The book Solitary: The Inside Story of Supermax Isolation and How We Can Abolish It divides into three parts: “Harsh Prison Conditions,” “The Human Damage,” and “The Alternative to Solitary.” In the first section, author Terry Allen Kupers explores the rise of supermax prisons and the normalization of long-term solitary confinement. Throughout the book, Kupers examines how isolation damages people’s psyches and its connections to race, violence, and gender. In the final section, Kupers requests a development of rehabilitative attitudes among all prison staff (as well as legislators and the public) and a plan to keep individuals with severe mental illnesses out of jails and prisons. Kupers argues for improvements in methodologies of protecting…
In a recent New York Times article, titled “A 90s Legacy that is Filling Prisons Today” by Timothy Williams, it primarily focuses on people who are serving long sentences for crimes, which are keeping them locked up in prisons for numerous years. Williams writes that the criminal justice system within the United States seems hand out long sentences without the possibility of parole or giving prisoners opportunities for resocialization. Within this cover story, Williams used a real example on how the criminal justice system gives it’s prisoners a restless feeling. Lenny Singleton had a crack habit back in the 1990s and robbed multiple stores within two weeks, which resulted with him a life sentence without the possibility of parole. This story continues to state that the increase of incarceration is becoming a problem.…
Prison Overcrowding has been an issue for many years in the United States but a good solution has never been put into action. The reason that prisons are overcrowded is because there are a high rate of criminals and the Criminal Justice system has not developed a plan to reduce the crime rate. As a result of prisons overcrowding inmates do not feel safe in the prison. Prison overcrowding can cause fights, diseases and mental illnesses. It can cause fights because there are too many inmates in one location and people might get angry because they are so close to each other in the cells.…
As of today the United States has a total of 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 942 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. Territories. Overcrowding prisons and not enough staff are becoming a serious issue in America. Everyday more citizens are committing crimes that lead them in either prison or jails. And overcrowding prisons lead to having four to five inmates to a cell, which being that close to other criminals can cause violent behavior. It can also cause lack of privacy, which can cause mental health problems and possibly even increase suicide rates and self-harm.…
After reading Schwarzenegger v. Plata, the case describes how California State Prisons are in violation of the eighth amendment, by failing to provide general health care for their inmates. One of the reasons why these prisons are failing to do so, is because of the excessive overcrowding of these premises. Which brings us to why the actual case was set in stone. The main reason of this case was to give inmates an "early release form" to help overcome the reoccurring problem of overcrowding. The way it is implemented is by having a three judge district court decide on whether the inmate should receive the release form.…
a. Why has the prison population of the BOP increased over the past few years? Increases in inmate prison population are due to federal court sentencing of offenders to longer terms of incarceration, the return of parole violators, and the effort to combat organized crime, drug trafficking, and illegal immigration. The majority of inmates are individuals who are serving sentences for drug law violations. In and effort to house and maintain all these inmates the BOP has opened at least 22 new correctional facilities since 2000, as well as four new medium-security facilities under construction plus two that are still in the design phase. b.…
On average, twenty percent of inmates in jails and fifteen percent of inmates in prisons have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness (Z. K. Torrey). In comparison, there are ten times less mentally ill individuals residing in psychiatric institutions than there are in prisons. The fact that the correctional system has become the primary treatment for the mentally ill should be deeply concerning to not only those affected by mental illness, but all of…
The Problems of Current US prisons and Solutions to Correct Problems Currently, more and more medias begin to talk about the problems of the US prison system, including the total volume of the prison system, the treatments of prisoners and the high quantity of reoffender. Some say that the total volume of the system is too small to accommodate current quantity of prisoners hence inmates may not stay well. And others say that the current correction system in the united states is not reasonable enough to effectively reduce the quantity of inmates. Thus in my opinion, I think that the current problems about the US prison systems are high inmate density, the lifestyle for inmates to stay in prisons and poor rehabilitation mechanism. Government…
The United States leads the world in highest number of people incarcerated. Because of this, the United States also has a prison overcrowding problem that needs attention. Prison overcrowding is becoming a significant problem because of increased recidivism rates, changes to laws, and improvements to law enforcement strategies. All lead to more people put in prison as Portland State University concludes. Although changes to laws and improved law enforcement strategies have good intentions, the fact that more people end up in prison causes far more difficulties.…
Correctional officers are held legally responsible to analyze their prisoner’s mental health needs; which includes the delivery of medications, treatment, and other forms of therapy (Osher et al.). By refusing to comply with the law and neglecting to arrange mental health services to the mentally challenged during custody, the United States government has failed to protect and defend many of its citizens. Criminals with mental disorders may be as guilty as the convicted felon who committed first- degree murder, but they should be treated differently in the criminal justice system. For, they have the mental capacity of an ignorant child and their disorder should be accounted for when imprisoned. “Many individuals with behavioral health disorder under correctional control have diverse and complicated needs, but with appropriate supervision and services, they are capable of recovery and ending their criminal justice involvement” (Osher at al.).…
However, the mentally ill are not the only ones acquainted with solitary confinement. “Because of housing policies and inadequate programming, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals; pregnant women; and people with infectious diseases may find themselves in solitary confinement solely because of their identity or medical condition” (Cloud). Most prisons are overcrowded and understaffed; they have very limited resources and this leads to unjust…
Prison Overcrowding Name: Sepehr Sadrameli Instructor: Dr.Dionne Peniston Course: Courts Systems & Practices Fall 2016 Identification of the problem Prison overcrowding is a common problem in different countries throughout the world including the United States. It refers to a phenomenon that occurs when demand for prison spaces in a particular jurisdiction exceeds the capacity of the institutions (Hough, Allen & Solomon, 2008). Prison overcrowding occurs when courts in a country when the rate of incarceration exceeds the rate at which the justice system releases prisoners, or the prisoners die thus freeing up space for new entrants.…
Why is overcrowding in prisons becoming such a huge problem? The overcrowding of prisons became problematic starting in the early 1980’s as the federal and state laws over sentencing policies shifted into having stricter punishments for criminal activities (BOOK, pg. #). The increase in the length of sentencing for prisoners are causing prisons to become dramatically overcrowded as prisoners are forced into remain in the prison system for a long period of time even though there are new prisoners continuing to enter through the system (article What can we do about prison overcrowding). The prison population as whole has rapidly increased to forty-one percent since 2000, even though the rate of correctional officers within the prison has only…
There are myriad publications online and in print that are enlightening classroom scholars on this topic. There are opinion pieces; then there are annotations that consist of reputable authors who collaborate to study the root of the situation. A book was published in 2000 called: Prison Overcrowding and Prison Population Inflation. This book highlighted the nature and development of the disparity between the prison populace and the accommodations made for the prisoners, it offered a broad package of measures, covering crime prevention, treatment programs, penal reform, and vouched for more of an informed public that can contribute to improvements in the organization and conduct toward prisoners in the penal…
The judicial system was buckling down on different drug offenses such as crack-cocaine, marijuana and opium. In 1985 marijuana was marked as the nation’s “number one problem” when it came to drug abuse. More people started using excessive amounts of marijuana since there was a decriminalization law. Eventually, it reached a high of sixty-four percent; programs and treatments were brought upon such as D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and G.R.E.A.T (Gang Resistance Education and Training). These programs were not just for adults, these were mainly targeted towards the youth so they will be pushed in the right direction.…