Prison Overcrowding and Violence
Introduction
Prison overcrowding has become a significant problem in prison systems today. Violence is not a new term in referring to challenges and risks facing individuals in prison. The aspect of violence in prisons has been attributed to several factors of imprisonment that include overcrowding and turnover. Prison overcrowding causes violence because the number of prisoners exceeds the capacity the prison can handle (Honeywell, 2016). Insufficiency comes from exceeding prison capacity rates and thus gives rise to a decreased quality of life that may directly influence on prisoners’ healthcare, privacy, food, and necessary living facilities. Congestion may result from turnover, which refers to the rate that the population in prison is renewed. There are nutritional standards for food, health criteria for hospitals, and no permanent safety standards for prisons. Thus, several prisons host situations that give ways for violence. No wonder, violence has supervened in the prisons that hold these situations. The prisoners need to be counseled to refine their behavior and attitudes. However, in overcrowded prisons, such facilities are scarce. Healthy activities are not available for the prisoners, and the only option left for them is to get frustrated and engage in fights with their fellow prisoners. In overcrowded prisons, the prisoners have to fight for the commodities. The weak prisoners who do not belong to any gang are particularly vulnerable to get beaten by other inmates in such conditions. When prisoners have to fight over the necessary facilities, it will create a sense of competition among them, and the final result will be violence with deadly consequences.
Thesis Statement
Violence in an overcrowded prison may also arise from the limited ability of the prison to meet all human needs like access to appropriate places of accommodation so that individuals scramble and conflict over the available resources.
Hypothesis
Prison overcrowding has been a significant challenge resulting in management challenges within the prisons (Smith, 2015).
Measurement and Analysis
The main question in prison overcrowding concerns the driving force resulting in the increased levels of violence witnessed in overcrowded prisons as compared to a less populated prison. Violence is also associated with the lack of timely health care resulting in unrest and prison protests posing threats to the correctional officers.
Applicable Resources
Limited access to rehabilitation programs reduces the chances of the correction of individuals to better members of society. At the same time, lack of educational and vocational activities within the prison fails to improve inmates and even keep them occupied. Prisons include individuals of all kinds, innocent and guilty, rival gangs, and individuals charged with all sorts of crimes (Haney, 2015).
Ethical Standards
The mixture of individuals under the harsh conditions results in bullying, with different individuals establishing dominance over others in prison. As a result, individuals may crash in search of power over their fellow inmate’s results in a rivalry between the gangs. Eventually, bullying and rivalry result in physical violence and even murder. Governments have been pushed by activists not to imprison people unnecessarily in the bid to cut back on the excess numbers of people in the prisons.
Technology in Corrections
Technology can be equally used to help alleviate the prison overcrowding problem, and hence the violence in most prisons. However, the corrections sector should be very flexible in adopting some of these technologies in their field. This is due to the fast pace that things are changing. However, below is a review of how some technological gadgets may be utilized in the corrections field.
People who are convicted for substance use disorders have been denoted to have the highest recidivism rate, owing to the consequent relapse to abusing substances. As a result, these repeat offenders are part of the reason why many prisons are overcrowded. As such, there is a need to enhance measures of ensuring that the rates of recidivism within this population are reduced. One of the most promising ways this may be countered is through mobile phone technology (Harding, 2018). However, there is an immediate challenge because people with substance abuse disorder may fail to benefit, borne out of the fact that they may not have prior experience with using mobile phones.
As such, there is the need to bolster efforts of offering prior training in the effective use of mobile phones for the population highlighted; This may be done while still in prison by organizing how some of the offenders may be taught about the use of the same. Then, mobile technology may be enhanced as a tool for recovery management for offenders residing within the community upon release from prison (Harding, 2018). This way, populations of people with substance abuse disorder can be assisted to cope with substance abuse disorder even after being out of prison to ensure recidivism rates are reduced.
There is equally a need to monitor the prisoners at all times when incarceration. This way, a correctional facility can best manage the offenders, by secluding away those that are more violent from the rest of the prisoners. This may only be achieved by enhancing electronic monitoring gadgets such as CCTV in the prison cells. In other areas, prisoners are likely to interact with one another (Hink, Hink, and Withers, 2017). Also, this should be further enhanced by ensuring that there are correctional officers closely monitoring the electronic monitoring gadgets. Borne out of supervision, the guards can quickly note the most notorious prisoners and seclude them from the other. Supervision can also be necessary for noting when an episode of violence erupts and hence allow for the issue to be mitigated faster, ahead of any negative repercussions ensue.
Enhancement of Policies
Further on, there is a need for the United States Justice Department system to ratify further policies concerning the incarceration of individuals. Instead of incarcerating individuals with substance abuse disorder, they may instead ask the government to establish individual correctional facilities for people with these problems where they may get the assistance they need. Correctional policies may also be enhanced to ensure that the prejudice of incrimination people of specific minority groupings is reduced (Gabriel, 2018). This is borne out of the fact that a majority of the people incarcerated are mainly black, or from minority groups. This factor questions the integrity of the United States Justice system. Also, petty offenders should, instead of being incarcerated, they should be taken to other centers that may foster behavior change. Alternatively, the United States Justice Department may also prompt for petty offenders to instead carry on community service or probation. Through the above, prison overcrowding can be expediently reduced.
Conclusion
In short, overcrowding of prisons undoubtedly alters the attitudes and behavior of prisoners in a negative way, which creates more violence in the prisons. Thus, most people think that prisons are as dangerous as they shelter violent prisoners. Our current prison setup has many faults, which are creating more and more problems regarding the violence which are seen in the prisons. Various solutions can be sought to combat this problem. Early release on parole should be used for those prisoners who show good behavior. This will decrease the overcrowding and create a positive attitude in the remaining prisoners because they will realize that good behavior will get them riddance of prison life. Reduce prisoner idleness by increasing opportunities for sports, exercise, sports, and religious activities. Active prisoners hardly feel strained and hostile. Those prisoners who are facing drug possession and drug addiction should be sent to rehabilitation centers if their crimes are minor. This will provide dual benefits because the drug addiction of that person would be dealt with appropriately. Also, the prisons would not be overcrowded with the addicts who are an easy victim for the more influential prisoners. Those prisoners who have completed their sentences should be counseled afterward to prevent the commitment of additional crimes. The guards of the prisons should be educated about the significance of patience and good temperament. The guards usually try to break the fights using forceful measures, which perpetuates the problem of the violence in the prisons. If proper policies are implemented, and reasonable measures are taken to fight the challenges of overcrowding of the prisons, then violence can be reduced to a significant extent.
References
Haney, C. (2015). Prison overcrowding. American Psychological Association.
Honeywell, D. (2016). No wonder prisons are getting more violent; they’re full to the brim. The Conversation. Accessed On 09 May 2020. Retrieved From: https://amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/no-wonder-prisons-are-getting-more-violent-theyre-full-to-the-brim-65921
Smith, R. (2015). Prison conditions: Overcrowding, disease, violence, and abuse. Simon and Schuster.