According to the 2022 statistics, American prisons had over 2.1 million serving inmates. In 2023, the number was reduced to 1.84 million, with the highest population rate of 629 per 100,000 people (Kang-Brown et al. 1-2). While the data shows a positive trajectory for the past years, prison overcrowding remains a huge social problem for the U.S. prison system. In the 1990s, California’s prison population had increased to 140000, surpassing the designed capacity of 80000. From the early 2000s to around 2010, the population had increased to 173000 inmates. In 2020 alone, Los Angeles/Southern California prison populations stood at approximately 130,000. In this case, the majority of the correction facilities in the state operated at over 200% of their designed capacity (Rowe et al. 7). This has continued to impact both prison staff and inmates, leading to the spread of infectious disease and increased levels of violence and depressive conditions. The paper explores the effects of prison overcrowding in Los Angeles/Southern California, focusing on its causes and how it impacts inmates, prison staff, and the state government.
Los Angeles prisons or correction facilities are highly overcrowded, something which causes a significant single factor driving jail deaths. Since 2020, Los Angeles prisons have operated at approximately 16.7% over the capacity. Sometimes, the numbers go over 200% (Rowe et al. 11). The leading cause of prison overcrowding in Los Angeles, California, is increased recidivism rates. Statistics show that the majority of California offenders who are released from jails eventually end up back behind bars (Kang-Brown et al. 11). The significant causes of this increased recidivism rates include homelessness or lack of affordable housing, lack of job opportunities, lack of effective rehabilitation and community reabsorption rates or lack of social support systems. The latter causes a vicious cycle of incarceration of the same people.
Another cause of Los Angeles prison overcrowding is tough-on-crime policies. For example, California’s sentencing policy provides for prolonged sentencing of minor offenders, especially those from minority groups such as African Americans and Latinos. The policies also provide a mandatory minimum sentence for various crimes regardless of their sensitivity.
The third cause of cause of Los Angeles prison overcrowding is overcriminalization and lack of adequate jail facilities. Besides adopting community-based crime correction programs, California’s legal team and law enforcement officers believe in sending criminals to jail as the only punishment (Dubey et al. 17). Most of the victims are people of color, most of whom are jailed without allegations that can be substantiated. Racial discrimination serves as the primary contributing factor.
Impacts of Prison Overcrowding in Los Angeles, Southern California
Prison overcrowding in Los Angeles has significant impacts on inmates, the staff, and California’s state government. It undermines the ability of the entire criminal justice system to meet basic human needs, such as accommodation, healthcare, and food (Deribe 11-14). Overcrowding also compromises the effectiveness and the provision of the offender’s rehabilitation programs, recreational activities, and educational and vocational training. For inmates, prison overcrowding leads to a lack of privacy, increased mental illness, increased rates of suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and exposure to infectious diseases. These effects adversely impact the inmate’s quality of life. The prison staff faces the risk of violence from the inmates, including endangering their lives and increased workplace stress caused by heavy workloads. The latter causes job dissatisfaction and ultimately reduces job productivity. For the state government, prison overcrowding causes financial constraints, prompting the need for more budgetary allocations (Dubey et al. 25). It becomes ineffective when the state increases budgetary allocation to accommodate more offenders or inmates than to roll out effective community-based rehabilitation and community reabsorption programs to address the issue of recidivism.
Conclusion
Most of the correction facilities in Los Angeles operate at over 200% of their designed capacity. This has continued to impact both prison staff and inmates, leading to the spread of infectious diseases and increased levels of violence and depressive conditions. It also leads to inmates’ lack of privacy, increased mental illness, increased rates of suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and exposure to infectious diseases. Prison staff are exposed to violence, increased workload, and work-related depression symptoms. It also increases California’s state public spending. The most critical causes of prison overcrowding in Los Angeles, California, includeincreased recidivism rates, tough-on crime and sentencing policies, overcriminalization, and lack of adequate jail facilities.
Work Cited
Dubey, Preeti, et al. “Rates of SARS-CoV-2 transmission between and into California state prisons.” medRxiv 2023. Pp. 3–39. https://doi.org/10.1101%2F2023.08.24.23294583
Deribe, Belen. Analysis of Prison Health Care in Southern California. Diss. California State University, Northridge, 2021. Pp. 4–38.https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/9c67wv17g
Carson, Ann. Prisons Report Series: Preliminary Data Release. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2023. https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisons-report-series-preliminary-data-release#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20prison%20population%20was,the%20total%20U.S.%20prison%20population.
Kang-Brown, Jacob, C. Montagnet, and J. Heiss. “People in Jail and Prison.” (2023). pp.1-30.https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/People-in-Jail-and-Prison-in-2022-Report_2023-06-15-203035_whnq.pdf
Rowe, Christopher L., Alan Hubbard, and Jennifer Ahern. “California’s Public Safety Realignment Act and prisoner mortality.” Plos one 18.4 (2023): PP. 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284609
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