One of every 75 U.S. men in prison, report finds

[Kadie]

One of every 75 U.S. men in prison, report finds

CONNIE CASS, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2004

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


(05-27) 14:22 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

America's inmate population grew by 2.9 percent last year, to almost 2.1 million people, with one of every 75 men living in prison or jail.

The inmate population continued its rise despite a fall in the crime rate and many states' efforts to reduce some sentences, especially for low-level drug offenders.

The report issued Thursday by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics attributes much of the increase to get-tough policies enacted during the 1980s and '90s, such as mandatory drug sentences, "three-strikes-and-you're-out" laws for repeat offenders, and "truth-in-sentencing" laws that restrict early releases.

Whether that's good or bad depends on who is asked.

snip...
But Attorney General John Ashcroft said the report shows the success of efforts to take hard-core criminals off the streets.

more... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/05/27/national1722EDT0702.DTL

I find it hard to believe that 1 in every 75 men is a hard-core criminal. Of course, Ashcroft probably considers grandpa that doesn't use a cross walk a hazard to society.

[lucky777]

1. Land of the Free . . . .

Prison is how we deal with the poor in this country.

You can judge a society by how it treats the worst off. Our prisons are nightmares of rape, violence, etc.

One more reason for the rest of the world to laugh at us.

[Voltaire99]

5. Prison will absorb the dwindling middle class

Corporate labor in an orange jumpsuit, or war crimes?

That's the choice that will be put before the unlucky in the near future by the military-prison state, unless some unforeseen reform appears.

A related innovation will be Get-Out-of-Jail conscription, which will commute prison sentences in exchange for military service. This will allow pols to avoid pushing through an unpopular general draft.

[Alerter_]

12. surplus labor

slave economies can be very "profitable" and "efficient" and "productive" depending on how you measure it. Many stubborn people won't be productive enough and will have to meet a "different fate" as Bush puts it.

[okcdem]

33. I only know about Oklahoma

Most jobs at the state and county level and many at the city level are done by inmates.

Here are some of the jobs I have done:

Worked as a trustee (janitor) at the Mental Health Facility in Vinita. It has since been converted into a prison. 15 dollars a month. 40 hour week.

A gun gang (highway worker -- basically a chain gang without the chains)
in McLoud. 3.40 cents a month 60 hour week.

Mechanic (repairing prison staff's cars) also at Mcloud. 40 hour week 3.40 a month.

Oklahoma County Sheriff Gun Range Oklahoma City 3.40 a month 40 hrs a week. (This was a really bad job -- they liked to take inmates to the County jail that they didn't like)

Oklahoma Air National Guard (grounds keeper) 7.40 a month 40 hrs a week. This one is really ironic because my company (yes I own a small business) now does business with these people.

Many of you may not know that a prisoners basic needs are not provided by the state. Prisoners many times must buy toilet paper, soap, toothpaste etc. Also, you have to pay to see a doctor while in an Oklahoma prison. This is a small fee $2-5 but when you get 3.40 a month a person can see where this could be a problem. Anything left over may be used for stamps, paper, food items, whatever.

The best and most coveted jobs were the factory jobs. This is because these jobs were not run by the prisons but by Oklahoma Prison Industries and paid between $20 and $30 dollars a month.

By the way, it is my understanding that the Federal Government pays the state minimum wage for it's prisoner's labor.

Anyway, alot of people you've always assumed were government employees (yes - out in public) are actually inmates.

Just a few interesting facts.

[shanti]

15. this was done during the vietnam war, i believe

and afterwards. i knew a man who was offered a choice between jail or the military. what do you think he chose?

[struggle4progress]

2. This ought to be a fiscal responsibility issue:

we just can't afford to put so many non-violent offenders in jail for victimless crimes.

[JayS]

18. Yeah, but try and get a politician to listen to you about this. n/t

n/t

[cally]

22. Completely agree

A large part of the fiscal problems in California is the expanding costs of the prisons. We incarcerate too many and for too long a time. Add to the actual cost of the courts and prison stay, you have the reduced/lost wages and taxes from an ex-felon. We literally cannot afford our current policies.

Then you have the social and community breakdown. This destroys families and communities.

[Barkley]

28. Right on cally!

Someone is making money from building and operating all of these prisons.

