Overcrowded prisons have been a nationwide problem and are increasingly overcrowded annually. Prison overcrowding has become one of the root factors leading to other problems regarding jails and prisons. According to Laura R. Dove, a lawyer and associate dean in business law, says in Alabama alone, the population of inmates has increased by 710% from 1968 to 2013. Also, Alabama policymakers previously tried to pass two bills to increase funding for prisons which would allow for expansion of prisons (Dove et al). With the failure of passing these legislations, prison overcrowding has gotten out of control and led to outbreaks and fights. Prison population in Alabama has increased by seven times the original amount in 45 years but still has not been reformed to address overcrowding. Dove additionally states that with less protective security and undermined staff, inmates are more inclined to fool around or cause an outbreak of fights (Dove et al). With more inmates in the same confined space, issues arise quicker. Nelson Mandela, a South African activist and first president of South Africa, says that during his time in prison, prisoners would have to fight on the inside, similar to how they fought on the outside and that racism was still prominent and an issue within inmates (Mandela et al). Nelson Mandela’s point on prison confinement relates to Dove’s claim on an increase of fights and shows the negatives of overcrowding. Additionally with the problem of understaffed officials and less tight security, problems are more inclined to escalate faster. Lastly, Marcus Aurelius, a former Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher states “If mind be common to us all, the reason in virtue of which we are rational is also common; so too is the power which bids us do or not do. Therefore we have all a common law; and if so, we are fellow-citizens and members of some common polity” (Aurelius). This quote represents how everyone has a sense of common logic and reasoning to help others whether we choose to or not. By having this, we are all the same and should help one another. This ties in with prison overcrowding and previous sources such as Dove’s since it refers back to the inhumane problems and issues overcrowding imposes. According to Tara O'Neill Hayes, a Director of Human Welfare Policy, the United States currently has 2.2 million people incarcerated and sentences have increased and gotten longer (Hayes). By reducing the incarceration rate, overcrowding will decrease in prisons and lower humanitarian risks and problems. So, to address the overcrowding prison population issue, lowering the incarceration rates for unjustified victims and unnecessary cases needs to be implemented. The root problem of high incarceration being lowered will be able to decrease overcrowding rates by not having as many prisoners be incarcerated in the first rate. 

Overcrowding in the United States proves to be a pressing issue that has not been widely addressed or solved. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization that defends and preserves individual rights and liberties, the United States accounts for one quarter of the global prison population and has an incarceration rate of five to ten times higher than other western countries. Adding on, the United States is ranked first in incarceration compared to China ranking second with a population size of 4.35 larger than the U.S and Russia coming in third (“Overcrowding and Overuse…”). Tying in with Dove’s source previously, both articles conclude that overcrowding in the United States has clearly left an impact on the world. This is a national problem that needs to be resolved because of the other issues it leads to such as an increase in violence. Trenton Gibson is a lieutenant at Lake County Sheriff's office regarding law enforcement. They say overcrowding reduces the ability of authorities to break up fights and segregate violent attacks. Gibson also provides insight on an attack in Delaware lasting over 18 hours resulting in four officers being held hostage with one Lieutenant killed and several officers injured (Gibson). This attack was due to the overcrowded prison population in Delaware. Having an immense number of prisoners leaves the staff and security at a disadvantage. Officials were not able to stop the attack because of them being outnumbered and understaffed. This provides a huge problem regarding prison overcrowding since prisons are already understaffed but with overcrowding leading to violence, the number of workers keeps decreasing. Not only are inmates getting violent with each other, overcrowding imposes dangers and security to workers and staff. 

In addition to workers being understaffed and in danger of being harmed, overcrowding leads to medical, mental, and dental concerns for prisoners. According to Farah Acher Kaiksow, an equity researcher for incarceration and health, overcrowding in prisons leads to an increase of prison costs since there is an increase of medical funds and health funds for more prisoners. These funds are still not satisfactory to all inmates and many prisoners don't even get basic necessities such as beds or bathroom space (Kaiksow et al.). Many prisons do not have many accessible bathrooms for prisoners due to the overpopulated prisoner number. This causes health risks and spread of diseases without updated sanitary stations or restrooms. Kathryn Nowotny specializes in sociology in health inequality, mass incarceration and justice health and states that in 2014, 18 states were at 100% occupancy level but as of 2020 there is 103.9% occupancy level clearly showing overcrowding (Nowotny et al.). This leads to unhygienic situations with many inmates and can lead to spread of diseases quicker. For example, soap is shared between many prisoners which is unsanitary and spreads bacteria between inmates. In addition to physical health, overcrowding in prisons also leads to mental health effects and impacts prisoners greatly. Jefferson García-Guerrero, an Assistant Professor in Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences, states that the number of suicide in overpopulated prisons is up to 10 times higher than the average prison. Adding on, there are a higher amount of psychotic disorders, aggressive behaviors and depression (Garcia-Guerrero et al.). This shows the detrimental impacts of overcrowding to prisoners as well. They aren’t able to live somewhat comfortably and have to suffer instead of getting better. Once again, Nelson Mandela stated that he suffered from prison confinement and felt that issues on the outside were prominent still on the inside such as racism and depression (Mandela et al.). This shows the major problems of overpopulation in prisons and why our society needs to reform and fix how many prisoners are in each facility. Not only does it affect the prisoners, but the taxpayers and the government.

