Title: Overcrowded Prisons and Officer Safety
Headings: Overcrowded Prisons and Officer Safety
Overcrowded Prisons and Officer Safety
Inmate classification
Heath care and mental heath care
Telephone availability
Inmate recreation
Clothing exchange
Increase in sickness and diseases
Visiting
Inmate stores
Increased assaults on officers and increased inmate on inmate assaults
Lack of equipment
Emergency response teams
Housing areas
Feeding
Evacuations
Security checks and counts
Searches
Discipline housing
Inmates sleeping in "canoes"
Supervision
Training
Staffing
Conclusion

Content: Increase in inmate tensions causes officers to be at greater risk of assault. Increased assaults on officers and increased inmate on inmate assaults
Experience has shown that inmates in overcrowded prisons suffer an increase in stress and racial tension. The increased stress and tension often lead to inmate- on-inmate assaults. When officers respond in overcrowded prisons where the officer staffing levels are below minimum, then the officers are at greater risk. When inmate tensions rise, many times the inmates will attack the correctional staff. Inmates who are placed in overcrowded cells (for example, housing six men in a four-man cell, so that two men have to sleep on the floor) have suffered panic attacks and turned violent, often against the officers. Many inmates who enter prison have issues with authority in the first place. In overcrowded prisons, inmates have many more restrictions placed on them. The more restrictions inmates have, the more fearful and insecure they may feel. To control their fear, they turn to anger.