There Are Now More Americans In Jail Than There Were In Stalin's Gulag Archipelago

[petros]

There are now more Americans in jail -- 6 million -- than there were in Stalin's Gulag, reports Fareed Zakaria, in a column called "Incarceration Nation."


And it's not just a relative population thing.

The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.

How does that compare to other countries?





It's 7X-10X as high:

• Japan has 63 per 100,000,
• Germany has 90 per 100,000
• France has 96 per 100,000
• South Korea has 97 per 100,000
• ­Britain has 153 per 100,000

And it's also a relatively new phenomenon: In 1980, the U.S. only had 150 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.



What's to blame?

The "War on Drugs."

More than half of America's 6 million prisoners are in jail for drug convictions, with 80% of those in jail for "possession."

By the way, has the "war on drugs" worked?

Um, no.

There are still drugs everywhere.

So, maybe it's time we stopped throwing people in the slammer for possessing them'

 

[The Old Medic]

This is hardly the result of the "War on Drugs". And this guy's assertion that 80% of the people in jail for drug crimes are there for simple possession is 100% dead WRONG. This man was fired by Newsweek, for faking articles, and now CNN is building a show around him> Kind of sows you where they are coming from.

This is primarily the result of a huge breakdown in segments of the society, in which a significant proportion are raised to believe that they are entitled to whatever they want, NOW. When they discover that they can't get things legally, they turn to either crime, drugs or both.

Then, add to this mixture the ever increasing sentences being handed out, primarily due to the public's demand to "lock them up". The result is that crimes that would have had a sentence of 2-5 years 20 years ago, are not getting sentences of 20-50 years.

There is also the advocacy of "Life without Parole" for repeat offenders. California alone is spending almost $300,000,000 a year, just on those life sentenced prisoners. And, the costs go up each year, as they age and require additional medical care.

 

[coldstream]

Drug crimes make up about a quarter of the U.S. inmate population.. but if you include those crimes committed in the wider sphere of drug addiction.. crimes for money or violence.. its probably twice that. Still the drug problem in the U.S. especially has complex origins.. and is much related to the disintegration of the family, of the availability of well payed work.. especially in poor neigbourhoods.. which has led to an explosion of gangs and trafficking. America (and Canada) are seeing a dismantling of a culture of 'hope'.. which is producing a brutal, substance dependent underground.. and its solution is not 'throwing away the key'.

 

[Highball]

I reside in a california city where there are about 60,000 incarcerated in the California State Prison Solano and the California Medical facility. Then we also hiost about 3400 prisoners families of which over one half are on some form of public assistance. Most have registered to vote so you know how any Ballot issue that deals with Entitlements goes. The area surrounding both Prisons is principally occupied by these families. Now they are building two more Cell Blocks too. Welcome to California. The land of outlandish state taxes, over crowded prisons and an big fiscal crisis. With a "no clue" governor to boot.