Prisons in the United States
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Compared with other countries, the United States has among the highest incarceration rates in the world. Some feel the high levels are due to the long sentences mandated under American law, especially for nonviolent crimes like theft and drug possession (see Three-strikes laws). Some also feel that repeat offenders are not properly handled and that more focus should be on rehabilitation. Others feel the existing policy of separating criminals from the general population improves public safety. A survey showed that among the nearly 300,000 prisoners released, 67.5% were rearrested within 3 years, and 51.8% were back in prison. However, the study found no evidence that spending more time in prison raises the recidivism rate, and found that those serving the longest time, 61 months or more, had a significantly lower re-arrest rate (54.2%) than every other category of prisoner.
Federalism
The national (federal) government, states, and individual localities all have their own prison systems. Individuals sentenced are usually remanded to a federal, state, or local prison with regard to the respective jurisdiction of the law violated.Local prisons hold minor offenders serving short term sentences (i.e. unpaid traffic violations, contempt of court, etc.) and those awaiting trial in county courts. Because prisoners are unclassified (that is, not separated by offense type and other factor), conditions in many county facilities resemble those of close security to prevent prisoner-on-prisoner violence and other issues. Prisoners spend a large amount of time in their cells, a lower prisoner-to-staff ratio is maintained, and there are few activities for inmates to engage in. In many states, these facilities are maintained by county governments, with municipalities utilizing jails for the temporary holding of offenders until they are able to be transported to a county facility to await bail hearings or trial.
Sentencing
In the United States, a person convicted of a crime is sentenced by a judge. The length of the prison term is based on multiple factors including the severity of the crime, state and/or federal sentencing guidelines and the personal discretion of the judge. The actual time spent in prison by an inmate may or may not be equal to the length imposed by the judge. The inmate may commit additional criminal offenses while in prison or they may demonstrate good behavior.Security levels
Prisoners are placed into different facilities that vary by security level, especially in security measures, administration of inmates, and weapons and tactics used by corrections officers. The following levels are used in state prisons in the United States; the federal government uses a numbered scale from 1 to 6, with Level 6 being the most secure.Supermax
Supermax prison facilities provide the highest level of prison security. These prisons were designed to house the most dangerous of inmates. These include serial killers, inmates who have committed murders in less secure prisons, and high-profile criminals such as Theodore Kaczynski, Terry Nichols, Zacarias Moussaoui and (formerly) Timothy McVeigh.The United States Federal Bureau of Prisons operates two such facilities: USP (United States Penitentiary) Marion (formerly a Level 5 facility), and ADX Florence, which was built specifically as a super max facility in 1994. Utilizing a penal construction and operation theory known as the "control unit" prison, the conditions of these facilities are extremely harsh — excessively so to some human rights watchdog organizations. Inmates generally spend 23 or more hours per day in their cells, with the additional hour spent either in a supervised one-man shower, or in an "outdoor" recreation area, generally a solid-walled pen twice the size of a cell and also used in solitary.
The cells themselves in ADX Florence are also designed to minimize social contact and increase isolation from the outside world. The cells, usually 3.5 x 2 meters (7'x12') are constructed with solid "boxcar" doors, i.e., with no windows and a locked food "wicket", and are nearly completely soundproofed. Drains and drainpipes leading to the cells, which in USP Marion were used as a method of communication, are routed to a central location and damped. Telephone privileges are virtually non-existent, as is any access to radios, television, and the Internet. and all mail save pre-announced legal communications is opened, read, and censored. There are no visitations of any kind, excepting legal visits. To complete the isolation, the windows of the cells (if existent) are very small and designed to only show the sky.
Although the US federal government only operates one (two, counting Marion) facility of this nature, many states are now following suit by building segregation units in existing prisons or whole new facilities (such as the Ohio State Penitentiary) built on the same model.
Maximum security
All have individual cells with sliding doors that are controlled from a secure remote control station. Often prisoners are confined in their cells 23 hours a day, but in some institutions prisoners are allowed out of their cells for most of the day, and when out of their cells, are always kept in the cell block or an exterior cage. Movement is tightly restricted through the use of restraints and escorts by correctional officers.Close security
Prisons have individual cells operated from a remote control station. Each cell has its own toilet and sink. Inmates are allowed out of their cells for work assignments or correctional programs. The fences are generally double fences with watch towers, housing armed guards.Medium security
Prisoners that fall into the Medium Security group may sleep in dormitories on bunk beds with lockers to store their possessions. They may have communal showers, toilets and sinks. Each dormitory is locked at night with one or more correctional officers supervising, there is less supervision over the internal movements of prisoners. The perimeter is generally double fenced and regularly patrolled.Minimum security
Prisoners are generally judged to pose little physical risk to the public, and are mainly non-violent "white collar criminals". Minimum Security prisoners live in less-secure dormitories which are regularly patrolled by correctional officers. As in Medium Security, they have communal showers, toilets, and sinks. Martha Stewart was a such inmate at "Camp Cupcake" in West Virginia.The facility generally has a single fence that is watched, but not patrolled by armed guards. At facilities in very remote and rural areas, there may be no fence at all. Prisoners may often work on community projects, such as roadside litter cleanup with the state Department of Transportation. A Minimum Security prison may have Internet access in some cells, depending on the inmate.
