20 Jul 2022

119

The Growing Problem of Prison Overcrowding

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Academic level: College

Paper type: Essay (Any Type)

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Pages: 2

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Prison overcrowding is a growing problem and becoming serious as time passes by; it has become an elusive phenomenon even though there have been plans in place by the national and international actors on acting on it for decades. The problem has seemed to be a representation of the common characteristic; it troubles the modern type of prison since the invention was put to place in the 19 th Century. An ongoing debate within the United States in regards to strategies to resolve the problem represents a problem that the prisons systems are facing especially when the prisons are overcrowded and the difficulties the politicians are facing in trying to determine the matter of prison overcrowding under the double circumstances of the court orders and the fiscal crisis. It is fair to put it that it is generally much more comfortable to present overcrowded prisons that come out with ways of implementing useful patterns of reducing prison populations. 

The debates also point out that the issue of prison overcrowding is based at an intersecting point where several essential policy and crime associated research topics meet. The topics are related to criminal sentencing, the responsibility of prison sentencing and imprisonment based on the system of criminal sanctions ( Haney, 2015) . Set resources in place for accommodating prisoners while providing the necessary healthcare and rehabilitative services, the growth of crime, and especially the crimes that welcome prison sentences, the costs at the disposal for prisons and prison construction; now the economic restraints and lastly the overall criminal policy determining a course in the criminal law and punishment in the community. 

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Prison overcrowding is somewhat associated with all the issues mentioned above, although there is no clear path as to how the matters intersect and at what conditions they are said to be effective in altering the course of growth or a decrease in the prison populations. A cross-sectional nature of prison is complex considering the difficulties associated with it ( Zahn, 2016) . Overcrowding has been a hidden issue in a long time till the time when it suddenly put policymakers under pressure, due to the activities spearheaded by the human rights watchdogs and some other court decisions which point out critical violations of the constitutional rights. A rapid decrease of the prison population comes as a surprise for just criminal administrators ( Wolff, Casillas, Perneger, Heller, Golay, Mouton,... & Getaz, 2016) . Turning patterns in part of the prison population imitate a degree of stability on the section of the justice policies and criminal sentences and the insulation from pressure coming from the outside. 

Strategies should be set out to reduce and achieve the goals of admittance and length of stay in prison such as penal prosecution. A consideration of the restorative justice method, consideration of use for the traditional justice system, decriminalization, reduction of numbers of the pending prisoners through the use of effective means of cooperation among police, prison service and the courts in assuring speedy trials and practical approach to case management ( Wolff, Casillas, Perneger, Heller, Golay, Mouton,... & Getaz, 2016). They should also consider the last resort principle, improved methods to access defense councils and effective ways of using paralegals when administering the legal approach, they should also have a plan in place to reduce the prison population, consideration of using the proven alternatives, they should also deliberate the use of an imposition to imprisonment only for the critical crimes and offenses and use the last resort through consideration of doing time in the shortest possible way. 

References 

Haney, C. (2015).  Prison overcrowding . American Psychological Association. 

Zahn, M. A. (2016). Prisons: Their Role in Creating and Containing Terrorists.  The Handbook of the Criminology of Terrorism , 508-519. 

Wolff, H., Casillas, A., Perneger, T., Heller, P., Golay, D., Mouton, E., ... & Getaz, L. (2016). Self-harm and overcrowding among prisoners in Geneva, Switzerland.  International journal of prisoner health 12 (1), 39-44. 

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