The current situation of the criminal justice system in the US has flaws and grimness from the outside. A nationwide inmate search report claims that one in every 18 men in the country is doing his time- be it in jail or on parole or probation. This has led to a rapid rise in the American population's incarceration rate to 350% since the mid-80s. Surprisingly enough, crime is down, yet the incarceration rate keeps on rising. While it is evident that the system directs the line for detaining most of its people, there have been loud noises of racial discrimination as well- Specifically, over-representation of African-Americans.
While scrutinizing the legal jurisdiction system, we must also run through jails and prisons' living conditions. There have been accusations that these correctional facilities have developed severe mistreatment tendencies towards the inmates. Individuals who have had experiences talk about the excessive disciplinary sanctions, barely tolerable physical conditions, and inadequate medical and mental health care inside these facilities. Then there is the issue with prison overcrowding as well. Unfortunately, neither the government nor any independent social welfare organization has come forward to address this seemingly fast-growing subject.
Prison overcrowding can in itself branch out to several other problems
- Reduced Staff Morale
- Security And Control Mismanagement
- Conflict And Violence Development
- Unsuccessful Rehab
Keys to Consider
- Reduce Idleness
- Classify Prisoners
- Improve Sanitation
- Grow Food
- Use Volunteers
- Train Staff
- Reduce Idleness: The government needs to take purposeful measures to help these individuals beat idleness. Allowing inmates to participate in extracurricular activities on a routine basis can contribute massively.
- Classify Prisoners: Sorting the prisoners by their threat level and housing them as per the report can simplify the security problems. Those with lesser threat can be managed with a lower security basis, thereby allowing the rest of the force to concentrate on high-value inmates.
- Improve Sanitation: Poor sanitation conditions are reasons sufficient enough for contagious diseases to manifest. Therefore, improved sanitation and hygiene will do better for both inmates and staff's health.
- Grow Food: Engaging the inmates to cultivate vegetables and do poultry can improve these facilities' food quality. Additionally, this will also keep them busy throughout the day.
- Use Volunteers: Engaging the inmates with volunteers and welfare groups can positively affect their morale and mental health. Relevant programs and community activities need to be encouraged to support this purpose.
- Train Staff: The in-house staff working in proximity with the inmates must be groomed to support the latter. The team will need to develop essential relational skills, anger management, and conflict mediation to do the job competently.
While building new facilities and expanding the prevailing options can help tackle the overcrowding, the above-discussed options should be taken into account to improve the inmates' conditions.Furthermore, the federal jurisdiction must reform its policy on post-release supervision and shift its focus on addressing the individual's criminal behavior. Additionally, the racial disparity among men should also be narrowed.