Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison; More Than 1 in Every 100 Americans Now Behind Bars

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

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 Thursday 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 in crime.



Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=4359509

[Earth_First]

1. "The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending"

I'm speechless.

[The Croquist]

29. The good news is we are winning the war on drugs.

At this rate, after another 297 million or so arrests we'll be virtually drug free!!!!!!

[Uncle Joe]

34. I heard, we had Marijuana on the ropes and it was begging for a peace treaty.

But of course everyone knows Marijuana can't be trusted to keep it's word, the lying sacks of shit! But I believe if we could just nuke every plant on the planet, that would take care of those freedom hating green bastards once and for all!:grr: :mad:

[saigon68]

41. Lots of "Colored People" being warehoused

Another feature of the racist "War on Drugs"

[Uncle Joe]

70. That I believe

is one of the real motivations behind it.

In some respects humanity or society seems to be evolving to a higher level, particularly looking back at the legal institution of slavery. On the other hand, I can't help but wonder what our descendants will think us and the totally unjust and out of proportion punishment meted out to the American People because of this Orwellian, un-winnable "War Against Drugs". I thought one of the primary lessons learned from the Vietnam War was not to engage in a war with out an end plan to win and or an exit strategy.

[panzerfaust]

74. Being Black, while not -technically- against the law

certainly gives solid grounds for imprisonment.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. This is how the US prison industrial system was designed to work

The more people you get in prison the higher the profits. If no one could see this coming when prison executives hired lobbyist to sell their "tough on crime" legislation proposals, then they were blind or idiots or both.

That it puts undo strain on states and imprisons citizens seemingly minor non-violent offenses, is of no consequence to those reaping the profits.

"I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator" Mother Jones

[RantinRavin]

4. And how many of those non-violent offenses are first timers

And how many of those are repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat offenders ?

Want to stay out of jail, don't break the fucking law. Now I'm sure I'll get replies about the innocent ones that are in jail, and I know there are some. But in the stark reality, what minute persentage of those incarcerated are really innocent.....

[LanternWaste]

5. On the other hand...

On the other hand, it also seems absurd that we have 1% of our population in prison.


"Want to stay out of jail, don't break the fucking law"

One way to avoid prison is to avoid those actions which are illegal. Another way is to re-evaluate those things which we as a culture deem illegal.

I doubt anyone on DU would argue against having a rapist in prison, however a lot of us do argue against having a first time pot smoker getting ten years.

[pattmarty]

7. "Want to stay out of jail, don't break the fucking law". Are you a fucking cop?........

......... I think that's what they used to say in the Soviet Union except it was said in Russian. You better quit drinking/using drugs this early in the day.

[LanternWaste]

12. a quote from the poster I initially responded to.

"Want to stay out of jail, don't break the fucking law" is a quote from the poster I initially responded to.

No-- I'm not a cop for what it's worth-- nor do I do drugs or drink this early in the day. Although, reading comprehension and format aside, it seems I may be a minority...

[pattmarty]

13. See my post of 1232/28 on this thread.

[lonestarnot]

8. Want to stay out of prison? Quit fucking building economies based on prison industries!

[LanternWaste]

10. I was quoting the poster I initially responded to...

I was quoting the poster I initially responded to...

[lonestarnot]

17. Oh.

Sometimes I post to the wrong post; at other times, I just get carried away in the moment. :evilgrin:

[zonmoy]

14. why have intaking substances be illegal at all.

only things that should be illegal should be intentionally doing harm to another living being and stealing or otherwise harming another's property.

Yes it sounds quite libertarian but my politics tend to be extremely libertarian left rather than libertarian right.

[FiveGoodMen]

36. Right on point!

A free country should never lock up its citizens for not harming others.

I'm continually amazed that this point even needs to be made.

[panzerfaust]

73. God gave us marijuana

so we could tolerate our God-Given rulers.

[Zhade]

81. So people like me who break the law to not go blind from glaucoma...

...deserve prison time?

EDIT: oh, you DON'T think this. Good!

[DBoon]

91. Amazing that so many in the USA "choose" to land in prison

people in other countries seem amazingly better at making these kinds of individual decisions, given their lower imprisonment rate.

