1000 new inmates a week enter US prisons - 1 in 136 amer. in prison

[donsu]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1988420


1,000 Incarcerated Per Week From '04-'05


Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.

The total on June 30, 2005, was 56,428 more than at the same time in 2004, the government reported Sunday. That 2.6 percent increase from mid-2004 to mid-2005 translates into a weekly rise of 1,085 inmates.

Of particular note was the gain of 33,539 inmates in jails, the largest increase since 1997, researcher Allen J. Beck said. That was a 4.7 percent growth rate, compared with a 1.6 percent increase in people held in state and federal prisons.

Prisons accounted for about two-thirds of all inmates, or 1.4 million, while the other third, nearly 750,000, were in local jails, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
-snip-
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and there was this: "The jail population is increasingly unconvicted," Beck said. "Judges are perhaps more reluctant to release people pretrial."


something is wrong

1 in every 136 americans in jail

something is wrong

private owned prison's yearly profit must surpass big oils

something is wrong

[wordpix]

1. this is what happens when US goes to war & social program money is slashed

It's the war economy, stupid! :grr: :thumbsdown:

[liberalnurse]

2. Most of the jail arrests are

repeaters...so the stats are inaccurate.

[donsu]

3. how do you know that?

nt

[liberalnurse]

9. I just know....

For example...a community claims they arrested 150 prostitutes over the past 4 months...fact is, it was the same 25 Hoes.....Repeatedly being picked up on the "job". They get released after their STD/HIV tests come back negative and/or have received STD treatment.

Same thing for this 1 out of 136 Americans. Very poor stats as they do not take into account the repeated arrests....Frequently, one is re-arrested on a warrant for Failure to Appear, regarding the last arrest....that does not count as 2- Americans.....just the same old inmate in re-tread mode.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Asgaya Dihi]

11. It's not arrests

The statistic was not for the number of arrests, it was for the number of current inmates. Going in and out a few times isn't going to change to total population on a given date. Prison or jail cells filled on a given date, not arrest statistics. Yes, it is that bad.

[ThomWV]

4. How Many Go In Saying "First Time Caller"?

Like the idiot call in radio shows, some hayseed moran calls in and the first word out of their mouth is "First Time Caller". I expect its the first thing they say to the guards as they walk through the door to the big house.

[leeroysphitz]

5. If 1 out of every 136 Americans is now IMPRISONED then

we really have to ask ourselves some questions.

Are we a nation of CRIMINALS? Is almost everyone you know a CRIMINAL, a lawbreaker, a CROOK?

Or... Have we as a society allowed (encouraged?) our governments to CRIMINALIZE more behaviors than is healthy for a (supposedly)FREE society?

And if a majority of the problem rests with the laws and lawmakers and not with the citizens how on earth do we even BEGIN to fix it?

[donsu]

6. revolution

nt

[leeroysphitz]

7. Revolution? I don't know about all that but something is going to

have to change...

[Jed Dilligan]

13. The prison power won't give up their power

without a fight. We starting selling our freedom for a little sense of security when Nixon was elected. You can't arm and empower people over other people and then just ask them to step down. I hope it doesn't come to military war but if that's the only way, that's the only way.

[Asgaya Dihi]

15. That's a dead end

We need to get active and get attention, but never violent. We made a huge mistake in thinking the fight for civil rights was over when it was just moving behind bars instead, but we did make great progress while we were paying attention and we never could have done what was accomplished with violence.

MLK stood up to the abuse, to the name calling, and to everything else they threw at him and he did it with pride enough to shame the country into recognizing what was going on. That's how we change things, make people aware of what the media and Government are trying so hard to hide. The only thing propping this up is that people don't know the real results. It can't be defended if they do.

Palestine hasn't changed, Ireland was a mess for years, we can draw examples from all over the world where perhaps some amount of violence drew attention to a subject but it was unable to solve anything in the end. It just reinforces the idea of a threat and they hardly need the help with the drug war. If MLK had shown the anger they wanted it would have been all over the news and he'd have been done, just another angry black man and they ended up in jail with few defenders. He did it by showing people that what was happening was wrong, not by acting like the enemy.

That's what we need to do. Where they lie, we tell the truth. Where they hide info we point them to both sides and let them figure it out. We'll get there by being better than them, not like them, earn the trust that they've betrayed. Just don't let ourselves be bullied into defending drugs, jump right up there with them and tell them yeah, they are just too dangerous to leave in the hands of criminals. Better that we regulate instead.

[Jed Dilligan]

16. I just think that when the War on Drugs ends

unless some other racist "War" is given to the prosecutors of the current war to fight, they will be radicalized and have to be dealt with militarily. I'm not for starting a war, I'm saying a war might have to happen. The pigs are fucking insane.

[sweetheart]

8. slavery all new and justified

http://www.injusticeline.com/slave2.html

The evil empire must go down.

[High Plains]

12. Prison should be reserved for those we fear, not those we're mad

at. More than half of all prisoners are doing time for NON-VIOLENT crimes and about one-quarter of them are doing time for drug offenses. That is more than half a million Americans imprisoned by the war on drugs.

Americans like to shout "We're #1!" We can't really say that about too many things anymore, but being the world's leading jailer is one of them. I feel so proud.

Hey, we live in Nancy Grace Nation, and there are plenty of DUers who do their part, screaming about imprisoning X, Y, and Z. The whole goddamned country is one punishist posse. It makes me happy to not spend much time in the good ol' USA any more. But I still vote there.

[Jed Dilligan]

14. Yes, so many smug comfortable people

whose happiness depends on someone else getting their ass kicked. Why does everyone feel so threatened and self-righteous?

[Bonobo]

17. Some stats tell it all.... This is one of them.

Some statistics give a clear snapshot of a country. The number of people incarcerated is one of them.

[Asgaya Dihi]

18. In part

The snapshot gives an idea of the numbers, but not of the makeup. A couple of small details to help fill in the gaps left by raw numbers. Rates of incarceration per 100,000 by race and select age groups.

Overall
U.S. incarceration rates by race, June 30, 2004:

* Whites: 393 per 100,000
* Latinos: 957 per 100,000
* Blacks: 2,531 per 100,000

Gender
Gender is an important "filter" on the who goes to prison or jail, June 30, 2004:

* Females: 123 per 100,000
* Males: 1,348 per 100,000

Young males
If you look at males aged 25-29 and by race, you can see what is going on even clearer, June 30, 2004:

* For White males ages 25-29: 1,666 per 100,000.
* For Latino males ages 25-29: 3,606 per 100,000.
* For Black males ages 25-29: 12,603 per 100,000. (That's 12.6% of Black men in their late 20s.)

http://www.prisonsucks.com/


There's a little more at the site, but that's a good snapshot of race. Here's a part of how and why. Safe school zones, mandatory minimums, and three strikes laws combined in a rough way on some neighborhoods.

"Mandatory sentencing laws disproportionately affect people of color. African-Americans make up 15% of the country’s drug users, yet they make up 37% of those arrested for drug violations, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense."

http://www.idpi.us/resources/factsheets/mm_factsheet.htm

[Jed Dilligan]

19. Great link

I like the "Most Disturbing Stories" section.

Have you seen criticalresistance.org ?

[Asgaya Dihi]

21. No, I hadn't.

Thanks for the link, I'm always looking for new resources and will spend some time looking it over. Some of the old ones are pretty good but there's always room for a better one.

[blindpig]

20. Land of the Free......

my ass.

It's always those other people, until they come for you.