Prison Crowding and the Evolution of Public Policy

• NCJ Number: 102078
• Journal: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Volume: 478 Dated: (March 1985) Pages: 31-46
• Author(s): J Mullen
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 16 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: This article is reported in a full-length document entitled 'Prisoners v. Space - The Case for More Determinant Corrections Planning (Washington, DC Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1984).

Annotation

Breaking the cycle of prison overcrowding requires the centralized control of sentencing decisionmaking and a policy that links sentencing to the capacities of corrections resources.

Abstract

Prison overcrowding has produced legal challenges to prison conditions, a prison management crisis, political conflict, a moral dilemma, and failure in achieving imprisonment goals. Measures of prison overcrowding should focus not only on spatial density, social density, and inmate mobility, but also on overall facility conditions and the quality of inmate services and programs. Effective prison population control requires that the current decentralized, discretionary character of sentencing be directly addressed. The most promising approach consists of statutory sentencing guidelines that divide policymaking authority between the legislature and an independent sentencing commission authorized to set sentencing standards. This system provides centralized control over who goes to prison and the length of stay. To be effective, however, the system must link such decisions to available prison space. The legislature should empower the sentencing commission to set imprisonment policies consistent with the prison capacity the State can afford to maintain. Similarly, decisions about nonprison sanctions must be guided by the resources available to implement those policies. 20 footnotes.