I mean even people in Russia, Iran and the PRC are better at living their lives within the confines of the law.

:sarcasm:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. What exactly are you saying?

That:

It's better to incarcerate nonviolent offenders than to work within a community to educate and reform them.

It's OK if a prison hires lobbyist to mandate sentences for people who otherwise would have been put in a community supervision program.

The fact that doing these things has done nothing to reduce recidivism or crime rates means nothing.

The fact that states cannot afford to continue to jail non-violent offenders and are returning to other methods of corrections and reformation is wrong.

Is that correct?

I'm confused since these things are what the article in the OP were about and what my post addressed. I have no idea what your mention of innocent vs. guilty percentages in prison was referring to. Perhaps you replied to my post by mistake?

[khaos]

11. many are non-violent doing time for drug related crimes..

it's absurd, the drug laws are ridiculous and it says a lot about how pathetic american society is. it's also much more complicated than just "don't break the fucking law." if the resources used to imprison were used to address the real problems there wouldn't be so many behind bars in the first place. the entire system is designed for profit not rehabilitation; the reality of living in police state.

[14thColony]

30. Do you seriously believe that?

If we incarcerate a larger percentage of our population than any other country, then one of these two proposals must be true:

a) that Americans are the most law-breaking human population of any country, or

b) we have laws that are unusually easy to break, and lead to prison time at a higher rate than other countries

Pick either a or b.

[lonestarnot]

45. And we have at least one political prisoner imprissoned because he is a dem.

[customerserviceguy]

42. I'm backing you up on this

the Pew report makes a lot of mention of so-called "non-violent" offenders, and while that undoubtedly includes a lot of simple drug possession, it also includes serious property crimes. No, I'm not just talking about shoplifting at the Wal-Mart, but identity fraud, con artists who swindle thousands of dollars out of poor people, and drug lab hopheads who require many thousands of dollars to detoxify the rental properties they fuck up with their meth making.

Would non-prison solutions be helpful to some of these people? Unquestionably, but not every so-called "non-violent" offender should be considered for them. Yes, it costs a lot of money to keep really nasty people in prison, but it would cost a lot more for society to let a lot of the run loose.

[Djinn]

78. false dichoctomy

why do you have to dumb it down to a simple case of prison or letting offenders "run loose"?

Much like the case with health care, there is no need for the US to reinvent the wheel here, they are not the only nation that has to deal with crime and criminals.

Check out Norway's exemplary system for one that actually works because it's not geared to revenge.

Even the pretty abysmal penal systems in the UK and Australia/NZ are an improvement on the US.

Most people can be punished more effectively, and even rehabilitated (which is a virtual impossibility in US prisons) without the need to incarcerate them in places that even the most hardcore residents of Gomorrah would have fled in horror.

[lonestarnot]

44. WTF!

[Doctor_J]

68. In Illinois, the % of death-row inmates that were INNOCENT was 50%

That's right - one out of every two people sentenced to death in Illinois before the death penalty was put on ice was innocent. So what % of people incarcerated overall are innocent, do you think?

[davekriss]

89. And it should be noted...

...that death penalty cases are amongst the most thoroughly vetted. How many people simply because they walk the streets without the appearance of affluence end up convicted and imprisoned for petty crimes, where much less judicial scrutiny is applied. My guess is the number of innocents in prisons is astounding.

[4_TN_TITANS]

69. Disagree... for many it's become necessity to break the law.

I'm one of the lucky ones for now, but if I had to look in my children's eyes, hear their stomachs rumble, and watch their bodies emaciate because I couldn't find legal work - I'd be breaking me some law in a NY minute.

Want to stay out of jail, don't break the fucking law.

This response reeks of the unrealistic, conservative 'black,white, or nothing' Mentality. If you can't imagine yourself in a situation where you might be forced to break a law, it's time to stretch out one's mind a little.

Okay to jail a man whose wife is in labor with speeding, reckless endangerment, failure to stop, failure to wear seat belt, etc.? :eyes:

[fascisthunter]

71. the "...repeat, repeat, repeat offenders" should clue you into

the fact that this system of punishment DOESN'T FUCKING WORK!

