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Report: 1 In Every 99 Americans Now Behind Bars
U.S. Spent More Than $49 Billion On Corrections In 2007
2-28-08|wcbstv

Don't ask the U.S. prison system if this is indeed "the land of the free."

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.

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.

By contrast, in mid 2002 the ratio was 1 in 142, with the prison population surpassing 2 million for the first time.

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.

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reggie_the_dog

some facts I picked up from a newspaper in Finland called HELSINGIN SANOMAT
INTERNATIONAL EDITION - FOREIGN “The number of prison inmates has been rising steadily in Estonia. There are currently 339 prisoners incarcerated for every 100,000 of population, putting the country at the top of the per capita lists for the entire EU.
According to a report in the newspaper Eesti Päevaleht at the weekend, Estonia's neighbours in the Baltic States - Latvia and Lithuania - come right behind the country in the per capita statistics.
The Finnish prison population is a great deal smaller, at 71 persons per 100,000 inhabitants. The figure is one of the lowest in the European Union.”

In France we have 95 per 100,000 according to our minister of justice.
I have 2 nationalities, in one of my 2 countries they put 7.9 times more people in jail. It is no wonder that I live in France instead of the USA.
In nearby Monaco (I live in the far south of France) is 39 out of 100,000.

Pompo

And the "Understatement of the day" award goes to

At the top of the list of "people who don't need to be incarcerated" are the (roughly estimated) 800,000 people who will be arrested on marijuana charges this year

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Buzzby

People convicted of marijuana and other drug offenses represent a relatively small part of the American inmate population. Without them we would still be the most incarcerating nation in the world.

Does the American worship of materialism lead a higher percentage of Americans to try to "get ahead" by taking it away from someone else?

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tripp78

i would agree with that assertion. i have seen it first hand in my community. it seems to be a very common mentality of lower class (and usually younger) american citizens to feel deserving of the fruits of those in the same geographical areas. this leads to crimes more than just of theft, but also of hate and vandalism. the root of our crime problems go much deeper than any single economical viewpoint can grasp... imho. then again, too many crimes in the usa are not redeemable through incarceration. the problem is multi-faceted.

 

Jake

I'm with Buzzby on this. This isn't really about cannabis, it's about the entire War on Drugs. It's about crack much more than cannabis. Our drug laws took a turn for the worse when sentencing guidelines made crack the worst thing ever. Locking up black people left and right while rich sniff-coke kids can hold 10 times as much powder without worrying.

The War on Drugs is probably the biggest issue in this, but cannabis is only a small part. Because we're lucky.

If you never hurt a human being, if you just smoke your weed, you should never have to worry about jail time. It's the dealers who get it....it is very unfortunate for us all, because as a consumer, I have to support the dealers. They are the reason i can smoke my plant. They risk a few years in jail in order to do business with me.

I saw this story all over the papers yesterday, and I felt a little better about it. I believe that most Americans, even the ones with a "lock the door, throw away the key" mentality, cannot be happy with this data. 1 out of 100 people being locked up goes against everything..."land of the free" ?

We're only the land of the free as long as we remain the home of the brave

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