Prison overcrowding

Prison overcrowding is a social phenomenon occurring when the demand for space in prisons in a jurisdiction exceeds the capacity for prisoners. Prison overcrowding is a social phenomenon occurring when the demand for space in prisons in a jurisdiction exceeds the capacity for prisoners. The prison system started in Europe in the 16th Century. The main focus for imprisonment at this time was for temporary holding before trials. Despite the crime committed, all assumed criminals were confined in cells with one another, even children. There were many deaths within the prison system in the 16th century due to lack of prisoner care and mass spread of sickness. It wasn't until the 17th Century when the Bridewell was created and had a main focus on inmate training and education. All within this time the prison's introduced staffing to create a steadier system. As the 18th Century approached, prisoners were forced into hard and manual labor that lasted from morning to dawn. English philosopher Jeremey Bentham introduced an utilitarianism theory to help create more of a moral standard for the treatment and rehabilitation of inmates. His idea was to bring the understanding that inmates were rehabilitable. He wanted to introduce ethical thinking and proper decision making into the inmates life's in hopes they could rejoin society. As the Great Depression hit, the crime rates increased due to individuals having to commit crimes for survival. Although there were still rising numbers of incarcerations from 1929-1970, the prison population increased dramatically when Nixon's War on Drugs called for mandatory sentencing. Around the time of Nixon's act was introduced, another tact was to put in place allowing an individual to have two convictions with a serious felony, then placed in prison for life. Within the Three Strike Law there was a 500% increase of incarcerations from 1970-1999. It is estimated in 2018 that there were a total of 2.3 million inmates incarcerated. Around 1.3 million of those inmates were incarcerated within the State Prison systems. The prison population is half that of China. China's population is four times greater than the United States. Although the United States holds a large number of inmates, it is only at 103.9% of prison capacity. Comparatively, Haiti is the most overcrowded at 454.4%. Colorado is one of the many states dealing with the prison overcrowding issue. According to the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice (2019), “The Colorado prison population is expected to increase by 20.5% between fiscal years 2018 and 2025, from an actual year-end inmate population of 20,136 to a projected population of 24,261” (p. 5). Overcrowding in prisons is often due to recidivism. One contributing factor for prison overcrowding is parolees who reoffend by violating their parole supervision. Colorado saw an increase of 8% from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2018 for parolees who returned to prison for technical parole violations (Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, 2019, p. 15). A possible solution for, “What would it take to reduce overcrowding in Colorado Prisons?”, is the implementation of technological systems. Technological systems involve the use of electronic monitoring bracelets. Although offenders are being released, most have not received proper rehabilitation tactics to keep them from committing another crime. This often leads reoccurring offenders back into the prison system. There has been an increased in waitlisted or lack of specialized programs (drug, alcohol, intoxicated driving courses) that allow inmates to have the proper rehabilitation. Some crimes are just simply not given the option for parole, which holds inmates in the system for an extended time or even life. The rise of overcrowding has resulted in: One way to have population control within the prison system would be to prevent new crimes from being committed. Alternatives are but not limited to: