Policy Analysis 2

For this policy analysis I have decided to analyze overcrowding in the prison system.

Overcrowding is a massive issue that needs to be addressed, through research there seems to be

very little national policy to fix this problem. Historically it seems that the supreme court will

force states to figure out an issue when their prisons become too overpopulated, this has

happened to California. The supreme court deemed that prisoners in the California prison system

were losing their constitutional right because of inhuman living arraignments. This isn’t just a

California issue though, America has one of the highest incarcerated populations per capita, in

2015 out of every 100,000 individuals 698 of them were incarcerated (Olsen, Et al, 2016). In

2016, 14 states were considered to have overcrowded prisons at the end of the year.

Overcrowding is obviously a big issue in this country and the issue is that it isn’t a new problem.

Prison crowding became a huge issue in the 60s and 70s one of the reasons for this was because

of protests, the civil rights movement in the 60s and the Vietnam war protests in the 70s caused a

lot of nonviolent individuals to be thrown into jail for what could be considered pretty minor

issues. Presidential candidates have politicized jail and crime for quite a long time, one of

Nixon’s main political points was that he was going to be tough on crime, George H.W Bush

also had a political campaign centered on being tougher towards criminals (Olsen, Et al, 2016).

Even in this current political era, candidates are promising to send criminals to prison, while

claiming the other candidate released the criminals to the public. To say that prison

overcrowding isn’t political would be nonsense. Toughness on crime has historically been used

to bolster political candidates ahead of their opposition.

The question needs to be asked if overcrowding in jails is a well known issue that has

been around for a long time, then why hasn’t the government done anything about it? The

answer to that is a bit tricky. Some states such as Minnesota have tried things to stop
overcrowding such as establishing a sentencing guideline commission that recommends uniform

sentence ranges for various crimes that is tied to the state’s prison capacity (Krajic, Gettinger,

1982). The various crimes mentioned would all be nonviolent crimes the majority of which

would be drug offenses. If an individual got arrested for selling weed and the states prison

system was at full capacity, then the individual would get a much shorter sentencing time or get

an alternative such as parole. I feel as if completely decriminalizing certain acts would be a

better avenue than to have a vague sentencing time based on capacity of prisons. Politicians, both

at a state and national level are under a lot of heat from both sides when it comes to prison

overcrowding (Krajic, Gettinger, 1982). One side of voters don’t care about overcrowded prisons

and do not want criminals to get a shorter sentence. They feel as if their neighborhoods would

become less safe if criminals were allowed to leave prison early due to overcrowding. The other

side of voters feel as if prisoners are being treated inhumanely because of the overcrowding in

prisons, and they demand that something be done about it. This puts lawmakers in an incredibly

fragile spot, which is a major reason why nothing has gotten done. Multiple studies show that

overcrowding in prisons is detrimental to the prisoners living inside. Funding is already low for

many states so prisoners in overcrowded prisons get less opportunity for rehabilitation options

(Pitts, Griffin, 2014) and are prone to much more violence (Farrington, Nuttall, 1982).

It seems that the government hasn’t truly figured out a solution to prison

overcrowding, through research four possible policy solutions emerged. The first solution was

created through research done by “The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services” (NDCS).

The individuals doing the research realized their state had an overcrowding issue and they

needed a way to fix it. The most common solution to fixing prison overcrowding is to expand,

either by building new prisons or by expanding current ones. The cheapest form of expansion is
to just add more beds into an existing prison. The research showed that this solution caused

much more violence (NDCS, 2021) The researches instead found another solution which

included getting rid of “short timers” this would be prisoners that are spending less than a year in

jail for their sentencing. One reason the researchers find this solution to be better is because in

less than year prisoners do not get much of an opportunity for any sort of rehabilitation service,

they are in and out. The short timers would be better of in a different environment such as a

rehab center than a prison. The research concluded that if the state was going to build more

facilities they should focus on rehab services and not prisons.

The second policy solution is to do an early

release program. From 1980 to 1983 the state of Illinois had an overcrowding issue, and released

over 20,000 prisoners early. There are a couple of reasons why this solution could be a good

thing. The first is that it saves the states lots of money. Prisons cost money to operate and by

letting prisoners go early it is estimated that Illinois saved over 3 million dollars (Austin, 1986).

