Capstone Paper onPrison overcrowding. Purpose--the purpose of your capstone paper is to discuss and evaluate a Criminal Justice policy and make recommendations for its improvement. To do so,youwill...

Last Name 5
Name:
Professor:
Course:
Date:
Prison Overcrowding
Contents
Introduction    3
The Issue Addressed by the Policy    3
Current Information about the Policy    5
Proposals to fill the Current Gaps    6
Revisions to Strengthen the Current Policy    8
Conclusion    10
Works Cited    11
Introduction
The overcrowding of the prison is a result of the criminal justice policy. It is not due to the increase crime rates but the policy which mentions to provide food, healthcare and accommodation to the criminals living in the prison. Often due to such facilities, a person commits a crime who is facing poverty or a crisis to get the beneficial services of the prison. This increases the number of people in the prion, resulting in prison overcrowding. This issue occurs when there is a lack of space in the prison to accommodate the prisoners. There are several factors which has increased the crime rates in United States and resulted in prison overcrowding. Such issues are lack of proper education, lack of employment, poverty, drug abuse, mental illness, and racial discrimination. Currently one in 99 adults are in prison for performing a criminal act in U.S and one in 31 adults are in correctional homes which has added to the overcrowding of the prison (American Civil Liberties Union). The other causes of overcrowding are the rules of the policy which are stringent towards strict sentencing and the releasing criteria are also limited which increases the stay of the criminal in the prison. The increased arresting due to several minor crimes with a longer stay and reduced cellular area has created the problem of the prison overcrowding which has several negative impacts on the prisoners. In this paper we will deeply discuss and evaluate the Criminal Justice Policy and try to recommend methods for its improvement.
The Issue Addressed by the Policy
There are several issues addressed in the justice Policy of Prison Overcrowding. The major issues which are created are the increased crime rates in America due to the beneficial accommodation in the prison. As supported by Fox et al., the psychological change occurs in a person which causes the re-enter and recidivism in the prison making it further overcrowded. A person mainly experiencing poverty and other critical situation in life, has the highest chance of recidivism and re-entering the prison. Several other issues which are addressed due to this policy are the effect on the mental and physical health of the prisoners. The research work of Simpson and Butler addresses this issue which reached its peak during the COVID pandemic. The pandemic affected the prisoners due to the overcrowding of the prison and their health was highly deteriorated. The release policies were adopted to reduce the prison crowd and decrease the chance of getting infected by the Corona virus. The prisons are unable to provide required medical care to all the prisoners which has increased the health problems. Stress and idleness are other two issues which are occurring due to the policy. Violence rates are increasing in the prison due to the accommodation of a huge number of criminals and prisoners are made to sleep on the floor due to lack of space. Such problems are addressed by the prison overcrowding policy which must be mitigated to create a healthy environment in the prison.
Some of the issues that the policy is trying to address are the ‘war’ on drugs that the nation is trying to fight. The increased crime rates in the nation are mainly due to the increased drug abuse at the age of 16 – 24 years for which the public demanded for a longer sentence and stay in the prison. As presented by Pilane, the denial of the legal representation of the prisoners had increased the recidivism, which in turn increases the rate of overcrowding in the prison. The prisoners are often unable to arrange their advocates which makes the stay in the prison for a longer time increasing the crowd of the prison. This increased the incarceration rates of the nation, and it has reached its peak on 2008 (University of Nebraska Omaha). The economy of the government is affected by the policy and the basic human needs are not met often du to lack of funds. The issue regarding the racial discrimination, criminal offences, mental illness, lack of employment, and poverty are all addressed by the policy and the offenders regarding these issues are accepted in the prison. This factor causes the issue of overcrowding which include the long-lengthened sentencing to the offenders depleting the government fund and affecting the economy.
Current Information about the Policy
The policy of prison overcrowding is currently based on the factors of sending the offenders to prison due to several minor crimes which are increasing the recidivism rates, new offences added to the policy, the increase in role of the victim and their advocacy, and the returning of the offenders at a high rate to the prison, by incompletion of their probation. As correctly argued by Limoncelli et al., the incarceration rates have increased due to the increased sentence period which are spent in the prison by the offenders. This has increased the overcrowding currently which has led to lack of prison beds to accommodate the prisoners. The current known factors which are mainly leading to the prison overcrowding are the increased crime rates due to poverty, lack of employment, lack of education, several types of abuses, racial discrimination, criminal offences, and mental illness. As supported...