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[kangnam mafioso]

Despite all the references to" freedom," America has more people incarcerated than any other country on earth.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/ap_on_re_us/prison_population

Record-high ratio of Americans in prison By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
10 minutes ago



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.

"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."

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

"The new approach, born of bipartisan leadership, is allowing the two states to ensure they have enough prison beds for violent offenders while helping less dangerous lawbreakers become productive, taxpaying citizens," the report said.

While many state governments have shown bipartisan interest in curbing prison growth, there also are persistent calls to proceed cautiously.

"We need to be smarter," said David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation. "We're not incarcerating all the people who commit serious crimes � but we're also probably incarcerating people who don't need to be."

According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in 36 states and the federal prison system.

The largest percentage increase � 12 percent � was in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget speech last month. He noted that the state's crime rate had increased only about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state's inmate population has increased by 600 percent.

The Pew report was compiled by the Center on the State's Public Safety Performance Project, which is working directly with 13 states on developing programs to divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety.

"For all the money spent on corrections today, there hasn't been a clear and convincing return for public safety," said the project's director, Adam Gelb. "More and more states are beginning to rethink their reliance on prisons for lower-level offenders and finding strategies that are tough on crime without being so tough on taxpayers."

The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect a parallel increase in crime or in the nation's overall population. Instead, it said, more people are behind bars mainly because of tough sentencing measures, such as "three-strikes" laws, that result in longer prison stays.

"For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling," the report said. "While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine."

The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails � a total 2,319,258 out of almost 230 million American adults.

The report said the United States is the world's incarceration leader, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations which make up the rest of the Top 10.

___

On the Net:

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org.

[url][/url][url][/url]

[Beeyee]

Yes and so is the UK to an even greater degree.

[Lekker]

Things will change come next election.

[mistermasan]

really? how so? obama is from ILLinois. that is one messed up state. all industry in southern illinois has fled to neighbor states that are much more business friendly.

if increasing taxes and chasing away business makes things 'better"then things will be better.

[VanIslander]

the absurdity is the long term sentences for nonviolent transgressors of drug laws and minor offending third strikers

but U.S. prisons are using free labour to make products for government agencies and private corporations: it's becoming big business

[mistermasan]

yep, prisons are big business making a killing off tax monies. it benefits the stock holders to lock up the poor.

[rhinocharge64]

Beeyee, couldn't agree more regarding the U.K. Georgie Orwell got it spot on!!

[Zutronius]

No..not yet anyways. It's in transition to becoming a police state. When the President uses the Constitution as toilet paper, we'll know the time has come.

[mistermasan]

does the line "the constitution is just a g@d d@mmed piece of paper!" come close enough for you?

if so, W already slurred it.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

What the article indicates s is that the US has a serious drug problem.


How many political prisoner does the US have?

I bet Saudi Arabia has a far smaller % of its people in prison than the US. Does that mean they are more free than the US?

[regicide]

I thought your thread would be more along these lines....

State propaganda discredits anyone who threatens the status quo by telling the truth, labeling them 'conspiracy nuts' .


In my opinion we are in a police state when State propaganda machines effectively conscript the unknowing masses to use the above term whenever the status quo is challenged.



The term is also used pejoratively to dismiss claims that are alleged by critics to be misconceived, paranoid, unfounded, outlandish, irrational, or otherwise unworthy of serious consideration. For example "Conspiracy nut" and "conspiracy theorist" are used as pejorative terms. Some whose theories or speculations are labeled a "conspiracy theory" reject the term as prejudicial.

The argument is often advanced there cannot be a conspiracy without leakers or whistle blowers. Given the success of the British government in getting thousands of people to keep the ULTRA secret -- and thereby ensuring that no reliable history of World War II could be published until the 1970s -- it is apparent that this is not necessarily a reliable indicator.

Often times 'Conspiracy Theorist' is used as a pejorative term,
branding anyone who has an idea or theory outside the accepted norm,
as a conspiracy 'nut'. However, "It's not a conspiracy theory if it's
actually true". And the generally accepted definition of theory
itself accept in science, is simply and idea for which no evidence
exists to support it. So perhaps, some people should not be branded
as conspiracy theorists (as the term "can" be insulting) but rather
"Research Historian."

One might argue, that since polls show 75%-85% of the US population
believes there was a conspiracy in the assassination of Kennedy, they are not, in fact, conspiracy theorists.

[Smee]

eh, it's a widespread culture of crime. The US throws around death penalties, life sentences, and other harsh penalties, but has one of the highest rates of crime and violence in the civilized world. People are calling for the decriminalization of drugs, but the US has an out of control drug problem. People proclaim the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment and go on about how an armed populace is necessary for personal and political safety, yet Americans can't stop shooting one another. Go take a look at Japan or Korea. I'm not at all saying that Japan or Korea doesn't have crime, or don't have social ills of their own, but the things that go on in an average American city on any given day are enough to make the average citizen here sick to their stomach. The tolerance for violence and drug abuse in those countries are far less than in the US, where guns are constitutional and drugs are considered a person's choice. America has some great points, but it's on its way out. Half the time I'm embarassed by what's been permitted to go on in that country. Sad thing is, nobody cares.

It's a country that doesn't take care of its citizens. And it's a country full of citizens who can't take care of themselves. Kids are born into poverty, have no options to them but crime, then get locked up at 19 for the rest of their lives. Huge demographics of the population glorify violence, drugs, and idleness, then complain that "the man" doesn't give them any opportunities. It's a country that goes on about freedom, but gives too much of it at the expense of the greater good. It's a country that goes on and on about rights, but is completely silent on the issue of personal responsibility.

Having 1% of the population in prison is embarassing. That Americans can allow themselves to live like that is embarassing. The solution isn't to let more people out of prison, or to become culturally softer on drugs than we already are. The solution is to foster a culture that encourages responsibility to society's greater good. Foster a culture that recognizes that when 1% of the population is in prison, we all suffer. Foster a culture that doesn't tolerate poverty, doesn't tolerate ignorance, doesn't tolerate slipping standards, and doesn't tolerate idleness.

[regicide]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state

Come on folks, a police state's main focus is not on the number of offenders it incarcerates.

[Funkdafied]

There is no drug problem, the problem is the so called "war on drugs". If all drugs were legalised it would halve the prison population, and save millions, and free up police to pursue violent offenders.

And don't tell me the states "cares about people's health", it does not. If the state cared about people's health alcohol and tobacco would be illegal. Both substances clearly kill monsterous amounts of people compared to even the hardest of so called "drugs". The state does not care about your health. Given that, if people want to harm themselves with illicit drugs ( as opposed to the brutally damaging "state sponsored drugs" ) they should be allowed to do so. The only aspect of drugs that harms anyone but the user is the violence, and there is only violence because they are illegal, it's so simple. Let people do what they want to thier bodies and deal with the consequences like we already do with alcohol and tobacco. Most people don't abuse alcohol, and they are not punished for the sins of the few. Pot at least should be in the same catagory.

Now here's the inside oil. Pot was made illegal in the states around the same time a company called Dupont was bringing out a fabric you might have heard of, called "nylon". It was huge pressure from Dupont that helped push the legislation to outlaw pot. The reason for this is that they didn't want competition from hemp which is an infinitely superior product in every way and much cheaper. It doesn't, for instance, melt onto your skin when set alight, it doesn't even burn. Actually, a lot of the worlds problems could be solved if hemp was embrassed as the incredible multipurpose fabric that it is.

Ask an Italian ...

[Tony_Balony]

We can end childhood poverty but sterilizing low income females and perhaps low income men.