Prison Solution Essay

991 Words2 Pages

Prisons in the United States seem to cause more problems then assistance in society. The prison systems found here are overcrowded, inefficient, expensive, and can be viewed as ineffective for prisoners living in them. Prisons, which are built for the reason of facilitating the rehabilitation of prisoners, are presently filled with hostility and violence. These facilities are created as a way of trying to control crime. It was thought that by separating criminals form the rest of society, it would protect people from these potentially dangerous criminals, however it is difficult to tell whether this is becoming more of a problem or working towards a solution.
The first obstacle that is plaguing the prison system is the monetary burden that comes with the building, maintaining, and hiring staff to work there. Currently there are 13 prisons being built in order to fight overpopulation. These prisons each cost 123 million dollars. The construction of the building is not the most expensive piece of the puzzle though. On average it costs 15,496 dollars annually to supports a single prisoner according to Bureau of Justice Statistics; this comes out to about 50 dollars a day. If a prison contained 2,000 prisoners it would cost over 31 million dollars to operate annually. In 1996 a prison was created in Niagara County based of a new model. It was built for the low cost of 24.6 million dollars. The new facility had housing for 224 inmates, and only required five guards to operate the entire facility. This would save 164,000 dollars compared to the average prison in the United States.
When going to prison one can look forward to both poor medical supervision, and the wonderful hope of receiving terrible living conditions. Prison system...

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...ng stolen property (77.4%), and those in prison for possessing, using, or selling illegal weapons (70.2%). The numbers do not lie! The way prisoners are being rehabilitated now is not effective and needs to be changed.
The united States Prison systems Have many problems that can easily be seen by the public. Overpopulation, poor health care, excessive violence, and large amounts of excessive finances. However with better research and if the time was willing to be put in all of the problems could be resolved. If they were more efficient the system as a whole would be more effective. Rehabilitation must be fixed in order to reintroduce convicts back into society. This would help aid in the financial burden that is escalading through the prison system already. Without effective prisons criminal populations will continue to rise, and become more difficult to control.

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