Record-high ratio of Americans in prison

[Kat Kanning]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/ap_on_re_us/prison_population
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
31 minutes ago

NEW YORK - 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 and urging states to rein in corrections costs with alternative sentencing programs.

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.

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.

[Puke]

Corrections! What a silly word to use. 

[error]

Corrections! What a silly word to use. 

Doublespeak.

[kola]

amerika... land of the brave home of the imprisoned.

"their" solution: pass more laws, increase criminal numbers and build more jails.

I would say their plan is working.


Kola

[Kat Kanning]

Who needs concentration camps, eh?

[Russell Kanning]

wow ... so is one out of every hundred members of this forum in jail right now?

if you know 100 people ... one of them will be in jail? ... if not ... someone must know a lot of people in jail.

[KBCraig]

Corrections! What a silly word to use. 

Indeed. 

Perhaps they're just humoring me, but a surprisingly large percentage of my colleagues seem disgusted by the War On Some Drugs, and the constantly changing AMOG definition of "illegal".

I'm still working on them when it comes to immigration.

[Puke]

I suspect most folks will think this means that crime is on the rise, which in a way it is.
The reason is due to more and more thing being made illegal.

When you think about how many rules there are it blows the mind.

[Free libertarian]

 Thank you for bringing up this topic, it isn't widely discussed "out there"...you know in the ahem, real world. Seems very  few Americans are aware that "we're #1" alright ... in imprisoning our
population that is! Leaves them with kind of a puzzled expression on their face when you mention it to them though.  I echo the sentiment that it's easy to commit a crime, because just about everything is illegal these days...with more BS being churned out daily.  When I review the prison stats I feel really bummed. 

"Land of the free and home of the brave" ?   Isn't that false advertising?

  It would be a revealing interview to do, asking an average man on the street type as to their opinions of which country has the highest prison population % etc., then get their reactions as to why it's the USA when they find out the answer...

   
 

[kola]

And the "great" USA consumes the most pharma drugs and they spend the most money on research etc yet they rank 34th in overall good health.(according to World Health Organization)

The US is 34th!!! That is mind blowing. Basically just about everyhing here is in turmoil and corruption is at an all time high. We are a sick nation, mentally, physically, spiritually and financially...we are flat out "broken." And it ain't getting any damn better.

Kola

[David]

wow ... so is one out of every hundred members of this forum in jail right now?

if you know 100 people ... one of them will be in jail? ... if not ... someone must know a lot of people in jail.

The reason cops are so hated in many inner cities isn't because the people living there are suddenly libertarians, it is because they imprison so many relatives and friends of the people living there. 
It is also the reason they see racism and class envy behind every corner. 

[J’raxis 270145]

Corrections! What a silly word to use. 

Holdover from when people used to think prisons could rehabilitate or reform people.