1 in every 100 Americans Behind Bars, Highest in World.

[tekisui]

NEW YORK — For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report tracking the surge in inmate population and urging states to rein in corrections costs with alternative sentencing programs.

The report, released today by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.

Using updated state-by-state data, the report said 2,319,258 adults were held in U.S. prisons or jails at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults, and more than any other country in the world.

The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," said the report.

Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said budget woes are prompting officials in many states to consider new, cost-saving corrections policies that might have been shunned in the recent past for fear of appearing soft on crime.

"We're seeing more and more states being creative because of tight budgets," she said in an interview. "They want to be tough on crime, they want to be a law-and-order state — but they also want to save money, and they want to be effective."

more at link: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Report_1_in_every_100_Americans_0228.html

[Bicoastal]

1. If I get 100 people together, the 100th person will be a jailbird?

Better not do it--It'd cause too many jailbreaks.

[Parche]

2. Count Me In

:woohoo: :hi:

[sandnsea]

3. lol,

:silly: I am embarrassed to tell you how long it took for me to get that joke.

(I do have to say, your bars lead to the other bars a lot more often than most folks want to admit.)

[Submariner]

4. Well I guess we need to build more prisons then

Those weed smokers laughing uncontrollably and wiping out the local supermarket Oreo supply cannot be let loose on the streets.

[TooBigaTent]

5. Just not the right 1%. No corporate criminals or polluters or scumball pols.

just kids with a joint or a mother with shoplifted food.

[elizfeelinggreat]

6. big business

and big profits in incarceration.

Privatize prisons and prison services and unleash the power of greed. Think where that leads ... it's shameful.

[mike_c]

7. that's cuz we're tuff on crime, don'tcha know...?

:puke:

[stellanoir]

8. ummm

With All Due Respect

snip

Many years ago, I had heard an interview with a retired conservative Federal Judge who had been appointed by former President G.H.W. Bush.

That Judge who's name I can't recall, had retired because of acute frustration over Draconian Mandatory sentencing rules that prevented him from weighing in on the merits of the cases.

He said that those sentencing requirements gave far too much power to the prosecutors. He sighted several examples. The one which is seared into my memory was regarding a young woman who was enduring a harrowing divorce and had been encouraged or seemingly coerced, to go out one night with some girlfriends. Well she wasn't much of a drinker and in a clear lapse of judgement, unwisely bought some cocaine around midnight and was apprehended. Because the establishment where she was busted was within close proximity to an elementary school she was sentenced as though she had been a drug dealer selling to children. She had no priors and had two small children. I can't recall the precise sentence but it was really onerously excessive.

That was the case that metaphorically, "broke the camel's back" and compelled that particular Judge to hop permanently off his bench.

I heard of another case wherein a 19 year old girl had cohabited briefly with a guy who was dealing crack. According to all reports, she was unaware of his illegal activities but the lease for the apartment was in her name. She was sentenced to 25 years. That was reportedly the amount of time to which hijackers were sentenced to prior to 9/11. If most women were busted for the crimes of former bozo boyfriends, based on spurious guilt by association, I know plenty of women who would be incarcerated.

Instead of cutting social services, we could perhaps revisit the prison system that is harming so many at such questionable benefit to the greater good.

In so many ways, our laws and governmental operations have not adjusted to or incorporated many of the wondrous technological advances through which our lives have been largely enriched.

With the incredibly sophisticated surveillance technology available today, I'm of the belief that the majority of non violent criminals do not belong in prison. With the astronomical rates of recidivism, it rarely provides remedy or restitution. Given that the costs of imprisonment of an individual ranges from state to state widely from $30,000 to $100,000 per annum, there is no way home confinement, and rehabilitation, wouldn't be far more economical and far more humane.

Here is a story that is exemplary of real old fashion compassion and empathy.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021305A.shtml

More recent commentary to a reposting is here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2800720

Though Michael Moore is undoubtedly controversial what is presented in this short video I found to be really impressive. The information about a far superior penal system is towards the end of the video.

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/19529-michael-moore-cut-this-scene-from-sicko-because-no-one-would-believe-it

Finding this thoroughly disturbing report online coupled with hearing the State of the State speeches, is what inspired me to write to you at this time.

THE UNITED STATES PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, but we incarcerate 25% of all the prisoners in the world. We leave China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and all the other nations we like to look down our noses at far in the dust. We not only lockup more of our citizens than all totalitarian nations, we even lockup more people than China which has more than 4 times the number of Americans, and India which has almost 4 times the number of Americans, and Iran COMBINED. The US not only leads in the numbers of prisoners but far outpace China when measured per capita. We rank 1st among all nations with 715 prisoners per 100,000 people. China, ranks 71st with 119 prisoners per 100,000 people.

