Posted on 11/30/2006 11:21:21 AM PST by Froufrou
A record 7 million people _ or one in every 32 American adults _ were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday.
More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005. Prison releases are increasing, but admissions are increasing more.
Men still far outnumber women in prisons and jails, but the female population is growing faster. Over the past year, the female population in state or federal prison increased 2.6 percent while the number of male inmates rose 1.9 percent. By year's end, 7 percent of all inmates were women. The gender figures do not include inmates in local jails.
"Today's figures fail to capture incarceration's impact on the thousands of children left behind by mothers in prison," Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group supporting criminal justice reform, said in a statement. "Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails."
From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
As we head into the New World Order being fashioned for us as you read this, could THIS a large part of the reason??
"... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any
government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one MAKES them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
......just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
- p.411,
Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED, Signet Books, NY, 1957
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1746408/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1679095/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1746263/posts
Good comments on all four threads.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1746408/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1679095/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1746263/posts
Good comments on all four threads.
LOL... my compliments!
"... inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49& of the total prison population growth."
If you are in *federal* prison for a drug offense, you were most likely convicted of conspiracy, distribution, or possession with intent to deliver rather than simple possession.
Except that, when you think about it, the reverse is in play. With Roe V. Wade in '73 came a new DE-criminalization of [IMHO] far too many things. Look at the NAMBLA agenda. [shudder.]
4.1 million are on parole. No wonder our crime rates are so high.
What's even more intersting is that someone who pleads guilty to a ticket and pays it doesn't show up in this made-up rogues gallery. But the many who do take supervision (usually 6 months to a year) and have the conviction voided do show up in the stats as "in jail, on parole, and on probation."
I used to work part-time in the prosecutors office in DeKalb County, Illinois. Wrote up about 20 or 30 "court supervision" orders daily for speeding tickets (in Michigan they call it "under advisement," but same thing). That's a lot of "probationers" to make it look like a nation of criminals.
That bothers me. It's not like I don't use the search function. I do and I did.
That's right on. Criminalize enough stuff, and sooner or later everyone is a criminal.
If you receive a citation for a parking violation or a minor traffic offense and pay your fine in a timely manner, you never enter the "probation system" as defined in the BJS data.
Excuse me. I'd respond, but it's obvious from the above statement that you're nuts.
We have 50% more people in prison than communist China (with 1/3 of the population).
Got someplace where we can verify your stats? We'd have a lot fewer people in prison if they had monthly mass executions, like they do in China.
What would you do differently?
Every guilty inmate in prison is in there voluntarily. Nobody forced them to break the law.
I would treat drug addiction as a medical problem than a legal problem. Legalize drugs and use the billions that we are wasting on "enforcement" to educate and give people who want to get off drugs access to programs to do so. If people want to use drugs in their own homes, let them - everyone should be allowed to go to hell in their own way if they want. As long as they aren't infringing on anyone else, I really don't care what someone does in the privacy of their own house. We have proved in the last 40 years or so that anyone who wants drugs can get them. Clearly, it isn't possible to cut off supply. Therefore, we have to work at the demand side.
The incident was enough to motivate the store owner to install real video cameras in place of the fake cardboard one in use before. We have a pretty decent PD locally, but they need good information to act.
when everything is illegal, only criminals will do anything.
Leaving the rest of us to, what, look for navel lint or toe jam?
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