[Sirveri]

3. Anyone have exact figures for how many people were put in for

drug related crimes? That would be something to see.

[arcos]

10. last heard, it was over 50%...

and some people STILL want to toughen the 'war on drugs' :puke:

[skooooo]

4. 1 of every 75 "Men"?? or people??

[mulethree]

6. 715 per 100,000 people = 1 in 139 people

so I am guessing the 1 in 75 figure is adult males.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

7. Bullshit on Ashcroft

An inordinate proportion of them are African American and up to ten percent are factually innocent..and that is based on studies by advocacy groups that have reviewed evidence, and plea bargains...thanks to states like Texas the outsource the public defenders office some people get piss poor representation.

I've got a thread on old DU with a TON of links...think I'll go dig it up...

All this does is enrich the prison industrial complex which is the twin sister of the military industrial complex.

[UpInArms]

8. just doing all we can to enrich

Wackenhut

:puke:

see:

http://www.google.com/search?q=wackenhut+prison&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

[markses]

9. Land of the free?

Whoever told you that is your enemy....

[TrogL]

11. What's the incarceration rate in developed countries

I originally posted "other" developed countries but changed my mind.

[daleo]

14. I think a quarter to a tenth of the U.S. rate

I saw a table like this recently, but I don't have a link at the moment. I think the OECD keeps stats like this.

On edit, here is link and table
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/30/1875523.xls

Prisoners per 100,000 Population Year=1994, mostly

Australia 95
Belgium 74
Canada 118
Czech Republic 182
Denmark 67
Finland 62
France 77 (1990)
West Germany 90 (1997)
Greece 16
Hungary 124
Iceland 40 (1997)
Ireland 66 (1997)
Italy 89
Japan 37
Korea 138
Luxembourg 109
Mexico 96
Netherlands 57
New Zealand 120 (1990)
Norway 47 (1997)
Poland 132 (1990)
Portugal 102
Spain 110 (1997)
Sweden 71
Switzerland 84 (1997)
Turkey 76
United Kingdom 97
United States 546

[shanti]

16. jeezus

that was an eye opener!

[Qutzupalotl]

25. And we've more than doubled since then

1994: 546 per 100,000
2004: 1,333 per 100,000

Thank you Wackenhut! Thank you conflicts of interest! We couldn't have done it without your shining example of greed trumping basic decency in shaping domestic policy.

[TahitiNut]

20. Nationmaster is a decent first site for such statistics.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_pri

1. United States 1,799,582 (2000)
2. Russia 923,556 (2000)
3. Thailand 223,406 (2000)
4. Ukraine 220,439 (2000)
5. South Africa 165,488 (2000)
6. Mexico 154,765 (2000)
7. Sri Lanka 89,325 (2000)
8. Germany 79,507 (2000)
9. Malaysia 79,197 (2000)
10. United Kingdom 65,194 (2000)
11. Korea, South 63,472 (2000)
12. Japan 61,242 (2000)
13. Belarus 59,590 (2000)
14. Italy 54,039 (2000)
15. Colombia 51,518 (2000)
16. France 51,441 (2000)
17. Romania 48,267 (2000)
18. Spain 45,309 (2000)
19. Canada 35,049 (1999)
20. Chile 33,050 (2000)

[Mace]

13. Truly sad

I imagine the day when there are more prisons than schools.

Or is there already?

[ze_dscherman]

24. More money is spent on prisons than on schools

"States are spending more money on prisons than education. Over the course of the last 20 years, the amount of money spent on prisons was increased by 570% while that spent on elementary and secondary education was increased by only 33%."

http://www.heartsandminds.org/prisons/facts.htm

[UpInArms]

17. related article: EMBARGOED-U.S. Record Prison Population Rises Again

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5279075

excerpt:

The number of people held in U.S. federal and state prisons and jails on June 30, 2003, was 2,078,570 -- almost 41,000 more than the previous year and the biggest increase in four years.

The Justice Department reported earlier this month that the annual cost of the U.S. prison system was around $57 billion.

<snip>

Over the past 25 years, the U.S. prison system has more than quadrupled in size, as the nation adopted policies to get tough on crime. Among those incarcerated are hundreds of thousands of people sentenced to long terms for relatively minor crimes like drug possession, the majority of them black or Hispanic.

