NCJ Number
92807
Journal
Angolite Volume: 8 Issue: 5 Dated: (November-December 1983) Pages: 35-60
Date Published
1983
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Prison overcrowding resulting from sentencing policies is creating inhumane prison environments and undermining the efficiency and effectiveness of the corrections system; what is needed is a classification system that determines which offenders should be imprisoned and which should be sentenced to community corrections such as probation and restitution.
Abstract
Largely out of the public's misguided fear of violent crime fueled by unbalanced media coverage of such crime, States have adopted sentencing policies that have imprisoned more and more offenders. The effects of consequent prison overcrowding include tension and violence among inmates, inmate riots, inmate suicides, an increased number of escapes and escape attempts, the spread of communicable diseases among inmates and staff, jail overcrowding (because many State prisons refuse to take any more admissions), and an undermining of the rehabilitative goals of prisons. The solution to the prison overcrowding crisis lies in identifying who should be housed in prison and who should be managed in some alternative program. With 65 percent of the Nation's prison population convicted of nonperson, nonviolent offenses, there are many who could be safely released into intensively supervised community programs. Intensive probation programs have demonstrated their ability to provide protection for the community while enabling the offender to pursue normative employment and social activities in the community. Restitution programs have also provided effective and logical sanctions for offenders who remain in the community. The prison system would be used to provide self-development programs for persons whose offense was sufficiently life threatening to warrant containment in an institution. The key requirement for such a shift in penal policy is to educate the public about the nature of alternative sanctions that both hold the offender accountable for criminal behavior and protect the public from future misbehavior.