The “Big Idea” Futures for Felons
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) have been struggling with an overcrowding epidemic since the civil lawsuit filed in 2001, known as Plata v. Brown. This lawsuit brought some serious to the attention of the state of California regarding their prison system. Plata filed the lawsuit against the state of California because the conditions of the CDCR prisons were unconstitutional and a violation of the 8th amendment rights the freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. This violation was due to the inadequate medical and mental health care that inmates were or were not receiving due to the serious overcrowding. According to the Data Analysis Unit (2013), weekly report of population on November 20, 2013 the CDCR had a population of 191,633 offenders under CDCR supervision. CDCR is housing 125,753 of those inmates. California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed a contract with three for profit private prisons located out of state to house thousands of California inmates. Arizona is housing 3,347 Mississippi is housing 2,660, and Oklahoma housing 2,296 inmates. Brown signed three contracts in state for profit private prisons with two separate entities as well. CDCR supervises 48,544 offenders on parole. These numbers are astounding. CDCR facilities met and exceeded its maximum capacity in all 33 prisons. There has been a three judge ruling on the overcrowding issue mandating California to bring its population down to 137.5% maximum capacity by February 24, 2014. The releasing of low risk inmates will reduce the population enough to not have an immediate concern regarding the overcrowding, while reevaluating the terms, conditions, policies, and procedures of parole and the implementation of the “Futures for Felons” program statewide will significantly influence the population long term and dramatically
Hubner, John. "Book Discussion on Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth." Interview. C-SPAN Video Library. N.p., 30 Oct. 2005. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. .
Private prisons have a negative effect on states and local governments. Unfortunately, the number of private prisons has been increasing since their inception in 1983 causing further problems. For-profit prisons offer no real benefits and are bad investments for states. Furthermore, private prisons beleaguer communities with high turnover rates that hurt local economies. The demands of these institutions put an excessive burden on the local community’s infrastructure. Similarly, private prisons strain the county and city legal systems. More often than not, spin-off industries and economic benefits promised by the for-profit correction industry fail to appear. Additionally, private prisons are allowed to cherry pick the least expensive inmates, leaving the more expensive inmates for the state. A number of studies financed by the private prison industry give the misconception that they save states money. More importantly, the need to make a profit is an incentive for private prison industry officials to engage in nefarious activities.
California has one of the most dysfunctional and problematic prison system in US. Over the last 30 years, California prison increased eightfolds (201). California Department of Correctional and Rehabilitation (CDCR) does little to reform prisoners and serve as human warehouse rather than a correction institution. California's prison system fails the people it imprisons and society it tries to protect. In many cases, California's prison system exacerbates the pre-existing problems and aids in the formation of new problems for prisoners. This paper discuses the criminogenic effects of overcrowding, and reduction/elimination of programs and how it negatively affects California and the ballooning prison population and possible remedies.
Prisons and correctional facilities in the United States have changed from rehabilitating people to housing inmates and creating breeding grounds for more violence. Many local, state, and federal prisons and correctional facilities are becoming more and more overcrowded each year. If the Department of Corrections (DOC) wants to stop having repeat offenders and decrease the volume of inmates entering the criminal justice system, current regulations and programs need to undergo alteration. Actions pushed by attorneys and judges, in conjunction current prison life (including solitary confinement), have intertwined to result in mass incarceration. However, prisoner reentry programs haven’t fully impacted positively to help the inmate assimilate back into society. These alterations can help save the Department of Corrections (DOC) money, decrease the inmate population, and most of all, help rehabilitate them. After inmates are charged with a crime, they go through the judicial system (Due Process) and meet with the prosecutor to discuss sentencing.
