Law
offenders in the United States of America are punished by being taken to maximum security
penitentiaries where they are taught how to follow
penitentiaries (Rose, 2012) .
In America, there is the high
number of lawbreakers who are taken into custody for charges and
later to high-security facilities.
In California’s prison industry
there have been several issues seen
which includes;
Rapid Increase In Number Of High-Security Facilities
Due to increased number of intimates who were breaking the law through different ways, it leads to a lot of problems in the few prisons that were available. Inmates started murdering one another for no apparent reason, and that was due to overpopulation in Folsom prison. In between 1984 to 1994, the number of maximum security facilities increased from one to eight and were classified according to levels.
The Folsom was then upgraded to a maximum security level 2 facility and with no more deaths occurring since there was enough space for inmates. This has been witnessed for almost four years. The highest number of patients re those who murder with few committing other crimes.
Just a few miles from Folsom maximum security facility there is New Folsom, who was badly overcrowded even before the construction was over. Its construction was completed in 1987. All California prison operate at approximately twice its intended capacity. At the moment, California has the highest prison system that is almost 40% bigger than the Federal Bureau of Prisons
Highest Number Of People Behind Bars
Almost two million people in the United States of America are behind the bars with 0.1 million in federal custody, 1 million in state custody 0.6 million in local jails. The rise in the number of inmates in prison is because taking prisoners to the high-security facility at the moment is not the appropriate solution to curb the ongoing crimes. The system is not providing harsh policies yet.
The bigger population of inmates in America is being contributed, by the way, the state approaches crimes committed. The fines imposed on criminals in other countries lead to community servicing, goods or drug treatments, or they can be taken as not crimes. In America, it does not matter the offense committed but by the end of it all, the answer is a prison.
The prison boom that was introduced helped a lot because the number of those who were sent to jail for violent crime drastically reduced. Also sending people to prison was a method used by the American government to eliminate ‘bad guys’ from the society. The highest number of inmates in American prisons can be demonstrated by large number of sentences given to people who commit nonviolent offenses. Some of those, nonviolent crime in other states may be punished by fines, community servicing or drug treatment or rather be considered as so negligible and be neglected.
The politicians of the United States of America have contributed a lot to the rise of inmates in American prisons. The take advantage of crime fear to win votes, both liberal and conservatives. They major much on those prisons that are in rural areas, and they refer them as cornerstones of economic development.
Narcotic Drugs
Most inmates were sentenced due to narcotic medications that they possessed or were caught trafficking
Rockefeller, the governor of New York City, was a liberal leader who could not entertain any form of crime in the city. He had grand political ambitions and was booed at the 1964
Just a few months later after the Rockefeller declared fight against the illegal drugs, the state legislature enacted the laws, which was less draconian. The penalty was a must prison term of not less than fifteen years whether caught selling four ounces two ounces. Those who were found for a subsequent time were to be sentenced regardless of the crime or its circumstances. The Rockefeller was so proud to see his state having the toughest anti-drug program in the whole country
Soon afterward, the Rockefellers laws seemed not working as expected. When Mario Cuomo was elected to be the governor of the New York City, he encountered challenges, the number of illegal drug dealers had doubled in the prisons since the passage of Rockefeller’s drug laws. Mario Cuomo wanted to repeal what Rockefeller had installed on inmates, but it was so hard for him since a week after he took over, the prisoners rioted. Cuomo was an outdated man and was opposing the mandatory minimum drug sentences. The state was not supporting his idea of being soft to inmates; instead they were calling for harsher punishments for illegal drug dealers.
Business Centers
The core reason to put up high-security facilities in New York City was to accommodate the inmates who find hard to follow laws. Then the business that goes on there abruptly changes to a place where the transaction takes place. The prison issue has become a highly profitable business in New York City, where phones are the few links that are used to communicate to the outside world. A phone in jail can approximately generate as much as $15000 per year which is almost five times the revenue any street phone can cause
Phone companies have now started investing in prisons by giving out phones to the inmates. Almost two million prisoners in United States of America era the ideal customers who are doing the business to be highly profitable. The market has forced the MCI install inmate’s phone services since the business is lucrative. The MCI charged $3 surcharges for every call made from the prison and offered the California Department of Corrections a 32 % shares of all calls made by inmates. The body benefits from a call made from high-security facilities since it overcharges the calls. They were adding an extra minute on every call made.
The prisons now have been turned to business where billions of money can be fetched. The prison industry was once a niche business, but it has turned to be a multibillion-dollar industry. The industry is now including an even specialize in the nation from different fields; architects, accountants and those from the construction sector. Jus few and minor industries have not been involved in the prison industry
From the newspaper that are traded, it is evident that the industry has grown. Employees are now leaving public sector for prison industry where they can enjoy public safety, employee training, and personal freedoms are increasingly being made.
The federal prison industry to some extends been converted to private prison sector where services and sentences undergone in private are far much better than those in public prisons. An inmate in private prison is like a guest in a five-star hotel where all his needs are being put in place by someone else.
Conclusion.
From the California story of prison, it is evident
that the state
has forgotten to check what is going on in prison and instead
started what benefits the officials (Braiker, 2010) . Repetition of similar offenses shows that
there are some problems that
are due to less installation of punishments to inmates. The drug
issues is a matter that has been a significant
problem for the state, and
unless more seriousness is employed, the issue
will never cease (Herivel, 2007) .
Reference
1.
Peterson, M., & Braiker, H. (2010). Doing
crime: A survey of California prison inmates. Santa Monica, CA: Rand
2.
Rose, D. (1998). The celling of America: An
inside look at the U.S. prison industry. Monroe, Me.: Common Courage Press.
3.
Herivel, T. (2007). Prison profiteers: Who
makes money from mass incarceration. New York: New Press :
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