It is important to understand the full cost of prisons to a taxpayer. People who don’t have anything to do with the prison system, are required to pay taxes in order to provide healthcare, security, food, services, and an education for the inmates’. There are a lot of factors that come into play when coming up with how much it truly costs to keep a prisoner behind bars for a year. According to the Price of Prisons, “(of 1.4 million total people incarcerated in all 50 state prison systems), the total per-inmate cost averaged $31,166 and ranged from $14,603 in Kentucky to $60,076 in New York” 1 Depending on the state, and the size of its prison there are many different costs ranging from healthcare, a safe atmosphere, and an education if desired. …show more content…
It takes a lot of money to be able to train and employ an ethical prison employee. According to the Gawker, “Training only takes four months, and upon graduating you can look forward to a job with great health, dental and vision benefits and a starting base salary between $45,288 and $65,364.” 2 There needs to be a guard on shift 24/7. Having a constant human surveillance comes at a price, because it is critical to keep peace within the prison. “It is also important to recognize that officials are responsible for ensuring their prisons are safe, secure, and humane—a necessarily expensive undertaking.” 1 Without prison staff, there would not be a safe atmosphere for the inmates. When looking at the annual cost to incarcerate an inmate, many people forget that a big part of that cost is to employ the staff who guard them. Not only do you have to provide health care for the prison population, you also have to provide health care for the prison …show more content…
Although providing healthcare for a prisoner sounds costly, it is important to provide treatment and rehabilitation for those with mental and physical illnesses. Some of the health care services that the prison provides for its inmates is, “administration, medical care, dental care, mental health care, pharmaceuticals, hospitalization, and substance abuse treatment.” 3 Although it seems excessive to provide these kinds of services for those who have committed crimes, According to PEW trusts, “prisoners have a constitutional right to adequate medical attention and concluded that the Eighth Amendment is violated when corrections officials display “deliberate indifference” to an inmate’s medical needs.”3 There should be a clear balance of recognizing that these are people who have committed crimes, so why give them better health benefits than most Americans receive. There needs to be a better way to reduce spending, without jeopardizing an inmates health and safety. There is solid evidence that providing rehabilitation makes it less likely for the inmate to return to prison. Without this rehabilitation treatment, a lot of these inmates would most likely resort back to using drugs, “Inmates who met substance dependence/abuse criteria were twice as likely as other inmates to have three or more prior probation or incarceration sentences.” 4 This shows that even though we
The complex issues of dealing with offenders in the criminal justice system has been a point of ongoing controversy, particularly in the arena of sentencing. In one camp there are those who believe offenders should be punished to the full extent of the law, while others advocate a more rehabilitative approach. The balancing act of max punishment for crimes committed, and rehabilitating the offender for reintegration into society has produced varying philosophies. With the emanation of drug-induced crimes over the past few decades, the concept of drug treatment courts has emerged. The premise of these courts is to offer a “treatment based alternative to prison,” which consist of intensive treatment services, random drug testing, incentives
As offenders are diverted to community residential treatment centers, work release programs and study release centers, the system sees a decrease or stabilization of the jail population. While the alleviation of overcrowding is a benefit it is not the only purpose of diversion. A large majority of crimes are committed while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Studies have shown that more than half of all individuals arrested in the United States will test positive for illegal substances (NCVC, 2008). Efforts to reduce crime through incarceration usually fail because incarceration does not address the main problem, the offender’s substance abuse.
Budget cuts in prison are affecting mental health care for prisoners. Budget cuts are eating away the funding for mental health care "police officers in Reno with mental health counselors to reach out to the mentally ill, whether they’ve committed crime, are a threat to themselves, or could be in the future ,and are Already starved for services, troubled citizens sometimes tumble into homelessness and alcoholism and tussle violently with police, who are usually ill-equipped to help them"(Kihmm). They will not be able to receive the proper medication they need. These inmates that are ill are just finding bad ways to not feel the sickness they have. Most of the ex cons just go back to jail, because of there mental illness. There untreated mental
In recent years, there has been controversy over mass incarceration rates within the United States. In the past, the imprisonment of criminals was seen as the most efficient way to protect citizens. However, as time has gone on, crime rates have continued to increase exponentially. Because of this, many people have begun to propose alternatives that will effectively prevent criminals from merely repeating their illegal actions. Some contend that diversion programs, such as rehabilitation treatment for drug offenders, is a more practical solution than placing mentally unstable individuals into prison. By helping unsteady criminals regain their health, society would see an exceptional reduction in the amount of crimes committed. Although some
While, equality of healthcare provision in America continues to be a leading topic of debate. Healthcare rights for incarcerated persons are largely absent from this national conversation. Healthcare affordability and accessibility to quality treatment, medicine and doctors remains a priority across all ages, races, genders and political parties. Because “the state” is given the power of autonomy from the provision of law under the federal government, it should be the responsibility of “the state” to provide adequate healthcare services and treatment to persons who are incarcerated.
