CJS230
Amanda Stasiewicz
05/17/2015
State prisons hold people who are arrested by local police and sheriff departments. Federal prisons hold people who are arrested by the federal bureau of investigations (FBI). The state and federal prisons have security levels for every type of prisoners. State prisons are run by the department of corrections while the federal prisons are run by the justice department. “The Federal Bureau of Prisons was created by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Herbert Hoover on May 14, 1930,” (Foster, 2006, Pg. 134). State prisons have more inmates than they do staff while federal prisons have more staff than they do prisoners.
An example of a state prison is San Quentin state prison in California. San Quentin was opened in the 1850s and housed both men and women prisoners. In 1933, the women’s prison at Tehachapi was built. Tehachapi was shut down after an earthquake hit it in July 1952 then it was reopened as a men’s prison three years later. “Despite periodic schemes to shut it down – “the prison that would not die” – San Quentin held nearly 6,000 inmates in 2003,” (Foster, 2006, Pg. 127).
The only way I could explain the growth of state prisons is that more people are arrested for crimes than ever before. People are committing more crimes than he is or she is used to and then are sentenced to prison time. More people are arrested for drug related crimes. If people were helped while behind bars then maybe he or she would be able stay off drugs.
U. S. corrections professionals can solve the problem of exponential growth in state prison systems by allowing prisoners to receive the help that he or she needs while in prison. If prisoners were treated for his or her mental illness, alcohol dependency, or drug addiction, then people would not be repeat offenders. People would be arrested the first time, receive help or treatment while there, and then not go back to prison. The corrections