Preview

Overpopulation In California

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
736 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Overpopulation In California
Overpopulated Prison’s and California’s Solution Barbara Leigh Werner Everest University Online California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mistake Recently a Federal Judge has court ordered California Officials to reduce the California Inmate population that is crowding their State Prisons within a six month time frame. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is again disappointing the California people and creating a newly revised strategy to drain the pockets of several California tax payers as anemergency solution to their current prison crisis. Newly built prisons would be under construction to house some of the 40,000 inmates California has to relocate. With thirty-three Prisons, 173,000 inmates and only 87,250 beds the …show more content…
In an overpopulated prison inmates obtain a higher level of stress and elevate blood pressure. This leads to physical and psychological impairment and in an increase in medical complaints. Errors in social judgmentsand interpersonal mistakes are made. The resources for prisoners deplete rapidly due to availability. The screenings for inmates are overlooked and the management for possible problematic prisoners is skipped causing an uneasy environment when mentally ill prisoners interact with the general population. Systems that grow at this lightening speed are at risk for losing their organizational stability and unable to maintain the grounds they guard with authority in place. There are a few simple solutions to help the population from increasing without costing the California taxpayers more money to build new construction prisons that appear to be …show more content…
Those with convictions of possession, under the influence and minor distribution could be shortened or given alternative means of punishment. Also prostitution and solicitation charges could be reduced. These offenders if charged with three like crimes are most likely sitting in prison for several years under the three strikes law. The cost for one year imprisonment in California runs close to $50,000.00 per inmate. Take 173,000 inmates and multiply by 50,000 and the total equals $8,650,000,000.00. This is a number some people would not know how to pronounce or read. Shorten the years sentenced to those whom commit “paper crimes”. Giving false information in contracts to a government agency will find you five to ten years in prison. For the tax payers of California that is $250,000.00 to $500,000.00 total to incarcerate thisperson. The most effective idea brought about is to outsourceprisoners that are convicted in California but their home state or country is located somewhere else. This could save California millions of dollars and lessen the population in our prisons. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could create an agreement with other states or countries that if a person is convicted in California we would incarcerate them in their home state or country and California would pay the amount of funds to the state or country to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Is there anything more frustrating than sitting in rush hour traffic, day after day, knowing that it will never get better? How does standing in line at the grocery story, spending a full day at the DMV, or having to squeeze into the packed elevator in a downtown high-rise sound? These are but a few minor, yet inconvenient, effects of the population explosion we Californian’s are facing. Our geographical space is not getting any larger, but our population is. The 2000 census showed California’s population increased by 13.6% over 1990 census figures to 33,871,648 people. California adds over 550,000 people annually, which is roughly equivalent to adding the entire population of the state of Vermont every year. Why is California so over populated and what are the potential long-term effects of this overcrowding?…

    • 1220 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Three Strikes Law

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The purpose of the “three strike” law against offenders was originally to help reduce the number of criminals who were running around free but what it had come down to was costing tax payers more than what they had bargained for. More than 57% of offenders in California who are placed in prison for the “three strike” law were typically arrested for nonviolent offenses such as drug violations and burglary. More serious offenders who had committed more serious violent crimes were getting of scotch free if it had been their 1st or 2nd offense. 1 in 4 prisoners or 42,000 inmates are serving time in California prisons were serving life terms of 25 years to life after being placed in the prison system against the “three strikes” law. Inmates serving time increased the cost to house them in the prison systems under this law by $8.1 billion with $4.7 billion of that amount being used to house nonviolent offenders. Offenders who were placed in the prison system by the “three strike” law committing nonviolent offenses such as drug related crimes and burglary outnumbered the total number of offenders placed who had committed more serious offenses such as rape, assault or murder. Voters are the only people who are able to repeal this law but what would be left for the inmates who are already placed in prison systems against the “three strike”…

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 2011, the Court in Brown v. Plata gave California two years to reduce overcrowding to a 137.5% capacity, the equivalent to an 113,722 inmate maximum. Though California reduced its prison population it did not meet the deadline and was issued an extension in 2013. In January of 2015, California officially met the standard set by the court when prisons were at a 137.2% capacity. A weekly population report conducted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in April of 2017 displays how California continues to decrease its prison population at a current capacity of 131.8 %. Thus, data measuring California’s prison population since 2011 suggest that the Court achieved an impact because overcrowding was…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capstone

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In this paper the writer will cover the topic of the future trends in the California department of corrections and rehabilitation system. It will explore the budgetary and managerial impacts that are thought to be expected in the future, as well as an explanation on the reasons behind the thought. Other components of the criminal justice system will also be explored and discussed.…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Current research regarding overcrowding in prisons and jails is relatively limited in its scope. Most research focuses on only prisons and is primarily quantitative research. Quantitative research is incapable of examining personal opinions of inmates who serve time in overcrowded institutions; and ask whether or not inmates accredit their failure to rehabilitate to overcrowding. Qualitative research would help better understand how inmates perceive the issue, and whether or not the statistical issues are reflected in their minds. Quantitative data clearly shows that overcrowding in prisons has negative effects such as lack of resources, poorer living environment, and ultimately higher recidivism…

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    California has the largest prison population in the United States and some countries around the world. For over 40 years, the incarceration levels have risen. The prison rates have risen 700 percent since 1970, today it is estimated that one in 100 adults are incarcerated. Who pays the bill for this large increase, tax payers have and will continue until the Department of Justice and government have a solid plan to reduce the overwhelming criminal justice deficient. The taxpayers are not only paying to house the prisoners but to feed them and all their medical needs. One plan that was pass by the Supreme Court was to reduce the prison population, they gave California two years to do this (Henrichson, 2012).…

