Frontline Prison State

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“Prison State”: A Brief Examination of the Louisville, Kentucky Correctional System. The “Prison State” episode of the long running PBS documentary series, Frontline, focused on some of the obstacles that challenged the Louisville, KY, Correctional System. Problems such as substance abuse, mental health disorders, and lack of funds were creating additional burdens on an already overburdened system, but the main problem addressed in the program was the area’s high incarceration rate, especially of nonviolent offenders, and the impact it had on the inmates and the community. The episode also focused on four African American individuals who at some point during the year the program was filmed, were sentenced to serve time at a facility in the …show more content…
Stricter legislation and tougher sentencing guidelines enacted by politicians in an effort to either please certain segments of their constituencies or to supplement their political records by appearing “tough on crime” have led to more Americans being incarcerated than ever before. This is especially true of those convicted of nonviolent crimes and for those suffering from mental illness. People are being locked up for minor offenses and this is leading to overcrowding and budget strains for most states. Also, once in the system, many of these subject who come from impoverished back grounds or have substance abuse problems, often find themselves re-incarcerated when they fail to meet the terms if their probation, like making multiple court dates with no transportation or paying fines and restitution with little or no income. Also these subjects may reoffend, in an effort to feed their addiction or in some cases just feed their …show more content…
In a lot of states, there simply is not enough money or space to accommodate the large number of people being arrested and jailed, or convicted and sent to prison. Kentucky was faced with a large budget deficit and simply did not have the money, space, or staff to meet the needs of its ever growing inmate population. Also, many of the social service programs that in the past were used in an effort to help its citizens possibly escape prison sentences by offering them educational, mental health, and drug treatment programs, were being shut down, and their funding was reassigned to the state’s correctional system. Without these programs, many inmates did not receive any type of assistance with the problems that very likely led to their incarceration, and their recidivism rate was very high. Kentucky officials fortunately took note of this phenomenon, and began making efforts to reduce its inmate population by enacting reforms to both its adult and juvenile justice systems. These reforms, such as its Mandatory Release Supervision, a program that grants nonviolent offenders early supervised released while connecting them with social service programs designed to help them productively return to society, have started to have an effect on the correctional system, as those inmates are less likely to reoffend, and it has reduced the current prison
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