Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison

[rpannier]

NEW YORK (AP) -- For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 - one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.

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.

snip

The report cited Kansas and Texas as states that have acted decisively to slow the growth of their inmate population. They are making greater use of community supervision for low-risk offenders and employing sanctions other than reimprisonment for offenders who commit technical violations of parole and probation rules.

link:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PRISON_POPULATION?SITE=ILMOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


on note: We're number 1 people!!! USA! USA! USA!:patriot: :woohoo: :sarcasm:

[Hannah Bell]

1. $49 billion for prisons, some of them private.

Nice profit center. That's one way to solve the homeless problem.

Bush's entire HUD budget was 34 billion.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Yep. Prisons are a for-profit system. Don't expect anything reasonable.

All the more reason to keep everything away from capitalists and back in the service of the people, where it was intended and where it belongs.

[TylerFromNE]

2. Drug War

It's utterly amazing to see right-wingers look at these stats and say "gee, we really need to get tough on criminals." Bah. If we had a drug policy that reflected reality rather than pseudo-morals of the right we wouldn't have this problem.

[TylerFromNE]

3. Trend

Also, it'd be interesting to see at what point every American will be imprisoned if we continue on our current path. Anyone have that?

[Hannah Bell]

5. But then how would

the masters of the universe fund their covert ops?

[Smith_3]

6. More than in China???

:shrug: