Welcome to Balanced Scales, a monthly newsletter sharing high impact summaries of research on criminal justice topics. Do you have a topic you’d like me to cover? Respond to this email and tell me what’s on your mind.

Rooted in Research: Overcrowding

Key Takeaway:  Overcrowding in prisons and jails decreases public safety.

The Findings:

• Overcrowding probably increases violence in institutions. It’s been difficult to establish a clear relationship, because typically jails and prisons implement measures to prevent violence when they are dealing with overcrowding.

• To deal with overcrowding, prisons and jails often extend lockdowns. This means adults in custody (AICs) have less access to educational opportunities, rehabilitation programs, visitation, and work opportunities. It can also mean less recreation and less time for meals and hygiene.

• Staff in overcrowded institutions are more likely to experience burnout. Increases in population require more staff time to keep ratios in the right place, and it often make more sense to force overtime rather than hire additional COs. Staff burnout leads to higher turnover and lower job performance.

• Finally, overcrowding in jails often results in forced releases. It’s an emergency response to a tough problem, and it delegitimizes the criminal justice system for AICs and the community.

Why It Matters (what’s the bottom line?)

• Long Term Public Safety: The vast majority of AICs will be released. Access to educational opportunities, rehabilitation programs, visitation, and work opportunities are all associated with lower recidivism and better public safety after release.

• Financial Impact: Overcrowding indirectly increases costs in labor through burnout, and in criminal justice system costs through increased recidivism.

• Policy Implications: The quickest way to reduce prison and jail overcrowding while maintaining legitimacy is to collaborate across the system to use these expensive resources strategically.

• Short Term Public Safety: Jail releases due to overcrowding mean that folks who would normally be held on bail are less likely to be held on bail. If their criminal activity is caused by needs such as substance use disorder or mental health, they are more likely to be released without having those needs addressed.

 Need More?

📄 Full Study: This research examines the impacts of severe overcrowding in prisons in Ghana, using nurses’ records instead of official reports.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00938548231219803:

In the News: Overcrowding in Washington State

We know that the relationship between overcrowding and violence is stronger with younger populations, so this is a bad situation. What additional immediate action can be taken?

• Collaboration with prosecution, and police to create mechanisms for identifying and implementing alternatives to incarceration and even to arrests would reduce the flow of new residents.

• Other possible solutions: in Oregon we have Short-Term Transitional Leave, which allows AICs to complete the last 180 days of their sentence in the community. Washington could partner with agencies to do transitional houses or early release for good behavior.

• Retroactive sentencing changes are not popular here in Oregon, but this situation may call for some collaboration with DAs and lawmakers to reduce the overall length of sentences. Shorter sentences that are safe and rehabilitation-focused are better for public safety than longer sentences in dangerous or lockdown conditions.

• In Norway when the prisons are full, newly sentenced AICs are put on a wait list to serve their sentence rather than overcrowding the facilities past safe capacity.

Work in Motion:  

Jackson County has been operating under forced release protocols due to overcrowding in their jail, and the Jail teamed up with the Community Justice and Health and Human Services Departments to create theJail Release Resource Program. This program supports the population with high needs who are vulnerable to forced release by connecting them with resources for after release.

I’ve been working with them to collect and analyze data on their program. It’s still a bit early to see the impacts, but this graph shows the high level of needs for the population they are trying to reach.

Thanks so much for reading.

Look for our next newsletter, coming straight to your inbox on the third Thursday of every month. Do you have a topic you’d like me to cover? Are you hoping for more detail in the next issue? Do you have an experience with overcrowding I should hear about? Respond to this email and tell me all about it.

Peace,

Ann