[Djinn]

77. do you think Americans are more criminally inclined

than the rest of the world?

Do you really think that the proportion of US citizens incarcerated isn't a massive case of overkill?

I think you might actually be surprised if you looked into it, a large proportion of the people you pay to incarcerate are not repeat offenders and/or violent offenders.

While a nation that provides almost no welfare and in which one can work two jobs and STILL live in poverty is BEGGING for a high crime rate even that doesn't account for this ridiculous number.

You have made an INDUSTRY out of the prison system - private business demands profit so there's a huge incentive to jail people who absolutely do not need to be there.

As for what minute percentage of those convicted are innocent? Let me guess - middle class childhood right?

[treestar]

85. The point is there are so many laws

And that those who break economic regulations don't end up there, do they?

[opihimoimoi]

3. This is an intended consequence by forces above....they want a system to employ

millions of guards, judges, lawyers, etc etc...down to the half way houses and probation systems

They want peeps in jail....

Its a way to make millions and remain unknown....

[liberal4truth]

46. You forgot to mention those great "Taser Users" that we used to call the Police...

They are the ones who are part and parcel of this whole equation, of course:

More laws to break= More police hired to enforce them.

Like USMC General Smedley Butler said about war: "Its a racket"!

http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/Gen-Smedley-Butler.htm

[opihimoimoi]

49. Indeed....street patrol with tasers...gestapoesque...soon mind patrol...the thought police

[pattmarty]

6. This is just really disgusting AND you won't see anything........

........tonight on the news either. THERE IS CENSORSHIP IN THIS COUNTRY, its the "censorship of omission". That is the "American" form/version of censorship and it fucking happens every day.

[noel adamson]

15. USA! NUMBER ONE!!! USA! USA!

[tabasco]

16. More than any other country in absolute and proportional terms.

But it's not a police state! (yet)

[Lasher]

18. 1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says

Source: The New York Times

For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

The report, from the Pew Center on the States, also found that only one in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 is behind bars, but that one in 100 black women is.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28cnd-prison.html?ex=1204866000&en=51208448a87d75dd&ei=5043&partner=EXCITE

---

What have we come to? One in 15 black adults in jail right now! States are spending 7% of their budgets on incarceration!

[jgraz]

19. It's also the WRONG 1 in 100

Guys like this




Instead of guys like this

[noel adamson]

20. USA NUMBER ONE!!! USA! USA!

[Lasher]

27. I guess it's right what they say.

America always does everything better.

[bluestateguy]

21. We have the higher incarceration rates than any nation on Earth

and that includes tinpot dictatorships and Communist China and Cuba.

[panzerfaust]

75. To protect our FREEDOM (tm), of course

[Djinn]

79. and share the death penalty

with bastions of freedom and democracy like Egypt, Syria and Indonesia. When you narrow it down to nations that execute the mentally ill, intellectually disabled and those who were minors at the time of the offense it becomes an even more unsavory party, Iran, Saudi and you guys.

[BadgerKid]

22. Why is * free? n/t

[Greyskye]

23. Prison population nearly triples since 1987

[Viva_La_Revolution]

40. Good lord! Stay out of Kentucky!

[Greyskye]

67. I wonder if they are taking 'out of state' prisoners?

Aren't some states prisons so overcrowded that they are shipping them to other states to help stem the overcrowding? :shrug:

[sarcasmo]

24. There is no cog in the machine. Kick, and Nom a thousand times if I could.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

25. 1 of 100? A good start!

if everyone is a prisoner, everyone is free. Prisons are freedom. White is black, black is white, except on trial. Two legs good, four legs bad, except in Abu Ghraib and Hustler Mag. surveillance is peace. Peace is security. security means surveillance.

The problem with america today is insecurity. Insecurity means people are insecure. Secure people need security, and that is different than insecurity. Insecurity bad, security good. (I watched too much bush this morning)

[Hugabear]

26. Is there ANY doubt that this is a religious police state?

You can wind up doing more time for crimes against Christian morality (drugs, "racketeering" charges aimed at escort & prostitution rings, etc) than you can for assault, rape, and murder in some cases.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

28. rAmen, brother!