<snip>

The United States incarcerates people at a rate six to 10 times higher than most other democracies. For example, the U.S. incarceration rate of 715 per 100,000 residents compares to rates of 114 for Australia, 116 for Canada, 95 for France and 96 for Germany.

...more at link...

[catmandu57]

19. Part of the problem is

that once someone is in the system they become a non person, and on release they don't automatically become a person again. Even though they may have paid their debt, they are shut off from society, stigmatized, there are many professional licenses that they can't get, many states will not restore voting rights, trying to get a job with a record becomes very, very hard.
As a result many people are caught up in the revolving door, they can't survive outside, and return to prison.

[JayS]

21. It's Friday.

Quit talking sense; it is such a downer. :)

A friend of mine was once VERY pro-War On Drugs. I explained to her that drug use was a medical issue, not a criminal one. This did not change her mind. I switched tactics and explained that when you toss someone in jail for a drug offense you are not only paying to incarcerate this person but you are depriving the country of the taxes this person would pay by working and often you are paying to support family that have lost their bread-winner. Once the person is released they will most likely not ever have a high paying job and therefore pay less in taxes. Now that employers routinely run background checks, the person may not have much of a job at all and pay little to no taxes...or get welfare, a "negative" tax. The person has also taken up space that would be better used keeping a violent prisoner incarcerated longer.

She changed her mind. Always argue with numbers when talking to a conservative, especially if they are an accountant. :)

In my state, minor drug cases go to a medical court now and not a criminal one. They also don't go to jail or get a bad mark on their record.

[okcdem]

29. There is more..

Housing becomes difficult or impossible to obtain. A record can show up on credit reports. An ex-felon is also not eligible for government assistance including, food stamps, housing, student loans, etc.

[maxsolomon]

23. Out Future Division of Labor:

1. Investors
2. Prison Guards - encompassing the entire "justice system"; cops, lawyers, prison architects, prison construction, food service, etc.
3. Prisoners - manufacturing jobs return to the states now that labor is affordable again!

[KansDem]

26. "the success of efforts to take hard-core criminals off the streets"

I believe I saw a newsclip of Bush recently, and he was walking on a street.

I don't think the efforts cited by Ashcroft have been all that successful...

[JayS]

27. We are using the program that Ashcroft pushes here and...

...so far it has shown promise. To make the program work you have to either build more jails or free up jail space. We are moving towards all petty drug convictions going to a medical court and not a criminal one to free up cells. You don't go to jail and you don't get a mark on your record that will screw you for life. Pretty darn progressive. :)

You don't want to commit crimes with a gun or engage in gang violence though...

[Columbia]

30. Thank you, War on Drugs

How many Democrats are willing to stand up and oppose this racist, crime-causing, authoritarian, civil-rights breaking failure?

[JayS]

31. Ron Paul will! :) n/t

n/t

[burrowowl]

32. I posted the commondreams

article on this yesterday in General Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1685975&mesg_id=1685975

Russia's prison population, which once rivaled the United States', has dropped to 584 per 100,000 because of prisoner amnesties in recent years, the group said.

The U.S. inmate population in 2003 grew at its fastest pace in four years. The number of inmates increased 1.8 percent in state prisons, 7.1 percent in federal prisons and 3.9 percent in local jails.

In 2003, 68 percent of prison and jail inmates were members of racial or ethnic minorities, the government said. An estimated 12 percent of all black men in their 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.7 percent of Hispanic men and 1.6 percent of white men in that age group, according to the report.

The report also said:

* The number of women in state and federal prisons grew by 5 percent, compared to a 2.7 percent increase for men. Still, men greatly outnumber women: 1.36 million to 100,102.
* Local jails held 691,301 inmates.
* The inmate population in 10 states increased at least 5 percent. Some of the smallest state prison systems saw the largest increase: Vermont's grew by 12.2 percent, Minnesota was up 9.4 percent and Maine 9.1 percent.
* Only nine states logged a decrease in prison population, led by Rhode Island with a 3.4 percent drop; Arkansas, 2.2 percent; and Montana, 2.1 percent.

In 2003 the prison population grew at tis fasted pace in 4 years .......

[Rex]

34. I wonder what the ratio is between class and number is prison.

How many well off (make $60k a year) people end up in prison as opposed to those that are poor (welfare/under poverty line)?