Prison Overcrowding Prisoners\' Rights Allegations

Prison Overcrowding

Prisoners' rights

Allegations of abuse

Prison overcrowding

Exploding jail populations

Soaring costs

Pressure on correctional facilities

Effects of overcrowding

Competition for limited resources

Aggression

Higher rates of illness

Increased likelihood of recidivism

Higher suicide rates

Prison Litigation

New prison construction

Convert other facilities to prisons

Economic development

Mandatory sentencing

Fills prison cells

Costs

Reducing prison population

Incarceration of drug users

Serious urban crime down

Publicity up

Makes up most prison population

Losing drug war

Incarceration of mentally impaired

Prisons used as hospitals

Prisons as local shelters

Elimination of parole boards

Emphasis on punishment not rehabilitation

Literacy of prisoners

Educational programs in prison

Reduce recidivism

Enable prisons to find jobs when released

Difficulties of programs

Stress practical applications

Creates more tolerable and humane conditions

Privatization of prisons

History

Movement gaining momentum

Seen by government as way of cutting costs

Critics

GPS monitoring

Free up prison beds

Allow prisoners to support families

Reduce costs

Reserve prison space for appropriate offenders

Conclusion

Prison Overcrowding

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." With these sixteen words, the framers of the Constitution of the United States (U.S.) declared for all time that this nation would not tolerate abuse of prisoners. Just exactly what has constituted abuse has occupied the national debate for the last 215 years.

The movement for Prisoners' rights is based on the principle that prisoners, even though they are deprived of liberty, are still entitled to basic human rights. Advocates for prisoners' rights argue that they are often deprived of very basic human rights, with the connivance of the prison authorities. They claim violations such as prison authorities turning a blind eye to assault or rape of prisoners, failing to take sufficient steps to protect prisoners from assault or rape, or even allegedly arranging for prisoners to be assaulted or raped by other inmates as a form of punishment. Other allegations include that prison officials have provided insufficient treatment for serious medical conditions, refused freedom of expression to read materials and communicate, and deprived inmates of freedom of religion. There have been claims that officials have punished prisoners who raise complaints about bad conditions and have taken away prisoners' rights to sue prison officials or governments for maltreatment, or to receive compensation for injuries caused by the negligence of prison authorities. Many of the complaints have centered on the overcrowding in our prisons.

During the last several decades, American prison and jail populations have exploded while the U.S. government's capacity to house and manage prison populations has remained virtually unchanged. Many facilities have been operating at or over 100% capacity for years. Additionally, taxpayers have largely rejected new taxes required to upgrade the system, but have simultaneously pushed for longer sentencing terms for offenders. "The latest UConn Poll shows that a majority of Connecticut residents (51%) oppose an increase in spending to send inmates to out-of-state prisons in order to reduce prison overcrowding. In addition, residents also oppose (53%) building more prisons in Connecticut, and an even larger amount (60%) oppose building prisons in their towns." This has left criminal justice professionals scrambling to make ends meet. Some of the consequences have been soaring costs and gaps in funding, rising number of lawsuits, decreased supervision, heightened pressure on both state prisons and county jails, early release of tens of thousands of offenders and felons transferred to county jails, mixing in with non-violent inmates.

Prison overcrowding has placed extreme pressure on correctional facilities. An increasing inmate population, coupled with declines in correctional spending, have resulted in prison overcrowding which quite often exceeds the facility's maximum capacity. Prison overcrowding has many negative effects upon inmates. Research has demonstrated that prison overcrowding creates competition for limited resources, aggression, higher rates of illness, increased likelihood of recidivism and higher suicide rates. "When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not stop to feed on free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded." While prison conditions have improved considerably in many ways over the last 200 years, the present correctional system is still struggling to cope with some of the same problems experienced in the past. Prison and jail overcrowding has continued to haunt U.S. corrections facilities as the pressures of an increasing inmate population, coupled with the demand for lower corrections costs, have resulted in a growing shortage of living space for inmates. Not only are institutions operating at maximum capacity, but some exceed capacity. Increasingly, inmates are forced into double-bunking in single cells or living in open dormitories.

Not surprisingly, the explosion in imprisonment produced a parallel trend in prison litigation. In 1972, David Ruiz and other inmates filed a lawsuit against the Texas DOC seeking relief from the prison conditions noted above. The case was tried six years later, and in 1981 U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice ruled that confinement in Texas prisons constituted cruel and unusual punishment. He cited brutality by guards, overcrowding, understaffing, use of building tenders, poor medical care, and uncontrolled physical abuse among inmates. Similar lawsuits were filed across the country and in increasing numbers. In 1970, some 2,200 civil rights cases were filed in federal courts, from a population of 360,000 inmates. By 1995, with a prison population of 1.6 million, nearly 40,000 new lawsuits were filed, about a fifth of the federal courts' civil docket. In that same year, almost a third of all correctional institutions across the nation were under state or federal court orders to limit prison populations or improve the conditions of confinement for inmates under their jurisdiction.

