Discuss which of the 21st Century policy challenges are the most serious

Our text discusses several significant challenges for criminal justice policy makers in the 21st century. Pick one of these issues and discuss why you think it represents the most significant challenge. Justify your selection and can you offer any additional ways to address it?

Incarceration and Realignment: The Case of California

Over the past three decades, tough on crime sentencing practices resulted in dramatic increases in prison populations nationwide. This trend is exemplified by events in California. In 1980, California’s prisons held a mere 24,569 individuals: 98% of the incarcerated were men, 38.6% were White, 24% were Hispanic/Latino, and 35.4% were African American (Good & Rouse, 1980). Fast-forward to the end of 2010, and the state’s prison population grew to 162,821: 82% of the incarcerated were men and 25.2% were White, 39.8% were Hispanic/Latino, and 28.9% were African American (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), 2011a). In an effort to accommodate the rising incarcerated population, the state opened 21 new prison facilities. Today, the 33 state prisons are designed to hold 84,597 inmates (CDCR, n.d.). However, with a current population that almost doubles this capacity, it is fair to say that California is faced with a serious prison overcrowding problem.

Prison overcrowding leads to a number of issues, including many which run the risk of violating the constitutional rights of inmates. Despite their status as an incarcerated individual, inmates retain a number of basic rights under the constitution. However, this was not always the case. Prior to the 1960s, the courts adopted a “hands-off ” doctrine when it came to convicted offenders. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Cooper v. Pate (1964) led to significant changes in the role of the courts for the incarcerated population. The Cooper decision held that state prisoners have the right to sue in Federal court to address grievances under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. As a result, the gates to the judiciary were thrown open to prisoner claims of constitutional violations under the 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 14th amendments. Since then, several notable cases were decided that relate to the issues of prison conditions. These include Estelle v. Gamble (1976), which held that the deliberate indifference to the medical needs of prisoners is a violation of the cruel and unusual doctrine of the 8th amendment, and Coleman v. Wilson (1990), which held that prisoners must be provided with basic mental health care.