Federalized Crimes and how Federalization Affects Prison Systems

 
Federalized Crimes and how Federalization Affects Prison Systems
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	In the past, federal crimes used to only constitute of matters affecting the whole nation, such as counterfeiting and treason. However, with the increase in the rate of crimes, there has been the necessity to declare different acts of lawlessness as federal crimes (Seiter, 2011). This has led to the amendment of the USA criminal statute, so as to achieve more criminal prosecutions. Federalizations of crimes have been seen in the history of the United States and a good example was when a woman was killed in a car-jacking incident at Maryland in the USA. Weeks later, the congress declared car-jacking a federal crime, which meant that more and more carjackers would be prosecuted to combat the vice. 
	The federalization of crimes has had its positive impacts in the community, but its impact to the prison system cannot be over looked. The declaration of different crimes as federal allows the justice and police department to take them more seriously. This has a positive impact on the community as it contributes to a reduction in the rate of crimes (Seiter, 2011). However, this has led to very many prosecutions of the offenders, which have seen the population of offenders in the prisons grow. The growth in prison population has its disadvantages as the management is tasked with controlling the prison system with low resources and more inmates. The government has also continued to spent more money as the prisoners are fed and offered healthcare with the taxpayer’s money, which has eaten in to the government revenue.
	In conclusion, the federalization of crimes has had its benefits in ensuring a reduction in crimes, prosecution of criminals and justice to the victims. However, it has highly pushed the budgets of the penitentiary facilities beyond limits in terms of personnel, money and other resources. 

Reference
Seiter, R. (2011). Corrections : an introduction. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson 	Education/Prentice Hall.