A life-threatening problem, rehabilitation inhibitor, and overlooked issue: overcrowding of prisons. This issue is large-scale, and is much more serious than made out to be.

It is not just that there are a lot of people in any one prison or jail — it is that there are so many people packed into one center that the morals and safety of the center are compromised. Prisoners are forced to comply with immoral practices, such as sleeping on the floor.

With insufficient funds to provide for the surplus of prisoners, those incarcerated are forced to deal with sanitary issues, contaminated food, and a decrease in accessibility to essential services.

How this does not constitute as cruel or unusual punishment continues to confuse me? This is essentially torture, as prisoners are forced through inhumane conditions because of a fault on the justice system’s behalf.

The issue is not just gross and wrong, but also a matter of life and death.
 
One of the roots of overcrowding goes back to the beginning of most issues in the justice system: recidivism. With new prisoners coming in and old prisoners re-offending, the prisons have to account for both groups combined rather than losing old prisoners to make room for new ones.

The wrongful punishment continues as overcrowding can be largely attributed to sentencing itself.

Say a prison can hold 2o people. 10 people are given life sentences, and sent to this prison. Five years into their prison sentence, another 5 people have committed a crime and been sent to this prison. Ten more years in, 15 people have now committed a crime, resulting in a prison holding 25 people where it has the capacity for 20.

Now translate this to something much more large-scale, or tag a “-thousand” onto the numbers I provided. That marks the seriousness of this conflict.
 
Not only does overcrowding hurt the prisoners themselves, but also the prison staff, as they become stressed having to supervise more prisoners than what is normal and feasible.

The lack of resources available to be allotted to each prisoner, the issues with cleanliness and spread of disease, and the issues related to mental health — essentially every issue present in the US criminal justice system — has some beginnings in overcrowding.

To function properly, a prison must be within its resources. To not be at this threshold and instead, allow for degrading practices, equates the crime of the prisoner with the crime of the system.