Another challenging issue facing our correctional system is the delivery of adequate health care services. As you know, the inmate population is very difficult to serve. Often people who arrive at our institutions have high health risk factors and have long neglected medical conditions.
A prison is a cross section of society in which every human strain is clearly revealed.
I went to Rikers one time to do 'Third Watch,' and I remember thinking, 'Wow, this is a scary place.' We were using a section of the prison where half of it was still populated by inmates.
Our prison population quintupled in a thirty year period of time. Not doubled or tripled - quintupled. We went from a prison and jail population of about 300,000 to now more than 2 million.
Let us be clear. Prison works. It ensures that we are protected from murderers, muggers and rapists, and it makes many who are tempted to commit crime think twice.
The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world: two million people. The country with one-twentieth of the world's population has one-fourth of those in prison.
The U.S. incarcerates more of its people than any nation in the world, or any nation in history.
