The United States has the highest number of incarceration across the globe despite having decreased crime rates. The population of US prisons is increasing at an alarming rate leading to overcrowding, which places the life of inmates and staffs at danger as cases of sexual and physical abuse increase. Statistics show that the incarceration system in the US holds over 2.4 million people who are locked up in 1719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2259 juvenile facilities, 3283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country Jails ( Williams, 2014) . It is estimated that one-quarter of the world’s prisoners are located in the US prisons, where 1 out of 100 adults ends up in jail. Every year, approximately 688,000 people are released from both the federal and state prisons. Based on the number, it shows that nearly 12 million people in America go through jails, excluding those in probation and parole. More than 430,000 ate at local jails in the US every time awaiting trial and convictions ( Collier, 2014) . Despite being highly populated, most prisons are underfunded, which leads to rising cases of abuse and violence among inmates. Due to the overcrowding of jails, the cost of management is rising and costing taxpayers high. There is a need for the government to come up with better policies to reduce overcrowding due to increasing cases of mental illness, infectious diseases, increases in the offense, and high cost, which burdens taxpayers.
Overcrowding in the US prison has affected the health of inmates both physically and psychologically. Due to the high population, it is difficult to provide quality care to all inmates. Just like any other American citizen, the constitution grants equal rights to prisoners when it comes to the provision of medical care services ( Quigley & Godchaux, 2014). Overcrowding has made it challenging for the prisoners to access quality health care services despite the rising cases of psychiatric disorders. Overcrowding elevates the blood pressure of inmates leading to numerous mental illnesses. Research conducted by MacDonald (2018 ) shows that mental illness in today's US prison is rising, with over 64% of incarcerated people reporting cases of mental illness. Psychological health issues are increasing among inmates due to the high level of pressure and stress experienced in crowded prisons. Inmate stress levels and behavior are rising due to frequent violence against other inmates. At least half of US prisoners have mental conditions, while 10-25% suffer severe mental illness like schizophrenia and affective disorders. People of color and the minority groups are the majority prisoners, and most get arrested for non-violent issues like trespassing and drug use which deserves light punishment ( Schoenfeld, (2018) . Most of these minorities get incarcerated before trial, while a plea agreement could have saved them from imprisonment. Due to these disparities, people of color rarely open up on their mental conditions since they feel unsafe. Most of the health problems are treatable at an early age; however, inadequate care facilities make it difficult to treat the patients until the disease gets out of control. The cost of accessing mental health treatment and care while in prison is very high, especially for the minority. Most prisoners lose their medical covers like Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare making it challenging to access better health care ( MacDonald, 2018) . In many prisons, inmates are required to co-pay $2 to $5 to cater for medical visits where most cannot afford to pay for the medical visits. Prisoners earn little in their prison jobs, which cannot cater for all the mental medications and therapies.
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Chronic health conditions are also at the rise in the US overcrowded prisons. Studies show that approximately 40% of US prisoners have at least one chronic infection like diabetes, hypertension, tumor, and others. With the high number of prisoners within one facility, it is challenging to cater to the health and lifestyle needs of every individual. The health needs of most prisoners with preexisting conditions are ignored and neglected, leading to complications and deaths ( Ismail & De Viggiani, 2017) . A large percentage of people develop these conditions while in prison due to overcrowding and unhealthy and unhygienic prison conditions. Also, overcrowding infectious diseases like tuberculosis are high in prisons leading to the death of many inmates. Statistics show that the spread of HIV/AIDS is high in US prisons and becoming an issue of concern. The overcrowding states of US prisons contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS infection since it creates an opportunity for the sexual assault that transmits the virus. Just like any other social facility, prisons, criminal justice settings should have adequate HIV/AIDS testing, counseling, and medical facilities to help curb the spread ( Westergaard et al., 2013) . However, overcrowding in these prisons has made it challenging for inmates to access quality medical treatment and access to therapies. Access to Antiretroviral therapy and ARVs is limited to many inmates.
Physical violence is another problem faced by prisoners in overcrowded US prisons. It is challenging for the limited staff in the prison facilities to offer adequate monitoring and management of the prisons. Cases of violence and suicide are high in both adults and juveniles confinement centers ( Williams, 2014) . Overcrowding has changed prisons from being facilities for corrections to despair and violence. Inmates, especially those confined for slight mistakes, face harassment from their violent colleagues who know they will spend the rest of their lives in prisons. For instance, inmates who are placed in overcrowded cells where six sleep on beds and two on floors suffer a panic attack, which makes them turn into violent ( Ismail & De Viggiani, 2017) . The security guards themselves are not safe due to frequent attacks from the prisoners while on duty. There is thus a need to come up with better policies to reduce overcrowding of prions facilities to reduce rising cases of health and violence among the inmates.
