Why the U.S. Prison System Needs a Major Overhaul

Introduction

The United States prison population has skyrocketed in recent years. In 1978 the country had only 500,000 prisoners, but by 2001 the number was close to 2 million (Marciniak, 2002). In 2001 the U.S. Department of Justice reported that many people believe the reason violent crime declined in the United States during the 1990s was because of tougher sentencing laws that kept convicted criminals in jail and off the streets for longer periods of time (Marciniak, 2002). In fact, the United States has the highest percentage of imprisoned population in the world. While the U.S. makes up only 5% of the world's people, its prisons hold 25% of all the world's prisoners (Marciniak, 2002). The cost to run all prisons and jails is estimated at $40 billion, making it the single most expensive human services program in the country (Marciniak, 2002).

Rise in Prison Populations

The number of prisoners is higher than ever, and the number of prisoners with serious mental illness or substance abuse problems has increased significantly as well (Sigurdson). In particular, some prisoners with mental illness do not cope well with one inevitable consequence of the ballooning prison population — overcrowding.

The country has built about 1,000 new jails and prisons since 1980, but overcrowding remains widespread (Marciniak, 2002). For example, Cook County Jail was built to hold approximately 9,800 prisoners, but by May of 2001 it contained over 11,800. Many of the excess prisoners had to sleep on the floor because there were no beds available, and many had to be sent to jails at a considerable distance from family and friends in order to be properly housed. The jail considered various solutions, including converting the gymnasium into bed space and, during the summer, using tents.

A county jail in Alabama had over 250 prisoners in a facility designed to hold about 100, and once again many had to sleep on the floor (Marciniak, 2002). These circumstances illustrate a common attitude about prisons in the United States today. As Marciniak (2002) put it, "Rehabilitation is out; retribution is in."

Another contributing factor is the "three strikes and you're out" rule, which mandates that anyone convicted of a felony for a third time receives a life sentence. Many prisoners now serve life sentences who never would have twenty years ago, causing a significant increase in the overall prison population. Tougher drug laws have resulted in more prison sentences: by one estimate, the war on drugs alone has increased prison costs by over $24 billion per year (Kay).

None of this would be of great concern if it resulted in either a safer society or in convicts who returned to society better able to contribute in positive ways — but neither appears to be true. As Judge Whitman Knapp said, "People think they can stop the drug traffic by putting people in jail and by having terribly long sentences. But, of course, it doesn't do any good" (Kay). However, politicians pass state and federal laws, and the political fallout from challenging this aspect of the war on drugs can be serious, with rivals characterizing any challenger as weak on crime or willing to look the other way on drug use and trafficking (Kay). Politicians therefore tend to follow what they believe to be the will of the people. Unfortunately, these laws tend to impact some segments of society harder than others, and many believe that enforcement is aimed disproportionately at poorer communities and minorities (Ouimet). In spite of all of this, the war on drugs has been a dismal failure; drugs are cheaper and easier to obtain than ever before.

In one final development contributing to increased prison populations, 15 states no longer have parole boards. Of those parole boards that remain, they have become markedly more selective about who is granted parole (Marciniak, 2002). While this may in some respects be a sound policy, it keeps more prisoners incarcerated longer.

Need for Psychological Support for Inmates

With such large numbers of prisoners, it would seem sensible to ensure that prison programs are as effective as possible and that they produce ex-convicts who are less likely to commit further crimes — but this does not appear to be the case. The prison system is both large and significantly flawed.

One of the most serious problems is the fact that many inmates are mentally ill in addition to being convicted of a crime. Jails and prisons now house more mentally ill people than all state psychiatric hospitals combined (Sigurdson), at least partly because of breakthroughs in the treatment of mental illness over the past fifty years. With the development of effective antipsychotic drugs in the 1950s and lithium in the 1960s, the majority of those housed in mental hospitals could be released. They required good mental health support on the outside, however, and unfortunately most did not receive it for a variety of reasons (Sigurdson). Substance abuse is also extremely high among those with some form of mental illness — possibly as high as 80–90% — along with 60–70% of the general inmate population (Sigurdson), resulting in a prison population in great need of psychiatric and psychological services. The largest single group of offenders housed in jails and prisons today are those convicted of, or being held on, some kind of drug charge, or those incarcerated indirectly because of substance abuse (Marciniak, 2002). Because of this trend, the number of female prisoners has more than doubled since 1990 (Marciniak, 2002), and in the state of New York, 80% of those women left children behind, creating a ripple effect of problems in the broader community (Marciniak, 2002).

Conclusion

The research shows that the U.S. prison population has skyrocketed, that many of today's prisoners have serious psychiatric problems that are not being addressed, that the cost of running prisons is enormous, that even with a ratio of roughly one employee to every two inmates the system cannot keep prisoners safe from one another, and that for all this expense and increased prison time, incarceration has not reduced the crime rate. The conclusion is that the current approach to incarceration is not working well.

Given the striking statistic that 80–90% of inmates have some significant mental illness, and that 60–70% have a serious problem with substance abuse, therapy for those conditions could be an important reform for today's prisons. Some prisons have found that, when done well, therapy groups have allowed prisoners to learn to function more effectively (Groom). However, most prisons either do not offer therapy groups, do not address the particular needs of their inmates, or randomly assign inmates to attend — all of which diminish the groups' effectiveness (Groom; Sigurdson).

In spite of the additional punitive measures applied — particularly longer sentences and reduced chances for parole — the rate of recidivism has increased, not decreased (Marciniak, 2002). Several states, including California, New York, and Illinois, have explored alternatives to sending non-violent offenders to prison and have attempted to route those who need it to treatment centers. However, due to the limited number of residential mental health and substance abuse centers, this is not always possible (Marciniak, 2002). It does seem reasonable, nonetheless, that addressing mental illness and substance abuse, controlling inmate violence, and ending hostile treatment of juvenile offenders might produce better outcomes than the "lock them up and throw away the key" approach implied by ever-increasing incarceration rates. Society must be protected not only while convicted felons are incarcerated but also after they return to the community — and that requires giving them a genuine opportunity to learn to function better than they did before.

Bibliography

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Kay, Amanda. 2002. "The Agony of Ecstasy: Reconsidering the Punitive Approach to United States Drug Policy." Fordham Urban Law Journal, 29:5, pp. 2133+.

Lewin, Tamar. 2001. "Little Sympathy or Remedy for Inmates Who Are Raped." New York Times, April 15.

Marciniak, Ed. 2002. "Standing Room Only: What to Do About Prison Overcrowding." Commonweal, Jan. 25.

Ouimet, Marc. 2002. "Explaining the American and Canadian Crime 'Drop' in the 1990's." Canadian Journal of Criminology, 44:1, pp. 33+.

Sigurdson, Chris. 2000. "The Mad, the Bad, and the Abandoned: The Mentally Ill in Prisons and Jails." Corrections Today, Dec.

Staff writers. 2000. "La. Suit Settlement Ends Private Ownership of Youth Prisons." Mental Health Weekly, Sept. 18.

Weintraub, Daniel. 2002. "California: Governor Is Looking to Kill Privately Run Prisons." The Sacramento Bee, May 9.