Criminal justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Criminal justice - Essay Example What affect has the courts had on inmate population and how it’s administered in the prisons? What type of action would be taken either short term or long term and why? Are cynical ideas common in corrections? How does this effect the criminal justice system as a whole? Is this cynicism present in other occupations and industries? Criminal Justice: Contemporary Problems Within the United States Corrections System The contemporary problems faced in the US corrections system today have given rise to the overcrowding within the current system. As an example New York’s prison system (Rockefeller Drug Laws, 2001) has not kept up with the enormous increase in numbers of inmates. There are not enough programs to keep prisoners occupied, which results in idleness and increased tension levels. Expense is another factor that faces the correction system. In New York alone it costs 2 billion to construct the prisons to house the increasing number of drug offenders. The operating ex penses for maintaining the prisons comes to nearly $700 million per year. The increased number of drug related incarcerations have created racial inequities within the corrections system. Increasing number of African-American and Latino population have made up 70 percent of the prison population (David Swanson March 2010).