|
Prisons:
US
Inmate
Population
Continues
to
Swell,
Now
at
2.1
Million
4/29/05
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/384/prisonswell.shtml
The US prison system grew
by about 900 prisoners a week between June 2003 and June 2004, the
Bureau of Justice Statistics reported this week. With an additional
48,000 inmates, the US prison population is growing at an annual rate of
2.3% and now tops 2.1 million, the agency reported.
 |
|
| Southern Correctional Institution, Troy, NC |
|
Although the crime rate has
been in a free fall for the past decade, people are being sent to prison
faster than they are being released, said the report's co-author, Paige
Harrison. Last year, the number of new admissions to prison exceeded
the number of releases by more than 8,000, the study found.
According to Harrison, the
ever-increasing prison population is attributable to "get tough" sentencing
policies enacted in the 1980s and 1990s. Among the policies cited
by Harrison were mandatory minimum drug sentences, three-strikes laws,
and "truth in sentencing" laws that get rid of parole. "As a whole
most of these policies remain in place," she said. "These policies
were a reaction to the rise in crime in the '80s and early 90s."
Among other findings:
- With 726 prisoners
per 100,000 residents, the United States imprisons people at a rate nearly
10 times that of other democracies.
- 12.6% of all black
men in their late twenties were behind bars, compared to 3.6% for Hispanic
males and 1.7% for whites.
- Women remain the
fastest growing segment of the prison population, increasing by more than
2.9% to 103,000. Twenty-five years ago, there were 12,000 women prisoners
in the US.
- Three prisons systems
-- the federal, Texas, and California -- hold over 100,000 prisoners each,
with the feds in the lead at 179,000, Texas at 166,000, and California
at 166,000. Driven largely by drug offenders, the federal prison
population continues to grow at a rate more than twice that of the states.
-- END --
|
Issue #384
-- 4/29/05
Editorial:
Pointlessness
|
Feature:
In
Civil
Obedience
Campaign,
Hungarian
Drug
Users
Turn
Themselves
In
|
Feature:
Marijuana
Research
Grow
Effort
Heads
for
DEA
Hearing
|
Feature:
The
North
American
Syringe
Exchange
Convention
|
DRCNet
Interview:
Ten
Years
of
Organizing
Hard
Drug
Users
--
Ann
Livingston
of
the
Vancouver
Area
Network
of
Drug
Users
|
Announcement:
DRCNet/Perry
Fund
Event
to
Feature
US
Rep.
Jim
McDermott,
June
1
in
Seattle
|
Weekly:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Bad
Cops
II:
South
Texas
Drug
Task
Force
Fights
Dirty
|
Prisons:
US
Inmate
Population
Continues
to
Swell,
Now
at
2.1
Million
|
Drug
Czar:
Walters
Under
Attack
By
Prohibitionists
|
Marijuana
March:
Global
March
May
7
in
More
Than
180
Cities
|
Holland:
Ministers
Squabble
Over
Cannabis
--
One
Calls
For
Legalization,
Has
Public
Opinion
on
His
Side
|
Europe:
British
Heroin
Maintenance
Program
to
Expand
|
India:
Crackdown
on
Opium
Growers
Spurs
Confusion,
Protests
in
Karnataka
|
Weekly:
This
Week
in
History
|
Events:
MPP
Galas
Next
Week
and
the
Following
|
Weekly:
The
Reformer's
Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
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