Incarceration’s Impact on Society
October 12th, 2010Via: McClatchy DC:
You won’t need a calculator, but get ready to decipher a bunch of numbers — data that ought to make Americans feel both sadness and shame.
…
While the costs of housing prisoners — $50 billion annually for state correctional costs alone — should be enough to cause us to rethink our way of doing things, the overall societal and human costs should be even more convincing.
The study shows that “One in 87 working-aged white men is in prison or jail, compared with 1 in 36 Hispanic men and 1 in 12 African-American men. More young (20-34) African-American men without a high school diploma or GED are currently behind bars (37 percent) than employed (26 percent).”
Perhaps most disturbing is the 2.7 million American children who have a parent behind bars, a massive increase from 25 years ago when 1 in 125 kids had an incarcerated parent compared to 1 in 28 today. And, “two-thirds of these children’s parents were incarcerated for non-violent offenses,” the report says.
Research Credit: JA
I don’t know why so many of these articles implore Americans “to feel ashamed…” about some outrage committed against their countrymen. I think its pretty obvious at this point that Americans have absolutely no shame, and no sense of decency or empathy for their fellow man, so why be shocked by their indifference?
I saw an article on Yahoo recently describing the brutal treatment of an inmate (he was in for writing a couple of bad checks). The inmates repeatedly raped him and when he complained to guards, they beat him so severely that he suffered a detached retina. The response of the commenters? ‘He wouldn’t have been in jail if he wasn’t a total low-life, so he deserves whatever he got’. Well that about did it for me. I’m tired of waiting for Americans to develop a conscience. Because I’m convinced the vast majority of them basically are assholes who don’t care what misfortune occurs to others because they’re convinced that they’re too godly and righteous for it to happen to them.
Bush is the Antichrist is right on track. Things are like they are because, collectively, we allow, no, not allow, but want them to be that way. Screwing the rest seems fine until we are one of the rest
I’m livid that such a large percentage of the incarcerated are there because of VICTIMLESS, NON-VIOLENT “crimes” — they got caught, say, partaking of certain herbs or drugs, or engaging in the voluntary trade of sexual services for a fee.
I’m all for legalizing drugs but I’d like to piggyback an open carry law on to that particular piece of legislation. And make gunning down anyone trying to get in to your house uninvited socially acceptable behavior.
If you let the meth heads loose ya better be ready for some blowback.
Yes, this is disgusting, and its all about feeding the Justice/Prison Industrial complex. It is pathetic that fellow humans i.e. Judges, D.A.’s can do this to their fellow human beings. This is another reason “good” people need to serve on juries in order to set these “non-criminals” free, but (sadly) I think the government mostly sends jury summons to people that work for the Justice/Prison industrial complex in order to drum up more business(prisoners).
Bush the antichrist writes, that only Americans think a tad indidualistically. It’s wrong.
Last vote here was on the cutting of our federal unemployment insurance, and (ok, the german part voted substancially more YES) the voters accepted it, as our government wanted it. Its was a quarter percentage more social commissions or so we voted about. Really ridiculous, if you think about it.
More older, really old citizens are voting, mostly by habit. They get pension, rent and retirement. They get cheaper culture, cheaper transport cheaper everything. Heck, the whole sector of recreation is tailored to them. And they voted YES. EXACTLY the same part, that complains every time that the youth hasn’t any collective spirit.
We need to outgrow that nasty 20th century both folks and elites and restart, meanwhile we suffer. That’s just how it is.
The same with drugs. If more and more have tried some drugs and see that parental oversight has more intrinsical value and influence than state laws, maybe it will tone down the legal background radiation.
@prov6yahoo
Yes, I always tried to get picked for jury duty, simply to have the chance to educate some fellow jurors about nullification, but the prosecutors find out about your educational level. Anyone with a graduate degree has a tough time getting selected. I did my best to look and sound like a soccer mom, to no avail.
@comradesimba
Agree with you on ALL counts, except I have to ask: The methheads aren’t loose already?? Remember prohibition has an extremely small affect on use, and probably increases use to a small degree, due to “taboo” affect.
@pookie
A good friend of mine actually accomplished hanging a drug trial jury. He gave zombie answers to the prosecutor in order to get on the jury. I applaud his efforts. He said it was the worst experience of his life – that he felt almost physically threatened by the other eleven who wanted to “put the guy away” so they wouldn’t have to come back to serve another day. One problem my friend noted was that if you attempt to “educate” the jurors you will get thrown-off the jury and/or charged with contempt. All you can do is claim you don’t think the government proved its case and stick to that line. So all my friend’s efforts just gave the accused a little more time in jail before they select another jury and convict him and send him to prison. Its great when someone takes the effort to do this, but it also can make you think its hopeless.