http://www.motherjones.com/prisons/overview.html
http://www.motherjones.com/prisons/
"...How did this happen? How did a nation dedicated to the principle
of freedom become the world's leading jailer? The answer has little
to do with crime, but much to do with the perception of crime, and
how that perception has been manipulated for political gain and
financial profit. From state legislatures to the White House,
politicians have increasingly turned to tough-on-crime policies as
guaranteed vote-getters. That trend has been encouraged by the media,
which use the public's fearful fascination with crime to boost
ratings, and by private-prison companies, guards' unions, and other
interests whose business depends on mass-scale incarceration.
Prisons certainly aren't expanding because more crimes are being
committed. Since 1980, the national crime rate has meandered down,
then up, then down again -- but the incarceration rate has marched
relentlessly upward every single year. Nationwide, crime rates today
are comparable to those of the 1970s, but the incarceration rate is
four times higher than it was then. It's not crime that has
increased; it's punishment. More people are now arrested for minor
offenses, more arrestees are prosecuted, and more of those convicted
are given lengthy sentences. Huge numbers of current prisoners are
locked up for drug offenses and other transgressions that would not
have met with such harsh punishment 20 years ago.
In return for spending so much more on prisons today -- a nationwide
total of some $46 billion annually -- taxpayers might reasonably
expect a corresponding drop in crime. But most experts agree that
prisons have done little to make communities safer. A recent study by
the University of Texas estimates that while the number of inmates
has grown by more than 300 percent since the late 1970s, that growth
is responsible for no more than 27 percent of the recent drop in
crime. Indeed, many states with the fastest increases in prison
populations received no commensurate payback in crime reduction...."
" Like the Vietnam vets who found it so hard to readjust to civilian
life 30 years ago, many ex-cons like Jason bring the habits and
attitudes they've developed behind bars back with them to the
streets. By subjecting petty criminals to a world of hardened
violence, America's experiment with mass-scale incarceration may
ultimately make its streets not safer, but more dangerous.
"What I'm seeing is people coming out of prison with anywhere from
moderate to severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder," says
Bonnie Kerness, associate director of the American Friends Service
Committee's Criminal Justice Program in Newark, New Jersey. "People
are coming out with hair-trigger tempers."
http://www.motherjones.com/prisons/
"...How did this happen? How did a nation dedicated to the principle
of freedom become the world's leading jailer? The answer has little
to do with crime, but much to do with the perception of crime, and
how that perception has been manipulated for political gain and
financial profit. From state legislatures to the White House,
politicians have increasingly turned to tough-on-crime policies as
guaranteed vote-getters. That trend has been encouraged by the media,
which use the public's fearful fascination with crime to boost
ratings, and by private-prison companies, guards' unions, and other
interests whose business depends on mass-scale incarceration.
Prisons certainly aren't expanding because more crimes are being
committed. Since 1980, the national crime rate has meandered down,
then up, then down again -- but the incarceration rate has marched
relentlessly upward every single year. Nationwide, crime rates today
are comparable to those of the 1970s, but the incarceration rate is
four times higher than it was then. It's not crime that has
increased; it's punishment. More people are now arrested for minor
offenses, more arrestees are prosecuted, and more of those convicted
are given lengthy sentences. Huge numbers of current prisoners are
locked up for drug offenses and other transgressions that would not
have met with such harsh punishment 20 years ago.
In return for spending so much more on prisons today -- a nationwide
total of some $46 billion annually -- taxpayers might reasonably
expect a corresponding drop in crime. But most experts agree that
prisons have done little to make communities safer. A recent study by
the University of Texas estimates that while the number of inmates
has grown by more than 300 percent since the late 1970s, that growth
is responsible for no more than 27 percent of the recent drop in
crime. Indeed, many states with the fastest increases in prison
populations received no commensurate payback in crime reduction...."
" Like the Vietnam vets who found it so hard to readjust to civilian
life 30 years ago, many ex-cons like Jason bring the habits and
attitudes they've developed behind bars back with them to the
streets. By subjecting petty criminals to a world of hardened
violence, America's experiment with mass-scale incarceration may
ultimately make its streets not safer, but more dangerous.
"What I'm seeing is people coming out of prison with anywhere from
moderate to severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder," says
Bonnie Kerness, associate director of the American Friends Service
Committee's Criminal Justice Program in Newark, New Jersey. "People
are coming out with hair-trigger tempers."