The second reason is that it gives individuals that were incarcerated an opportunity to better

themselves and their local economy by getting jobs and spending money. One of the downsides

to this solution is the public perception of doing an early release program. In modern day the

public perception of policing varies widely from quite negative to positive, due to social media

videos and other forms of media showing what appears to be unjust acts (Dowler, Zaleski, 2007)

Because of this distrust an early release program could cause the public to distrust the criminal

justice system even more because they will feel as if those prisoners released early should have

never been put in prison to begin with. According to the Illinois study crime didn’t go up in the

three years that the state done an early release program, but the immediate affects were felt, upon

release the public suffered from crime at a quicker rate (Austin, 1986).
 The third policy solution is probably the

easiest and the least controversial and that would be to build more prisons. For lawmakers to

agree that building more prisons is the answer to the overcrowding issue they would have to

believe that prison truly “works.” An interesting article by Mike Hough, Rob Allen, and Enver

Solomon brings up that the only building more prisons make sense is if prison actually works.

What the article means by works is the idea that prisoners can be fully rehabilitated among

release, they would go back to being productive members of society (Hough, Et al, 2008). The

issue with this idea is that multiple studies show that prisons do not cater to rehabilitation as well

as other forms of punishment (Nkosi, Maweni, 2020). Another issue with this policy solution is

that states already do not have enough funding for the current amount of prisons, adding more

prisons would make the problem even worse. The final policy solution has

briefly been mentioned throughout this paper and that is to decriminalize minor charges such as

drug use/possession. It is nearly impossible to find exact numbers but it seems that nearly half or

more of the individuals in prisons today are incarcerated because of some sort of drug charge. An

argument can be made that drug abuse should be looked at more as a mental health issue and less

as a criminal offense (Fouch, 2023). The war on drugs during the 1980s is a major reason why so

many individuals are arrested for minor drug charges. States such as Colorado has things to stop

it such as legalizing marijuana. Decriminalizing all drugs and treating it as a mental health issue

would greatly shrink prison sizes and would instead foster an attitude of rehab and sympathy

towards drug dependent individuals. The downside to this policy solution is public perception.

Certain states would fight hard against the idea of decriminalizing drugs, which is why the

national government would probably never go through with it.

Overall, prison overcrowding

is a very complex issue, there isn’t one right way to fix all the problems, I think that a mixture of

a couple of these solutions would be a great start. Possibly decriminalizing more drugs, while

also supporting shorter sentences and rehab. The key with any policy related to prison

overcrowding is to make the public feel safe if individuals are being released from prison.
 References

Austin J Austin, J. (1986, October). Using early release to relieve prison

crowding - a dilemma in public policy. National Institute of Justice.
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/using-early-release-relieve-prison-crowding-
dilemma-public-policy

Author(s) K Krajik; S Gettinger, & Corporate Author

Edna McConnell Clark Foundation Address 250 Park Avenue.
(n.d.). NCJRS Virtual Library. Overcrowded Time - Why Prisons Are So Crowded and
What Can Be Done | Office of Justice Programs. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-
library/abstracts/overcrowded-time-why-prisons-are-so-crowded-and-what-can-be-done

Dowler, K., & Zawilski, V. (2007). Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination:
Examining the impact of media consumption. Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(2), 193–203.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.01.006

Farrington, D. P., & Nuttall, C. P. (1980). Prison size, overcrowding, prison violence, and
recidivism. Journal of Criminal Justice, 8(4), 221–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-
2352(80)90002-1

Fouch, P. (2023, June 10). Decriminalization: A way out of the unwinnable war on drugs:
Published in Appalachian Journal of Law. Appalachian Journal of Law.
https://appalachian.scholasticahq.com/article/74195-decriminalization-a-way-out-of-the-
unwinnable-war-on-drugs

Nkosi, N., & Maweni, V. (2020). The effects of overcrowding on the rehabilitation of offenders:
A case study of a correctional center, Durban (Westville), KwaZulu Natal. The Oriental
Anthropologist: A Bi-Annual International Journal of the Science of Man, 20(2), 332–346.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0972558x20952971

Olsen, C., Stancel, Fi., Butoyi, H., Ehlert, T., Thomsen, J., & Dickhewier, R. (n.d.). The
Overcrowding of Prisons in the United States of America. ruckforsk.ruc.dk.
https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/62451363/Prisons_U.S._final_fine_final.pdf

Pitts, J. M. A., Griffin, O. H., & Johnson, W. W. (2014). Contemporary prison overcrowding:
Short-term fixes to a perpetual problem. Contemporary Justice Review, 17(1), 124–139.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2014.883844

Solomon, E., Allen, R., & Hough, J. M. (2010). Tackling prison overcrowding build more
prisons? sentence fewer offenders? Policy Press.

Uno’s Nebraska Center for Justice Research Addresses prison crowding and classification:
Insights from legislatively funded project. University of Nebraska Omaha. (2024, February
16). https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-public-affairs-and-community-service/news/
2024/unos-nebraska-center-for-justice-research-addresses-prison-crowding-and-
classification-insights-from-legislatively-funded-project.php