The Struggles Behind Bars

  Prisons were created to keep the peace, as America’s thieves, molesters, and murderers are kept off the streets and thrown into these intimidating facilities. Supposedly, prison can help shape an inmate’s future in a positive way, teaching ethics one is required to have in our society and becoming an outstanding citizen . The problem is the prison system has cracks in its foundation.

  It has become a common occurence to lock people up in the U.S. for crimes ranging from non-violent drug charges to having late fees on tickets. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit criminal justice oriented American public policy think tank, the U.S. “locks up more people per capita than any other nation.”

  The number is so large, and the data is so corrupt due to negligence in record keeping, there is not a definitive number of how many people are in prison. With all the prisons in the U.S. there is enough room for 2.4 million inmates.

  The prison population constantly fluctuates for various reasons. A prison may be built on the crime rate of the generation, only building enough cells for the average rate, but if there is a rise in crime  and the rate goes up, the prison can not physically hold anymore people.

  Laws are constantly changed and corrected to different ideals. Example, on the issue of legal marijuana, the last congress made recreational usage legal in many states, yet the people who were already locked away who could not afford proper attorneys, still had to complete their sentence. Now, some lawmakers are trying to reverse these laws, leading to a confusing situation surrounding drug possession.

  There is also a group of inmates that are completely innocent of their crimes, but due to inadequate lawyers, corrupt cops, or even investigators working to please their bosses, mistakes are made and people become greedy, leading to the misery of others. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 149 innocent people spent an average of 15 years in prison before being released in 2015. 54 of those were convicted of murder charges, in which ⅔ were of a minority.

  Prison overcrowding can be incredibly difficult for the inmates and guards working within.

  It is tough to keep prison conditions to high standards when the facility is constantly changing and have new shipments of inmates. There is no time for  improvement or reconstruction. Inmates are often subjected to double-celling, where double the recommended amount of inmates are placed into a cell. This, in it of itself, can be a major cause for the spread of diseases; the more an illness travels, the faster it will spread.

  Overcrowding leads to extremely stressful situations for both inmates and staff. This creates an increased risk of violence and riots due to the tension created because of a lack of space. It’s as if they are all children running into a candy store – all the kids will protect themselves and their interests firsts. All wanting the candy before another..

  Prison officials can often act inappropriately at times due to being forced to work with an enormous number of inmates. Their job is to keep order within the facility, and if chaos erupts, then they must do whatever is needed to end the situation. Such as prison guards holding an inmate aggressively against the wall to keep them in place. For a fictional view of this situation, one can watch Orange Is The New Black on Netflix. While this show may be a bit exaggerated in some ways, it can help one gain a small insight.  At times, there is just too many areas for the staff and warden to watch.

  There are many programs that are not being taken advantage of that could help solve our prison problem. One of the major ones, rehabilitation. Drug users are addicted, and should not be thrown into the same place as a man who killed 20 girls. By placing these users into rehabilitation programs, it will aid in their fight against their addiction, while simultaneously helping the prison program.

  The issues surrounding prison is spreading to the media at this point, and most recently, Trump added in a few sentences about it in State of the Union address. Hopefully, with this sort of support, things will change within our prison system, because help is needed greatly. How can we expect to improve as a society if no one is willing to make a difference?