Largest Prison Inmate Increase Since 2000

People Incarcerated In U.S. Prisons And Jails Number 1.6 Million; 6 In 10 Are Hispanic Or Black

(AP)  Prisons and jails added more than 42,000 inmates last year, the largest increase since 2000.

The total number of people incarcerated by federal or state authorities in the year ending June 30, 2006, was roughly 1.6 million, the government said Wednesday. That translated to a 2.8 percent increase from the previous year, due to people being put in prison at a faster rate than those released.

Overall, the total number of people behind bars, including those held in local jails, was more than 2.2 million, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Forty-two states and the federal system reported increases, with the largest jumps in Idaho (13.7 percent), Alaska (9.4 percent) and Vermont (8.3 percent). Eight states had declines, led by Missouri (down 2.9 percent), and Louisiana and Maine (both down 1.8 percent).

The number of federal prisoners increased by 3.6 percent to reach 191,080.

Nearly 6 out 10 people behind bars nationwide were black or Hispanic.

"Once again, communities of color are paying for our troubled criminal justice policies," said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute. "The population increase in the already overburdened prison system indicates an alarming growth that should not go unchecked."

[randalds]

We've become a "lock 'em up and throw away the key" kind of society, but it's painfully obvious that it doesn't work. Want to really bring down the prison population? Stop treating drug abuse as a crime and start treating it as a public health issue. The prisons are overflowing with people who sell and buy drugs. Legalize pot completely (it's a joke that it's still illegal and NO it is NOT a gateway drug!!!) and stop sending people to prison for buying addictive drugs. Send them to forced treatment instead, that INCLUDES weaning them off from the drugs, not this cold turkey cra*p that doesn't work most of the time.

[gunnerv1]

Well, if the "Communities of Color" would quit breaking the laws of the land then they would not be there. I do say let the non-violent drug related types out on parole, AND YES LEGALIZE WEED! (for once RandalDS, we agree).

[jt92202]

The one thing about the statisic is 6 of 10 are Hispanic or Black so the other 4 are white white? Sounds to me like it's about equal. If you want to lighten up the population of the prisons there are a few things you can do:

1 - Send all the illegals in jail back home and let their governments deal with them (of course with in reason someone who kills someone should be on death row).

2 - Stop putting 17 year olds in jail for receiving BJ's (see story Wilson vs GA)

3 - Reach our youth better to stop the crimes, and stop holding their hands when they do commit a crime, make them accountible for the crime.

Putting people that have a drug problem (buying selling or doing) teach them how to become a better criminal. I don't think that kind of education is what they really need!

Legalizing pot would not only regulate it but it would also bring in Billions if not Trillions of dollars into the government (fed, State and local). That could be a good thing if the government could figure out how to spend it properly and not buy 1000.00 toilet seats!!!

[jdubs63]

Oh my MJ legal ?

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by RandalDS at 03:06 PM : Jun 27, 2007
+ report abuse

**********

Picture a big billboard overhanging by a busy freeway..

"BUY YOUR COCAINE NOW FOR THAT BUSY DAY" brought to you by your friendly columbian corporation *** CARTEL.
that is something I want my children to see

[weareone2]

The economy is on a downward direction. When people are out of work, or can't get enough hours or pay to make ends meet, the crime rate always goes up. When people are stress, they are more likely to lash out violently at others. People who are otherwise honest may turn to crime out of desperation.
Some years ago, I visited women at the county jail every week. Before Reagan became president, people had jobs, and the jail population was low. There were usually one or two women prisoners. The max was four. After Reagan became president, and the unemployment rate got bad, there were about a dozen, crowded into a single cell, because the jail was so crowded because there was also a large increase of male inmates. Almost all of the females were in for passing bad checks. Almost all had children. When they had jobs, they didn't pass bad checks.

[DrewAtlanta]

Just build more prisons and don't make them so nice so they would be cheaper to run. They get better health care than many free americans that are footing the bill. Prison should really really suck and be borderline abusive. Instead, "my brother got prison huge" is a common comment. lift weights, 3 hots and a cot. When they get out they should be whining about how much it sucked and vow never to go back. such that people that know them would hear horror stories, not "three hots and a cot"

Parole! Are you nuts? I don't want these people on the streets. Hope they go live in ur area if you want them paroled.

