Overcrowding in Correctional Facilities
Introduction
It is easy to imagine that suffering and misery are reserved for Asian and African countries; however, anguish, pain, and misery are also present in the developed world’s correctional facilities. One of the significant challenges that the US prisons encounter today is overcrowding. Overcrowding is accommodating too many persons in a too-small space. Consequently, overcrowding in jails leads to a myriad of health, psychological, and ethical problems. As per the BJMP manual of UN-HABITAT of 2017, a 4.7-meter square cell is only supposed to contain ten prisoners. However, in Iowa (2017), the jails held up to 25% more prisoners than the required estimate. This paper seeks to analyze the ethical and moral issues arising from overcrowding in the US correctional facilities and their causes and solutions.
What causes overcrowding in jails?
According to the bureau of justice statistics (BJS) carried out in 2018, close to 2.2 million Americans were behind bars. There are more persons in the US jails than in a majority of the nations of the world. But why are there so many people in the US jails? Several factors can be blamed for the high population in the prisons. They include; Tougher penalties for low criminal offenses, the addition of new criminal offenses on the US penal code, criminals returning to prison for failing to adhere to community regulations, and, last but not least, the ongoing campaign against drugs. With the DEA casting a vast net over the drug cells and cartels, both small fish and the sharks of the drug industry end up incarcerated for long periods. The life imprisonment clause also tends to exacerbate the situation as it ensures such prisoners can never be let out even though prison facilities are limited. Congestion in the prisons ensures as a result of a lack of investment in the expansion of the prisons.
Ethical issues arising from overcrowding
The prisoners’ behavior can be directly affected by the congestion in the jails as a result of the increased stress levels brought about by the lack of personal space. When prisons are congested, the facilities meant for fewer people are overwhelmed by a large number of inmates. In such cases, jails will experience increased levels of aggression from the prisoners. Many times, jail fights and strikes happen in the overcrowded prisons rather than spaced out prisons. Since most prisoners will be lost in the crowd, depression will most likely kick in as they fail to get the individual attention they may require from the wardens. As a result, older inmates may take advantage of fresh inmates leading to cases of rape or sodomy, leading to the rise of sexually transmitted diseases.
Moreover, the increase of prison vices may lead to raw inmates incarcerated for minor offenses adopting the behavior of the hardcore criminals, such as extortion, selling of drugs, rape, jailbreaks, or even murder. In recent times, studies have shown that jail suicides are more rampant in congested prisons as compared to less crowded correctional facilities. In addition, Researchers conclusively identified increased levels of stress and loneliness in the facilities as one of the culprits. Overcrowded prisons are unpleasant places to visit in many cases, and even families of incarcerated persons fail to show up regularly, leading to feelings of abandonment experienced by the inmates. Furthermore, crowding in prisons leads to a feeling of comfort and a sense of belonging by prisoners from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds. In turn, it promotes the high increase of criminal activities by such a group of ex-convicts, in bid to re-join ‘their community’ back in jail. In general, crowded prisons bring out the worst in criminals, as the staff assigned fails to monitor all the inmates effectively. The minimized supervision in the correctional facilities, in turn, is brought about by an overstretched workforce in the prison department. As a result, it fails to comply with the standards of prison management.
Solutions for congested prison facilities.
Several things can be done to reduce congestion in prisons today. Firstly, the government should start by finding alternative penalties for minor criminal offenders. Penal prosecution is less accommodative to minor criminal offenders, for example, petty thieves and burglars. Sending fewer prisoners can be achieved by cooperation between the police and the offenders can lead to non- sentencing, which will reduce overcrowding in prisons. Secondly, shorter jail terms can be introduced for minor drug offenders, such as traffickers and smugglers. As it stands, smugglers and traffickers benefit little in the drug industry but are still slapped with long sentences leading to unnecessary congestion. Thirdly, the prisoners should have a chance to reduce their terms in the event of good behavior. Currently, the system is in place but hardly applicable as it requires them to participate in a drug treatment program. If such a condition is done away with, many more prisoners might get home early. Fourthly, judges can directly give the minimum sentences as per the law. Currently, the judges are prevented by the law from consistently giving minimum terms to offenders. Finally, life sentences, which are a significant cause of overcrowding, could be substituted by alternative forms of sentences, such as death sentencing. However, such decisions should only be reached after a thorough and meticulous trial.
Conclusion
As a result of crowding in the correctional facilities in the last few decades, there has been a steady rise in prisons’ violent cases. As pointed out earlier, the prison system’s stress levels rise with the increasing number of prisoners in closed-up spaces. Also, as mentioned above, some prisoners find solace in the jail communities and would thus keep on committing offenses to get back in prison. Besides, according to the studies carried out in California jails in 2004, Drug running and usage among inmates increases with the increase in incarcerated prisoners. Violence, usage of hard drugs, and rape incidences are rampant in overcrowded prisons as per the earlier mentioned studies. The bottom line is that the morality of prisoners is negative if jails are overcrowded.
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