An example of this is the overcrowding that is occurring in California prisons and how they have had to change their policies to house criminals within the area (KQED and Center for investigative journalism). Spelman (2009) expands on this concept by stating that “it is not surprising to find that prison populations increase… in response to more or less punitive sentencing policies” (p. 51). In essence, in order for the prison population to decrease or remain unchanged, a middle ground is needed between the expected sentence and a given crime. Felman (2012) explains that the incarceration rate in the United States over the past forty years far exceeds that of any other country – “unparalleled in any other society in any historical era” (p. 369). Increasing incarceration rates have contributed to overcrowding in some prisons in the United States. Overcrowding in prisons can lead to prisoners not receiving the rehabilitation programs they want to reintegrate into society. This is the case in California, where individuals serve their prison sentences in prisons, where they do not have the space to incorporate areas in which to organize the programs necessary for prisoners to reintegrate into society (KQED and Center for Investigative