Penal Reform International

Overcrowding within the prison is one of the main causes of poor prison situation around the world. The biggest problem facing the prison system is that there is the possibility of life threatening and it may hinder the prison from fulfilling its normal function.

According to the data, the number of prisoners in at least 115 countries exceeds the capacity of public prisons. Overcrowding is not a rise in the crime rate but as a result of criminal justice policy and impairs the ability of the prison system to meet basic human needs such as medical care, food and housing. It also impairs the usefulness and effectiveness of rehabilitation programs, education and vocational training, and entertainment activities.

Related problems such as overcrowding and lack of privacy can also cause or exacerbate mental health problems and potentially increase violence, self-harm and suicide rates.

We have created a ten item plan to reduce the overcrowding situation in prisons to provide policy makers with guidance on how to eliminate prison overcrowding and mitigate its negative effects. This includes, for example:

Make special or alternative arrangements for vulnerable people, such as children, mothers with dependent, mentally ill people.

The capacity of 22 national prison systems has more than doubled, and the capacity of 28 countries is between 150% and 200%.

The most crowded rate in the Americas is 310% in El Salvador, 363% in Africa (Benin), 316% in Asia (Philippines), 217% in Oceania (French Polynesia), 186% in the Middle East and North Africa (Lebanon) . %(Macedonia). Data may underestimate the severity of the problem, as individual countries determine their own abilities in certain prisons.

In most prison systems prisoners do not meet the minimum space requirements recommended by international standards and spend up to 23 hours in overcrowded cells, if not during the day. Overcrowding may be very terrible, prisoners sleep alternating, stack each other, share a bed, or sleep while standing tied up in a window bar.

In some countries, it is only normal pardon and amnesty that can alleviate overcrowding. These bring short-term relief, but they do not provide a sustainable solution and may hurt the public's confidence in the criminal justice system. In other respects, an expensive prison construction plan was launched to respond to the growing demand for prisons.

Some groups are particularly adversely affected by overcrowding within the prison. For example, in a prison system under overcrowding or excessive stress, the needs of detained women and children are often overlooked, with little attention paid.

There are many organizations advocating reform of the criminal justice system, such as criminal legislation reform international, judgment project, Brennan judicial center, cut 50 (by Koch brothers' funds), innocence project. Most states also have criminal justice reform bills. These organizations use legal disputes and public events to inform the public about the problem, but mainly the state and federal government. In 2016, according to the disciplinary tendency fact sheet on the disciplinary action project in the United States, 2.2 million people were in jail in the United States. This reflects a 500% increase since the mid-1980s, which is known as group imprisonment. People who support criminal justice reform believe that this issue is an increase in supervision and the use of strict judgment law, especially in the colorful people's community.

According to the Criminal Code Amendment International, overcrowding is not an increase in crime but only the result of our criminal justice policy. Regardless of why overcrowding is a problem, prisons will lose their ability to meet basic human needs, prisoners will provide adequate rehabilitation and educational programs, and even finance employee training Even making it possible. The mandatory minimum judgment law is designed as a basic rule of thumb for specific complaints. If convicted in the court, each crime is attached within a certain number of years and today there are minimum penalties required in many states. Prosecutors use these laws for their own interests and are threatening the long-term imprisonment of defendants sometimes trying to confirm guilt in exchange for rectification.