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Problem: Conditions in America's jails and prisons vary greatly, but in some cases are grossly unacceptable and in many are counter-productive to the intended purpose. Too often, these conditions endanger the health, safety or very lives of the prisoners.

Source: Pressley, "A Crisis of Overcrowding in Alabama's County Jails," Washington Post, June 8, 2001, A3:

Over-crowding conditions in the Chambers County Jail recently grew so serious that "three 'mini-riots' erupted".

"Alabama prisons are paced with nearly 25,000 inmates, and in this chronically poor state, which already has slashed its education budget, there are no plans to spend the millions of dollars it would require to build new facilities. 'It's awful. We're in big trouble,' said state Sen. Jack Biddle III (R), who heads the legislature's Joint Prison Oversight Committee. 'All these problems take money, and we're broke.' "

"The situation had reached the point at the Morgan County Jail in Decatur that a federal judge, touring the facility in March, compared it to 'a slave ship.' Two county sheriffs last month became so fed up with housing state prisoners -- for the inadequate state reimbursement of $1.75 per meal -- that they delivered 200 unannounced to nearby state prisons."

"Guard turnover, always a problem, has reached a high. . . . [S]tarting salary of about $17,000 per year [is paid for jail guards].

"The Alabama prison crisis has been building since the 1970s, a combination of the eagerness to incarcerate criminals, often despite the nonviolent nature of their crimes, and the reluctance to spend money on a population that has little public support. Alabamians pay the lowest state and local taxes per capita in the United States, and few are suggesting a tax increase to alleviate prison overcrowding."

"The state has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation -- 571 per 100,000 people, exceeded by only four other states and the District of Columbia . . ."

". . . it was a visit by District Judge U. W. Clemon to the Morgan County Jail in March that illuminated the severity of the problems. At the jail in Decatur, . . . Clemon, the chief federal judge for northern Alabama found conditions 'uncivilized and hazardous,' according to his April ruling. He noted that inmates were forced to sleep on the floor within two feet of toilets; that cells were dirty, unkempt, and poorly ventilated; that food was inadequate and unsanitary; and that inmates' medical needs went largely unattended."

Judge Clemons wrote: "The sardine-can appearance of [the jail's] cell units more nearly resembles the holding units of slave ships during . . . the eighteenth century than anything in the twenty-first century." Noting that the state pays the counties nothing beyond the $1.75 per inmate meal, while it costs the state $26/day to house a state inmate, Judge Clemons found that "The [state] Department of Corrections thus has a substantial financial incentive to leave its state prisoners on the barren concrete floors of the Morgan County Jail."

"At the time, the jail, which was built to hold about 150 inmates, housed nearly 300."

". . . state Sen. Biddle says the short term solution is obvious. 'It's a terrible thing to say, but we're going to have to release some people, nonviolent people."

According to the Sentencing Project, "About 70 to 80 percent of the criminal offenders in Alabama have alcohol problems or drug use as the basis of their crimes." Yet the anticipated releases will not address this set of underlying problems."

Problem: "Since 1980, the women's prison population in the United States has grown by nearly 500 percent. In an era of increasing reliance on imprisonment as a perceived solution to a range of social problems, more and more women are serving time in United States prisons and jails. Most of these women are mothers who are serving time for nonviolent crimes. In addition, women of color are disproportionately represented in prison systems, comprising more than 60 percent of incarcerated women.
Most women in prison come from extreme poverty and are survivors of violence, particularly sexual assault; many suffer from severe and often life-threatening physical or mental illnesses. The majority have been the primary caretakers of their children; their removal from the community leaves many children to be raised by the state in foster care or the juvenile justice system." [more to come]
Solutions:

See Mental Health Court experience in reducing over-crowding and breaking the arrest-jail-release-arrest cycle for mentally ill offenders.

See summary of research on Day Treatment in Lieu of Incarceration for juvenile offenders in Hoge & Savas, "What Works in Treatment for Delinquent Adolescents: Day Treatment," in Kluger, Alexander & Curtis (ed.), What Works in Child Welfare, Washington, DC: CWLA Press, 2000, pp. 345-354: "Day treatment programs allow delinquent youth to live in a home setting while they receive therapeutic and supportive services 5 to 14 hours per day, up to 6 days a week. Services may include group, family, and individual therapy; specialized educational services; interaction with participants' home schools; recreational programs; family education and support groups; crisis response support; and case management services. . . . Day treatment offers a less restrictive alternative to traditional residential treatment for delinquent adolescents. Research suggests similar outcomes overall for the two services although there is some evidence of a better school attendance after day treatment and other benefits associated with keeping young people at home. Day treatment programs usually cost less than residential treatment programs." (345, 350-51, and studies cited).

[more to come]

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