The Gulag Nation

[Moonbiter]

Record-high ratio of Americans in prison

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
2 hours, 33 minutes ago

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.

Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said budget woes are pressuring many states to consider new, cost-saving corrections policies that might have been shunned in the recent past for fear of appearing soft on 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 that have acted decisively to slow the growth of their inmate population. They are making greater use of community supervision for low-risk offenders and employing sanctions other than reimprisonment for 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 report was compiled by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project, which is working with 13 states on developing programs to divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety.

"Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers," said the project's director, Adam Gelb.

According to the report, the average annual cost per prisoner was $23,876, with Rhode Island spending the most ($44,860) and Louisiana the least ($13,009). It said California — which faces a $16 billion budget shortfall — spent $8.8 billion on corrections last year, while Texas, which has slightly more inmates, was a distant second with spending of $3.3 billion.

On average, states spend 6.8 percent of their general fund dollars on corrections, the report said. Oregon had the highest spending rate, at 10.9 percent; Alabama the lowest at 2.6 percent.

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

"These sad facts reflect a very distorted set of national priorities," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, referring to the full report. "Perhaps, if we adequately invested in our children and in education, kids who now grow up to be criminals could become productive workers and taxpayers."

The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect an increase 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 racial disparity for women also is stark. One of every 355 white women aged 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one of every 100 black women in that age group.

The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That's out of almost 230 million American adults.

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. According to Amnesty International, its 53 executions in 2006 were exceeded only by China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan.

[lythium]

Correctional facilities will work eventually

One day, Americans will understand.

OBEY!

[galraen]

Correctional facilities will work eventually

They never have, don't, and probably never will. Not if they continue to be run the way they are in thi8s country (UK) and I believ in the US. Here they are effectively criminal training grounds, a kid goes in for petty offences, and comes out well schooled in how to be a 'better' criminal. Recidivism is a major problem, a very high percentage of inmates are on their second or more stint behind bars, because the system doesn't work.

The prisons in Britain are punishment facilities, not correction facilities, the attempts to r e-educate and prepare for a life without crime are pathetic, and even those feeble attempts are made effectively useless due to chronic overcrowding, and destructive overload of the facitlities. From everything I've heard it's the same the other side of the pond.

Criminals should be punished for their crimes, but if they are to be truly rehabilitated, and become useful members of society, then they have to be properly educated, trained, and given every opportunity to stay on the straight and narrow once they've served that punishment. At the moment unfortunately, that hasn't happened in the history of prisons, isn't happening now and looks unlikely to start happening in the forseeable future.

Giving every member of society an equal opportunity through education, ad preparation for adulthood is also desperately needed of course. The disproportionate number of ethnic minorities in prison here mirrors that in the US. That needs to be actually addressed by politicians instead of just making meaningless sound bites, then doing nothing.

As for capital punishment, I have no problem with the punishment fitting the crime, but will oppose capital punishment for as long as the judicail system is flawed, which is to say, for as long as I live. There have been far too many false convictions, and even one innocent person wrongly executed is one too many. There have been many cases of people being convicted of 'capital' offences, only for their conviction to be overturned at a later date. Three instances I can cite for sure:

1. The Birmingham Six. Six men were convicted of placing a bomb in the Mulberry Bush pub in Birmingham, which killed 21 people. The judge when sentencing them said if the death penalty were available o him he would have used it. Instead they were imprisoned, and eventually released when the verdic was overturne, except for one who had died in prison. But if the UK had capital punishment all would have been hung.

2. The Guildford four, another group of people falsely convicted of a pub bombing, who would have hung had the death penalty been available.

3. The Bridgewater four, four men convicted of murdering a 13 year old boy, again falsely convicted and who would have hung.

That's fourteen innocent men who would have been murdered by the state had the death penalty not been abolished in the UK. There have been many other such miscarriages of justice, and they will continue, because the system is too deeply flawed, and there is no way to guarantee that mistakes can never happen.

I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can condone executing innocent people and still consider themselves civilised. Innocent people have, and will be murdered by the state wherever capital punishment exists, to condone capital punishment knowing this is tantamount to being an accomplice to murder in my eyes.

[Claudius]

do the crime face the time.

I do believe better effort to rehabilitate criminals would be great.

[Crenshinibon]

I swear, the way things have been going and are going, I am expecting America to become the next Nazi Germany.

[Maharlika]

I swear, the way things have been going and are going, I am expecting America to become the next Nazi Germany.

And exactly why would you think so? Strong words considering the societies you're comparing with.

[Crenshinibon]

Just a personal opinion, looking at recent politics, events, and our law system. The society plays a part as well, being routine based from the very start. For one reason or another, I see it getting stricter and more... organized, if that's the right word to use.

Mabus then will soon die, there will come
Of people and beasts a horrible rout:
Then suddenly one will see vengeance,
Hundred, hand, thirst, hunger when the comet will run.

Quartraine 62

Not that it's any evidence, but something I found interesting nonetheless, although it can be interpreted a multitude of ways and isn't guaranteed as well.

[Xandax]

I swear, the way things have been going and are going, I am expecting America to become the next Nazi Germany.

Well, according to what I've "heard" it isn't system critics, unwanted social elements such as artists, clergies and unwanted/scapegoated races which are being put systematically in jail and/or executed in the US as it was in the 30-40 Germany. So I'm unsure how you can even start to make such a comparison. There might be society bias driving some streams and tendencies ("black male") can always be found if one looks for it. But it isn't the president (like or dislike him) wanting to get rid of unwanted elements.


