Jail and Prison Overcrowding

There have been numerous suggestions to try and help with jail and prison overcrowding. Some of these solutions are known as front-door solutions while others are known as back door solutions. Front door solutions to prison overcrowding are frequently directed at prosecutors and judges and the way that they handle offenders before and during sentencing. “Some observers suggest greater use of diversion and/or assignment to community service agencies, where some offenders may bypass the criminal justice system altogether and remain free within their communities.”(Champion, p 292) Some other possible front door soultions include greater use of probation by judges and recommendations of leniency from prosecutors with the emphasis on some form of restitution, community service, victim compensation, and/or fine as the primary punishment. Front door solutions also may include judges having an assigned fixed number of spaces they can fill in prison, with the hopes that by doing this only the most serious offenders will be incarcerated and it will narrow the crimes for which offenders can be incarcerated. . Cells allow a degree of privacy however, “when more than one is placed in a cell, which frequently happens due to overcrowding prisoners could at least on occasion, talk more openly and communication and interact amongst themselves.”(Johnson,p 50) “Some of the back-door proposals by observers include easing the eligibility criteria for early release or parole; the administrative reduction of prison terms, where the governor, or others shorten originally imposed sentences for certain offenders, modifying parole revocation criteria so as to encourage fewer parole violations and expanding the number of community programs such as mediation and including the use of intense supervised parole for more serious offender groups.”(Champion, p 293) Due to overcrowding and the violence it generates often the parole-eligible inmates have a lessened chance of actually receiving early