Is Prison Overcrowding Fixable?

No one knows exactly when criminal law and corrections began in human society. However, it probably would have occurred at the point in social evolution when collective vengeance was first substituted for private vengeance. That is, people realized that feuding was costing the group too much in terms of injuries and lives, and some individual’s behavior was first imagined to be harmful to the group as a whole. The entire group, or the leader(s) acting for the group, took action against the offender. (Stanko 25)

The idea of prison has been around for thousands of years and seems to be an integrated part of the human concept. We remove the people that disrupt society and we put them away or get rid of them. We, as a modern culture, want things to run smoothly. Getting in the way of that will cause individuals to be noticed and processed by the system.

The prison system has shaped the modern world and helped to create the society we have today. We feel safer and, especially in the United States, we are freer and can keep our sense of freedom because we feel safe enough to do what we want. The prisons systems have set up their own methods of keeping the small world of the prison in control. They have created their own rules, and regulations to keep the system running smoothly. “Further, the National Prison Association (NPA)—forerunner of the American Correctional Association (ACA)—already had been in existence for three decades, providing a valuable professional forum for prison officials to meet, share ideas and advocate solutions” (Herman 50). It is essential that these systems keep constant control of the situation inside the prisons. The control that they put over the prisons not only needs to be maintained, but ne...

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...s that are facing our prison systems, we will in turn be able to help solve one of the greatest issues facing our society today.

Works Cited

Clark, Charles S. "Prison Overcrowding." CQ Researcher 4 Feb. 1994: 97-120. Web. 16 Dec. 2011.

"crime." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

Drucker, Ernest. A Plague of Prisons. New York: The New Press, 2011. Print.

Herman, Peter G., Ed. The American Prison System. n.p.: The H. W. Wilson Company, 2001. Print.

Merlo, Alida V. and Peter J. Benekos. "Politics, Media, and Corrections Policy." American Jails Magazine. Greenhaven Press, 2005. Gale At Issue Series. Web. 14 Dec. 2011

Tonry, Michael and Kathleen Hatlestad, Eds. Sentencing Reform in Overcrowded Times. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Print.

Stanko, Stephen and others. Living in Prison. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Print.