulnerable. Also added to the list of the vulnerable prisoners are those people with disabilities. UNDOC 2011 reforms report suggests that alternatives arrangements should be made to mothers and children ("Prison overcrowding," 2013) .
Also, to reduce prison overcrowding, individuals with mental issues should be taken to hospitals to seek medical attention. As discussed in many researchers and scholar's papers, many of the prisoners have an addiction to drugs and alcohol. Therefore, the individual who is really dependent on drugs or alcohol should be taken to the hospital rather than penal institutions, and this will reduce prison overcrowding. Specialized facilities used to rehabilitee such individuals whether the individual was convicted with a crime or not will reduce prison overcrowding ("Prison overcrowding," 2013) .
Also, reducing the length of the sentence of convicts will reduce prison overcrowding. Some nations have s laws that stipulate the number of years an individual is to serve and thus very rigid to the judges, such laws should be amended so that the judges have flexibility when giving out the sentence. Therefore, the judge can past short term sentences other than those that are enshrined in the country's laws. Parole systems should also be employed so that prisoners are encouraged to change the conduct, and thus, the can be released within a short time, thus reducing overcrowding in the penal institutions ("Prison overcrowding," 2013) .
As suggested by Penal Report 2013, a study on prisoners should be carried out in order to understand the crimes each prisoner is in for. With such data, it can be easy to track and trace the root cause of that particular crime and therefore find ways to mitigate the cause, thus reducing the number of prisoners convicted for that particular crime, thus reducing prison overcrowding ("Prison overcrowding," 2013) .
Conclusion
Prison overcrowding is a major challenge to every penal institution all over the world. Even though it is a challenge, some countries have made some improvements to reduce overcrowding. Many reforms have been suggested, but if well implemented, it will reduce the prison overcrowding. These will make the penal institutions more useful for providing its services of rehabilitation, educational and vocational training, and correctional services. Penal institutions should implement the reforms that are stipulated in the EU Chapter 2016 and UNDOC 2013 Reforms report. These two reforms' bodies are well accepted all over the world, and again their standards are international; thus, if well implemented, it will ease off the challenges of overcrowding.
References
Hough, M., Allen, R., & Solomon, E. (2008). Tackling Prison Overcrowding: Build More Prisons? Sentence Fewer Offenders? Bristol: Policy P.
Increase in the prison population and overcrowding. (2017). doi:10.1787/eco_surveys-fra-2017-graph46-en
MacDonald, M. (2018). Overcrowding and its impact on prison conditions and health. International Journal of Prisoner Health , 14 (2), 65-68. doi:10.1108/ijph-04-2018-0014
Prison overcrowding. (2013, May 3). Retrieved from https://www.penalreform.org/issues/prison-conditions/key-facts/overcrowding/
The Unbelievable Hell Inside El Salvador's Prisons. (2017, September 20). Retrieved from https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/unbelievable-hell-inside-el-salvador-prisons/
