NCJ Number
159875
Date Published
1991
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article argues that State and Federal legislators share much of the blame for the current crisis in prison overcrowding.
Abstract
By instituting sentencing guidelines that require longer mandatory sentences and incarceration for a broader range of offenses, lawmakers have created underfunded, crowded prisons. Overcrowding disrupts institutional work and educational opportunities for inmates, and curtails inmates' recreational programs. The end result has been rampant violence in the Nation's prisons. To alleviate overcrowding, legislatures must increase funding or reduce prison populations as part of any legislative reform designed to make prison sentences more severe.