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Benefits of Reducing Prison Overcrowding

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Benefits of Reducing Prison Overcrowding
Abstract This paper is going to discuss the benefits of why reducing the overcrowding of prisons with help the inmates, employees, as well as the citizens of the state. It will show that crime within the prison walls will go down, the stress of the inmates and employees will reduce, as well as showing that we can save taxpayers millions of dollars a year. Lastly, this paper will look at programs that the inmates can be sentenced to for minor petty crimes that they are incarcerated for. As a result of all of this the overcrowding of prisons may come to a halt and may not be as stressful as many people think.

Benefits of Reducing Prison Overcrowding
When thinking about prison overcrowding it kind of makes you want to cringe and hope you never have to be in that situation, however, in each state it is very common and is causing unbearable situations and long term effects for many people. Reducing prison overcrowding can help many employees of the prison, citizens, and inmates in many ways. At this point we can put a stop to the overcrowding and try to make the judges and court systems realize that it will be beneficial to all parties involved.
First of all, by reducing overcrowding in prison it will help reduce crime and murder within the prison facilities. Prisons right now have caused more aggressive, antisocial behavior that is causing a lot of violence (“Effects of Prison Overcrowding”, 2012). Because there are more prisoners than staff on the premises, there is also a rise in drug trafficking, abuse, terrible living conditions, and new gangs being started. The prisoners that do have violent histories are taking their frustrations and anger out on other inmates as well as prison officials (“Effects of Prison Overcrowding”, 2012). However, if we are able to take those inmates that are in the prison for lesser charges and put them on house arrest or in a rehabilitation program, this will give the inmates with bigger sentences to have the space


References: Knafosaki, S. (2013, November 18). 10 Ways to Reduce Prison Overcrowding And Save Taxpayers Millions. The Huff Post retrieved from http://www.huffpost.com/2013/11/08/prison-overcrowding_n_4235691.html?view=print&com_ref=false Levitt, S. (1996). The Effect of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates: Evidence from Prison Overcrowding Litigation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics p.319-351 Mauer, D. (2012) Bureau of Prisons: Growing Inmate Crowding Negatively Affects Inmates, Staff and Infrastructure, Retrieved January 16, 2014 from http://gao.gov/products/GAO-12-1743. Parks, N. (2012) Effects of Prison Overcrowding, Retrieved January 16, 2014 from http://ehow.com/info/8072258_effects-prison-overcrowding.html. Ussem, B. and Morrison-Piehl, A (2008). Prison State: The Challenge of Mass Incarceration. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
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