Everything Librarian: usa prison system
Showing posts with label usa prison system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label usa prison system. Show all posts

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Overcrowded and Understaffed: US Prisons Are a Ticking Time Bomb

Photo courtesy lisasolonynko


As a former prison librarian, I was concerned to hear that West Virginia's Governor Jim Justice has declared a state of emergency and is bringing in more than 50 National Guard members to help staff the overcrowded and understaffed prisons and jails in the state. What are the effects of overcrowding in prisons in the United States?

Rural Prison Librarian


In the prison where I worked in West Virginia, the salaries were very low. As a prison librarian with a Master's degree in Information Science and with many years of library experience, I made less than $30k per year in 2015. Some of the correctional officers (COs) made much more than I did because of the overtime they worked. I knew several COs who worked 70+ hours per week and made six-figure salaries. When I worked there over five years ago I sometimes worked an extra security shift as well for the extra pay.

Because I worked in a prison, I went through a four-week training course along with the correctional officers and other new prison support staff. We learned self-defense, how to properly handcuff an inmate, and how to search an inmate's cell during a shakedown. I didn't think it was unusual since this was my first prison library job and I also really needed the stability of a full-time job with benefits. I also appreciated learning how to defend myself physically and how to avoid being manipulated by inmates. I learned a lot about people and life in a West Virginia prison. I also worked in an understaffed and overcrowded environment in every prison I have ever worked in Maryland and West Virginia.



National Guard as Prison Staff


I thought that calling in the National Guard to staff a prison or jail was extreme but this is also about to happen in Florida. In this news story from Florida, they place blame on the COVID-19 pandemic for short-staffed prisons but this is a problem that has been many years in the making. Most prison employees can expect lower wages with higher risk which is never a good combination. The low pay makes prison employees more vulnerable to being manipulated by inmates who will pay COs to smuggle in drugs. If prison is a business model, and it is, paying low and leaving employees vulnerable is a recipe for being permanently understaffed.
 

The USA is the Largest Prison Nation


The United States is the largest prison nation on the planet. You could call the USA an Incarceration Nation. The next in line prison nations are El Salvador, Rwanda, Brazil, and Russia. According to The Sentencing Project, "There are 2 million people in the nation’s prisons and jails—a 500% increase over the last 40 years." This enormous increase is due to harsher sentencing laws and mandatory minimum sentencing. For example, in Germany, a life sentence is 15 years. In Alabama, a life sentence can be anywhere from 10-99 years and five states in the United States have no chance of parole for a life sentence. Recently, Mississippi became the number one place in the world for its incarceration rate with 18,080 incarcerated individuals.

In the USA prison system, it's not just the sheer number of inmates in the United States that is concerning. It is the disproportionate number of African American and Latino inmates that shows strong evidence of discrimination in arrests, convictions, and incarceration. To quote The Sentencing Project, "Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men and Latinos are 2.5 times as likely. For Black men in their thirties, about 1 in every 12 is in prison or jail on any given day."
Photo courtesy Negative Space


Overcrowded American Prisons Are Stressful for All


As a prison librarian, I felt the pinch of overcrowding and understaffing regularly. All employees were strongly encouraged to work extra security shifts. Many times I was guarded by a camera instead of having a CO in the library with me. In addition to the added stress of overcrowding, working in a prison is very stressful because of the nature of the work.

Prisons and jails can be dark, humorless places with very few benefits. The reality is that many correctional officers and prison employees experience violence regularly and this is not good for anyone's mental health. A recent study published in Criminal Justice and Behavior reports,

"We find strong associations between violence and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide risk, as well as symptoms of depression, alcohol abuse, anxiety, and sleep disorder. Importantly, we also find a potentially protective role of institutional factors, such as the quality of perceived management and supervision. In line with the perceived organizational support (POS) model, our findings make clear that organizational support can moderate the deleterious effects of prison work."

This paragraph hints at the root of the problem that exists at the heart of many prisons, a lack of support, leadership, and team building in prisons from the top down. Every single prison in the United States works under a different Warden who wields a lot of power and sets the tone for every prison workplace just like a CEO. 

Round Barbed wire


Good Warden, Bad Warden


For example, in one prison, I worked under a very supportive Warden who brought a college program to the prison funded by Pell grants for felons resurrected by President Obama. I saw the prison library transform from a place of gang meetings to a place of homework conversations. The men in this prison were excited to be learning and it improved the quality of prison life for many including myself. It should be noted that I was directly employed by the state prison agency and reported directly to the Warden. Since prisons are quasi-military institutions, the chain of command meant that I was protected by the power of a supportive Warden and was treated respectfully by prison staff and correctional officers. A prison with a good warden creates a space where people want to come to work every day and feel supported by their supervisors.