[Hulk]

31. If the chimp and darth were TWO of the 1 in 100, I wouldn't have as much problem with it.

There are so many white collar criminals in the chimp's administration alone, that I think we better make room for more.

[opihimoimoi]

50. They have implimented a system that feeds itself,,,and even grows...we can thank The GOP

[Lasher]

32. Privatize the prisons and ya gotta keep them 'customers' rolling in.

The prisoners know it.

[tinrobot]

33. Disrupting families for profit.

When prisons are run for profit, then incarcerating more people means more profit.

Sad, that this profit is at the expense of real people's lives, not just those in prison, but the lives of their families as well.

[pnorman]

35. I just got the below from Brass Check:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/281.html This is another part of the picture.

pnorman

[benEzra]

37. Time to end the War on Non-Approved Herbs.

Alcohol Prohibition had similar social costs that eventually led to its repeal, but we're apparently slower to learn today than people were in the 1930's.

The hard drugs would be far less of a problem if the benign ones were legalized, IMHO. If we spent the money we currently spend on cannabis prohibition on law enforcement, education, and job training instead, we'd be in a lot better shape--and there'd be a lot fewer people in prison.

[laylah]

38. Thank you Ronnie

you dead POS! He is the one that made prisons a "viable commodity"...bastard. Closed mental health hospitals, day clinics, ect, to line the pockets of privatized jailers. Bastards!

[Djinn]

80. Credit where it's due

apparently the biggest expansion of the prison population and in privatised prisons was under Clinton. See even this die hard anarcho chick can see the achievements of the Big Dawg :evilgrin:

[Hekate]

39. Here in Calif, the education budget is about to be slashed to the bone,& federal student loans...

... are denied to kids who have a pot bust. It gets better. Felons often lose the right to vote permanently, even after they've paid their debt to society.

Way to create a permanent underclass, folks!



:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Hekate

[tuckessee]

43. Only 12 recs????

That's one rec for every two hundred thousand poor saps whiling their time away in the Land of Free behind bars.

[liberal4truth]

47. Here's the latest PC game for training future US cirtizens:"Prison Tycoon" !!! ..............

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A0629068&cs=19&c=us&l=en&st=ena%20data%20feed&dgc=SS&cid=27530&lid=624720

[JeanGrey]

48. Probably for BULLSHIT drug charges or BULLSHIT

three strikes you are out laws. We've lost our collective minds...............

[ShockediSay]

51. 1 in 100 U.S. adults behind bars, new study says

Source: International Herald Tribune

For the first time in the nation's history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/29/america/28cndprison.php

---

One big 'dividend' of the two Americas, the haves and the have nots.

Two Americas do not equal the one great nation we once were.

[stellanoir]

52. Yeah

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.ph...

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-t...

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

[Oleladylib]

53. It was even more interesting..the breakdown by race.

[fightthegoodfightnow]

54. Another Tax on the Poor

Plain and simple.

[Double T]

55. The white collar wall street and corporate criminals get multi-million dollar bonuses..........

and one way tickets to unnamed foreign lands. The rest of US get to go to jail.

[sasquatch]

56. "THE LAND OF THE FREE!!"

"AND THE HOME OF THE ENSLAVED!!"

[Betty]

57. once the warrantless wiretapping is fully up and running

it will be 99 out of every 100.

[mihalevich]

59. I'm scared that I'll do something say something buy something

That will land me in prison. It seems so easy to fuck-up in this culture.

[liberal4truth]

63. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty in this country ....

Seems like law-enforcement and the prison industry are the only things we
don't outsource and are a growing business industry in a slumping economy.

[Hulk]

58. I'm hoping chimp and cheney will be the "1" soon.

[Daveenla]

60. WHAT HAPPENED ...

TO OUR COUNTRY?

[Nutmegger]

62. I want to know the same thing.

Welcome to DU.

[MidwestTransplant]

61. Doesn't speak too well of our country when 1% of the population is locked up.

[Djinn]

64. K & R

More than 1 in 100 incarcerated in the richest land on earth.

