{"id":12669,"date":"2008-02-28T20:48:53","date_gmt":"2008-02-29T03:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/02\/28\/land-of-the-free-except-those-behind-bars.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T16:17:38","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T23:17:38","slug":"land_of_the_free_except_t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/28\/land_of_the_free_except_t.html","title":{"rendered":"Land of the Free (except those behind bars)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 1% of Americans are in prison<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s a higher level of the population than in China, or North Korea, or Cuba.  Or, if you prefer, than in France, Russia, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Canada, the UK, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, or Israel. Or, in fact, any <\/em>country.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.<\/p>\n

Using updated state-by-state data, the report said 2,319,258 adults were held in U.S. prisons or jails at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults, and more than any other country in the world.<\/p>\n

By contrast, in mid 2002 the ratio was 1 in 142, with the prison population surpassing 2 million for the first time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I mean … do you really feel safer? Do you really think that this”sweet land of liberty” can only remain so by throwing more and more and more people into prison?<\/p>\n

According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in 36 states and the federal prison system.<\/p>\n

The largest percentage increase — 12 percent — was in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget speech last month. He noted that the state’s crime rate had increased only about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state’s inmate population has increased by 600 percent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 Is it just that, for whatever reason, we have more criminals than the Dutch, Germans, Poles, Turks, Indians, Kazakhs, or Thai?<\/p>\n

The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect a parallel increase in crime or in the nation’s overall population. Instead, it said, more people are behind bars mainly because of tough sentencing measures, such as “three-strikes” laws, that result in longer prison stays.<\/p>\n

“For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling,” the report said. “While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Because, remember — only by being tough on crime can we remain truly free!<\/em> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(via Les<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over 1% of Americans are in prison. That’s a higher level of the population than in China, or North Korea, or Cuba.  Or, if you prefer, than in France, Russia,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[715,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-punishment","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130527,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/01\/the-non-police-state.html","url_meta":{"origin":12669,"position":0},"title":"The Non-Police State","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 1-May-16 5:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"So I wouldn't have guessed this.. Compared to most countries, the US has far fewer police per capita. More prisoners (and, perforce, correction officers), but a lot fewer police. Are the two connected? Do fewer police on the street make for more less deterrence, fewer arrests -- but, therefore, harsher\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12682,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/26\/faith_snapshot.html","url_meta":{"origin":12669,"position":1},"title":"Faith snapshot","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 26-Feb-08 10:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Les points to a new, massive Pew Research report on the state of religion in the US. Bottom line: it's a diverse picture, and getting moreso over time. A...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/pew-religion.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1634,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/02\/war_is_hell.html","url_meta":{"origin":12669,"position":2},"title":"War is hell","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Dec-01 3:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Times of London has a report, from folks on the ground, on the battle at the Qala-i-Janghi fortress\/prison, which has turned into the bloodiest episode yet in the Afghan...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133326,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/23\/so-i-almost-have-to-admire-these-guys-who-built-a-secret-prison-computer-network.html","url_meta":{"origin":12669,"position":3},"title":"So I almost have to admire these guys who built a secret prison computer network","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 23-Apr-17 3:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, it sounds like they were using it for not-nice things (in addition to the expected porn, 'A forensic analysis of the hard drives found that they were loaded with \"malicious\" software and that inmates used the computers to apply for credit cards, research tax-refund fraud, search inmate records,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131307,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/18\/phasing-out-the-for-profit-private-prison-industry-at-the-federal-level-at-least.html","url_meta":{"origin":12669,"position":4},"title":"Phasing out the for-profit private prison industry — at the Federal level, at least","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Aug-16 9:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Making profit off of jailing people is inherently inefficient, demonstrably corrupting, and ethically suspect. If we, as a society, believe that an individual should be incarcerated, we, as a society, should do it, not bid it out to the lowest bidder corporation with the biggest lobbying budget.So hearing that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Chain-Gang-25B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24881,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/26\/the-changing-face-of-christianity.html","url_meta":{"origin":12669,"position":5},"title":"The changing face of Christianity","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Dec-11 6:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Some interesting research from Pew on the changes of global Christianity over the last century. A lot of this reflects stuff I already know from Episcopal\/Anglican matters, but it's still interesting to see.I suspect the trend will continue over the next century, as North America largely follows the European trend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47896,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions\/47896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}