One in 13 Georgians is behind bars

[The Straight Story]

Georgia taxpayers spend $1 billion a year locking up so many criminal offenders that the state has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation. When it comes to overall criminal punishment, no state outdoes Georgia.

Hard-nosed measures approved with wide public support forced a five-fold increase in corrections spending since 1985.

A monumental prison construction campaign that quadrupled space over the last four decades seemed like money well spent as record crime rates in the 1990s left Georgians fearful of becoming the next victims of violence.

But today, many public figures with strong anti-crime credentials are asking if that expenditure is smart, or even if it’s making Georgians safer. The debate about crime and punishment, once clearly divided along party lines, is now a debate in which conservatives often lead the charge for change.

...

One in 13 Georgians is behind bars, on probation or on parole, according to the Pew Center on the States. That’s the highest rate of correctional control in the nation and more than the double the national average: 1 in 31.

http://www.ajc.com/news/government-waste/a-billion-dollar-burden-532578.html

[Politicub]

1. Disgraceful. Not surprising since GA has the most corrupt political system in the nation

IMHO

[napi21]

2. I'd be interested to find out why most are incarcerated. I've lived in Ga.

since 2000 and I don't see or hear about any less crime than anywhere else we've lived.

[madinmaryland]

6. I was wondering the same thing. I am assuming they are creating hardened criminals

from people that could have been rehabilitated by lesser sentences.

[NNN0LHI]

9. I have a theory on why so many are incarcerated

There used to be quite a bit of manufacturing in Ga. For instance my wife's 1994 Taurus was built at the Atlanta Ford Assembly Plant. That one plant probably employed around 3000 or 4000 workers at one time. I think that plant is closed now. Multiply that by another hundred other factories and other businesses closing up and that means no jobs. No jobs means more crime. More crime means more people in prison. No getting around that.

Don

[grasswire]

3. what percentage are people of color?

The disenfranchisement of the black man. Put them to work on the prison farms. Don't get me started.

[TroglodyteScholar]

8. The GA Dept of Corrections website says 62% black + 33% white

Interestingly, there is no category for "Hispanic." Wonder what percentage of the "white" folks are Hispanic?

http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/GDC/OffenderStatistics/jsp/OffStatsSelect.jsp ---Press the "View by Race" button without choosing any filters.

On edit: And who the hell are the 4% "other???"

[onehandle]

4. I beat the odds!

So far...

[NNN0LHI]

5. Georgia has a vast system of unpaid prison labor

http://www.angelfire.com/sc2/mplu/time.html

[madrchsod]

7. Georgia prison strike is over....

http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/12/18/georgia-prison-strike-comes-to-an-end-but-its-not-over-yet/

[mudplanet]

10. I'm wondering, propotion wise, how this compares to the Soviet population

at the height of the gulag.

Ten percent of your population in prison is pretty weird, very science fiction.

And rates of incarceration aren't going down.

[LiberalFighter]

11. If they have most of their "criminals" locked up then shouldn't they reduce their law enforcement?

[Enrique]

12. the land of the free!

I wonder how those tea baggers who care so much about "liberty" feel about how many Americans are in jail. By that measure, we're the least free country in the world.

[Liquorice]

13. Well when it comes to crime, this strategy doesn't seem to be very successful. I live

right outside of Atlanta, and it is dangerous and scary in many areas of the city. For example, at the Peach Drop (our New Year's eve celebration) a 14 year old was stabbed to death a few minutes after midnight over a cell phone.

[napi21]

14. Interesting that never was in the local news, huh? There are malls here that I wll NOT

visit at night too. I just don't see where the State is accomplishing anything incarcerating all those people.

[Liquorice]

16. I know what you mean. There are some places in Atlanta I will not visit at all, much less

at night. :scared: I did hear about that 14 year old getting murdered on the local news, though; WSB-TV reported it. It's such a horrible tragedy.

I do wonder whether the incarceration rates are high here simply because of the high crime rate, or whether there are other more nefarious reasons, as others on this thread have suggested. It certainly doesn't seem to be curbing the crime regardless.

[Maru Kitteh]

15. why did you feel the need to leave off "on probation or on parole?" for shock effect?

It's troubling enough without deliberate distortion.

[Upton]

17. One in 70 Georgians is behind bars..not one in 13

Is this what they call a misleading thread title?