Criminal Justice Trends

Developing new philosophies to assist in advancing the corrections side of the house would have to develop taking in consideration the past as well as the future of corrections.  We have seen in the past and continue to see that our system is being overcrowded and yet we continue to add to the problem by sending more and more people to confinement.  Although we see the increase in prisoners we do not see additional funding being contributed to the corrections system.  Addressing these issues will allow for us to improve the effectiveness of our corrections system and ensure that its future will be successful.  Utilizing effective programs such as community service as well probation are ways in which we can minimize the amount of individuals being place into confinement.  There will always be debate as to what philosophy is right and which one is wrong based on the past but we must move forward with changes as long as the outcome is going to beneficial.                  

We have seen in the past different approaches on how to handle crime whether that is the three strikes program or get tough on crime program.  Another approach was to send these individuals through treatment with the hopes that it would lower the risk of them committing another crime.  There have also been beliefs that if we are to keep the crime rate low we need to punish the offender in a timely manner which only feeds into the problem of overcrowding.  Due to these beliefs we have developed programs such as the three strikes program which I mentioned earlier.  What is not taken into consideration when such programs are implemented is the severity of the crime in which was committed.  Some say that these programs are directly targeting individuals who are involved in crimes that are pertaining to drugs or repeat offenders but again what was the severity of the crime.

The changes that were being implemented led to higher arrest rates and since they were repeat offenders we also saw higher rates of convictions.  With the courts systems being reactive to these situations they began to extend the lengths of the sentences in which they were giving.  With longer sentencing of course adds to the problem of overcrowding in our prison systems.  More than 1.57 million inmates sat behind bars in federal, state, and county prisons and jails around the country as of December 31, 2013 ( Flatow, 2014).    

Looking back at the past of corrections component of the criminal justice system we learn that we have an issue with overcrowding and something must be done.  We have heard of the stories of prisons being filled to maximum capacity and even in some cases being overfilled.  Overcrowding of prisons can cause a multitude of problems which could cause problems such as the possibility of a riot or a breakout of diseases.  Limited space has become an issue when housing these inmates and New Mexico it was a problem in the past.  They were facing being fined if they did not correct the situation.  Crowding the prisons could lead to legal implications if it is not corrected.  In the case of Brown vs. Plata they determined that overcrowding was the primary cause of the inmates' inadequate medical and mental health care (Newman, 2012).