Problem Narrative
The number of incarcerated persons in the California State Prison System has soared to astoundingly high numbers of the past four decades; thus, resulting to an immensely overcrowded prison system. The California
State Prison System is not only the largest prison system in the United States but also the most overcrowded one, even despite the fact that California has invested 5.2 billion dollars into building new prison facilities and expanding previously built facilities since the late 1970s (Dungan). The number of inmates in California in 1977, which was approximately 19,600 inmates, increased by nearly eight times this number to approximately 161,000 inmates in 2000 (Dungan). All of California’s thirty-three prison facilities are overcrowded by at least 150 percent (Dungan).
The astronomical increase in inmates in California is widely attributed to harsher punishments for parole violators, severe mandatory sentences, and California’s infamous three strikes law which has placed a little over 40,000 Californians in prison since it was implemented in 1994 (ACLU). In addition more than half of the persons incarcerated under the three strikes law were non violent offenders and are now serving hefty sentences for crimes such as drug possession and petty theft. These hefty sentences that are received under the three strikes law keep inmates in the prison system for a longer period of time than they would be serving if it was the first non violent offense as opposed to their third non violent offense, which ultimately further contributes to the overcrowding problem.
The impact that overcrowding has had on the prisoners and employees in the prison system are entirely apparent and have resulted in a dangerous environment for all. The pressure of so many prisoners in such confined spaces has induced prisoners to riot and employees to commit shameful acts. If something is not done to stop this cycle the California prison system may not be able to expand enough to accommodate all offenders.
Problem Statement
The number of incarcerated Californians has increased eightfold over the past four decades and has put an immense strain on the housing capacities of the state prison system and ultimately led to atrocious overcrowding in all facilities statewide.
Key Variables
“Hard Variables”
· Number of persons incarcerated yearly
· Number of prison facilities built over time
· Percentage of overcrowding in each specific facility and region of the state
“Soft Variables”
· Number of persons incarcerated by certain laws such as the three strikes law
· Specific crimes committed by that lead to incarceration
BOTG
Sources:
Dungan, Fred. "California's Overcrowded Prisons." http://www.fdungan.com/prison.htm
ACLU. "California's Three Strikes Law Fact Sheet." http://www.libertyhill.org/common/to_print/3xFACTSHEET2.pdf
This article does show the increasing problems we have in the prison system which not only is hitting California but also the rest of the prison here in the United States. The article does have good information and quotes that give a good background of the problem narrative. The problem statement is right to the point and outlines the problem like it should. A variety of information is given in the key variables however these variables aren’t shown in the BOTG.
ReplyDeleteThe BOTG has only the overcrowding issue and doesn’t have any other of the key variables on it. This makes it hard to visualize the problem with just one of the issues on the graph. One of the ways to fix this is most of the information can be put into a set x-axis of years from there just make a few different graphs changing the y-axis into the number of prisoners/facilities/money...etc per year. Overall an interesting concept that does need to be looked at and could potential be worse with the dropping of the death penalty and closing of older facilities.
I find this subject very interesting. I've seen a documentary on the Californian prison system on tv. I remember they were saying because California is so diverse in order to be safe from racial violence inmates have to join a prison gang for protection. Of course with crowded prisons systems you are much more likely to see inmate on inmate violence. I think your right about the overcrowding but didn't take the gangs into consideration. As soon as inmates get out of prison, they are still in the gang, since you can't just quit otherwise they'll kill you. This leads them to keep committing crimes, and they end up back in prison. Eventually they get their 3 strikes and are in there for a while and they just keep recruiting new members. Then those new members get out of prison and end up back there with longer sentences and the cycle keeps going.
ReplyDelete