How does overcrowding limit the ability of jails to fulfill its multifaceted mission? What is the impact on inmates?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Such overcrowding limits the ability of the jail to fulfill its multifaceted mission: Less programming can be provided, health and maintenance systems are overtaxed, and staff are stressed by the increased demands on their time and the inability to meet all inmate needs. From the inmates’ perspective, their health, security, and privacy are more likely to be threatened when the numbers of inmates in their living units increase and the amount of space, and possibly the number of staff, does not. The jail staff also lose their ability to effectively classify and sometimes control inmates; they may be unable to keep the offenders convicted of serious crimes away from the presumed innocent unconvicted, or more minor-offending inmates. Judges and jail managers will struggle over how to keep the jail population down to acceptable limits, and as a result, even serious offenders may be let loose into communities as a means of reducing the crowding. Therefore, though the “get tough” laws in many states were passed with the explicit intent of incarcerating more people for longer, their actual unintended effect in some jails may be to incarcerate serious offenders less (as there is no room) and all offenders in less safe and secure facilities.