Prison and County Correctional Faculties Overcrowding Essay

The subject of prison overcrowding has been an issue for many an(prenominal) years. It is not mediocre the prisons that atomic number 18 over dis propose but also the county bailiwickal facilities. In the U.S.A. today 1 in nearly 100 Ameri smokes be currently incarcerated (Alec, 2014). The reasons that the numbers ar so high argon due to the many different laws and strategies that get down been put into place to try and stop crime. Laws such as The troika strikes law that California implemented calls for mandatory sentencing for repeat offenders and New Yorks Broken window stagey that calls for all crimes big or elflike to be prosecuted. These are good in theory but can also cause the prison system to be over nasty with offenders. In an effort to provide an example of overcrowding I chose the state of Tennessee to take care at their inmate numbers and how the lack of space causes the overcrowding. There are 14 prisons in the state of Tennessee, 11 of them are run by the D epartment of Corrections and three are run by mysterious companies. Each facility is up to 90% capacity and currently there are 20,476 mass incarcerated in Tennessee prisons (Alec, 2014). There are 759 correction military officer employed though step forward these prisons, and as you can see by the number there is an abundance of inmates compared to the amount of officers able to patrol this beat.In catching at the statistics unmatchable must not just look at current offenders that are serving time, also the offenders that are out on parole and probation. In the state of Tennessee al one and only(a) there are 13,546 people on parole and 57,234 people on probation (Alec, 2014). There are only 759 officers for all these offenders. This number is where a lot of the influx of inmates comes from. The offenders that fix inmates are not just due to fresh crimes. They are much often than not offenders that have reoffended or violated probation or parole. It is not just the prison facilities that are overcrowded it is also the county corrections facilities or differently known as the county jails. As a former corrections officer I saw the overcrowding first hand, ina jail that was make to house 180 inmates, there are currently to date 279 people taking up space in this jail. There is a slim population of inmates with in this facility that are awaiting a bed in prison, so they are staying in the county jails due to the fact they cannot move on to the prison system.They are serving TDOC time with the county due to this jail being overcrowded they will often ask other jails that are within a certain radius to take inmates for safe keeping. This then transfers the inmate from one county jail to another, causing overcrowding for them. It is just they are less over crowded then the jail asking for the move. As discussed earlier, the new laws enacted and strategies put into place are make to prevent offenders from chronic to offend. It is used almost as a scare tactic however most offenders that have more than one offense on their record are not strange with jail and trouble. They have more than likely been in and out of correctional facilities since they were young. I think for a slim few these laws and strategies are effective. I also feel that there are not enough course of studys to rehabilitate offenders if the idea is to keep these people out of jail then ships company has to help them become a respectable part of it. In rewrite for these programs to work research shows they much include academic education, vocational education, clean recognition therapy, reasoning and rehabilitation, cognitive restructuring, cognitive behavioral treatment for turn on offenders, behavioral treatment for sex offenders, surgical treatment for sex offenders, multi-system therapy, medicine courts, drug treatment in the community they live, incarceration based drug treatment (Analyzing the Effectiveness of Rehabilitation, 2009).There must be a b roadcast to these programs the effort put forth to succeed must be done by the offender. There are many people in the prison system that with the correct amount of reconditioning can become law continue citizens. One such program in the state of Tennessee is called Tennessee Reentry Collaborative, this program that was realized in 2004 and whole caboodle directly with The Tennessee Department of Corrections. Through the establishment of this program, little programs were formed that are local to all surrounding prisons and county jails. This program works closely with The Department of Homeland Security, Department of Children Services, Department of Veteran personal matters and many other agencies with in the state. These programs work together to establish regulations and rules that the programs must follow(Tennessee Department Of Corrections, 2014). Another program that is located in Tennessee is called Take One.This program enables the community to take control of the rehab ilitation of offenders. The program Take One main purpose to the have individual organizations break to mentor just one returning offender and his/her family for a hitch of one year. The offender is given an assessment and after they are categorise the organization that chooses to help them with their rehabilitation begins to meet with the offender. This is usually about one year prior to release. Unlike some offenders, there are many that once their time is served they have no obligation to see a parole or probation officer. So once back in to lodge they have no guidance. This program helps keep them on track and continuing to get them the help they need to keep on the right form (Tennessee Department Of Corrections, 2014).ReferencesALEC. (2014). Retrieved from http//www.alec.org/initiatives/prison-overcrowding/prison-overcrowding-tennessee/ Analyzing the Effectiveness of Rehabilitation. (2009, May). , (), . Retrieved from http//digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?artic le=1160&context=srhonorsprogTennessee Department of Corrections. (2014). Retrieved from http//www.tn.gov/correction/rehabilitative/trec.html