Despite real efforts in 2003 and 2004, the US prison population has been mostly stagnant under Bushco, as compared to previous periods:
Is Bush soft on crime?
Of course, I am being snarky. The recent news (linked to above) about the renewed growth of the prison population in the past 2 years have not been mentioned on dKos as far as I have been able to ascertain, and I thought I would provide these numbers and a few others below.
The real scandal is the sheer size of the prison population in the US, and its becoming another chunk of the militaro-industrial complex – or another “complex” on its own right.
With an inflation of around 265% for the period, this means that police and justice budgets were flat or growing very slightly, the corrections budget doubled in real terms, and the prison population tripled. (of course, the Dow Jones was multiplied by 16 during the period)
It’s also interesting to note that this is a fairly recent trend:
Source: The Sentencing Project (pdf, 17 pages).
The result is that the US now have the highest incarceration rate
This graph comes again from The Sentencing Project, which thus analyses these numbers:
- A higher rate of violent crime than other industrialized nations.
- Harsher sentencing practices than in other nations, particularly for property and drug offenses.
- Sentencing policy changes over a period of three decades, particularly the shift toward mandatory and determinate sentencing, restrictions on judicial discretion, and a greater emphasis on imprisonment as a preferred sanction.
- Policy changes adopted as part of the “war on drugs,” leading to a vastly increased use of the criminal justice system as a means of responding to drug problems.
An even more terrifying statistic, provided in the first Yahoo link above, is that
An estimated 12.6 percent of all black men in their late 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.7 percent of white men in that age group
That’s one in 8 in prison, which means that, with those that have been and those that will fall at some other point in the future, one black man in 3 or so will know jail in his twenties. How is that not a major scandal bringing real action? One man in three?
(Note that I am not claiming that minorities are treated any better in other countries: the Sentencing Project notes that the relative ratio of incarceration for minorities is similar or worse in other countries; but, combined with the high absolute level of incarceration, only the US sees such a high proportion of its young men go to jail)
Note also that with 2.1 million people in jail (and another 5 million under the control of the penal system), most of them of working age, the US unemployment rate is artificially lowered by at least 1.5 points (if not 5 points, depending on how you evaluate the employment prospects of ex convicts or people on probation).
The other scandal of course, is the way these people are treated while in jail. Abu Ghraib was not news to US inmates.
in the typical American prison, designed and run to maximize degradation, brutalization, and punishment, overt torture is the norm. Beatings, electric shock, prolonged exposure to heat and even immersion in scalding water, sodomy with riot batons, nightsticks, flashlights, and broom handles, shackled prisoners forced to lie in their own excrement for hours or even days, months of solitary confinement, rape and murder by guards or prisoners instructed by guards–all are everyday occurrences in the American prison system.
The use of sex and sexual humiliation as torture in Abu Ghraib and the other American prisons in Iraq is endemic to the American prison. Psychological and physical sexual torture is exacerbated by the underlying policy of denying prisoners any volitional sex, making the only two forms of sexual activity that are physically possible–homosexuality and masturbation–both offenses subject to punishment. Strip searches, including invasive and often intentionally painful examination of the mouth, anus, testicles or vagina, frequently accompanied by verbal or physical sexual abuse, are part of the daily routine in most prisons. A 1999 Amnesty International report documented the commonplace rape of prisoners by guards in women’s prisons.[2]
Each year, numerous prisoners are maimed, crippled, and even killed by guards. Photographs could be taken on any day in the American prison system that would match the photographs from Abu Ghraib that shocked the public
Some US Prisons as Bad as Abu Ghraib
Prisoner Abuse: How Different are U.S. Prisons? (Human Rights Watch)
Abu Ghraib, USA (Anne-Maris Cusac, The Progressive – many more links in that article)
When I heard that dogs had been used to intimidate and bite at least one detainee at Abu Ghraib, I thought of the training video shown at the Brazoria County Detention Center in Texas.
When I learned that the male inmates at Abu Ghraib were forced to wear women’s underwear, I thought of the Maricopa County jails in Phoenix, Arizona.
And when I saw the photos of the naked bodies restrained in grotesque and clearly uncomfortable positions, I thought of the Utah prison system.
Donald Rumsfeld said of the abuse when he visited Abu Ghraib on May 13, “It doesn’t represent American values.”
But the images from Iraq looked all too American to me.
I’ve been reporting on abuse and mistreatment in our nation’s jails and prisons for the last eight years. What I have found is widespread disregard for human rights. Sadism, in some locations, is casual and almost routine.
Reporters and commentators keep asking, how could this happen? My question is, why are we surprised when many of these same practices are occurring at home?
A Visit to Valley State Prison for Women (Amnesty International, 1999)
Recommendations to address human rights violations in the USA (Amnesty, 2004)
But of course, inmates cannot vote.
recommend this highly enough. Great work Jerome.
In your face, China!
Ghastly. Yes, why isn’t this being talked about?
Important diary…
What if we stopped sending people to jail for drug posession? Think how much better the world would be…
No more gangs using drug money.
Prison population goes WAAAAY down, lifting the burden off of taxpayers.
With no illegal drug traders, crime goes way down, so prison population doesn’t go back up.
And so on and so forth.
Maybe this could be turned into a campaign theme or something.
That makes too much sense and isn’t good for the prison industry so it ain’t gonna happen. People have been conditioned to believe that drug prohibition works and believe that anybody who talks about decriminalization is a soft on crime pro-drug hippie librul who hate ‘murica. Meanwhile, a large chunk of people lose their civil rights all because they choose to blow off steam with a joint rather than a six-pack of crappy ass Budweiser.
