For the first time in history, one in every 100 American adults is currently behind bars.
That's right, 1% of our adult population is in prison.
We now lead the world with the dubious distinction of having the most people behind bars with a total of more than 2.3 million prisoners. China, which has a considerably larger population than the United States, came in second place with 1.5 million prisoners. And, Russia was a distant third with 890,000 prisoners.
American prisons now account for one quarter of the world's inmate population.
The Pew Center on the States recently released these startling statistics in their new study, "One in 100."
When the numbers were broken down further by age and race, the statistics were even more troubling.
One in 36 adult latino men is behind bars.
One in 15 adult black men is behind bars.
And, most startling, one in every nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars.
As a country, we spend over $50 billion per year on prisons. Thirteen states spend more than $1 billion each on prisons. Four states, Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, and Connecticut, now spend more on prisons each year than on higher education.
We must begin to ask ourselves, "What are our priorities?"
As we continue to cut funding to Head Start, after school programs, children's healthcare, and education, we are failing to invest in our young people. We are sowing the seeds of failure and now we have begun to reap the terrible harvest.
The way to stop crime is to catch it before it starts. We need to take away the conditions in which crime thrives. We need to address issues of poverty and education. By the time that we incarcerate one of our fellow citizens, we have failed.
We must give every citizen the opportunity to achieve. Once we have created a society in which every citizen has a "level playing field," then we can place the burden of responsibility more greatly upon the back of the individual. But, until that time, we must bear the load.
"Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind then that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; and while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
-Eugene V. Debs
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2 comments:
Thank you for writing this post. This is the issue I care most deeply about (although they're stacking up - immigration and other human rights issues are also at the top). What will it take for the government to learn that there is a direct correlation between poverty, lack of education, and violent crime? We should be investing all of the war money into education and we should not imprison non-violent offenders. You're absolutely right. These statistics should reveal that our absurd criminal injustice policies have failed.
The sad part is that a lot of people do not understand the correlation between poverty, lack of education, and crime.
I can remember when I was a Representative in the Graduate Assembly at Berkeley. This was a body made up of graduate students from across campus. Supposedly some of our "best and brightest." At one point, a fellow Representative commented, "I don't get these people who say we need more schools and less prisons. They have nothing to do with each other."
I was truly shocked.
Our "justice" system is in shambles. The prisons are bursting with people. The prisons themselves are overrun by gangs and drugs. We give folks no chance to succeed in their youth and then we throw them in prison where they have no chance to succeed for the rest of their lives.
And, now, prisons are becoming a "for profit" venture. Large corporations are taking over corrections in the United States and showing that "crime does pay."
The situation is unacceptable by any standard.
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