Prisons in the US are becoming very expensive to manage and are costing the taxpayers a high burden. The overcrowding of prisoners is creating a need for expansion of facilities, improved health care, increases in the number of staff, and technology for surveilling the prisoners. For the last three decades, American citizens have experienced increases in tax yearly to cater for the growing number of prisoners. States are pouring billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money in the yearly budget to provide for the high cost of overcrowded prisons. Research shows that one inmate cost, on average, $31,286 taxpayers money annually ( Williams, 2014) . Currently, the number of massive incarceration is higher than public protection in the United States. Instead of focusing on reducing the underlying cause of crime, which is cheap, the government is concentrating on imprisonment, whose cost is thrice. Imprisoning non-violent offenders, especially those with chronic diseases, does not benefit them; instead, prisons makes them more dangerous and increases the cost of medical services while in prison. With one out of a hundred adults in Americans getting imprisoned yearly, it shows that the Americas have become addicted to incarceration, and the huge cost of managing prisons costs taxpayers billions of dollars. Federal and state governments are doing little to reduce crime rates; thus, if not controlled, overcrowding in the prisons will continue to be a significant issue in the United States. The huge amount of taxpayers’ money used in prions could be used to grow other essential areas of the economy like health care.
Drug and substance use is the leading cause of mass incarceration in the United States, which requires to be addressed to reduce overcrowding and save taxpayers money. A policy needs to be implemented to allow prosecutors to omit listing quantities of illegal substances in indictments for low-level drug cases. For instance, instances of high drug arrest are the use of Marijuana, which led the state of Washington and Colorado legalized Marijuana in 2012 ( Dean, 2019) . The states then and came up with reforms of decriminalizing Marijuana where its possession remains illegal but only punishable by fine. The number of people who got arrested and imprisoned for the use of drugs reduced significantly. Another effective strategy is to come up with an alternative to incarceration by increasing the use of drug-treatment programs. The programs are more useful to change drug abuse behavior compared to imprisonment, especially in juveniles and young adults. The programs are cost-effective and will reduce both overcrowding and taxpayers' money. The criminal justice system needs to be more lenient on non-violent offenders, especially the elderly and those with underlying chronic diseases. Instead of incarcerating such individuals, the system can give them tasks like offering community services for some days. The programs of “compassionate release” need to be directed on such elderly and ill prisoners who have already served a significant portion of their jail term. Allowing parole for elderly prisoners, non-violent juveniles, and those with chronic diseases will reduce overcrowding in prisons and the high cost of maintenance like medical care ( Petersilia, 2018) . For non-serious crimes, the criminal justice system needs to increase the use of probation to depopulate prisons and reduce the cost of management.
In summary, overcrowding in prison is becoming an issue of concern due to its negative impact on inmates and taxpayers. Health cases like mental illness, chronic diseases, and transmittable diseases like HIV/AIDS are increasing in the prisons and are all contributed by harsh living conditions in jail. The high number of incarcerated people with mental and other health conditions is making it hard to offer quality treatment, an act that is causing the struggle and death of many inmates. Cases of physical violence in prison are also since overcrowding comes with the challenge of poor management. Taxpayers are increasingly paying high every year to cater to costly prisons system. Better reforms need to be put in place to decongest incarceration facilities to reduce poor living conditions for inmates and save on taxpayers' money. Sending a few people to prison over drugs crime will reduce congestion in the facility. Also, adapting the parole system and extending compassion by releasing older adults and those with chronic diseases to reduce the high cost of managing the inmates.
References
Collier, L. (2014). Incarceration Nation: The United States leads the world in incarceration. A new report explores why and offers recommendations for fixing the system.[Electronic Version]. American Psychological Association , 45 (9).
Dean, W. (2019). Marijuana Laws in the United States: How Changing Marijuana Laws Are. ReVisions , 4.
Ismail, N., & De Viggiani, N. (2017). The new prison framework will be inflexible, costly, and do nothing to ease chronic overcrowding and violence. Democratic Audit .
MacDonald, M. (2018). Overcrowding and its impact on prison conditions and health. International journal of prisoner health .
Petersilia, J. (2018). Alternative Sanctions: Diverting Non-violent Prisoners to Intermediate Sanctions: The Impact on Prison Admissions and Corrections Costs. In Minimizing Harm (pp. 115-149). Routledge.
Quigley, B., & Godchaux, S. (2014). Prisoner human rights advocacy. Loy. J. Pub. Int. L. , 16 , 359.
Schoenfeld, H. (2018). Building the prison state: Race and the politics of mass incarceration . University of Chicago Press.
Westergaard, R. P., Spaulding, A. C., & Flanigan, T. P. (2013). HIV among persons incarcerated in the US: a review of evolving concepts in testing, treatment and linkage to community care. Current opinion in infectious diseases , 26 (1), 10.
Williams, A. (2014). Prison overcrowding threatens public safety and state budgets. Criminal justice reform. Retrieved from . https://www.alec.org/article/prison-overcrowding-threatens-public-safety-state-budgets/
