Stopping Prison Overcrowding

Johanna Hobin John Waldron Matthew Jamison Michael Aiello Christa Bonnett

The Problem
Too many people in our prison systems. A program would be better to address this situation. We want to lower the level of non violent drug offenders in prisons Also, to set up a program for these offenders to go through that will help them and their families out in the long run.

History of the Problem

'The number of inmates in American prisons is outpacing the system's ability to hold them all. One example that we have learned about this year in class is in California where prisons hold 70,000 more inmates than they're designed for. Also, California has built over a dozen new prisons in the past 15 years!

History
One of the biggest reasons for the overcrowding is the large recidivism rate. In the video of Mass Incarceration in California Warden Mike Poulos states that, "Right now, seven out of every 10 inmates that leave this prison comes back, and Its time to stop the revolving door
www.pbs.org

History
According to www.pewpublicsafety.org, there was another study that was conducted in 2006 that showed that if the current incarceration rate stays as it is now, then the prison population will significantly increase in the next five years. This study has a prediction that federal and state prison populations will increase by more than 192,000 inmates in that time which will bring the U.S. prison population to about 1.7 million. This is a 13% increase.

History
Justice Department surveys show that 52.7% of state prison inmates, 73.7% of jail inmates, and 87.6% of federal inmates were imprisoned for offenses which involved neither harm, nor the threat of harm, to a victim. www.iss.co.za Some believe that the answer to this problem is to build more prisons but that will only temporarily solve the problem and it costs an estimated $50,000 to make each new prison bed space. www.cwrl.utexas.edu

The solution
The solution to the problem of overcrowding in the prison system, because of non-violent drug offenders and recidivism, is to set up a counseling program that goes along with a rehab program. Rehabilitation is the way to go when it comes to really helping offenders get back into society.

The solution cont.

The first step would be to put offenders into mandatory rehab programs in which they are given both group and individual counseling sessions. The counseling sessions would help the individual to understand that they have a problem and that they can drop the habit and still be successful in life. There would also be sessions and workshops that would help the individual learn what jobs they can get and how to get them. Including resume building and interview practice workshops.

The solution
If the drug offender has family, the family would have counseling sessions to help them to understand what the offender has been trough and how they can help the individual. The offender would also get counseling outside of the rehab program, once they are released back into society, to help them stay on track and to give them tips on getting and maintaining a steady job.

The solution
The target population for this program would be non-violent drug offenders and their families. The staffing would have to be done by people who are trained in counseling and who have the resources to help the individual get a job once they get out.
The staff would have to have a limited amount of clients so that each individual would have a counselor who can take their time and do their job successfully.

Implementation
The resources that are needed are properly educated and trained workers or volunteers. Funding would have to be done through either the federal government or through government agencies. The staff would be assigned to only a few offenders at a time. The staff would be given a schedule of their counseling meetings with the offenders so that there is consistency.

Implementation
There would have to be a two to three week time period that the workers could get to know the offenders in the program. This would make it easier for the workers to gain trust from the offenders and it would also make it so the offenders know that the help is there for them. The meetings between the staff and the offenders would be twice a week for 12 weeks and the meetings would have to be documented for progress and monitoring. In the meetings the staff would discuss solutions to the offenders problem and make a plan for change so that the offender can also track their own progress.

Defining and Measuring Success

Success would be to lower the number of nonviolent drug offenders in prison. To measure the success of this program we would look at the numbers concerning incarcerated individuals in the area. The rehab program must be used over the next year and see if it lowers the rate of recidivism
thus lowering the convictions of non-violent drug offenders. This would then lower the number of people in prison and lower the strain of overcrowding in prisons.