The United States incarcerates more people than any other industrialized country in the world. For a period of fifteen years, 1975 and 1990, the number of inmates in state and federal prisons increased by almost 200%. By 1998, one in every 150 U.S. residents was incarcerated. In 2000, the number of incarcerated men and women reached two million. By the middle of the 1990s, mass incarceration sparked both legal and penological crises. Despite the largest and most expensive prison-building program in history, correctional facilities continued operating at or above rated capacities, and, consequently, many DOCs remained in violation of court orders and consent decrees. As national and state economic problems mounted, even staunch conservatives were balking at the prospect of more prison expenditures.

Although about a thousand new prisons and jails have been built in the United States since 1980, most are already dangerously overcrowded. "Like something from a Charles Dickens' novel, in its early days the Nebraska State Penitentiary held only several hundred prisoners. Today the Department of Corrections by the year 2000 is looking at jailing 100% more men than it was designed to hold." Two examples: The Cook County, Illinois, jail has a court-ordered capacity of 9,798. In May 2001, its population was 11,803. Many prisoners sleep on the floors; others wait to be sent to prisons in downstate Illinois. Under consideration are proposals to convert the gymnasium into barracks, and during the summer to house inmates in tents. And in Decatur, Alabama, the Morgan County jail squeezes 256 inmates into a facility built for 96; most sleep on the floor.

Because of the growth of American prisons, it is not surprising that they have come to be viewed as magnets for economic development. Illinois Governor George Ryan explained that a new maximum-security prison was being built in a downstate community because it would be an important shot in the arm for a poor community badly in need of economic investment. The sixteen-hundred-bed prison is expected to generate 800 jobs and an annual payroll of $40 million. Not education or transportation but correctional services, at $1.3 billion a year, continue to be the largest item in the Illinois state budget. And in Sayre, Oklahoma, the city manager, referring to a recently built, $37 million, 1,440-inmate, 270-employee all-male prison, concluded that there was no more recession-proof form of economic development, because nothing is going to stop crime.

The war on drugs and mandatory sentencing, have contributed to our already overcrowded prison system. "The U.S. has become the world's leading jailer. With just 5% of the world's population, the U.S. holds 25% of its prisoners."

The yearly cost of operating the U.S. prison system is estimated at over $40 billion and constitutes the nation's largest, costliest program in human services.

Speaking out about Arizona's mandatory sentencing laws, opponents have charged that rigid mandatory sentencing laws fill prison cells and cost millions while doing little to enhance public safety. "After 25 years, the verdict is clear: Arizona's mandatory sentencing laws do not enhance public safety and the certainly do not deliver justice,' says Judge Rudy Gerber, who helped author the 1978 criminal code that established mandatory sentencing. 'In my 22 years on the bench, I was forced to sentence far too many people to prison when treatment, community service and restitution to victims would have been more appropriate.'"

Two steps if taken, however, would almost halve our prison population. First, repeal state laws that now mandate the incarceration of drug offenders and develop instead many more public and private treatment centers to which nonviolent drug abusers can be referred. Second, stop using jails or prisons to house the mentally ill.

Tougher sentencing is being justified, in part, by the widespread belief that incarceration is the chief reason violent crime declined in U.S. cities during the 1990s. Rehabilitation is out; retribution is in. An ounce of prevention has given way to a pound of punishment. Furthermore, serious urban crime may be going down but the publicity about it in the mass media has not.

The largest single group in local jails comprises those incarcerated, directly or indirectly, because of alcohol, crack cocaine, marijuana, or heroin use. This situation testifies to the reality that not only is our national campaign against drug abuse failing, but that, as the U.S. Department of Justice reports, seven out of ten inmates now in state or federal prisons are there for drug abuse and other nonviolent offenses. We treat nonviolent drug offenders as criminals when they should be patients. Nationwide, women prisoners have more than doubled since 1990, mainly for drug-related offenses. In New York State, 80% of the women incarcerated were mothers with children. And the number of juveniles under the age of eighteen in adult prisons continues to grow.

Because of the serious shortage of public and private living quarters for the mentally ill, city and county jails have become the local "hospitals" and caretakers. Schizophrenics and persons with a bipolar disorder are more likely to be arrested for conduct related to their ailments. In dozens of U.S. cities, the largest institution for sheltering them is now the local jail.

Some fifteen states have eliminated parole boards, and those that retain them have become reluctant to grant paroles. As might be expected in an environment where rehabilitation is underemphasized and underfunded, the number of former inmates who return to prison for parole violations keeps growing.