While the rate of crime and punishment apparently is high the USA, the problems lie elsewhere in my view, and thus isn't comparable to Nazi Germany in any way.
I very much think it is a cultural thing. The American culture - from an outsider perspective - looks to have been violent and driven by a fascination for this violence. Ranging back to fighting for independence some odd 400 years ago and then a number of wars, Indian wars, including a brutal civil war, combined with this the entire slavery ordeal and the trails it draws through history, the prohibition time and mafia wars and all that.
Most other countries have similar elements in our history but it is usually spread out over many more years. USA is a young country, forged in a lot of blood.

This "violent" history is also why I think we see the shift in what is acceptable in mainstream media/entertainment - the violence versus sexual content in movies, games and all that, where there is an acceptance of the violence nature, but shunning the sexual one. It feels - as an outsider - as if violence and/or "acceptance" (or perhaps tolerance) of it is breed into the culture.

To me - it feels like the "nation" was forced to grow up to fast.

That being said - other countries - mine inclusive - are having issues with different cultures affecting our own, which also leads to violent behaviors and shifts in the population/culture. We've just had a number of violent days with arsons setting fires to schools, cars - well practically anything - because they are "unhappy" with states of things. A year ago we had violent riot and so on, and there is an increased wish from various segments of the population to punish the perpetrators much harder. And then that is an aspect where we approach the US one.

There is no golden solution - I do believe some people can't be rehabilitated, and I do believe that if you step outside the "law", you should be punished. I do think there is "something wrong" with many of these criminals, and I see no hope that they'll turn their road around. Personally - I'm in favor of harsh punishment (not capital as such, although I can at times certainly see the desire behind it and sympathize with it), and I do believe, that even while punishment doesn't reform somebody - it keeps him off the streets while he's in jail, where he can't do crime unto "normal" folk.

[lythium]

Although I agree with you, Xandax, that there is no golden solution to the crime and incarceration problem, however the rampantness of it is of such a scale in America that the comparison to Nazi Germany is not all that weird. (More so, ofcourse, because of Godwin's Law )

This acceptance of violence was also present in Nazi Germany and although certain critics and politicians were intimidated and eventually locked up by the Nazi Regime, this was not on an intimidatingly big scale, but it was just enough. Part of it had to do with the fact that the public thought it was very unpatriotic to openly criticize the regime. In private, with likeminded people, it was okay, but not in public, because people took offense. The exact same thing is going on in the USA.

What about the public acceptance of so called free speech zones? Again a sign that dissident is discouraged by or has no value to general society.

And then ofcourse, while the pre-elections are grasping everyone, the Bush administration is making up laws to veto the Congress' budgetplans and overwriting a whole bunch of other laws that shift the balance of power towards the president. (my source has credibility issues, as it is a comedy show... )

I'm not saying that US is there at that level just yet, but they are going there pretty quickly. It's easier for the police to do raids now than it was every before and they are keeping track of people with much vigor.

The nonacceptance of dissident and scapegoating of mexicans and minorities is causing a lot of friction and I think that results in massive lock up rates.

[Maharlika]

Then again, maybe the U.S. is just more efficient compared to other countries in taking down the criminals and seeing to it that they land in prison.

[Claudius]

I think the life of crime is attractive to some people. I would say that once you are marked as a criminal you are pretty screwed because people are reluctant to give you a second chance and it is harder to find jobs - but then again a lot of once criminals rob the new job so that makes sense.

I think it really boils down to do you believe its ok to steal and hurt people? And how should we deal with such people as a society who do believe said is ok.

As far as the political stuff...I'm not pleased with all the wire tapping crap and things like that but it was much worse in the McCarthy era. You can still criticize the government and not be suspected of being a communist and thrown in jail.

[lythium]

I agree, Claudius, it's a lot better now the label is changed to "terrorist".
Also, the life of crime and/or so called thuglife does appeal to certain groups, which is absolutely crooked. But I don't think this mentality has a chance in a healthy (equal opportunity) society. That is, I don't think there is any "real" glory in theft and the like, unless accepted and encouraged by the group. (a.k.a. gang)

@Mah: like, yeah....

[fable]

This acceptance of violence was also present in Nazi Germany and although certain critics and politicians were intimidated and eventually locked up by the Nazi Regime, this was not on an intimidatingly big scale, but it was just enough.

Violence in Nazi Germany was orchestrated and controlled from above, just as it was in Mussolini's Italy. There was a very strict chain-of-command leading directly from Goebbels through his lieutenants down to the individual cells of "youth groups" that were divided in turn into separate organizations based on affiliation. By contrast, violence in the US is a largely unorganized cultural phenomenon, as Xandax states. It is not usually seen at political rallies and marches, as in Nazi Germany, but in school shootings, just as the UK is rife with soccer hooliganism. Comparisons to the Nazis are invidious and make no sense at all in context.

Getting back to the original AP piece, "Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation" needs to be taken with a mountain of salt. There are some nations, such as Russia and China, that do not report their numbers of jailed inmates, or even their number of jails. China has explicitly refused to recognize that many of its "correction camps" are prisons, and does not list its inmates (frequently behind bars for political crimes) as prisoners. Some other, smaller nations don't bother providing numbers at all, including a large number of African and Asian countries. That rather makes a hash of this grandstanding shocker of a line which was designed for just such a purpose, but it doesn't affect the central point that there is a major problem in any society that sees forced incarceration as the only solution for nearly all its lawbreakers of every kind.