Prison Overcrowding

like wildfire. Whitney Bermes for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle writes, Montana is currently going over 15 different bills to help reduce the prison population in the state. Montana has experienced an increase in the prison population and wants to start to reduce that number quickly. Each piece of legislation deals with the many contributors to prison overcrowding. Reduction in sentencing, changing some crimes from being felonies to misdemeanors, and ending giving larger sentences each time the…

America has struggled to meet the demands of inmate housing. Privatization has long been used as a solution to America’s overcrowding problem within prisons, claiming to be cheaper without losing out on quality. However, despite their first institution in 1984 (Seiter 417), private prisons have not met their claims. There is no proof that private prisons save taxpayer money, prisons are still over capacity, and corruption soars. Rather than accommodating the pervasive mass incarceration problem…

Prison has many values in teaching prisoners the virtues of labor; softening the pain of confinement; their moral regeneration; enabling them to run commercial enterprise with cheap labor, or at least to keep down their cost; punishment and deterrence maintain prisons building public works; control and discipline. From time to time authorized inquiries have been held into prison work or the whole prison system; the subject of work for prisoners has been carried along and swirled about by the…

counterparts Big Pharma and Big Oil, these companies are the two biggest contributors to the third, silent influencers of American politics, Private Prisons (Cohen). Private prisons take responsibility for sixteen percent of federal prisoners and six percent of state prisons according to the ACLU. With a prison population of 2,220,300 Americans, private prisons are becoming one of the largest industries in the nation (Bureau of Justice Statistics).…

Electronic ankle bracelets have become a popular and cost efficient way of keeping defendants in custody. A burden on taxpayers, overcrowding in our prison systems has become a major concern for the criminal justice system. House arrest is a great strategy to keep the inmate population down and allowing offenders options at maintaining unemployment and continuing their education where applicable. Electronic ankle bracelets are frequently used for community corrections efforts. One type of…

700% throughout the past century. This staggering amount far exceeds that of the United States’ population, making 32% look diminutive in comparison. Currently, there are more than 200,000 incarcerated people that are being detained inside a federal prison facility. In an attempt to improve public safety, a set of policies such as the “tough on crime” movement have been enacted, using punishment as the sole response to crime. Penalties such as the three strikes, zero tolerance and mandatory…

the real events regarding the true life inside of a prison, the manner in which prisoners are treated is also clearly expressed. As I was growing up, my mother used to make me watch such types of movies in hopes of keeping me out of prison. Although I was discouraged from criminal activities, movies do not deter everyone’s behavior, and; thus, movies fail to advance the penal reform agendas. In other words, prison movies that illustrate that prison life affects a person’s well-being, they are…

do and some don’t. This paper will discuss the current prisoner release system, the short comings and ways to help remedy those roadblocks to produce active citizens that are a productive member in their communities. First, where and why the modern prison system was established and how it has changed over time. Current struggles that former prisoners face today. Finally, concluding with how the system might be changed. What could be built to help alleviate the issues facing the current parole…

without the assistance of public revenue — all they ask for in return is that they are given the authority to collect fees from probationers and jail those who are unable to pay. This results in a system that basically functions as a modern day debtor’s prison where the poor are punished for being poor and people end up in jail for not being able to pay off traffic tickets. “The financial incentive of for-profit companies runs counter to the even and fair application of justice,” says Rep. Mark…

funding in prisons than in our education systems for multiple reasons. Most of those reasons include overcrowding, states pay more for luxuries for the prisoners, including releasing inmates or transferring inmates to other state prisons. According to Lori Bezlaher of The Nation, she states that the United States alone incarcerate more adults under twenty one than any other country in the world. As the…