America’s Jails Face Crisis from Chronic Understaffing and Mismanagement

Prisons Across the Nation Rife with Danger

Charles P. Pierce’s recent article in Esquire, “Waupun’s Crisis Goes All the Way Down to Our County Jails,” highlights the dysfunctional state of prisons across America today. This is an alarming trend requiring urgent action.

Incarceration was once a bipartisan issue, with agreement on reforming mass imprisonment and rehabilitation. Former President Trump signed the First Step Act in 2018, reducing mandatory minimums and allowing early release. However, the GOP has abandoned reform for a “tough on crime” stance, ignoring fixing prisons’ problems.

Understaffing Leads to Extended Lockdowns

Wisconsin’s Waupun Correctional Institution has been on total lockdown for over four months from understaffing and overcrowding. With only eight staff for 900 inmates, lockdowns maintain order. But inmates report deplorable confinement conditions:

  • Cells covered in feces and blood
  • No showers, recreation, library
  • Missed legal deadlines
  • Meals in cells
  • No family visits

The Department of Corrections won’t end the lockdown, vaguely citing controlling “assaultive behavior” without solutions.

A National Crisis at All Levels

Waupun is not isolated. Pierce explains state and federal prisons nationwide suffer severe staff shortages, using lockdowns as the “new normal” with skeleton crews. Advocates say these extreme measures meant for emergencies have become an easy but cruel fix for budget and personnel deficits.

Federally, nearly a third of officer positions are vacant, forcing nurses to work as guards. Texas prisons lock down weekends from understaffing. Thousands of inmates in Mississippi and North Carolina stay confined as officials seek hires.

Without staff, violence, and health emergencies aren’t managed. Mentally ill Waupun inmates denied care resort to self-harm for attention. Nearly 100 assaults occurred last year, showing the powder keg these conditions create.

Origins in Anti-Tax Politics

How did this happen? Pierce cites California’s tax revolt starting in the late 1970s. Politicians worldwide since have cut taxes by slashing budgets, and underfunding prisons despite soaring incarceration. Costs are passed on via overcrowding, unsafe facilities, and perpetual lockdown.

Miami-Dade Jails Also Dysfunctional

This neglect and mismanagement pattern extends to Miami-Dade County jails too. A series of Miami Herald articles have detailed the ongoing failures there to protect inmate safety and provide mental healthcare per a 2013 federal civil rights lawsuit and consent decree.

After 11 inmate deaths in the past year, including four suicides, the court-appointed monitor issued a scathing report last August blasting the lack of progress. It cited leadership ambivalence and lack of expertise, causing repeated non-compliance that harms inmates.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has pledged reforms, but the monitor doubts meaningful change can occur given Corrections’ internal dysfunction. Preventable inmate deaths continue amid inhumane conditions.

Solutions Require Funding and Bipartisan Reform Commitment

The Eighth Amendment protects against cruel and unusual punishment, which prolonged lockdowns and inmate deaths clearly constitute. Without staff, rehabilitative programs are cut, setting inmates up to fail upon release.

To address this, leaders must:

  • Make funding jails a budget priority, not cut them for tax breaks
  • End reliance on lockdowns except for real emergencies
  • Streamline hiring/pay to attract and retain staff
  • Reinstate rehabilitation and mental health programs
  • Consider alternatives like probation to reduce populations
  • Commit to safety for inmates and guards

Bipartisanship is needed again. First Step Act progress cannot stall. We must find solutions before conditions worsen, causing more violence and rights violations in prisons.

Enough preventable deaths have occurred in jails nationwide and locally. The incarcerated deserve better, as do we all. Our nation must reform broken systems betraying its ideals of freedom and humanity.