THE 4 ISSUES
BASIC NEEDS
Even the most basic needs for living are very often missing in prisons. There is an inadequate amount of food and what is available is often full of bacteria. The CDC reports food poisoning occurs at six times the rate of the civilian population often because the food served is literally rotten.
Also, the health care that prisoners receive is often of very low quality, if available at all. According to a report by the Vera Institute, each year a person spends in prison takes two years off of their life expectancy.
As far as safety, incarcerated people are at a high risk of being beaten, stabbed, raped, and killed by other inmates and corrupt officers who greatly abuse their power.
End Prolonged Isolation
The definition of solitary confinement can vary from state to state and even from one facility to another. However, policies almost always include confinement for 22 - 24 hours a day in a cell measuring six by eight feet. Included in this form of punishment are very little contact with other human beings, rare phone calls and almost always no visitors.
Prison officials argue that isolation reduces violence and gang activity. However, ignored is the fact that prolonged isolation is harmful physically and mentally to the inmate. A study done in November 2020 sponsored by Thomas Jefferson University made it clear that any possible benefits for the corrections system are greatly outweighed by devastating and often permanent damage to a prisoner. Some research indicates lengthy isolation often shortens lives, even after being released.
Education
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education released an analysis which showed that over the course of more than three decades—from 1979 to 2013—state and local spending on prisons and jails increased at three times the rate of funding for pre-K-12 public education over the same years. Nationwide, the bulk of corrections spending goes toward housing the ever-growing prison population.
Rather than spending more to house the growing prison population and to fund excessive rates of incarceration, federal and state governments should focus instead on supporting rehabilitation and education to reduce recidivism. Studies by Northwestern University state education for prisoners is roughly twice as cost effective as incarceration. Also noted, was the finding that for every dollar invested in prison education programs, taxpayers saved four times that amount due to much lower recidivism.
The benefits of education for prisoners are impossible to ignore. It gives them the opportunity to gain knowledge and new skills that will facilitate their entry into the labor market after incarceration and also reduce recidivism and the costs to society, as reported by Marie Macaulay writing as part of UNESCO, the Institute for Lifelong Learning. Yet prisoners’ education remains overlooked and under-valued.
Prison Oversight
The United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world. However, prison oversight is much lower in our country than in many other democracies in the world. Although the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is tasked with overseeing the country’s prisons, the Vera Institute notes prisons actually run with little to no public oversight. This negligence easily leads to abuse and therefore punishment all too often means brutal living conditions. While this situation has been ongoing for many years, the Equal Justice Initiative notes that in the 1990s lawmakers largely eliminated court oversight of prisons and jails.
Families Against Mandatory Minimums, an organization promoting fair sentencing laws, suggests “An oversight body must have authority to enter any part of any prison facility, at any time, without notice, to conduct inspections, respond to or investigate complaints, and monitor facility conditions and the quality of services provided to prisoners”.
There is no doubt that a lack of oversight means our prisons are in a state of crisis.