Pros And Cons Of Overcrowded Prisons

How do you decide who goes to prison and who doesn’t?You can only have so many people in a prison at once, so you have to decide who goes in and who stays out. Overcrowded prisons can be a safety hazard to the prisoners and also it costs taxpayers to keep them there. there are two groups of people. Let’s imagine this scenario: One group of 20 people, Group A is going to trial for possession of an illicit substance. Another group, Group B also has 20 people going to trial except this time for murder. All of these 40 people broke the law, so they should all be held accountable for their actions. You could simply try to put them all away in prison except for the fact that the prison only holds 30 people at once. You can go about this anyway
you would like, but take a moment to think about it. You could put all 20 murders from group B away and 10 of the people from group A, or you can do it the opposite way. Even though the situation varies case by case, 20 who have already been proven as a threat to others and possibly themselves are in jail. A drug user needs special rehab and monitoring so just throwing them in jail will most likely not work. If anything they will get more violent to either get the drugs they need or because of withdrawal. The situation varies case by case, so the “one drug sentence fits all” approach is not working.
When it comes to crimes and sentencing, it is never black and white.
There is the general crime, such as stealing. That could be the end of it, but it is not, there are different laws for each type of stealing. For example there is embezzlement, which would be when someone steals money from a company, then there is robbery. There is also theft auto, kidnapping so many different kinds of stealing. Of course for each one there is a different sentencing because one is not as severe as the other, it would be unfair to just give everyone the same sentencing for the same general crime. This is how you should think of drug sentencing, there is the general crime of using/distributing drugs but once again there are the groups of crimes under the general crime. There is a difference between drug using, drug trafficking, drug dealing, selling/using drug paraphernalia. While all are drug crimes, they differ in severity so it would be unfair to give each crime the same jail time. Drugs are very dangerous substances and they destroy lives so they should not be taken lightly. But putting someone in jail for 10 years because they smoked marijuana, is unconstitutional. If no one was hurt or in danger then jail shouldn’t even be an option. Probation is best, especially for juveniles, even though they made a bad decision and need to learn for their mistakes, they still have to get their education. The education programs in Juvenile Detention may not be good enough and prepare them for when
they get out, it is not as hardcore as regular prison but it is still a harsh place to be. Another thing to take into consideration is the label that the people get for the rest of their lives. When you get out of prison, you are labeled an ex-con for the rest of your life. Some people do not even mention that they are ex-cons when applying for a job because no one wants to hire one. Even though it is that person's own fault that they broke the law, the rest of their life shouldn’t be made this difficult. It is not like the prisons even prepare them for life after prison. It is more just throwing them into water and hoping they swim. If you think about it, someone goes to prison for a drug offense serves their time, and then gets released. All they really know is drugs, either using or selling. So if they can not find any work or they run into some issues, then they will go back to doing what they know best. 77% of people who went to prison for a drug related crime went back to jail within 5 years of release. The system we have going on right now is not even cost efficient.
More and more people are being incarcerated with less people being released and it is costing everybody. It is costing taxpayers to pay for prison upkeep, keeping the prisoners in the prison and the more money going to the prisons the less money going towards other important things such as education and pensions for retiring workers. Just one prisoner alone costs between $20,000 and $40,000 to keep in prison for just one year. If that is just one year alone imagine cost for the minimum 20 year sentences people have to serve for drug related crimes. There are way too many overcrowded prisons in the United States alone, which is not helping anybody. The “War on Drugs” needs to be approached in a different way, instead of throwing everyone in jail for everything we need to take a smarter more logical, more efficient approach to it. Recently in Ireland, they have decriminalized small amounts of heroin, cocaine and marijuana. The approach they take is to treat these addicts as they are, addicts instead of throwing them in jail and hoping the drugs stop circulating. They are planning to set up special rehab centers for the addicts to go so that they can get the rehab they need. Or if they aren’t ready to stop using drugs they have special rooms where they can do the drugs with medical personnel nearby to monitor them. This seems as though is it counteractive does it not? Although if you think about it, it is the
right psychological approach. If you tell someone they can not do something they will want to do it even more, that is a common knowledge. Only time will tell if this will work but it is not a bad idea entirely, it could use some statistics before every country starts legalizing drugs but if it does work we should think about using their approach. I am not trying to say that we should not punish people who commit drug crimes. Drugs can be lethal to the user as well as endanger the people around them. It also hinders mental development if used by juveniles. Drug addicts need rehab not prison, and when I say drug addicts I mean the actual users. You can sell drugs and not use them, that would be a different story and a different scenario. Drugs are addictive, and eventually the high that they get from one drug is not enough so they start looking for other drugs. It is a cycle of self-destruction that will not be solved by just putting them in a cell and locking them away for 20 years. If you are going to put them away in prison for being addicted to drugs at least provide them with the only system that will truly help them. Quitting an addiction, even a smoking addiction requires more than a good attitude and willpower. If prison is meant to be a behavioral correctional facility, then they should work more to help the addicts, especially since there are still drugs in the prison no matter where you go. Life after prison and re-joining society will be even harder than being in prison, so the earlier they get better the less chance they will relapse when they get out of jail. America is the capital of incarceration. One in 110 adults are in prison or jail and one in 35 are under probation. Our prisons are being overcrowded and it is not cost efficient for taxpayers. Too many people are being put in prison over minute things that they would only get probation for in another state. Each state does has the constitutional right to do what they please with their crime laws, but there should be some guideline to follow that makes the laws more uniform. That not only makes it fair, but it could also reduce the amount of people in prison or jail. Then if we have to use less of a budget for convicts, then we could raise the budget for education. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between education and the chance they will commit a crime. Teaching life skills kids will have to use such as paying taxes, or buying houses or even managing a checkbook will help them when they mature. It will keep them off the streets and right now even if some high schools do offer these types of classes, we need to work to make sure that everyone has the same resources. Everyone should be able to graduate high school knowing how to do basic life skills they will need to survive. They should not have to turn to a life of crime. If we want to fix our incarceration dilemma we need to do it soon before the numbers rise too high.