Thanks to (SARA) we now know the causes of found in the American prison system but how could we possibly fix this problem all well trying to decrease the cost prisons put on the taxpayers.

Well there are several possibilities which includes letting first offenders and non-violent offenders off on community service shortening prison sentences for low-level offenders and transferring inmates with mental illness is over to Mental Health Institute. By implementing the solutions we can see a decrease in the prison population with hardly any extra cost to the tax payers.

The American prison system currently houses over 1.5 million people and according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics 47 percent of all prisoners in the US is incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. That means that roughly 750,000 people who have never posted violent threats to are currently incarcerated. Imagine if instead of receiving prison sentences these offenders receive court ordered community service hours. These offenders could serve anywhere from 100 service hours to several 2000 service hours depending on the crime. The majority of the fender sign would then be spent working for non-profit organizations and working to benefit the community. We would see an overall benefit in the community and can serve as a warning to the offenders that far worse is to come should they decide to become repeat offenders.

That solutions take care of nonviolent offenders but what do we do about offenders who commit violent crimes? For less severe crimes we can lower prison sentences to prevent inmates from becoming long term or even lifelong prisoners. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons 49.2 percent of sentences imposed range from 5 years to 15 years. If we were to decrease the average sentencing offenders would be out of the prison system sooner thus decreasing the cost they pose on society. Once released these prisoners would be on parole for longer and possibly giving community service hours to make up for their early release. Mental illness is at an all-time high in our prisons. According to various research conducted by the US Department of Justice 56 percent of state inmates and 45 percent a federal inmates suffer from some sort of mental illness. These inmates do not need to be in prisons. If the goal of Prisons is to rehabilitate offenders then these particular inmates need the proper help for them that can only be found in Mental Health Institute. By transferring inmates to Mental Health Institute not only would we see a decrease in prison population we would also see an increase in the rehabilitation of those inmates. in the same study by the US Department of Justice inmates with mental health issues who receive treatment for successfully rehabilitated 67 percent of time verses 43 percent of the time when no treatment was received. This solution what see the best results with no additional cost to the taxpayers. I believe that these solutions would reduce the prison population while maintaining the safety of the general public. There are other solutions out there such as building new prisons an increasing the amount of guards for prison safety. These options would cost the taxpayers millions and would only serve as a temporary solution to fix the problem. Once these new prisons were to be built they would only quickly fill up unless we change the sentencing policy to court ordered community service hours. Hurry the guards with keep the inmate’s safe what would not resolve the inhumane living situations that overcrowding present.