Prison Overcrowding Many prisons throughout the United States have been experiencing the problem of overcrowdedness. This is not a new issue though, in April of 1978 New York State was already feeling the affect of crowded prisons. In an attempt to alleviate the problem the state tried to buy Richers Island from New York City. Since then a rise in population and in poverty have increased the problem and the government has been think of solutions ever since. The main problem was coming up with programs that kept criminals off the streets without overpopulating the prisons. One example of how the government tried to make the streets safer was by imposing m