    • 1732 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever wondered where and how our tax money being spent? We pay taxes for services that we all benefit from as a community. Things like roads, law enforcement, libraries, transportation systems, to live comfortable and safe. However; a very big chunk of that money goes towards prisons and jails. California’s current prison budget is almost $10 billion dollars (Jerrod). Even this sum is not enough to incarcerate all of the offenders. California will need an additional two to four billion dollars to address the overcrowded problem (Hayes). This does not necessarily mean that the crime rate has increased, this just means that politicians need to change the way our prison system works. In the end we are the ones paying for everything. Statistics have shown that the crime rate has decreased over the years but prison population continued to grow (Mayeux). This has started since 1980s when California released a series of strictest mandatory sentencing laws and stringiest parole policies in the nation (Young). These actions have increased prison population by 700 percent since the 1980s (Young). All at the expense of taxpayers which costs us $32 billion dollars yearly nationwide and keeps growing (Kieso). Government cut budgets for education but they keep adding money to correction and rehabilitation sector (Mayeux). Prisons are overcrowded to the point that Supreme Court ordered our state to release 46,000 prisoners because there is just no room for them (Jerrod). Purpose of this proposal is to provide more information on this issue and propose a solution to reduce prison population by reducing the numbers of secondary offenders and going for the root of the problem.…

    • 2751 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ultimately, 71 of the state prisons contained penitentiaries were overcrowded with potential and convicted criminals (Cawley 2017). For a cell that is intended to house four people, as many as 30 would share a single cell. Inmates with close quarters such as this raises high health concerns. With health conditions not being treated quickly, diseases can spread rapidly. More often, this lack of room also results in many other deprivations such as recreational activities, quality food, hygienic facilities, clothing, and health care (Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 2017). The government is so focused on the goal of protecting society from the dangers and violence of citizens, that they do not consider what would happen if they locked up…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In California the incarceration rate is six-hundred-eighty-nine by this we estimated the percentage 13.8% is within all the state. The rate is incredibly high for a that one state, how could this happen will it all starts when the government…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First focusing on the state of California prison, they were forced back in 2011 to release about 3,000 inmates. An article wrote by Derek Gilna says “A government study revealed that overcrowding in the federal prison system worsened over the five-year period from 2006 through 2011, affecting facilities of all security levels.” California has the three-strikes laws, as an offender if you were caught three times committing the same crime the third time you are sentence to be in jail for a longer period of time. This might sound like a good plan until you have offenders that are serving five to ten years for petty theft, prostitution, reckless driving or trespassing. These are petty crime that can be handle with charges and probations. Yet, in…

    • 220 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cost Of Prisons

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages

    States are taking a hard look at a variety of strategies for decreasing inmate populations, hopefully without sacrificing public safety. For example, California has sought to reduce the number of low-risk parolees being returned to prison for technical violations of their parole by using intermediate sanctions rather than being sent back to prison. By doing this California has decreased its overpopulated prisons by several thousand. Further lowering the costs associated with it. Many states are adopting improved probation programs based on Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program. Created in 2004, HOPE reformed California’s State’s policy so that probation violations resulted in immediate but small consequences, such as two days in jail. "Before this, offenders had to commit many infractions before facing consequences," according to the National Governors Association Best Practices Center, "but the consequences were expensive and often disproportionate to the…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Overcrowded Prisons

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Page

    Overcrowded prisons upset the inmates and inhibit their mental and psychological improvement. Overcrowded prisons make the inmates deprived of resources. Unavailability of resources and absence of peaceful environment make destructive consequences in inmates.Problems and sufferings of jail inmates - Overcrowded prisons are not only uncomfortable but also destructive as prisoners who come out carry the consequences of their bad experiences to the free world after they are released. Overcrowding has several negative effects on the prison inmates. Crowding is only indirectly related to mere numbers or density of people. It is possible to feel crowded in the presence of few people, or not crowded in the presence of many. Prisons are characterized…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Prison Overcrowding

    • 2957 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Every night significant populations of people have almost no where to lay their head to rest. They are boxed up in tiny rooms, or shoved into cramped spaces to fulfill a quota on a balance sheet. Housed in makeshift units and stacked on tri-leveled bunks their population is only growing. Although the remainder of society views them as filth and scum, convicted felons, inmates and prisoners do not just deserve but also require humane treatment. Prison Overcrowding isn’t just a singular problem; it is an issue with far reaching consequences. Safety of both inmates’ and prison personnel are directly related to Prison Overcrowding.…

    • 2957 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most prisons in the country today are highly over crowded which ties into many of the other problems such as facilities and rehab programs. Even if some prisons are capable of providing necessary services, often times the prisons are not staffed up to par to handle the number of inmates which in that case it becomes luck of the draw if you gain access to the necessary programs. The issue of overcrowding can also lead to disease spreading throughout the prison. This issue can become fatal for prisoners due to the lack of medical staff employed at…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death Row

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages

    There is a major overpopulation issue within prisons nationwide, due to the amount of criminals on death row. Since the criminals on average wait up to twelve years or more to receive the capital punishment of the death penalty, the overpopulation of prisons is mainly due to a very large number of death row inmates. There are about seven hundred criminals on death row right now, just in the state of California alone (Correctionsone.com 2013). Also since 1977, in California, there have only been thirteen actual executions…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics