Prison overcrowding is quickly becoming a major financial and controversial problem in the United States. There are now more than two-thirds of a million people in our country in jail or in prison, and soon there will be half a million in prison alone. With that being said, two-thirds are confined in less than 60 square feet of floor space. While prison conditions have improved considerably in many ways, the present correctional system is still struggling to deal with the same problems that the United States has experienced in the past. State and Federal prison overcrowding has continued to hurt United States correctional facilities because of increasing inmate population and the demand for lower corrections costs. These two factors have resulted in a growing shortage of living space for prisoners. Many correctional facilities are operating under hazardous conditions, which include operating past the maximum capacity. Overcrowding in prisons and inmate to inmate violence appears to be closely related as well as intolerable living conditions, which contribute to many of the problems in prisons, which seem to be unconstitutional. Violence including sexual assault, poor health and the spread of diseases among inmates, and several inmates in a cell that holds fewer people, with every inch of space occupied by a bunk or a person are a few of the unconstitutional problems going on in prisons today. Overcrowding is a serious problem as many can see, but there are many reasons for overcrowding, as well as effects of it, and there are strategies people are trying to use in order to control this dilemma. Whether some want to believe it or not, overcrowding is a serious problem that we all have to look at because it is our money that is being used to support a failing prison system. The government has to come up with new ways to punish the guilty, and still manage to keep American citizens satisfied that our prison system is still effective.
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