According to a report released by the Bureau of Prison Statistics, one out of every 32 adults in the United States was in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole at the end of 2005.
In today’s America, drug laws have become the new Jim Crow laws, the prison/industrial complex has become the new plantation, and the warden has become the new overseer. America’s newest slaves aren’t picking cotton. They’re assembling computers, making women’s lingerie, booking airline flights over the phone, telemarketing for major corporations, and doing all kinds of tasks that free Americans used to be employed at doing. What appeared to be a normal plant closing by U.S. Technologies when it sold its electronics plant in Austin, was actually the company relocating its operations to a nearby Austin prison. One hundred and fifty “free” employees lost their jobs to the new slaves.

African-Americans are the most loyal constituency the Democratic Party has, but the Democratic Party will not adequately address this critical issue for fear of being seen as “soft on crime.” Thus, the Democratic Party itself perpetuates the stereotype. The biggest explosion of Americans going to prison happened under Bill Clinton. Under Clinton, more people went to federal and state prisons than under any president in American history. Clinton also signed a bill that prevented U.S. Sentencing Commission amendments to equalize the penalties for crack and powder cocaine from taking effect.

The disparities in sentencing and probation are well-known and were certainly known to Bill Clinton. Then Attorney General Janet Reno said the sentencing disparity is unfair. "Clearly I think should be equalized with respect to possession offenses," she said. "And equally clearly, I don't think the 100-to-1 ratio is fair." She also said that people who provide powder cocaine to those who cook it into crack should get "the more appropriately stiff sentence than the person who distributes the crack.” Under Clinton, the federal 3 strikes law was enacted and many states soon followed with similar legislation of their own.

Eighty-five percent of those sentenced under the “three strikes you’re out” law in California faced prison for a nonviolent offense. The law requires a mandatory 25 years to life sentence. Two years after the law went into effect, there were twice as many people imprisoned under the three-strikes law for possession of marijuana as for murder, rape and kidnapping combined. More than 80 percent of those sentenced under the “three strikes” law are African-American and Latino. It was supposed to be meant to protect society from violent and dangerous criminals, but is fueling the prison/industrial complex with those caught for non-violent crimes. Up to 75% of American prisoners are locked-up for non-violent crimes.

During the past two decades roughly a thousand new prisons and jails have been built in the United States. Nevertheless, America's prisons are more overcrowded now than when the building spree began, and the inmate population continues to increase by 50,000 to 80,000 people a year In 1977 the inmate population of California was 19,600. Today it’s over 170,000, which amounts to more inmates in its jails and prisons than do France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the Netherlands combined. After spending $5.2 billion on prison construction over the past fifteen years, California now has not only the largest but also the most overcrowded prison system in the United States, and for the first time among large states, California will spend more on its prisons than on its public universities

Prisons are rising all over America. It’s a fast rising growth industry with investors on Wall Street and corporations we all know are paying peanuts to prisoner/slaves so they don’t have to employ those who buy their products. Even when crime goes down, jail population still goes up. Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the Civil War ended, blacks were imprisoned on a variety of trumped up reasons and were then loaned or hired out to plantations and farms and all would share in the profit, except the prisoner/slave of course. That same “hiring out” of prisoners is still practiced in the United States today.

The prison/industrial complex is a multi-billion dollar industry complete with lobbyists, trade shows, and conventions. It profits from an evil in the US that neither democrats nor republicans will seek to remedy.

I can't find the original link with all the great graphics.

So here's something else

http://hightowerdownload.com/node/30

[tekisui]

9. Thanks! That's a lot of great info.

A sad commentary on profit-incarceration over rehabilitation.

[stellanoir]

11. You're very welcome

But it hardly qualifies as great. it's horrifically sad and it still wish I could find the link with those graphics.

[12string]

12. Try going to

www.november.org They have some good charts

[Nay]

10. 30 yrs ago when Florida started to use private corrections corp to

run FL prisons, I said, "Mark my words! Now we'll have many more millions of people thrown in prison for idiotic reasons, longer sentences for small infractions, and more expensive jails! Because the corrections corps, wanting every dime they can get, will work to change the laws so it favors more ppl in prison and for longer times!"

Ya know, folks, I sure hate to be right nearly all the time, because I really am a cynical bitch. Can we possibly, somehow, start building a decent society instead of this Frankenstein monster we have now? Please?