More than 1 percent of US adults are in jail or prison

[Smokin Moose]

...for the first time ever in US history. That most interesting fact, cited in the latest issue of an American prison industry trade magazine. Snip:

Quoting the recent report by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project, Lamkey noted that for the first time in history more than 1 percent of adults in the United States — one in 99.1 persons is held in jail or prison.

Ned Sublette, on whose email list I found the item, says:

That is a good thing, if you sell things like Aedec's Pro-Straint prisoner restraint chair. [ * ] Another article at this journal's website discusses the problem of increasing numbers of alzheimer's cases in today's aging prison population.

More from the trade zine:

As reported in the May/June issue of Correctional News, the United States leads the world in the number of inmates per capita, with 750 inmates per 100,000 residents, according to the Pew report. During 2007, the U.S. prison population increased by more than 25,000 inmates to almost 1.6 million inmates, and local jails throughout the United States held 723,131 inmates at the end of 2007.

There are other interesting things in here, including tips on reducing carbon footprint of jail facilities, and stuff about colors and how they affect the imprisoned population.

In the Trenches: AJA Seminar Highlights (Correctional News, thanks Ned Sublette)

Source: More than 1 percent of US adults are in jail or prison - Boing Boing


Total Marijuana arrests in the US since 2000

2006 829,627
2005 786,545
2004 771,605
2003 755,186
2002 697,082
2001 723,628
2000 734,497

 

[StonerGrower]

It sickens me to know Ivebeen in that very small 1% of Americans in jail so many times.....I feel for every last one of them. Except for the rapists and murderers who were in every other cell on my tier.

 

[Mr.WeedMan]

Ive also been part of that 1%. Im interested in seeing the ratio for California.

 

[Smokin Ace]

I studied this in college. I came to the conclusion that it isn't our laws for this huge number of inmates. I believe its is the poisoned American culture, the indifference of the American culture. Capitalism is pretty savage, survival of the fittest. Not everyone can make in a capitalistic society, it's impossible. So what happens to those who have tried but can't get on it? They get desperate or develop schizophrenia or become schizoid. Then the private prisons get their chance the see some income.

Don't get me wrong I'd rather have capitalism over socialism, but everything shouldn't have a capitalistic perspective.

 

[ledtester]

I studied this in college. I came to the conclusion that it isn't our laws for this huge number of inmates. I believe its is the poisoned American culture, the indifference of the American culture. Capitalism is pretty savage, survival of the fittest. Not everyone can make in a capitalistic society, it's impossible. So what happens to those who have tried but can't get on it? They get desperate or develop schizophrenia or become schizoid. Then the private prisons get their chance the see some income.

Don't get me wrong I'd rather have capitalism over socialism, but everything shouldn't have a capitalistic perspective.

Here's a stat most of you don't know I bet.....the U.S. is home to 5% of the global population but 25% of its prisoners.

And soon Hittler Harper is going to put us in the same predicament since as you guys know very well there's PROFIT IN PRISONS.

 

[Smokin Ace]

Here's a stat most of you don't know I bet.....the U.S. is home to 5% of the global population but 25% of its prisoners.

And soon Hittler Harper is going to put us in the same predicament since as you guys know very well there's PROFIT IN PRISONS.

holy jeeze, that nutz! There's something wrong with this...

 

[ledtester]

holy jeeze, that nutz! There's something wrong with this...

Like everything else in the US brother.......Prisoners for Profit...what do you expect! How many that were selling fraudulent mortgages to fraudulent home buyers that caused the grief of millions around the world went to prison and are part of those numbers....Last I checked they gave them more mooney to do it again!

 

[Wingman420]

I am in my 40's with parents in their high 70's and 80's. When I was growing up The State taught that only people who were a clear danger to the public were imprisoned. Now, detention facilities, intake centers, county jails, state pens, jails for profit, and the feds, have turned rehabilitation into The New American Industry, complete with slave labor. This Industry houses more non violent marijuana offenders than anywhere else on Earth. There are inmates serving sentences in prisons all over America for as little as a joint, blunt, or dime bag. The cost per inmate to house and supervise these "arch criminals" is more than many American's make in a year aprox $86K per year.
I heard Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) state, before a Congressional panel looking into legalizing marijuana "that no one is getting arrested for smoking marijuana or posessing a small amount in New York." Boy is he drinking the kool aid and probably needs a rest in his Caribean bungalow. Just a quick look at Rikers Island's inmate list or any prison would prove him wrong. Marijuana arrests are one of the easiest for police to make just read your local paper. There will be a story of some cop claiming he smelled marijuana so he was allowed to violate that persons civil rights, search there stuff, and lock them up.
We as a Nation need to Get up, Stand up, and Vote to effect change!