In another prison, the Warden was not supportive of the library, the librarian, or the teachers. The library was only open a few hours a week even though I was in the library full time. I was watched very closely and treated with suspicion by the prison administration. One of the reasons for this uncomfortable relationship is that I was an employee of an external state agency and not employed by the prison agency. This lack of status in the chain of command alone was one reason I was treated lesser than others. A prison with a bad warden creates chaos, trauma, conflict, and dysfunction.

The bottom line is-- Every prison and jail is its own private kingdom in many ways and each may operate very differently depending on the infrastructure and leadership. Without consistent oversight and professional leadership, many prisons become dysfunctional and dangerous.

The combined danger and discomfort of working in a prison and then also facing overcrowding and understaffing adds to the layers of stress for prison employees. Why would anyone want to work in a prison for very modest wages and benefits? Many correctional officers have been quitting due to feeling this stress and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic which hit prisons hard.
Photo Courtesy Wikimedia


Prison Should Not Create Trauma


The overcrowded and understaffed prisons are also failing America's prisoners. In one Maryland prison, I heard there were no GEDs awarded for an entire year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers and librarians were teleworking but inmates did not have access to the internet and there was no process set up for them to participate remotely.

Additionally, when a prison is overcrowded and understaffed more lockdowns occur. These are the times when inmates are locked into their cells for days at a time and they only come out for recreation time and a shower. All meals are brought to inmates' cells three times a day by correctional officers. It is very similar to being in segregation or solitary confinement and feels like a punishment.

Inmates are already being punished for their crimes by being separated from family, friends, income, and their full pursuit of happiness. They should not have to suffer additional punishments from an institution that alleges to correct or remodel their behavior. Some might argue that excessive lockdowns constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Imagine being one person in a six-man cell with one toilet and having no privacy for 22 hours a day. What hope may there be for someone's moral and ethical reform if they are treated so inhumanely by the state?


Photo by Mary Rayme


Prison is an extremely stressful environment by nature. It can be violent, dangerous, and mind-numbingly boring. It is this way for the inmates and for the correctional officers and the prison staff as well. A recent editorial in West Virginia's Logan Banner says it all, If West Virginia Wants More Corrections Officers It Must Pay For Them. The editorial also says that at the end of June 2022 there were almost 1,000 vacancies in West Virginia prisons and jails which is why they are bringing in the WV National Guard.

Compassionate Release From Prison


I know that many states increased compassionate release during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part to alleviate the overcrowding and understaffing of American prisons. What is compassionate release? According to this resource,

"Compassionate release is a process by which inmates in criminal justice systems may be eligible for immediate early release on grounds of "particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by the court at the time of sentencing".

I understand that compassionate care release is usually reserved for older inmates who have served most of their sentence and have critical health issues but if there are not enough prison employees to staff a prison compassionate release is another option that needs to be considered.

Prison tower behind barbed wire
Photo courtesy Wikimedia.


The Future of Prisons in the United States


Perhaps a foreshadowing of things to come, Mississippi experienced 120 prison deaths in 2020 in what they called gang warfare and prison riots. Though the article referenced here doesn't say that overcrowding and understaffing contributed to the violence it is almost certainly so.

The bottom line is that the USA is facing an even larger crisis because the way they are currently operating is unsustainable and incredibly dangerous for prison staff and for inmates. By bringing in the National Guard and asking prison staff to work overtime states such as West Virginia and Florida are treating the symptom of the problem and not considering the root causes of prison overcrowding and understaffing. Even if they paid prison employees more money, they are still treating a symptom of a larger problem.

To be proactive about this nationwide prison and jail crisis:
  • Consider changing sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimums
  • Explore how education and support early in life may mitigate later-life incarceration
  • Research the European model of prison that California is utilizing
  • Consider providing continuing education for prison administrators to be better trained in business skills such as management and team building to better hire and retain prison staff. 
Let's be clear here. This is a big mountain to move in terms of making progress in downsizing mass incarceration in America. After all, the US prison system is a multibillion-dollar operation and seems unmotivated to improve the system.

And as the Logan Banner editorial points out, this is not a sudden emergency, this is a slow creeping crisis that may be reaching a toxic boiling point. Violence inside US prisons is on the rise and many prisons and jails operate without sufficient oversight. Overcrowded prisons that are short-staffed are a ticking time bomb that is not being discussed enough in the mainstream media and can only end badly for inmates and prison staff. In the words of writer and former inmate Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”