It ain’t gonna happen. Well, not yet anyway. It’s going to take a massive PR campaign to convince people that decriminalization is better for society. People have been programmed to believe “If I have weed, then I am going to become an axe murderer!” instead of “If I have weed, it must’ve been a hard day at work”.
But now there is some escape from the worst horror, Chuck Colson’s prison ministries. Yes, just accept Jesus and you get job training, a nicer diet, a larger television and the fast track to parole. If you’re a drug addict, don’t worry, they have contracts for treating that, even with no actual counselors-just accept Jesus and you’re healed, same for sexual offenders. Yes, child rapists who accept the Lord get out faster, what could be better.Of course it’s all voluntary, if you like cramped cells and rotten food and rape…just don’t convert. No pressure.
racial profiling, and the unequal defense for poor versus wealty defendants, I am surprised that the minority percentages are not even higher.
And agreed, human rights violations show America as a barbaric and unspohisticated nation. Have we no shame?
I don’t know if this is really a partisian issue except for perhaps the harsh non-violent drug offense sentances. Yo Cheech…
Bush is about the last person in line to take the blame for the Prison Industrial Complex. He couldn’t stop it if he wanted to. Really, if you people want to point fingers allow me to give a few directions:
It all bullshit. John Brown didn’t study the effects of slavery. MLK didn’t study the effects of Jim Crow. The people in the Ukraine didn’t study the effects of a faux election (like we did in 2000). These people took real action!
Bottom Line: Drug war Prosecutors should be defending what they are doing in these courtrooms EVERYDAY in every public place they go. Right now they are going to work everyday and destroying lives and then going home to dinner with the kids. These are the real “little Eichmans.” Also, criminal defense lawyers need not be playing both sides. And there should be watch dogs to assess what exactly they are doing to mitigate the dameage done in these courtrooms. Finally, any change is going to made at the grassroots level, probably by ex-cons who are getting out and finding it increasingly difficult not to be really, really pissed about the way things are going down.
Don’t get me started, Don’t even get me started.
Abuse of prisoners is a matter referred to frequently in popular fiction (Andrew Vachss and John Grisham are just the first two names that come to mind; there are plenty of others), TV and film. Hell, IIRC even John Dean (anyone else remember him?) wrote in his account of Watergate – back in the 70’s – about his fear of and getting raped in prison.
Prisoner abuse and degradation have become a commonplace figure in the American popular consciousness. But the collective will to face up to the nightmare is lacking.
I’ve done some time in the joint–two years federal and three years in the state of Ohio. I was in medium security (FCI Ashland,Ky & London Ohio Corr Ins.)
I have to be honest in saying that I never saw anyone get raped. I heard about it happening–but it’s more rare than people think (although I’ve heard California and Texas are bad). From my experience, sexual abuse/activity happens a lot more due to head games than brute force. I went in there a reasonably attractive young man and I really had no problems because I grew up in a poor mixed neighborhood. I knew the “booty bandit” pitch better than they did and after a while they’d just move on to the next fish. Moreover, I don’t think anyone in a federal prison has to worry about sexual assault. The BOP runs a tight ship.
But in a state joint you have to be very careful about who you associate with. IOW if a person is offering you something on your first day, he ain’t probably doing it out of the kindness of his heart. He wants something in return.
Probably the worst case is the person who goes into prison gay already. Once you come out of the closet in the joint, you are on your own. No one will stand up for you because then they will be responsible for your beefs. After the gay person gets outed, he pretty much has to get a “man” to protect him or people will start to test his courage. That’s a bad scene for sure.
BTW, from my experience, prison ministry people don’t get special treatment. That isn’t such a big deal. I wasn’t on the “god squad” but a lot of them are ok with me. It’s a lot better than sitting around playing spades and smoking rerolled cigarettes all day.
I actually met some really good people in prison. I guess that says a lot about how screwed up the system is when the average inmate really is a pretty good guy–at least in minimum and medium securtiy.
Remember him? The “ringleader” at Abu Ghraib? He had an extensive disciplinary record for the same types of extracurricular activities that led him into trouble there.
And the U.S. Army knew about it. The U.S. Army was also aware of the civilian work disciplinary records of the prison guards who made up most of the personell of the MD Nat’l Guard unit assigned to Abu Ghraib.
Interestingly enough, these “bad apples” from the civilian world were concentrated in the shift and cellblock used for persons of “interest” to the occupation authorities.
Qui Bono? Someone who wanted to create a crack torture team of guards that could be shoved aside and made scapegoats if needed.
Leave us not forget the criminals. Poverty is not an excuse to join a gang, buy a Glock or an AK, and randomly drive through the streets like their Mafia predecessors shooting their rivals.
Civilians get hit, people live in fear, and the police respond with all the force at their disposal. Force-counterforce. (I actually heard a Deputy AG call gang-on-gang crime “NHI” = no humans involved). Add to the mix any drug in powdered form, and you have a recipe for our current mess.
Society reacted with fixed prison terms, gun and gang enhancements, and elimination of rehab and/or education programs. Also severly reduced minimum and medium security facilities. Instead, California built state-of-the-art dungeons, with Secure Housing Units (SHUs). “Criminal Universities” is an apt description.
We could start by building those minimum-security facilities. House non-violent offenders. Can’t remember the exact numbers, but that’s a huge percentage of total prison population. Reinstate funding for education & training at those facilities.
Never mind. We’d also have to address poverty, mental illness, and rational drug-control policies. Can’t do that, costs too much. Bullets are cheaper.
If we can ever the the funding in place, we can finally build the 3-meter high border wall/fence and seal out Mexico and Canada.
Then the entire $!*@! nation will be incarcerated.
Pax