There are roughly 1,300 state, federal, and privately run prisons in the United States (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). Depending on the location in the U.S., the state prison system ranges from nearly fifty percent under maximum amount of prisoners allowed to almost fifty percent over the maximum amount of prisoners allowed. The federal prison system in total is running approximately forty percent over maximum amount of prisoners allowed. The fact that both state and federal prison systems are overcrowded is a direct result of the stiffer penalties that certain crimes demand, the minimum maximum laws, and the three strikes and you are out laws that sentence habitual offenders to longer sentences. The cost to run a prison system varies greatly
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The BOP currently houses over 216,000 inmates in 117 federal institutions, 15 privately managed prisons, 185 residential reentry centers, and home detention” throughout the United States (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 247). The total inmate population in the federal system has increased nearly nine fold from just thirty years ago. The budget to run the federal prison system is a quarter of the Department of Justice’s annual budget but is still considerably less than California’s annual correctional budget. The reason for the increase in the inmate population is due to the same reasons there has been an increase in the state incarceration population. Even though the recent trend with the state incarceration population is starting the decline, the federal population is still increasing and causing a big overcrowding problem. The biggest overcrowding issues are at the medium and high security prisons (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). The prisoners that make up the federal prison system are mainly there for drug charges such as trafficking, selling, and distributing, but there is a considerable amount of prisoners in the federal prison system for immigration crimes. The cost to house a prisoner in the federal system is similar to the state system at approximately $29,000 per inmate with the level of security that they are housed in playing a role in that dollar
The BOP currently houses over 216,000 inmates in 117 federal institutions, 15 privately managed prisons, 185 residential reentry centers, and home detention” throughout the United States (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 247). The total inmate population in the federal system has increased nearly nine fold from just thirty years ago. The budget to run the federal prison system is a quarter of the Department of Justice’s annual budget but is still considerably less than California’s annual correctional budget. The reason for the increase in the inmate population is due to the same reasons there has been an increase in the state incarceration population. Even though the recent trend with the state incarceration population is starting the decline, the federal population is still increasing and causing a big overcrowding problem. The biggest overcrowding issues are at the medium and high security prisons (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). The prisoners that make up the federal prison system are mainly there for drug charges such as trafficking, selling, and distributing, but there is a considerable amount of prisoners in the federal prison system for immigration crimes. The cost to house a prisoner in the federal system is similar to the state system at approximately $29,000 per inmate with the level of security that they are housed in playing a role in that dollar