Prisons in the United States
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According to most reports, the United States of America has the highest reported incarceration rate in the world — although several nations do not release incarceration statistics. The number could, in theory, be exceeded by countries which have prisoners who are incarcerated, but not under the authority of the prison administration. The country's large prison population is thought to result primarily from high crime rates, long sentences, and the "War on Drugs". It has been stated that a major reason for the high numbers in prison in the United States is the drug laws that result in imprisonment of nonviolent drug offenders.
Recidivism is an issue that plagues the prison system. This may stem from the problem of releasing prisoners who lack job skills and at times, homes. By some estimates, 75% of released inmates return to jail at least once.
References to many facets of prison society have made their way into mainstream culture, such as the practice of secretly brewing pruno, a type of illicit beverage, the custom of dominant prisoners retaining personal "bitches," and the dangers of "dropping the soap". These representations of prison life, however inaccurate, are frequently referenced in popular culture.
Conditions
Some observers regard prison conditions in the United States as problematic, with prisoner violence and rape thought to be widespread, and medical care for inmates deemed inadequate by many. An August 2003 Harper's article by Wil S. Hylton estimated that "somewhere between 20 and 40 percent 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 is a major problem in the prison system, as many gang members retain their affiliations when incarcerated. 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. In some ways, this has the effect of turning prisons into "institutions of higher criminal learning".
Privatization
In recent years, there has been much debate in the United States 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 (that is, a strong lobby for ever-tougher sentencing to satisfy the need 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, such as California's "three-strikes law" which has the end result of incarcerating more individuals. Because inmates are the 'raw materials' that the industry is based on, more people in prison means more prison business.
See also: Premier Custodial Group, Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC)
Federalism and the United States Prison System
Like nearly all other systems in the United States, 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, usually refered to as jails, 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 unclassed (that is, not separated by offense type and other factor), conditions in many county facilities resemble those of "close security" (see below) 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 facilites 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, if applicable, 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 offences while in prison or they may demonstrate exceptionally good behavior. Prior to the year 2000, an inmate may have been released only having served fifty percent of their sentence if they demonstrated "good behavior." However, this is no longer true of inmates convicted of federal crimes since the adoption of the federal truth-in-sentencing law. The majority of the states have followed suit, effectively abolishing parole. Such laws also modify the sentence of "life", making all life sentences "life without the possibility of parole."
The U.S. prison population as of 2004 stands at 1,390,906 men and 104,310 women.
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
General Information
Housing and Living Conditions
Security
Work Environment
Social Environment
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 inmates such as Theodore Kaczynski, Terry Nichols, 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 supermax facility. 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 7x12 feet 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 privliges are virtually non-existent, as is any access to radios and television, 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.
Simon Reeve, author of a 1998 book about the terrorist mastermind Ramzi Yousef, has described conditions inside "Supermax" as follows:
"It is probably the most secure jail ever built, and it needs to be, because the 490 men who live there are among the most violent and dangerous felons in the world. More than 22 per cent of the prisoners are men who have killed fellow inmates in other prisons. More than 35 per cent have led or participated in violent attacks on fellow inmates or prison guards. It is there, on the ultra high-security wing of the most secure prison in the world, that Ramzi Yousef will almost certainly spend the rest of his life.
"Every morning Yousef wakes in a 12 ft by 7 ft (3.5 m by 2 m) cell which contains a concrete slab and a thin mattress for a bed, a shower (with a timer to prevent flooding), a toilet, an electric light, an immovable concrete desk and stool, a polished steel mirror riveted to the concrete wall, a cigarette lighter and a 13-inch black and white television. Motion detectors, cameras, 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors and 12 ft razor wire fences now guard Yousef. Cells are designed so inmates cannot see the ground outside: windows are set high up in the wall and angled pointing to the sky. This has the effect of discouraging dissent and break-outs, because prisoners are disorientated and unable to work-out where they are being held in the prison.
"'It will take Einstein’s genius and more than a little luck to get out of this baby,' said John Quest, the architect who designed the 37 acre complex, much of which is built into the side of a mountain. Laser beams, pressure pads and silent attack dogs, which can kill a man without barking, all guard the area between the prison walls and the surrounding razor wire, while visitors and prisoners enter down a heavily guarded road tunnel into the mountain, discouraging attack and making it difficult even for visitors to judge where they are in the prison." (The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism, Boston: NUP, 1999, pp. 252.)
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
General Information
Housing and Living Conditions
Security
Work Environment
Social Environment
Prisoners placed in Maximum Security are generally ones that pose a severe risk to the safety of the public and correctional officers. All have individual cells with sliding doors that are controlled from a secure remote control station. Prisoners are confined in their cells 23 hours a day and when out of their cells, are always kept in the cellblock or an exterior cage. Movement is tightly restricted through the use of restraints and escorts by correctional officers.
Close Security
General Information
Housing and Living Conditions
Security
Work Environment
Social Environment
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
General Information
Housing and Living Conditions
Security
Work Environment
Social Environment
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
General Information
Prisoners are generally judged to pose little physical risk to the public, and are mainly non-violent "white collar criminals".
Housing and Living Conditions
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.
Security
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.
Work Environment
Prisoners may often work on community projects, such as roadside litter cleanup with the state Department of Transportation.
Social Environment
California
The California penal system (which had 161,000 inmates as of 2003) 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 incarcerated 2,071,686 persons[1].
In 1990 the total prison population numbered only 773,905, by 2002 it had risen to around 2.1 million[2].
One of every 143 U.S. residents was in prison in 2002, or roughly 699 out of every 100,000 Americans.
The three states with the lowest ratio of imprisoned to unimprisoned population are Minnesota (121 per 100,000), Maine (128/100,000), and North Dakota (120/100,000). The three states with the highest ratio are Louisiana (763/100,000), Texas (704/100,000), and Oklahoma (653/100,000).
In terms of federal prison, 57 percent 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.[3]
In 1993, roughly 2.5 percent of the U.S. population, or 4.9 million adults, were either on parole, probation, or in (local) jails or (state and federal) prisons.
In 2002 roughly 88% of prisoners were male. About 12 percent of all black males in the United States between the ages of 20 and 39 were in prison, compared to 4 percent of Hispanic males and 1.6 percent of white males.
Comparison with other countries
The United States has the highest numerical prison population of any reporting world nation, 686 per 100,000. Russia, which is currently in the process of releasing a number of improperly incarcerated citizens, has a rate of 644 per 100,000, and a 2002 total population of around 900,000. For the most part, the U.S. rate is five 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. The prison population in China was 111 per 100,000 in 2001 (sentenced prisoners only) [4]....
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. [5]
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
- 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).
