Prison Overcrowding in California

According to the Pew Center of the States report there were 1,404,053 inmates under state control as of January 1, 2010. With California being the second highest in the nation with 169,413 inmates housed in a system that was built to accommodate about 100,000. The Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year has forced California to address the overcrowding crisis that has caused problems for the prisoners, the prison system, the state, and its citizens for years.

There are three main reasons that California state prison populations have reached such crisis levels of overcrowding, those being: strict sentencing, recidivism, and the fact that the system focuses more on incarceration rather than rehabilitation. According to Anthony Gregory of the Contra Costa Times, California has "too many laws" requiring a prison sentence. Gregory stated in 2006, "More criminals were locked away for drug violations than all violent crimes combined." Every time a parolee is returned to prison, even though he serves time for that parole violation, when released he must start another three-year parole period, regardless of the risk to society. It is hard for the parolee to get from under the states control. A lot of the programs that had been implemented to “reform” and “rehabilitate” prisoners have been eliminated. Although the prison populations have increased the funding to run these institutions has not. That has caused funds that were normally allocated for special programs and treatment to be used just for the basic needs of the prisoner, forcing many programs, jobs, and activities to be cut. Thus prisoners are released back into society with no skills, which only causes higher recidivism rates, which adds to overcrowding. It causes California’s state prisons to have a “revolving” door in which prisoner’s continually go in, then out, and then back again.

The effects of overcrowding can be felt from the inmates all the way down to society as a

whole. Gymnasiums and hallways have...