The Problem

Crime is and always will be a problem throughout the entire world and can be reduced but never eliminated. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. By the end of 2009, there were 743 adults incarcerated per 100,000 population. The following graph shows how the U.S. is the world's leading jailer compared to other countries.

 

Conditions

In a survey of 1,788 male inmates in Midwestern prisons by Prison Journal, about 21% claimed they had been coerced or pressured into sexual activity during their incarceration, and 7% claimed that they had been raped in their current facility. Also identified as an issue within the prison system is gang violence, because many gang members keep their gang identity and affiliations when imprisoned. Segregation of identified gang members from the general population of inmates, with different gangs being housed in separate units often results in the imprisonment of these gang members with their friends and criminal cohorts. Some feel this has the effect of turning prisons into "institutions of higher criminal learning." (Wikipedia)


 Warehousing in California State Prison (Wikipedia)