1 in 100

[Legs]

For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report.

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.

I was surprised it was so high. More at this article

[Qingdai]

It hit 2 million a while ago, we've had one of the largest per captia populations incarcerated for quite a while.

[D. Scarlatti]

Now if only criminal defendants were dependable bill payers, a guy could make a pretty good living.

[Legs]

That`s just out of the adult population, no stats on the juvenile offenders or half way house populations.

[Crumb]

The rest of the world is just soft on crime!

[Petra]

1 in 100? Are you frikkin' kidding me?! That's a phenomenal number. Beyond belief.... almost!

Is incarceration the new dole, or something? Wow!

[Caligulette]

Originally Posted by Petra

Is incarceration the new dole, or something? Wow!

It is for privatised prisons, yes.

[Watser?]

That's what you get when you privatise prisons: a demand for prisoners.

On the upside: crime must be really low with so many people in jail.

[Artemis Entreri]

Hmmm it doesn't sounds so bad if you say 1%
But considering that it is the highest percentage in the world, yeah it's pretty damn high.

Oh and thats just total population 1 in 9 young (20-35) black males are in jail. Wow...

Oh and while looking up those figures i saw something interesting.
In 1980, there were 143,000 black men in prison and 463,700 enrolled in college. But in 2000 there were 791,600 black men in prison and 603,032 enrolled in college. I think I'd heard this before but seeing it again it is still amazing.

Hmmm, What started in the 80's that could have led to this?

[Crumb]

I think that's when the "war on drugs" really took off.

Oh and thats just total population 1 in 9 young (20-35) black males are in jail. Wow...

[Legs]

Knight Rider started in the 80s too though.

[Miisa]

That has got to be unbelievably expensive.

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by Artemis Entreri

Hmmm it doesn't sounds so bad if you say 1%
But considering that it is the highest percentage in the world, yeah it's pretty damn high.

Oh and thats just total population 1 in 9 young (20-35) black males are in jail. Wow...

Oh and while looking up those figures i saw something interesting.
In 1980, there were 143,000 black men in prison and 463,700 enrolled in college. But in 2000 there were 791,600 black men in prison and 603,032 enrolled in college. I think I'd heard this before but seeing it again it is still amazing.

Hmmm, What started in the 80's that could have led to this?

Crack?

[Ari]

If I had to bet I would say good ol' pot is the number one drug responsible for being jailed. Not something possibly dangerous like drug runners carrying guns but just guys on the street looking to get high.

[Artemis Entreri]

"crack"

That was my first thought.

[Legs]

Imagine if there were no plea deals, parole, suspended sentences or house arrest... etc

How many more would be jailed É


É = question mark, my keyboard is acting up again

[Qingdai]

I think "whatever strikes and your out" laws have also increased the prison population. Funny (odd) article today about Oregon being one of the lead "lock 'em up" states.
I blame Kevin Mannix, who is trying to push through a one strike and you're out law now.Prisons lock in chunk of budget - OregonLive.com

[Crumb]

Also there were some mandatory sentencing laws that passed here a few years ago that would not allow judges to reduce sentences for certain crimes, and the one before that lowered the ages at which minors can be tried as adults for some serious crimes.

[chunksmediocrites]

Originally Posted by Artemis Entreri

Hmmm it doesn't sounds so bad if you say 1%
But considering that it is the highest percentage in the world, yeah it's pretty damn high.

Oh and thats just total population 1 in 9 young (20-35) black males are in jail. Wow...

Oh and while looking up those figures i saw something interesting.
In 1980, there were 143,000 black men in prison and 463,700 enrolled in college. But in 2000 there were 791,600 black men in prison and 603,032 enrolled in college. I think I'd heard this before but seeing it again it is still amazing.

Hmmm, What started in the 80's that could have led to this?

A couple things- the drug war took off in the 1980's.
The crack epidemic hit and then sentencing guidelines which are completely disproportionate to the equal weight in powder cocaine were put into effect.
From November.org:
Under current law it takes 100 times the quantity of powder cocaine to trigger the same mandatory minimum sentence as crack cocaine. The result of this penalty differential is that the average federal crack cocaine sentence is more than three years longer than a conviction for a powder cocaine offense.

