U.S. Has Record Inmate Population

[Doug]

DOUG
Our country should be ashamed. We now have more people in prison than any other country and our crime rate does not go down--as if jails are the answer. That's what we get when we let Republicans run things. They put ideology above solutions.

====================
See here.

NEW YORK — 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.

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," the report said.

...On average, states spend 6.8 percent of their general fund dollars on corrections, the report said...

Four states _ Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut _ now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.

..."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 report said the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, 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 round out the Top 10.

The U.S. also is among the world leaders in capital punishment...

[LaWood]

Most of our Police States of America can be attributed to Richard Nixon's "War on Drugs." This is really a war on people. The insanity must stop somewhere.

[Dardedar]

Four states _ Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut _ now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.

DAR
You can invest to educate people, or you can pay to lock them up. Insanely, the US chooses the latter.

This is data from 2003, early in Bush's trainwreck:

"The absolute figures are dramatic in themselves, but take on even greater significance in comparison with other nations. In this regard, the U.S. rate of incarceration of 702 inmates per 100,000 population represents not only a record high, but situates this nation as the world leader in its use of imprisonment. The continuous rise in the prison population in the U.S. has vaulted this country ahead of our old Cold
War rival Russia to become the world’s leading incarcerator.

For comparative purposes, the U.S. now locks up its citizens at a rate 5-8 times that of the industrialized nations to which we are most similar, Canada and western Europe. Thus, as seen in the accompanying chart, the rate per 100,000 population is 139 in England/Wales, 116 in Canada, 91 in Germany, and 85 in France.

A headline and blurb in Canada in 2005:

Incarceration rate hits two-decade low

"The number of Canadians behind bars in the country's jails and prisons fell last year to its lowest level in more than two decades, Statistics Canada said Friday."

I talked to my dad last night. He lives in Canada. He says the economy is really booming up there. Boy are they glad they didn't get in on Bush's stupid war.

A little more:

Canada had 110 prisoners for every 100,000 people in 2005-2006, compared to 107 the year before....

Canada's rate is almost seven times lower than the rate in the United States, which had 738 prisoners for every 100,000 people in 2005-2006. The U.S. rate only counts adult prisoners, while the Canadian rate counts all prisoners, including those under the age of 18.

Rates in western Europe, which count prisoners of all ages, were closer to the Canadian rates in 2005-2006 — Sweden's was 82, France's was 85 and in England and Wales it was 148. LINK

Prisoners per 100,000:

[Tony]

Yep, I don't know how we can say with a straight face "We are the freest nation on earth." 1% behind bars. 10% of black males behind bars. Amazing. Terrible.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Per Thom Hartmann, the "under the table" issue is that of prison privatization. The corporations who are now running the prisons are sending "campaign donations" to state lege and federal congresscritters who are "tough on crime" - i.e., will keep the prisons full so said corporations can keep sucking at the gov't tit.