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Would it surprise you to know that the population of the US Penal system has increased 16 times faster than the population at large? Here are figures from the US Department of Justice that show the trends over the past 25 years (1980-2005):
Population of Corrections Inmates Source: US DOJ
Since 1980, the population of people supervised by the Department of Justice has increased from 3.8x from 1.8M to just over 7M in 2005. When we simply look at incarceration (jail + prison) the population has increased 4.4x from 503,586 inmates to 2,193,798 inmates in 2005. The 1980 Census shows the population total of 227M and US Census estimates for 2005 population shows a net increase of 0.27x to 288M.
This prompts me to ask a few questions:
- Have the number of criminals increased that substantially? If so, why?
- Was law enforcement simply clueless before 1980 allowing a large segment of the criminal population to roam free post criminal activity?
- Has something changed in the way laws are enforced? And are there new laws on the books?
- At what point did we decide to become a nation of prisons?
- What impact has the privatization of prisons had on the prison population growth rate?
All interesting questions, I don’t have answers to them. I have theories about a couple of them however.
Another interesting dimension to this issue is the makeup of the prison population at large. Reuters reports that in the US, Blacks are 10 times more likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses as whites. From the article:
Black Americans are 10 times more likely to be imprisoned for illegal drug offenses than whites, even though both groups use and sell drugs at the same rate, according to a study released on Tuesday.
….
The reasons for the disparity include federal mandatory minimum jail terms for drug crimes, which he said hit blacks harder.
For instance, the mandatory federal sentence is the same for possession of 5 grams (0.2 ounces) of crack, more associated with blacks, as 500 grams (18 ounces) of cocaine, which is more often used by whites.
What to conclude from all this? Well, I’m pretty sure that no one person has “the answer”, but I believe that the escalation in the “war on drugs” coupled with federal mandatory drug sentences enabled by a culture of fear and at least nascent racism fuels this trend. The most reasonable way to derail the trend, in my opinion, is to lift modern prohibition and regulate the substances in question. In fact, prohibition actually causes more crime than it prevents. We don’t see anyone being gunned down on the streets these days to control the alcohol trade do we? The reality is, we may have put more people in jail, but the underlying behavior goes on unchanged.
No amount of will of the people, forced morality, and money will change basic human nature. After all, if one wants a cup of coffee, a cigarette, food slathered in transfats, weight loss through pills, and/or a glass of wine, one will find a way to have it. If we’re honest with ourselves, there’s zero difference between one mind/body altering substance or another – it’s arbitrary that some are illegal and others are legal and regulated. The one pragmatic and meaningful step we can take is to end modern prohibition and regulate the substances. Then law enforcement’s efforts can be channeled toward violent crime activity.
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[…] – Prison Population Growth – Would it surprise you to learn that in the past 25 years the US prison population has grown 16x […]
[…] as a joke in the clip, there’s nothing funny about it. The reality of the situation is that our prison population has 16 times faster than the population at large, growing from 1.8M people in 1980 to over 7M in 2005; many of those incarcerated are not […]
I like what this article has to say. In my opinion this country needs to find othr answers instead of just locking everyone up. We could use facilities for non-violent offenders or first time offenders and run them by people who have been incarcerated for more than five years. Let them drill it into the heads of other who are following the wrong path. In other words let them be scared straight. If I knew now what I didn;t know then I may have made better decisions in my life. It took me two trips to jail to see that I have a problem with drugs. Not only did I lose a total of one year of my life to jail, I lost more than that on my adiction. I never really got the help that I need, so I spend my days confused as to what it is that I need to do and it’ stough finding a place that will help me get back on my feet. Oh wait there are places however, I don’t make enough money or have adequate insurance to get hte help I need.
[…] Prison Population Growth – A look at the US prison population 1980-2005 – Link to Entry […]
How about starting at the root of everything… strengthen and support the FAMILY. A family that has a mother and a father. Strong families mean a strong community. Strong communities mean a healthy society. A healthy society means a strong nation.
Family, more broadly defined, certainly will have a positive impact.
But ultimately, the root of this problem is a failed war on drugs criminalizing that which uncontrollable and unenforceable.
Good article, could add this one chart, that says it all – go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_incarceration_timeline-clean.svg
Add the privatization of prisons and resultant prison industrial complex lobbying to lock up more and more prisoners – for profit, since the Reagan era on and continued political shift right – its only getting worse!