[DrewAtlanta]

weareone2 you say "make ends meet". I laugh at that. Everyone crying poor, but no one misses a football game and americans have never been fatter. Fat and lazy. I wonder how many of these prisoners had more than 1 TV? Premium cable? Are they fat? (could spend less on food). make ends meet is bull.

[randalds]

Posted by xzavierbrown at 06:30 PM : Jun 27, 2007

I don't know why that's directed at me? I never said to legalize cocaine (though I wouldn't have a seerious problem with it if properly done), just pot. I said to force people who buy addictive drugs into treatment. That's hardly the same thing. Drug abuse is a public health issue, not a criminal one and there should never be non-violent drug offenders in prison. Ever.

[DrewAtlanta]

I didn't mean it personally, I wanted to indicate who I was directing my comments to. I'm not sure about legalization, but I'll say this: We should give it a 2 year try, see how it impacts crime and the country's productivity. Then evaluate. America is funny to me because legislation changes are treated like they are forever. We could do a test phase like we did with assalt weapons.

under current law they are dealers are breaking the law and they choose to. If pot or other controlled substance is so important people should consistently make their view known to legislators or move. The law is the law.

I love the people of color part in the news. What's the implication. People of color need to get high more than whites or can't follow the law or let me guess, racial bias. PC BS

[brianbwb-2009]

to gunnerv1,

Check the stats, if you only legalize weed, that would eliminate almost 30% of the Black prison population, and even then I know two of my friends who went in for pot after being stopped by the LAPD(ogs) at 2 AM, while on the way home from performing at a club. I grew up with them, and know for a fact that they never used it.

Not everyone in prison actually did anything that should have put them there, unless you count "driving while Black" as a crime.

[brianbwb-2009]

to xzavierbrown,

It is a common practice by the neocons, extrapolate ad absurdium.

Advertising can be, and is regulated, there is no guarantee that you will see such billboards, any more than you see ads for hand grenades.

[brianbwb-2009]

to drewbwan,

Fat and lazy can also come from the steroids in the meat consumed, one can still be malnourished, but obese.

Forget the ones with TVs and premium cable, we're talking about the homeless, those who don't have a place to put a TV even if they found one. There are millions of people in this condition, in case you haven't noticed.

For these people, jail is a step "up", but they won't just roll over and die, just because you don't consider their lives as having any worth.

Try living on the streets of LA, or New York for a year, with just your brains and back as assets, I doubt if you can manage it.

[meboard]

As long as there's still room for "w" and di.ck, that's all I care about.

[neoconrcrazy]

Let's forget the recial aspect for a moment - not to lessen its importance - but to ask how we're going to cope with 2 milion, if we'reat 1.6 already.

We've got to find other solutions for offenders - excluding serious violent ones -

we can't just send everyone who has transgressed to law to a prison where he may end up even more criminal.

Why can't we establish "educational centers" where these young people - find a way to help them
get ahead of the game - instead of always playing catch-up - or not at all.

[radiob-2009]

I don't know why that's directed at me? I never said to legalize cocaine (though I wouldn't have a seerious problem with it if properly done), just pot. I said to force people who buy addictive drugs into treatment. That's hardly the same thing. Drug abuse is a public health issue, not a criminal one and there should never be non-violent drug offenders in prison. Ever.
Posted by RandalDS


I disagree with you on this issue, where is a proven drug addiction program? The majority of the programs have virtually nil in success ratios. Drug addicts commit theft to support their addictions and sometimes those thefts become physically violent. The mental violence that occurs from these thefts are generally imposed upon the immediate family and friends of the addict. Look a 6 year old child in the face who has had to endure constant moving, being left unsupervised, and minimal food because the childs drug addict parents or parent cannot give up their drugs. The drugs are life and everybody and everything else is secondary to their addictions.There are many children in the US that would be better off in a foster home or adopted than being with their drug addict parents.As Pat sang "H e L L is for Children".

[lawandorder7]

Yo many people are in jail that don't need to be. You run a stop sign you end up in jail because some dumb a=== judges needs to get a better job. So he gets a name.

[brian31462]

How about this for travesty....
Man beats woman continuously, putting her in hospital once or twice a year, she can't escape him, gains victim mentality. Man shatters womans legs with tire iron, hospital again. She recovers and is lying in bed and hears man, in drug and alcohol induced fervor, saying he is going to kill her.
She grabs a knife and defends herself, ending up killing him. She is sentenced to 13 years in prison, because the state would not do anything about him and had closed all the mental institutions where he should have been kept.

