Effects Of Overpopulation In Prisons

In today’s prison systems in the United States, prisons are being flooded with an extremely large amount of new inmates resulting in prisons in the United States becoming more and more overpopulated. The problem of prison overpopulation is only getting worse and becoming a major issue for the United States prison systems. Federal prisons are already 41 percent over their rated capacity and there are still inmates pouring into the prisons every day. There are several problems with prison overcrowding. The first problem that may result from prison overcrowding is an increase in prison violence. Violence may increase in the prisons as more and more inmates are packed into living quarters. The overcrowding in the prison systems lead to increased levels of both violence and misconduct which will lead to an unsafe environment for both the inmates and the prison staff. Crowded prisons also mean a decrease in inmate privacy which could cause inmates to start even more violence in the prison. Overpopulation in prisons only makes inmates more inmate stress and unhappiness …show more content…
Along with the fact that inmates have to share cells with multiple other inmates, inmates also are often misclassified due to the limited space in the prison available. Often times, prisoners are classified on the basis of which space is available rather than putting the prisoners in proper security levels and places where they have the most beneficial programs available to them. Because of this, it is possible to find inmates who should be held in medium security levels, living in maximum security conditions which are unfair and stressful for the inmate. By not properly placing the inmates where they should be, prison systems are only slowing down the process for inmates and creating for slower exit times which creates for even more overpopulation in the