Recently, several states, including New York, Illinois, and California, have actively sought to develop ways to send fewer nonviolent offenders to prison, hoping to refer them to treatment centers instead. Were this incipient trend to become widespread, the number of prisoners nationwide would plummet. But progress is slow because most states have a serious shortage of needed mental hospitals and treatment centers. Drug addiction is undeniably the nation's foremost health problem. It should be treated as such. Prisons are for criminals.

Inmates need education programs that not only teach them how to read effectively but also provide the necessary reinforcement that helps promote a positive transition to society when they are released. Perhaps these efforts will help stimulate better participation of inmates not only in literacy programs, but also in the adult basic education, vocational and college level programs. Certainly, these efforts could go a long way toward helping the prisoner rehabilitation process.

Since 1990, the literature has shown that prisoners who attend educational programs while they are incarcerated are less likely to return to prison following their release. Studies in several states have indicated that recidivism rates have declined where inmates have received an appropriate education. Furthermore, the right kind of educational program leads to less violence by inmates involved in the programs and a more positive prison environment. Effective education programs are those that help prisoners with their social skills, artistic development and techniques and strategies to help them deal with their emotions. In addition, these programs emphasize academic, vocational and social education. The inmates who participate in these programs do so because they see clear opportunities to improve their capabilities for employment after being released.

Program success or failure is hampered, however, by the values and attitudes of those in the authority position, over crowded prison population conditions and inadequate funding for teaching personnel, supplies and materials. In addition, recent studies show that most inmates are males who have little or no employable skills. They are also frequently school dropouts who have difficulties with reading and writing skills and poor self-concepts and negative attitudes toward education. Literacy skills in learner-centered programs with meaningful contexts that recognize the different learning styles, cultural backgrounds and learning needs of inmates are important to program success and inmate participation. Inmates need education programs that not only teach them to read effectively but also provide them with the necessary reinforcement that promote a positive transition to society when they are released. Efforts in this direction would help stimulate better participation of inmates in all prison education programs and will go a long way to help the prisoner rehabilitation process.

Prisoners who attend education programs while they are incarcerated are less likely to return to prison following their release. Since 1990, literature examining the return rates of prisoners, or recidivism, has shown that educated prisoners are less likely to find themselves back in prison a second time if they complete an educational program and are taught skills to successfully read and write. The "right kind" of education works to both lower recidivism and reduce the level of violence. Moreover, appropriate education leads to a more humane and more tolerable prison environment in which to live and work, not only for the inmates but also for the officers, staff and everyone else.

The prison population includes a disproportionate number of adults who are economically poor or disadvantaged. Inmates who are released from prison are frequently unable to find jobs because they either lack experience and/or literacy skills. With the high cost of incarceration and the large increase in the prison population, it seems that mastery of literacy skills may be a proactive way to address the problem of reincarceration. Literacy skills are important to prisoners in many ways. Inmates need these skills to fill out forms, to make requests and to write letters to others in the outside world. In addition, some prison jobs require literacy skills and inmates can use reading as a way to pass their time while they are behind bars. Thus, education programs initially should stress practical applications of literacy so that prisoners can use newly gained skills and insights.

Successful prison literacy programs are learner centered and they should be tailored to the prison culture. They recognize different learning styles, cultural backgrounds, and multiple literacies. The programs are participatory and they use the strengths of the learner to help them shape their own learning. Literacy should be put into meaningful contexts that address the learners' needs. Instruction should involve engaging topics that motivate and sustain the inmates' interest. It should also use literature that is written by prisoners because it provides relevant subject matter as well as writing models. Most of all, the programs must enable inmates to see themselves and be seen in roles other than that of prisoners.

The challenge ahead for educators is that many prisoners lack self-confidence and have a negative attitude toward school. Exacerbating these problems are prison environments that are not rich in verbal and sensory stimuli. In addition, correctional educators have difficulty providing a program that has any continuity. Almost daily they have to deal with the uniqueness of the prison culture with such routines and disruptions as lockdown, head counts, and inmates' meetings with lawyers. Furthermore, educators and students are frequently locked in rooms that are monitored by prison guards and the inmates often face peer pressure where achievement and attendance in school are discouraged.

With the advent of get-tough sanctions, the demand for prison space is great. As state and federal facilities are forced to operate at or above capacity, solutions are increasingly being sought from the private sector. One solution that has gained increased popularity is the privatization of the prison. A private prison is a facility that incarcerates offenders for profit. Figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2002, indicate that about 7% of America's state and federal prisoners are incarcerated in privately operated prisons. By all accounts, this trend is expected to continue. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has announced its intention to increase the number of federal prisoners housed in private facilities to an anticipated 20,000 within the next few years. This suggests that correctional privatization will continue to gain momentum.