[rushman71]

The prisons are overflowing with people who sell and buy drugs. Legalize pot completely (it's a joke that it's still illegal and NO it is NOT a gateway drug!!!) and stop sending people to prison for buying addictive drugs. Send them to forced treatment instead, that INCLUDES weaning them off from the drugs, not this cold turkey cra*p that doesn't work most of the time.
Posted by RandalDS

I agree with you 100% on this. I don't know the guesstimate numbers of people being locked up for drug related charges compared to people being locked up for actual criminal charges. But I do know that there are a lot of people in our prisons that were charged for posession of marijuana sharing cells with actual killers and rapists. Reevaluation needs to be processed through our judicial system.

[weareone2]

If anybody wants proof that we are descended from (certainly not ascended from) other animals, all they would have to do is read many of the messages posted here.

[randalds]

Posted by radiob at 07:53 AM : Jun 28, 2007

Locking them up isn't working at all, so by definition even a program that only works 30 or 40% of the time (average according to my Psychiatric RN wife) is still 30 or 40% better then locking them up.

[gaschj]

Obama is right (and I'm white & conservative)! There are too many people in jail and prison%u2014especially people of color. A fitting location for his recent speech, Tidewater VA, the jails are so overcrowded many inmates sleep on the floor. Just ask Beauty-on-the-Bench in Virginia Beach. She knowingly overcrowds her jail with petty criminals, such as speeders! Stacking people like cordwood is unconstitutional, inhumane, cruel and unusual punishment. Jails and prisons should be used as an absolute LAST RESORT, and only to protect the rest of society from incorrigibles and sociopaths. Jailed and imprisoned people are treated with severe indignity. It causes the goodness left in people to transition to anger and bitterness toward authorities. Mixing people who have made minor mistakes with the most depraved and psychotic in society is wrong and will cost society much more in the long term.
For example, today, in Georgia, there is a teenager in prison for TEN years for having consensual oral contact with another teen two years younger than himself. This promising young man of color had acceptance letters from top colleges around the country. Even the Georgia State Legislature and Governor changed the law making it no longer a crime. But, they did not take the special action necessary to free this young man. He%u2019s still in prison and everyday that goes by I am getting more and more angry about it.

[jbrown75n]

I take it these numbers don't include those who are monitored with ankle bracelets for House Arrest, or for "continuous alcohol monitoring.
http://www.drivinganddrinking.org/

[lesvisible]

It is an obvious truth that when you have a criminal government that laws will be selectively applied for the profit of the crime family running the show. The prison industry and all of the industries that rely on prosecution are big business. That is why all these people are in jail. Victimless crimes such as marijuana use and other things are the sole reason for overcrowding.

My solution was to leave the country for Europe where I hardly see crime or even a police presence (I'm not in the UK). Once I saw that 9/11 was an inside job and the pack of sociopaths running American domestic and foreighn policy it was adios for me. I sympathize with those of you trapped in materialism. It only gets worse.

[jackrocker99]

6 out of 10 of all prisoners are hispanic. Now you know why Bush wanted that immigration bill so badly.
So the prison industrial complex can continue to boom. That would make a good political comic. Bush telling people the real reason. I think I will go make a comic like that You will be able to see it along with a giant list of political comics at:

a href="http://www.thehollywoodliberal.com/comic_feature_links.htm" HLs
Comics /a

[jackrocker99]

6 out of 10 of all prisoners are hispanic. Now you know why Bush wanted that immigration bill so badly.
So the prison industrial complex can continue to boom. That would make a good political comic. Bush telling people the real reason. I think I will go make a comic like that You will be able to see it along with a giant list of political comics at:

a href="http://www.thehollywoodliberal.com/comic_feature_links.htm" HLs
Comics /a

[jackrocker99]

6 out of 10 of all prisoners are hispanic. Now you know why Bush wanted that immigration bill so badly.
So the prison industrial complex can continue to boom. That would make a good political comic. Bush telling people the real reason. I think I will go make a comic like that You will be able to see it along with a giant list of political comics at:

a href="http://www.thehollywoodliberal.com/comic_feature_links.htm" HLs
Comics /a