Prisons are becoming more and more overcrowded as the years pass. There are many reasons for that, which won’t be discussed in the article to follow. However, the fact is over two million Americans were in prison at year-end in 2009, according to Wikipedia. Therefore, overcrowding is a problem, and managing this problem needs to be thought about in a more serious manner. There are several ways that prison overcrowding can be dealt with once it happens in a particular prison.
More inmates can be put into one cell. The whole idea of having one or two people in a cell is a huge waste of space. Obviously, the A.C.L.U may not be happy with this kind of solution, but putting more people in a cell means reducing the need to build less prisons. If a person commits a crime, and is sentenced to prison, that person should not get to be in a cell alone. In Thailand, many cells house up to fifty people in one cell, according to this site. Thailand does not have any problem with prison overcrowding.
A great way to deal with prison overcrowding is to build more cell blocks and less recreational facilities. The prisons today are becoming more like gymnasiums rather than prisons, and the result of this is less prison space and more area to create a country club environment. If a property has more space designated to prison cells, than there is less of a need to build more prisons, which will help manage prison overcrowding. Overcrowding is caused by big prison compounds with few cells and society calls this overcrowding. The problem can be solved by more cells and less recreational space.
Managing overcrowding happens when the blueprint of the prison is designed. Prevention is the best way to manage any problem. However, once the prison is already built, it will be more difficult to manage the problem. Taking the prisoners and putting more of them into one cell will not help them feel less crowded, but it will prevent other prisons from needing to be built, and will stop what society calls overcrowding. The only reason society thinks the prisons are overcrowded is due to the fact that more prisons are being built. This can be easily managed by following the steps mentioned above.