Reagan also cut funding for mental health care, leading to the attrition and closing of many mental care facilities. A large number of the people turned out are now in our prison system.

Many politicians tried to oust their opponents by accusing them of being "soft on crime", which to the voting public reeling from the crime rate in the 70's, sounded alarms. This tactic led to increasingly draconian rhetoric and policies regarding sentencing.

Originally Posted by Petra

1 in 100? Are you frikkin' kidding me?! That's a phenomenal number. Beyond belief.... almost!

Is incarceration the new dole, or something? Wow!

In extreme cases, yes. There have been a few stories of people who were unable to afford medical care and committed a crime so that they could receive treatment in prison. As a prisoner you have a right to health care (albeit often slow and in past years, relatively risky), though as a free citizen, you do not.

Originally Posted by Watser?

That's what you get when you privatise prisons: a demand for prisoners.

On the upside: crime must be really low with so many people in jail.

The crime rate is at the lowest point in 30 to 40 years, and there are a lot of theories as to why crime is low now and why it was so high in the early 70's. Paul Krugman in The Conscience of A Liberal suggests that economic factors of high unemployment in urban centers, and the shift of people from rural to urban areas played a role in the crime 'wave' of the 1970's.

Factors in the decrease in the crime rate in part have to do with higher incarceration rates and sentences, but also better technology in criminology, and a national criminal database (NCIC) that links every part of the US. Decreased reporting of crimes has also been suggested as a factor, as well as the controversial theory that legalized abortion has also reduced crime rates.

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by chunksmediocrites

The crime rate is at the lowest point in 30 to 40 years, and there are a lot of theories as to why crime is low now and why it was so high in the early 70's. Paul Krugman in The Conscience of A Liberal suggests that economic factors of high unemployment in urban centers, and the shift of people from rural to urban areas played a role in the crime 'wave' of the 1970's.

Factors in the decrease in the crime rate in part have to do with higher incarceration rates and sentences, but also better technology in criminology, and a national criminal database (NCIC) that links every part of the US. Decreased reporting of crimes has also been suggested as a factor, as well as the controversial theory that legalized abortion has also reduced crime rates.

I was kinda sarcastic about the crime rates being low. I don't really know this for sure but I doubt the crime rate in the US is lower than in most Western countries. I think over here at least there are far fewer people in jail because marijuana is semi-legal. That's one way to lower crime figures: redefine crime.

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by Watser?

I doubt the crime rate in the US is lower than in most Western countries.

You're probably right about that, but USA does have a lower total crime rate than the UK, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark and Chile.

Source

[Watser?]

Finland? I wonder what Miisa is up to?

Hmmm, considering that owning small amounts of marijuana is not a crime here, I wonder how high the Netherlands would be if it was. We are only slightly lower than the US on that chart.

I also wonder how much of that is violent crimes.

[Dingfod]

Using the same source in regard to violent crimes, the US is right up there with New Zealand and the UK in assaults.

It doesn't even rank in the top 44 in manslaughter rates, but 24th in overall homicide rate, behind a bunch of former Soviet states and Latin America.

US ranks 9th in rapes, behind Australia and Canada and just barely ahead of the UK.

Spain and the UK rank ahead of the US in robberies.

The US ranks 14th in the world in gun homicides, losing out to:
#1 South Africa
#2 Colombia
#3 Guatemala
#4 Thailand
#5 Paraguay
#6 Mexico
#7 Belarus
#8 Lithuania
#9 Zimbabwe
#10 Estonia
#11 Latvia
#12 Barbados
#13 Ukraine

[Watser?]

Wow, I had no idea New Zealand was so violent

[Dingfod]

They also have a lot of car thefts.

The top 10 in car thefts:

Showing latest available data.
Rank Countries
#1 Australia
#2 Denmark
#3 United Kingdom
#4 New Zealand
#5 Norway
#6 France
#7 Canada
#8 Italy
#9 United States
#10 Ireland