Introduction
Jail overcrowding is a situation that worries many government authorities. As much as overcrowding in may be indicative of increased criminal activities within the country, it is important to find ways of ensuring that the prison cells have less of just the right capacity. There are a significant number of factors that may lead to overcrowding in jail (Forbes, 2001). However, despite all the factors, mechanisms must be put in place to help ease out the overcrowding in prison cell. This paper gives a program strategy that will assist in reducing overcrowding in jail premises or prison cells.
Programs for the Jail Inmates to Participate in that Will Assist the Inmates in their Reintegration into Society
Having a vibrant program in which jail inmates can participate in is very crucial in decongesting the prison cells. Such a program should have strategies that will ensure the prison achieves its main objective of correcting the behavioral traits of inmates and at the same time ensuring that the general members of the society are safe from any serious criminal activities. In the process of reducing overcrowding in prisons, it is important to take into account every possible legal implication of actions to be taken in the process of implementing the decongestion program (Mayer, 1982).
Jail inmates can be involved in lots of activities that will prepare them for the process of reintegrating them back into the society. This is one of the appropriate strategies that can be used to decongest the prison cells. To start with, there should be a programme in which the inmates are given some limited time to interact with other members of the society. In case, it will be appropriate for the prison authority to strengthen sporting activities amongst the inmates and invite teams from outside prison to come and have friendly games with the inmates. This will facilitate interactions between the inmates and other members of the society. The benefit of this is that the members of the society will come to acknowledge the inmates as still having a part to play in the society after their release (Mayer, 1982).
Moreover, another program entails the prison authorities finding ways of connecting inmates with job owners; in this case, the inmates are transported to work for those with jobs and earn some income. This will help create a rapport between the inmates and the job owners who may be interested in employing the inmates once they are released from jail. It will also be important to engage the prisoners in producing certain kind of products like furniture and or other enterprise products and sell directly to the members of the society. In view of this, the products should be labeled as produced by inmates. This will be a great way of assuring the members of the society that the inmates are productive and can participate in the economic production process once released back into the society (Freeman, 1999).
It is crucial to realize that some inmates might suffer some psychological or cognitive problems while in serving sentence in prison. To ensure they do not become a problem to the society or experience cognitive challenges, it will be crucial that such or all the inmates be given psychological counseling services. Psychological counselors should be hired or permanently employed to take care of inmates’ psychological challenges that may disturb them or make them disturb the society. With respect to this, the psychological counselors should make sure that the inmates do not perceive themselves as social outcasts and that the society is ready for them. They should be assured that the fact that they have been serving jail terms does not mean the society has rejected them. To make this effective, it will be important for all inmates to be advised to participate in the counseling sessions and even give their views on various issues (Siegel, 2008).
Community Correctional Programme
Letting inmates engage in community services instead of incarcerating them is more effective in decongesting the prison cells, especially when it comes to criminals with charges of minor offences. It should be noted that incarcerating criminals is costly in terms of feeding and accommodation; therefore, putting the minor offenders on community service will not only ease the congestions in the prisons but also lessen the cost of keeping inmates in prison cells.
In the United States of America, community correctional program has two models. The first model is described as integrated community correctional programme. It entails some guidelines for sentencing and discretion of the judiciary with various alternative sanctions, probation and parole preferences. Within the second model of community correctional programme, some states have constituted certain programs that allow the correctional authorities to redirect the already sentenced criminal offenders into another alternatively available sanction or correctional programs and or paroles. Both of these community correctional models are very effective in reducing congestions in prisons and less costly as compared to incarceration.
Instead of imprisoning an offender and letting him or her do nothing, community correctional program will engage the offender into varied activities and hence continue to be productive in the society despite that fact that he or she is serving some punishment. This does not only serve to decongest the prison cells but also ensures that the offender is not removed from the context of the society. It is therefore easy to reintegrate an offender placed on community correctional program than the incarcerated criminal offenders. With this kind of program, the main goals are to punish the offender and hold him or her accountable, protect the public safety, decongest the prisons; both the victims and the locals get restitution for offence committed against them and increase the community service work.
In conducting this kind of program, criminal offenders must be localized in the sense that they should serve their local community instead of being taken to work in communities further from their homes. This will assist the correctional authorities in monitoring the offender as the authorities can get information from the local community members on the conducts of the offender.
Conclusion
The need to decongest the prison cells is long overdue; the number of inmates being admitted has already surpassed the capacity of most correctional facilities abroad. It is therefore crucial that inmates are engaged in certain activities that will assist in reintegrating them back into the society. Moreover, the minor criminal offenders should be placed on community correctional program to also help decongest the prisons and reduce the cost of keeping inmates in prisons. Some minor offenders should just be flogged and left to go instead of taking them to prison (Dikötter, 2002).
Reference List
Dikötter, F. (2002). Crime, punishment and the prison in modern China. China: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers.
Forbes, B. (2001). Forbes, Volume 167, Issues 1-5. New York: Forbes Inc.
Freeman, R. (1999). Correctional organization and management: public policy challenges, behavior, and structure. New York: Elsevier.
Mayer, R. (1982). Social science and institutional change. New York: Transaction Publishers.
Siegel, L. (2008). Criminology. London: Cengage Learning.