Prison State USA: One in 100 Americans Now Behind Bars
There has been an explosion in arrests and imprisonment of Americans in recent
years.
Today, for the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American
adults -- 2,319,258 persons -- is in jail or prison.
That's just one of the startling findings of a new report by the respected Pew
Center on the States.
No other country on earth has as high a percentage of citizens incarcerated.
The runners-up are China, Russia and several other former Soviet bloc nations,
sad company indeed.
Also, no other country in the world has so large a number of its citizens
behind bars. China, with a larger population, allegedly has 1.5 million people
in prison. (Note: figures from authoritarian China should always be viewed with
suspicion.)
Black Americans are being hit particularly hard, according to the report.
"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."
According to the report, the high incarceration rates have nothing to do with
any increase in crime. Instead, the rates reflect tougher sentencing laws that
have been passed in recent years, such as "three-strikes" laws, that mandate
longer prison stays. Much of this, of course, is due to the disastrous War on
Drugs, which creates incentives for property crimes and violent crimes by
creating a black market for drugs, and which also spawned the "three-strike"
type laws.
Indeed, as the libertarian magazine Reason notes: "The problem is that [the
government] is locking up many people for longer than is appropriate, and many
people who do not belong in prison at all, including nearly half a million drug
offenders."
Further, notes the Pew study: "The national recidivism rate remains virtually
unchanged, with about half of released inmates returning to jail or prison
within three years."
In short, current incarceration policy seems to be just like every other
government program. It is incredibly expensive, (last year states alone spent
more than $49 billion on corrections, up from $11 billion 20 years before),
costs are skyrocketing, it has unintended negative consequences, it is milked
by special interests, it victimizes utterly innocent peaceful persons, and it
largely doesn't work.
(Source: Associated Press
rawstory.com
Pew Study: pewcenteronthestates.org
Jacob Sullum:
washingtontimes.com ) |
