Why Are Prisons Still Overcrowded With the Pandemic Going On?
I’ll give you three guesses, and the first two don’t count.
Prison overcrowding is one of the key contributing factors to poor prison conditions around the world. It is also arguably the biggest single problem facing prison systems and its consequences can at worst be life-threatening and at best prevent prisons from fulfilling their proper function.
Overcrowding is a consequence of criminal justice policy, not of rising crime rates, and undermines the ability of prison systems to meet basic human needs, such as healthcare, food, and accommodation. Just how overcrowded were prisons before the pandemic, and at this time of social distancing, how overcrowded are they now?
Before the pandemic, nine state prison systems and the BOP were operating at 100% capacity or more. These prison systems were holding more people than their facilities were designed to house. As of December 2020, we find that there are still far too many people crowded into prisons across the country. Despite the ongoing pandemic, and efforts to reduce the number of people behind bars, we calculated that 41 states are currently operating at 75 percent or more of their capacity, with at least nine of those state prison systems and the federal Bureau of Prisons are still operating at…
