Even though the system has worked for 220 years, the American prison system is in

danger of complete failure on its current course of development because overcrowding, low

budgets, and changes in public sentiment are quickly placing the penitentiary system in an

inoperable state. The evolution of the current prison system in the United States has had many

subtle changes that have lead to the current crisis, but the system has been set up to fail since

the beginning. There have been supporters and opponents to the prison system. There have been

social movements that have created major adaptations in society's idea of how prisons and

prisoners should be handled. In the end, society faces the issue of not being able to sustain

current sentencing practices and maintain the prisons through the...