Record-high ratio of Americans in prison

AP via Yahoo ^

[Slapshot68]

" For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report tracking the surge in inmate population and urging states to rein in corrections costs with alternative sentencing programs."

[Slapshot68]

The lib answer will be, of course, to let everyone out.

[JoSixChip]

How many of them are illegals?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

That’s what they have in mind in Iowa. I read that they’re planning to close the old penitentiary at Fort Madison, which dates back to 1840 or so, and build a new prison. State employees want to keep the old place open to save their jobs.

[dfwgator]

“Thank God we’ve got penitientiaries.” - Richard Pryor

[wideawake]

In other news - surely unrelated - more American children were being raised without a father than ever before, and fewer Americans were attending weekly religious services than ever before.

[Always Right]

Doing the time Americans don’t want to.

[FlingWingFlyer]

" For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison,..."

I don't want to change the subject but what does that say about our society?

[BGHater]

What do you expect. Prison is a business now

We are creating more laws for everything.

[goodnesswins]

see post 5

[SubGeniusX]

The report said the United States is the world's incarceration leader, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations which make up the rest of the Top 10.

PING!

[Slapshot68]

“” For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison,...”

I don’t want to change the subject but what does that say about our society?”

It tells me two things....1) there is a noticeable correlation between moral degradation and rising prison population and 2) we actually punish our criminals, for the most part.

[mysterio]

Stop putting people in jail for possessing a plant or plant extract. Will solve the problem pretty quickly.

[Vigilanteman]

There would be fewer people in prison and fewer competiting to get in if this old fashioned device were used a bit more liberally. Does that make me a liberal, too?

[AmericaUnited]

I agree. Putting people in jail for relatively small amounts of weed is completely idiotic.

[jaydubya2]

i wonder how many are in for non-violent drug related crimes?

[WOBBLY BOB]

about a third, depending on where you live.

>”... 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 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 “...

[RinaseaofDs]

We aren’t working hard enough to put more of them in there. Let’s start, for example, on Wall Street.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Whoops! The way I wrote my post might have made me sound like a bleeding heart. LOL!!! Unlike the liberals, I don’t believe our prison are filled with innocent people. My point is, American society has sunk so low that we have to incarcerate 1 in 100 Americans. That’s a lot of crooks. I believe this is a result of “parents” turning their children over to the government to raise and discipline.

[killermedic]

or maybe we should stop putting anyone in jail for public drunkeness or moonshining or any drug-related LAW that we have. On a certain level you are right and they need to take the most violent offenders in each state say the top 10 longest waitinf on death-row and have a public execution so everyone can see how glamorous a criminal life can be....thay will get their 15 minutes.

[The_Republican]

And the problem is.....?