Something is very very wrong. Something that Democrats have backed.

The primaries are nothing more than bread and circuses, this story encapsulates the issues that should be the focus of attention. Class, wealth and power.

[spinbaby]

65. That's one way to keep the unemployment rate down

If they're locked up they don't count as unemployed.

[raccoon]

66. Also a way of disenfranchising the lower classes. nt

[flashl]

84. BINGO!!!!!

[panzerfaust]

72. Let FREEDOM (tm) Reign

So many evil-doers, so little time and prison space: Macabre will fix this latter problem.

[otherlander]

76. Holy Shit we're turning into Russia!

:scared:

[pleah]

82. The new concentration camps.

[fujiyama]

83. Hey keep this up

and we have a whole new bunch of recruits to fight never ending wars in the middle east! I'm sure republicans are working on legislation as we speak...

Yea! We're number 1. We're Number 1!!!!

These kind of statistics seriously make me reconsider a future in this country. When 1% of your population is behind bars, either the laws you have on the books suck and/or the people administering the law are fucking nuts. And the worst part is those serving sentences will likely be more hardened after being released because prisons in this country serve little if any rehabilitative value. With a criminal record, finding a job becomes harder as well.

So this is a great way to start people on a life of crime - possibly for doing something as harmless as using an herb that makes people laugh a lot and become very hungry...or stealing candy bars, or any assorted number of petty crimes...And no, I'm not exaggerating on the last count either. In some states with "3 strikes laws" (CA being the most prominent) people are serving 10+ years for petty crimes. Oh and to the brilliant wisdom of the CA electorate, they decided to reinstate those laws I believe in a referendum in '04!

Yeaaaa haaaa!

[flashl]

86. RE: fear of appearing soft in crime

America's Love-Hate Relationship with Drugs

Many prescription drugs have effects similar to those of illegal drugs. But we still view some users as criminals -- the others as patients.

...

When we recognize that psychotropic prescription drugs are chemically similar to illegal psychotropic drugs, and that all of these substances are used for similar purposes, we see two injustices.

First, we see the classification of millions of Americans as criminals for using certain drugs, while millions of others, using essentially similar drugs for similar purposes, are seen as patients.

Second, we see a denial of those societal realities that compel increasing numbers of Americans to use psychotropic drugs.

Alter Net Health - Read Full Text

---

Who benefits from the Afghan Opium Trade?

Narcotics: Second to Oil and the Arms Trade

The Afghan trade in opiates (92 percent of total World production of opiates) constitutes a large share of the worldwide annual turnover of narcotics, which was estimated by the United Nations to be of the order of $400-500 billion.

Legal Business and Illicit Trade are Intertwined

There are powerful business and financial interests behind narcotics. From this standpoint, geopolitical and military control over the drug routes is as strategic as oil and oil pipelines.

However, what distinguishes narcotics from legal commodity trade is that narcotics constitutes a major source of wealth formation not only for organized crime but also for the US intelligence apparatus, which increasingly constitutes a powerful actor in the spheres of finance and banking. This relationship has been documented by several studies including the writings of Alfred McCoy. (Drug Fallout: the CIA's Forty Year Complicity in the Narcotics Trade. The Progressive, 1 August 1997).

In other words, intelligence agencies, powerful business, drug traders and organized crime are competing for the strategic control over the heroin routes. A large share of this multi-billion dollar revenues of narcotics are deposited in the Western banking system. Most of the large international banks together with their affiliates in the offshore banking havens launder large amounts of narco-dollars.

Global Research

[OhioChick]

87. No Jobs = High Crime n/t

[Pavulon]

88. 1 in 9 Black Americans between 18 - 32

are behind bars.

There are massive socio economic and culture issues that must be addressed in this country.

This all ties in with drug crime (drug laws), culture of violence, and lack of opportunity.

This is a real issue. It has been alive and kicking for decades.

[High Plains]

90. What do Obama and Hillary have to say about this?

Do I hear crickets chirping?

[New Dawn]

92. We're #1! We're #1! We're #1! We're #1! We're #1! We're #1!

In prisoners.