In recent decades, violent crimes in the United States of America have been on a steady decline, however, the number of people in the United States under some form of correctional control is reaching towering heights and reaching record proportions. In the last thirty years, the incarceration rates in the United States has skyrocketed; the numbers roughly quadrupled from around five hundred thousand to more than 2 million people. (NAACP)In a speech on criminal justice at Columbia University, Hillary Clinton notes that, “It’s a stark fact that the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. The numbers today are much higher than they were 30, 40
The problem is that regardless of different methods and approaches to prevent prison overcrowding, California still have one, if not, the largest prison population when compared to other states in the nation (ALEC, 2010). Prison overcrowding, defined by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR, is when the prison housing capacity is exceeded, creating less spatial room to accommodate inmates (CDCR, 2008). California’s 33 state prisons currently accommodate at least 140,000 inmates. California’s 33 state prisons are so crowded that it has put at serious risks the lives of inmates, prison staffs, and employees. Even with several mental and drug treatment rehabilitation facilities available, California state prisons still have t...
The overpopulation in the prison system in America has been an on going problem in the United States for the past two decades. Not only does it effect the American people who are also the tax payers to fund all of the convicts in prisons and jails, but it also effects the prisoners themselves. Family members of the prisoners also come into effect. Overpopulation in prison cause a horrible chain reaction that causes nothing but suffering and problems for a whole bunch people. Yet through all the problems that lye with the overpopulation in prisons, there are some solutions to fix this ongoing huge problem in America.
“Prison Overcrowding: The Problem.” American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC-American Legislative Exchange Council, 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
The past two decades have engendered a very serious and historic shift in the utilization of confinement within the United States. In 1980, there were less than five hundred thousand people confined in the nation’s prisons and jails. Today we have approximately two million and the numbers are still elevating. We are spending over thirty five billion annually on corrections while many other regime accommodations for education, health
Prison overcrowding is a growing issue, and it doesn't need to be. If capital punishment were to be used more often it would open up a large number of space in the current prisons. State prison chief Jeffrey Beard said "Prop. 47 has allowed the state to comply with a court-ordered inmate reduction mandate a year ahead of schedule" this
Overcrowding in our state and federal jails today has become a big issue. Back in the 20th century, prison rates in the U.S were fairly low. During the years later due to economic and political factors, that rate began to rise. According to the Bureau of justice statistics, the amount of people in prison went from 139 per 100,000 inmates to 502 per 100,000 inmates from 1980 to 2009. That is nearly 261%. Over 2.1 million Americans are incarcerated and 7.2 million are either incarcerated or under parole. According to these statistics, the U.S has 25% of the world’s prisoners. (Rick Wilson pg.1) Our prison systems simply have too many people. To try and help fix this problem, there needs to be shorter sentences for smaller crimes. Based on the many people in jail at the moment, funding for prison has dropped tremendously.
In 2012, the total number of inmates incarcerated in the state and federal correctional system for was 1,571,013, of which 108,866 of those inmates were females. In the last two decades, until 2009, women were the fastest growing population within the state and federal correctional institutions. Since 2009, the number of inmates incarcerated in state and federal correctional facilities has slowly declined mainly due to public policy changes in both state and federal laws. California accounted for fifty one percent of the decrease in the overall population due to the Public Safety Realignment policy that mandated a decrease in the inmate population to alleviate overcrowding; this led to a 25.5 percent decrease in the female population in California alone. (Carson & Golinelli, 2013)
Overcrowding in prisons may cause prisoners to not receive the rehabilitative curriculums that they want in order to be reintegrated into society. This is the case in California, with individuals serving their prison sentences in jails, where they do not have the space to incorporate areas to hold the programs necessary for prisoners to assimilate back into society (KQED and Center for Investigative
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the year 1980 we had approximately 501,900 persons incarcerated across the United States. By the year 2000, that figure has jumped to over 2,014,000 prisoners. The current level of incarceration represents the continuation of a 25-year escalation of the nation's prison and jail population beginning in 1973. Currently the U.S. rate of 672 per 100,000 is second only to Russia, and represents a level of incarceration that is 6-10 times that of most industrialized nations. The rise in prison population in recent years is particularly remarkable given that crime rates have been falling nationally since 1992. With less crime, one might assume that fewer people would be sentenced to prison. This trend has been overridden by the increasing impact of lengthy mandatory sentencing policies.
Firstly, in order to gain a better understanding of the problems that plague or correctional system we must fully understand the enormous overcrowding problem that exist in the majority of or state and federal prisons. Since 1980 the prison population has quadrupled and only the numb...