Throughout the years that prisons have been in operations we have seen many issues arise when it comes to maintaining prisons on a budget. According to the Cheat Sheet article the cost of housing inmates varies from state to state. The average cost per inmate was $31,286 a year in order to take care of them (The Cheat Sheet). New York is at the top of the list when it comes to cost per inmate which is on average $60,076 per prisoner (The Cheat Sheet). In my opinion, these numbers are very alarming, especially when it comes to taxpayer dollars being spent on inmates. According to the Cheat Sheet article the annual price to taxpayers was over 39 billion dollars. Even though these numbers are at an all-time high, state policymakers have taken into account the cost of housing each inmate. The state imprisonment rate declined, this is in part due to the fact that state lawmakers researched driven policy changes to control prison growth, reduce recidivism,
Private prisons in the United States, came about in the early 1980s when the war on drugs resulted in a mass wave of inmates, which led to the lack of the prison system’s ability to hold a vast number of inmates. When the cost became too much for the government to handle, private sectors sought this as an opportunity to expand their businesses through the prison industry. Since the opening of private prisons, the number of prisons and inmates it can hold has grown over the last two decades. With the rising number of inmates, profits have also substantially grown along with the number of investors. But what eventually became a problem amongst the private prison industry was their “cost-saving” strategies, which have been in constant debate ever
Prisons require an abundance of money to be run properly and effectively. By using taxes to pay for prisons, the American public pays to support the lives of inmates and all of their needs. Prisoners require food, drink, beds, supplies for doing other activities and all of the overlooked things in normal life that go along with these necessities. Inmates have special needs, like all of us do. Inmates require medical care, for example, some have AIDS or other diseases that require medicine which cumulate large bills over time.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and of that over sixty percent of jail inmates reported having a mental health issue and 316,000 of them are severely mentally ill (Raphael & Stoll, 2013). Correctional facilities in the United States have become the primary mental health institutions today (Adams & Ferrandino, 2008). This imprisonment of the mentally ill in the United States has increased the incarceration rate and has left those individuals medically untreated and emotionally unstable while in jail and after being released. Better housing facilities, medical treatment and psychiatric counseling can be helpful in alleviating their illness as well as upon their release. This paper will explore the increasing incarceration rate of the mentally ill in the jails and prisons of the United States, the lack of medical services available to the mentally ill, the roles of the police, the correctional officers and the community and the revolving door phenomenon (Soderstrom, 2007). It will also review some of the existing and present policies that have been ineffective and present new policies that can be effective with the proper resources and training. The main objective of this paper is to illustrate that the criminalization of the mentally ill has become a public health problem and that our policy should focus more on rehabilitation rather than punishment.
In conclusion, for profit prisons do just that, they look for ways to make a profit by cutting corners and providing less than adequate living conditions for inmates. This imposes a significant risk for many things such as, extreme overcrowding in the private facilities, lack of medical care, lack of nutritious meals, and decrease in the number of staff that are in the facilities. The staff get don’t get paid as much as they should for the amount of hours they put into the facilities also causing risks for the safety and security of the
There is roughly 2.4 million people locked up in the United states. This statistic surprises everyone and automatically makes them think about the conditions of the prisoners. Even though prisoners have to deal with harsh conditions, most people do not think about the effects of prisons on correctional officers. Even though some may argue that prison conditions are too harsh, correctional officers still have to endure the same conditions as prisoners even though they are not the ones that are locked up. Correctional officers have to endure violence from inmates, intense stress that can cause psychological problems, and stress on families.
Throughout history into today, there have been many problems with our prison system. Prisons are overcrowded, underfunded, rape rates are off the charts, and we as Americans have no idea how to fix it. We need to have shorter sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners back to where they can function in society. Many prisoners barely have a high school education and do not receive further education in jail. Guards need to pay more attention to the well being of the inmates and start to notice signs of abuse and address them. These are just a few of the many problems in our prison systems that need to be addressed.
The “Tough on Crime” and “War on Drugs” policies of the 1970s – 1980s have caused an over populated prison system where incarceration is policy and assistance for prevention was placed on the back burner. As of 2005, a little fewer than 2,000 prisoners are being released every day. These individuals have not gone through treatment or been properly assisted in reentering society. This has caused individuals to reenter the prison system after only a year of being release and this problem will not go away, but will get worst if current thinking does not change. This change must be bigger than putting in place some under funded programs that do not provide support. As the current cost of incarceration is around $30,000 a year per inmate, change to the system/procedure must prevent recidivism and the current problem of over-crowed prisons.
A correctional officer is apart of a staff in a detention center, prison, or a jail that sets to accomplish the goals of the institution’s objectives by maintaining control and order within the prison (Seiter, 2011). While the role of a correctional officer is very crucial within a prison, depending on the unique role to a specific location, it is important that we understand that these humble and quiet guardians are in the correction facilities. Between the different criminal justice facilities, the mission and goals between them are vastly different, although there is very little contrast in the roles that correctional officers play in these facilities. Correctional officers are solely in charge of the direct and constant supervision of prisoners and administering the security procedures and protocols within a facility. These officers also need to be extremely well informed in the technical and interactive realm of the prison system as daily interactions with the inmate population requires them to have strict adherence to policies and a sharp attention to
This results in past inmates going to the mental ward and the mental ward having to deal with these people that are messed up because the prisons don’t do anything about it. Another consequence is reduced staff, which means there are more fights and rape incidents which furthers the PTSD that the inmates have. The lack of officers leads to fatigue and stress in the officers that are on duty because they have to work longer hours to make up for the lack of officer that is securing the prison's grounds. (Galvin,