Argumentative on Prison Overcrowding in the United States - Research Paper Example

As a result of this, prison overcrowding is a cause of major inefficiency in correctional facilities in the USA and the world over. This paper will be an argumentative essay on prison overcrowding in the United States. Over the last forty years, the United States increasingly tough response to crime and punishment has resulted in an overwhelming rate of incarceration within its states, thus overcrowding its correctional facilities. This is due to the criminal justice policies that the United States has adopted.

Between 1972 and 2008, the number of men, women and children locked up in the United States has grown by 705 percent (Johnson & Johnson 4). Harris County is one of the most affected, despite the fact that they tried to increase the number of these facilities, the problem has not been solved as more and more people got arrested for misdemeanor crimes including minor drug offenses, filling the new facilities. As a result of this detainees are not provided with adequate medical care, mental health care, protection from serious physical harm and protection from life safety hazards (Johnson & Johnson 5).

The idea of mandatory minimum sentences is another factor for prison overcrowding. These laws were enacted in 1986 and are fixed sentences to individuals convicted of crimes regardless of proof whether they were guilty or not. The mandatory minimums were set with the objective of capturing the leaders in drug distribution networks. Thus low level drug sellers are the ones that are being held in most federal prisons in the United States. Room has to be made for the non-violent crimes yet the violent crimes are released on parole (Pollock 62).

The three strikes law is another factor for prison overcrowding in the United States. This is a law that was created to control the rate at which offenders were received in courts. The law states that after a third major felony, an offender is eligible for 25 years of life in prison (Moore 1). Many of the offenders sent in prison under this rule are the non-violent offenders especially those held because of petty theft. Thus people that have committed violent crimes tend to spend less time in prison than those who commit the less violent crimes.

The offenders that commit petty crimes are many than the ones who commit the violent crimes, thus prisons end up being filled up due to the large number of petty offenders that are locked up (Moore 1). When prisons are filled up, it means that many law breakers are being punished; hence a peaceful and more secure society. This is the reason why the federal government is not disturbed with the idea of having to accommodate more inmates in gymnasiums. It is an indication that the society is rid of the people that hamper its peaceful coexistence.

Therefore, it is in order for the prison department to lock up all the people that commit crimes so that they can serve as an example to potential and other wrongdoers as well as have a secure society. This is also an opportunity for the prisoners to change and integrate back to the society as proper persons when their terms end. Prison overcrowding puts the state on toes. It gets aware of the citizens that it harbors and this way, the state and the society as a whole knows that it has a lot of obligation to ensure that its citizens are well behaved.

The overcrowding serves as a challenge to the society to know that the obligation of ensuring that the obligati