A Comprehensive Prison Reform to Help Reduce the Number of Inmates Detained in Prison

Some measures have been put in place to help mitigate the problem. The federal government, through the Department of Justice, provides billions of dollars for the establishment of both existing and new prisons (Muradyan, 2008). These provisions have helped to cater to the needs of the inmates by expanding accommodation facilities, providing food and healthcare among other basics. The allocations to the Corrections Department have been increased to cater to the rising number of prisoners. This comprehensive prison reform aims to reduce the number of inmates detained in prison.

The Corrections Department has been funded to facilitate and enhance its services, rehabilitating the behavior of the inmates and reducing their stay behind bars. With more efficient corrective measures, inmates’ stay in jail could be limited. Hence, the number of prisoners is likely to decrease over time.

Many prisons have expressed concern about expanding their facilities. Titan Prisons has proposed constructing three new American-style jails, each with a carrying capacity of 2500 inmates. The government has announced its plans to construct more prisons to create additional capacity for the Prison Department. The expansion of the current prison building program will yield significant improvement within the Prison Department, where new facilities will be created to accommodate the rising number of inmates. The Prison Department has also taken the initiative to relocate inmates from overcrowded prisons to less populated jails (Clear, Reisig, & Cole, 2018).

Proposed plan

The government’s initiative to undertake reforms in the prison systems and create new facilities is a significant move towards curbing prison overcrowding. However, these initiatives have been faced with numerous controversies that undermine their implementation. There are better and cheaper approaches that can be employed to mitigate the situation. The sentencing process has met with high inflation, calling for the need to create judicial reforms. Among these reforms are efficient court systems. The duration a suspect should be detained awaiting the court trial should be limited to reduce the number of people on remand. This requires close coordination between the court and the investigation department, where evidence should be availed immediately, and the suspect judged accordingly. The sentencing should provide reasonable alternatives for minor crimes. Suspects found guilty of petty cases should be given alternative punishments such as fines, correction measures, home detention, monitoring, and mentoring, among other forms of sanctions. The penalties should also be reasonable and affordable for the defendants.

These reforms will reduce the unnecessary use of custodial remand, which has increased the prison population by 95%. The government should invest in community penalties and help transform the criminals of lesser offenses outside the bars. A transparent court system should be established to ensure that no innocent people are victimized and detained for crimes they have not committed. Elimination of biased court ruling is likely to reduce the number of inmates being booked in for offenses. It is ironic that an 11% decrease in the crime rates within the United States has witnessed a drastic increase in the prison population. These statistics give a clear picture of the biased nature of the court systems. The proposed reforms will help reduce the number of people detained in jail, alleviate overcrowding in the prisons.

Conclusion

Prison systems are paramount to administrative policies and enforcement of law and order. The prison department complements policing and judicial activities; hence, its operations should not be undermined. The three are interrelated, and failure in one system is likely to affect the actions of the prison department. Failures in the judicial system, poor decisions, and mismanagement have led to overcrowding in the prisons. This is a significant threat that has undermined the operation of the prison systems, compromising the rights of the inmates and execution of services such as rehabilitation and correction by the prison departments. It is the responsibility of the government, which is overall in charge of policing, judicial, and prison departments, to enhance coordination and develop strategies to reduce overcrowding within jails.

The federal government is trying its best to expand the available facilities to cater to the rising number of inmates. However, this seems to be a wrong approach to the issue. Expanding the facilities to increase the carrying capacity of the prisons will only create more room to accommodate new inmates instead of reducing the problem of overcrowding. The key, among other causal agents, seems to be the judicial system, which needs reforms to affect the sentencing process and provide alternative punishments for lesser criminal cases. Through this, the number of inmates being booked will drastically decline, hence helping reduce overcrowding in the prisons.

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