Overpopulation In Prison Essay

In the United States of America’s criminal justice system, both violent and non-violent offenders are imprisoned. This imprisonment has led to overpopulation of our prisons, both federal and state-owned. Overpopulation and overcrowding can cause stress on the average, everyday tax-paying citizen as it becomes very expensive to house the over one-hundred and fifty thousand sentenced prisoners each year (US Bureau of Justice Statistics). That number adds up, because even with the over six hundred thousand offenders released each year, there are even more that remain in the prison system (US Bureau of Justice Statistics). The total number of prisoners in the U.S. state and federal correctional facilities, which includes prisons, rehabilitation centers, and juvenile detention centers, is 1,574,700 (US Bureau of Justice Statistics). This cycle of overpopulation needs a long-term fix, not some cookie-cutter solution that will only alleviate the problem temporarily. Due to the

Imprisonment is to keep those non-violent offenders from becoming violent. To the contrary, non-violent offenders often become violent once imprisoned, because of the sense of hierarchy and masculinity sustained in the prison system. There are many aspects of life in prison that might cause non-violent offenders to become violent. The fear and stigma that surrounds being a man in prison can cause violence, as well. In Manhood & Violence: Fatal Peril, inmates at a federal prison were invited to be immersed in a program called ‘manalive.’ The program required men to examine their personal beliefs of what it meant to be a man and how that led to their violence. Although all of the men involved in the program were violent offenders, the program was designed to help them realize why their masculinity became a determining factor in their violent acts. (Manhood & Violence: Fatal