Overcrowding Of Prisons

Connor Davault
College Comp II
Mrs. Mays-Neilson
19 April 2011
Title
In the United States today we are dealing with a myriad of problems. These problems need to be resolved to benefit our country. One major problem in the U.S. is the overcrowding of prisons. To have prisons overcrowded it takes more tax payers dollars to support each inmate, and with the economic crisis were in today we need some change. The average prisoner takes thirty thousand dollars a year to be imprisoned, and it’s even more for inmates on death row. A death row inmate takes an average of one hundred thousand dollars a year of tax payer’s money, and could be on death row for many years. The prisons are so overcrowded that the budget of the prisons has grown
six times more than school budgets. Every month the inmate population sets a new record due to it growing so rapidly. There are many ways we can attempt to fix the overcrowding of prisons. One way to resolve the overcrowding of prisons in America is to decriminalize drugs.
By decriminalizing drugs in the United States the number of drug dealers that are holding a spot in prison would decrease. Allowing more room for the criminals that are dangerous, such as killers. In the U.S. today there is an average of eleven thousand dangerous criminals on the streets due to the overcrowding of prisons. They could save room by not locking up drug dealers and locking up the criminals who are a threat. This would decrease the number of dangerous criminals on the street by a huge margin. In a case in Texas, a man by the name Ali Foroutan was sent to a life sentence in prison for possession of 0.03 grams of methamphetamine. That requires thirty thousand dollars of tax payer’s money every year for the rest of his life. If we can cut down on the costs it has on drug dealers like Foroutan we could use the tax money to go to something that is in great need for it. It is ridiculous to have that much money spent on a man who is as dangerous as any other American citizen in the
world. Another solution to the overcrowding prisons is to make prison stricter than what they are today.
In prisons today prisoners get the term, “Three hots and a cot” which means three meals and a place to sleep. This is already more than a homeless person gets which would make sense if someone was homeless they can commit a small crime and be provided with food and a bed for as long as their stay. This is not even mentioning the extracurricular activities in which prisoners can partake in. They are allowed to play sports such as baseball, basketball, and others. Prisoners get the opportunity to lift weights to keep them selves fit and strong during their stay. Prisoners today are also allowed access to tobacco products such as cigarettes. If prisons were stricter people might think a little harder before committing a crime. The number of inmates that return back to prison after being released will decrease because they won’t want to go back in there. Today it is nothing for a person to be in an out of jail because prisons are not strict enough and they don’t care if they get locked up again. This solution would work to stop overcrowding of prisons because fewer prisoners would be brought in monthly due to prison being a hard
life. Another way to resolve the problem is to separate the dangerous criminals from the criminals who are not a threat. By separating the two criminals you can take the non violent inmates and put them into a facility with low security and doesn’t cost as much to imprison. You would put the criminals that are a threat into a prison that has a higher security and would have to pay a little more, but why put a drug dealer and a killer in a max security and have to pay the same for the different classes of crimes. Also by getting rid of the dirty drinking water it would keep the inmates healthy. By keeping the inmates healthy money won’t have to be sent on a doctor to come take care of them. The dirty drinking water has been sickening inmates in the U.S. for years now. Thousands of dollars are spent on doctors helping inmates recover from the contaminated drinking water. By deporting all the illegal immigrants that are in our prisons we wouldn’t have to pay tax money in order for them to be in prison. Thirty thousand dollars a year for a inmate that isn’t even a United States citizen is outrageous. If the illegal immigrants were deported out of prisons that would also open up spots for the more life threatening prisoners that walk our streets. Lastly the time inmates are sitting on death row waiting for the date of their execution is a lot of money. One hundred thousand dollars a year can add up when an inmate is placed and is waiting on death row for twenty plus years. If there was a maximum limit a person can sit on death row it would save a lot of money. It would prevent inmates waiting on death row for twenty plus years sucking up tax money.