In hopes of reforming overcrowded prisons, many governments and legislations have prompted the idea of expanding or building more prisons. According to Edith Riegler, a human rights researcher in criminology and criminal justice, many countries globally, U.S. included, planned to build at least 437,000 new spaces which would help the overcrowding situation (Riegler et al.). This would help lower the amount of inmates and problems of overcrowding in every prison. Additionally, Quentin Ikuta, a natural resources science and management graduate, says that the Department of Justice officials should push to expand prisons and build new facilities (Ikuta). New facilities will then allow for offenders to have training to become better for society before they go back into the real world. Although expanding prisons might seem like a good idea, it might not entirely be. For instance, how does society know that prisons won’t keep overfilling and incarcerating more prisoners? In that case, expanding prisons will keep the harms and dangers of overcrowding prominent and not reinforce anything. According to Joshua Guetzkow who is in the field of social policy and criminal justice and focuses on humanitarian issues, says that even if we do make more space, prisons would still admit more prisoners and there has not been a law or policy that has proven to be 100% beneficial (Guetzkow et al.). If we do increase funding to have more space and freedom for the prisoners and prisons to have more beds and bathrooms, many cities would still admit more prisoners leaving the ratio and percentage of inmates in an area to the same as what it was before. Thus, this solution can not be relied on and shows it is not hugely beneficial. 

Another option is to use at home arrest to distribute less severe offenders and allow for more space and sanitation in prisons. According to Deputy Steve Brown, who was a deputy program manager at the Department of the Navy in San Diego, ankle bracelets would allow for less overcrowded prisons while making sure less severe offenders are still serving their time (“Ankle Monitors Help”). The amount of people being incarcerated needs to be lowered and could be regulated by using at-home arrest ankle bracelets for people with lower offenses. Additionally, ankle bracelets are lower costs compared to incarceration in prisons. According to Rui Kaneya, an investigative journalist and senior editor at ProPublica, ankle bracelets are $150 a month and much cheaper than prison confinement (Kaneya). This shows that governments and civilians will spend less on prison confinement and can still get similar results regarding reforming offenders. Although this seems like the ideal solution, home arrest has many cons. For example, according to Connect Us Fund, a non profit organization protecting human rights, the cons of ankle bracelets consist of not decreasing criminal activity, many are not eligible for home arrest, and offenders could be able to tamper with the device (“18 Biggest Pros and Cons…”). Prisoners need to be low risk offenders in order to be eligible for home arrest leading to lots of investigations and many aren’t able to fulfill these requirements. Additionally, criminals could tamper with the device and make it seem like they are at home, leading the patrol officer to be unaware of the situation and unable to verify their confinement. Lastly, this is not a permanent solution since it does not decrease the amount of crime after the arrest is over. 

In order to protect inmates and outside society, decreasing incarceration rates nationally is needed since the United States is currently ranked number one in mass incarceration. Lowering incarceration rates will lower overcrowding in prisons, therefore, leading to less health risks, mental issues and violent attacks. Lauren-Brooke Eisen, a director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Foundation pushing to end mass incarceration, says 40% of people incarcerated in the U.S. are done with little public safety rationale (Eisen et al.). This accounts for 500,000 people in prisons and would reduce overcrowded prisons and save prisoners from getting incarcerated for no reason. Additionally, this would save about $180 million in the next decade which is equivalent to 360,000 probation officer salaries (Eisen et al.). Overcrowding would decrease significantly in the long run and its effects wouldn’t be as detrimental. 

In contrast to lowering incarceration rates, Kathryn Nowotny says there are 750,000 people in jail throughout the nation each day on average but in one calendar year 10.6 million people cycle through the prison system lasting at least 25 days (Nowotny et al).. So when people are charged and cannot pay bail, it continues to increase the amount of prisoners and tightens the space each person has. This leads to more unsanitary prisons and can increase outbreaks of fights. This might not be able to be counteracted because people in poverty will not be able to pay bail. However, Richard Berk, a professor of criminology and statistics, says that many incarcerated individuals aren’t threats to society and a year in prison could be equivalent to a year of college tuition (Berk). Since a good amount of incarcerated prisoners are in for low offenses or purely because they would not pay bail for their low offense crimes, it reduces the amount of prisoners that are in actual need of prison confinement. This allows for prisons to be cleaner, safer and more spacious without the harmless contended offenders. 

To reiterate, lowering incarceration rates can help by pointing out the offenders that have not committed huge crimes and are eligible to be back in society. This not only prevents overcrowding, it allows people that are incarcerated because they couldn’t afford bail, to be free, and for the civilians and government to cut down on taxes or funding for prisons. Prison prices would decrease and sanitation in prisons would increase. Additionally, it will ensure that overcrowding is regulated since people will be eligible to not be incarcerated in contrast to just expanding prisons. So, the inmates in prisons would be watched closer since staff would not be completely at a disadvantage from many prisoners and outbreak of fights would decrease. Lastly, security guards would be able to keep a closer eye on the prisoners who have committed harsher crimes. Less incarceration provides higher security in the future. 

In conclusion, overcrowding is an increasing problem globally but more drastically, nationally in the U.S. Overpopulating prisons violates humanitarianism and can lead to spread of diseases, insanitation, outbreaks of fights and negative mental health effects. By lowering incarceration rates by not incarcerating less severe offenders, prisons would not be as populated and would become safer. In addition, with less populated prisons it would decrease the amount of risks prisoners and staff have to endure. Therefore, lowering incarceration standards will help solve the negatives of overcrowded prisons.

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