The Consequences Of Prison Overcrowding

federal government are kept at a minimum. Guetzhow et al., (2015) looked at five factors to determine what causes the overcrowding lawsuits from inmates, the factors are prison admissions, prison releases, spending on prison capacity, prison crowding, and incarceration rates. Guetzhow et al., (2015) found that the overcrowding of prison litigations did not have an impact on admissions or release dates, but increased the spending on prison capacity and incarceration. Meaning that the litigation impacted the decisions to use money to expand the capacity of prisons.
Prison overcrowding can be impacted by inmates aging in the system implying that inmates can be imprisoned their whole lives until they die. Individuals with less serious felonies
Newman and Scott (2012) examined what types of implications of prison overcrowding and inmate redistribution as the outcome of the Court’s verdict in Brown v. Plata. The court found that the overcrowding in the prison was the principal factor in violating constitutional rights, yet the court did not mention alternatives to release thousands of inmates (Newman et al., 2012). Some of the alternatives that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) suggested were transferring inmates to other states, using local jails to put prisoners in, stop incarcerating parolees for noncriminal violations, and diverting selected offenders to specialized programs (Horned et al., 2015). The court allowed the State to release prisoners if they meet a certain criteria, for example inmates that do not pose a
Estimated that 2,000 individuals were released in America each day that would be 708,000 prisoners were released from state and federal level institutions in 2010, (Guerino, Harrison, & Sabol, 2011). Orrick et al., (2014) explains that within the first six months thirty percent of individuals who were released will reoffend and end up being rearrested. A consequence involves inmates themselves, when released after serving a long time in prison, they face challenges in reentering back into society. Clear, (2007) mentions that reentering offenders face challenges that include trying to find housing, employment, education, and they face being alienated from political processes. Meaning that when being released from prison it is not as easy as it may sound. Ex-offenders struggle to find employment but it is difficult for them to find a job because of their prison record (Pogrebin, West-Smith, Walker, & Unnithan, 2014). Family members may not have stayed in contact with them, making it harder to transition back into society (Porgrebin et al., 2014).
Methods to reduce Prison Overcrowding Over the past few decades there have been several ideas surfacing about ways to reduce prison population. Wright and Rosky (2011) suggested that there are three different approaches to take when trying to reduce prison overcrowding. Three strategies that were suggested are; increase prison capacity,