California
The California penal system (which had 161,000 inmates as of 2003 - 475 behind bars per 100,000 inhabitants) has been the focus of attention for growing influence upon the state's political arena. Former Governor Gray Davis was accused of favoring the prison guard union more than the interests of education. A number of allegations of prisoner abuse has given rise to increased attention to the prison oversight committees. These committees have been accused of favoring the prison guard union.The Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles County, California has, as of 2004, over 2,000 mentally ill inmates and 6,000 psychotropic drugs are given out daily.
Population statistics
In 2000, the number of prisoners under the jurisdiction of the Federal or State adult correctional authorities was 1,381,892 and overall, the United States imprisoned 2,071,686 persons.The three states with the lowest ratio of imprisoned to civilian population are, as of 2004, Maine (148 per 100,000), Minnesota (171 per 100,000), and Rhode Island (175 per 100,000). The three states with the highest ratio are Louisiana (816 per 100,000), Texas (694 per 100,000), and Mississippi (669 per 100,000).
In terms of federal prison, 57 % of those incarcerated were sentenced for drug offenses. Currently, considering local jails as well, almost a million of those incarcerated are in prison for non-violent crime.
In 2002 roughly 93.2 % of prisoners were male. About 10.4 % of all black males in the United States between the ages of 25 and 29 were sentenced and in prison by year end, compared to 2.4 % of Hispanic males and 1.2 % of white males.
Comparison with other countries
As of 2003, the incarceration rate in the United States was 482 per 100,000 residents. [link]. For the most part, the U.S. rate is three to eight times that of the Western European nations and Canada. The rate in England and Wales, for example, is 139 persons imprisoned per 100,000 residents while in Norway it is 59 per 100,000. In many countries, it is common for prisoners to be paroled after serving as little as one third of their sentences. In the US most states strictly limit parole, requiring at least half of the sentence to be served, and for certain heinous crimes, there is no parole and the sentence must be served in full.The prison population in China was 111 per 100,000 in 2001 (sentenced prisoners only), although this figure is highly disputed. Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu, who spent 19 years in forced-labor camps for criticizing the government, estimates that 16 to 20 million of his countrymen are incarcerated, including common criminals, political prisoners, and people in involuntary job placements. Even ten million prisoners would mean a rate of 793 per 100,000.
Conditions of imprisonment
The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch raised concerns with prisoner rape and medical care for inmates. In August 2003 a Harper's article by Wil S. Hylton estimated that "somewhere between 20 and 40 % of American prisoners are, at this very moment, infected with hepatitis C". Prisons may outsource medical care to private companies such as Correctional Medical Services, which, according to Hylton's research, try to minimize the amount of care given to prisoners in order to maximize profits.Gang violence has also been identified as an issue within the prison system, as many gang members retain their affiliations when imprisoned. Identified gang members are often segregated from the general population of inmates, with different gangs being housed in separate units with the result that these gang members are imprisoned with their friends and criminal cohorts. However, some feel this has the effect of turning prisons into "institutions of higher criminal learning".
Privatization
In recent years, there has been much debate over the privatization of prisons. The argument for privatization stresses cost reduction, whereas the arguments against it focus on standards of care, and the question of whether a market economy for prisons might not also lead to a market demand for prisoners (ie. tougher sentencing for cheap labor). While privatized prisons have only a short history, there is a long tradition of inmates in state and federal-run prisons undertaking active employment in prison for low pay.Private companies which provide services to prisons combine in the American Correctional Association, which advocates legislation favorable to the industry, could lead to imprisoning more individuals.
Criticism
The United States spends an estimated $60 billion each year on corrections. The population of inmates housed in prisons and jails in the United States exceeds 2 million, with the per capita incarceration population higher than any other country. Criminal justice policy in the United States has also been criticized for the disproportionate representation of African-Americans and other minorities.References
Other references
- Leavitt, Fred (2003) The REAL Drug Abusers. Rowman & Littlefield.
- Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (1992) From Alcatraz to Marion to Florence - Control Unit Prisons in the United States. [link]
- Daniel Burton-Rose, Dan Pens, Paul Wright (Eds.): The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry. Common Courage Press; Reprint edition (February 1998). ISBN 1567511406.
- Tara Herivel, Paul Wright(Eds.): Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor. Routledge (January, 2003). ISBN 0415935385.
See also
- List of U.S. state prisons
- Prison-industrial complex
- List of prisoners at ADX Florence
- United Kingdom prison population
External links
- The Official [U.S. Department of Justice] Site. (DOJ)
- The Official [Federal Bureau of Prisons] Site. (BOP)
- [List of Federal Correctional Facilities] by U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons
- [Federal Bureau of Prisons|QUICK FACTS]
- [International Centre for Prison Studies]
- [US Surpasses Russia As World Leader In Rate Of Incarceration], report by The Sentencing Project, a "501(c)(3) non-profit organization which promotes decreased reliance on incarceration and increased use of more effective and humane alternatives." Includes the rate of incarceration for the ten leading nations (US, Russia, Cayman Islands, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Bahamas, US Virgin Islands, Belize, Bermuda, Kyrgyzstan).
- [Bureau of Justice Statistics - Prisoners in 2002]
- [Bureau of Justice Statistics - Prisoners in 2000]
- [BBC: US challenged over 'secret jails']
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