ABSTRACT
Correctional facility overcrowding occurs when the inmate population in a prison or jail exceeds its design capacity. Overcrowding is associated with a number of health and safety problems for inmates and correctional staff, not to mention heightened correctional costs that are absorbed by taxpayers. The increase in the United States incarcerated population, corresponding correctional facility overcrowding, and problems that result from prison and jail crowding have generated a considerable amount of research pertaining to the influences of prison or jail population size, facility crowding, or the consequences thereof. Researchers who have conducted state-level studies of the influences of correctional facility populations or incarceration rates have typically focused on evaluating the effects of state sentencing policies such as sentencing guidelines or truth in sentencing on prison or jail populations. The growth in the incarcerated population between 1970 and the early 2000s forced researchers and practitioners to consider correctional facility overcrowding as a potential environmental inhibitor to institutional safety.
