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: 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. Fearful inmates whose fear has turned to anger frequently take it out on the officers. There is no question that overcrowding leads to greater danger for the officers. Lack of equipment
If the amount of emergency equipment the officers need to keep control of the overcrowded prisoners is not increased to match the increase in inmate population, the officers are at greater risk. For example, if there is not a sufficient number of handcuffs and leg chains to control violent inmates, the staff is at greater risk. Another example would be not storing enough tear gas and non-lethal weapons to handle the increase in violence.