On June 30, 2001, there were 1,965,495 people in U.S. prisons and
jails. That's a rise of 1.1% during the 12 previous months, the
smallest numerical and percentage increase since the prison boom
began in 1971. The average annual increase since 1990 has been 5.8%.

As of June 30, 2001, the U.S. incarceration rate was 690 per 100,000
residents. But when you break down the statistics you see that
incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment.

Select U.S. incarceration rates, June 30, 2000:

Whites: 235 per 100,000
Blacks: 1815 per 100,000
Latinos: 609 per 100,000
Asian: 99 per 100,000
Native: 709 per 100,000

Gender is an important "filter" on the who goes to prison, June 30, 2001:

Males: 1,318 per 100,000
White males: 708 per 100,000
Black males: 4,848 per 100,000
Hispanic males: 1,668 per 100,000



Break it down by age and race, and you can see what is going on even
clearer, June 30, 2001:

For Black males ages 25-29: 13,391 per 100,000. (That's 13.4%!)



Or you can make some international comparisions:
South Africa under Apartheid was internationally condemned as a racist society.

South Africa under apartheid (1993), Black adult men: 851 per 100,000
U.S. under George Bush (2001), Black adult men: 7,226 per 100,000



What does it mean that the leader of the "free world" locks up its
Black men at a rate 8.4 times higher than the most openly racist
country in the world?
______________________________

interesting statistics, ken! but not very surprising...it's generally the poor and the minorities that get the short end of the "legal stick"!!! *sigh*

I agree that it's not surprising. If you can't afford legal counsel, then you get a raw deal most of the time. NOT all the time, but most of the time.

I agree, the "stat's" are horrable in this country!

But one can't really compare with other countries since, most likely we have more laws too break, and over there, the powers in charge can be brought off and cheeply at the lower level that does the arresting.

Ken:

I swear you and I are on the same prison reform mailing lists.

Did you get the lawcase "Hope v. Pelzer" banning the hitching post in Alambama?

What about the 162 page "State of the Prisons" (in New York) Report, on mentally ill inmates in solitary in New York?

Menolly

Hey... I would be interested in seeing that "State of Prisons" report on mentally ill inmates in solitary!!! :)

Interesting and tragic - seems to verify what I already though.

JDW:

I'm searching for awebsite link for you. (Of course I deleted the email I got.)

The report has a ton of stats in it that are alarming. Self-mutilations have gone up 40 % in the last 4 years in New York; 11 % of the total prison population are mentally ill, and most are confined in solitary, instead of getting proper psychiatric help etc.

Going hunting to find it for you...

(Besides Ken may have it. We do seem to receive the same info...)

Menolly

Menolly, It sure looks like we are on the same page, LOL. Yes, I did get the case law for the alabama case, but I'm not sure about the "State of Prisons" report, but I will look for it.

There have been many instances where I was going to post something, but you beat me to it, & it looks like I've gotten to it before you on some too, LOL. Between the two of us we are a fountain of info. My g/f use to call me an infomaniac.

AN (space) INFOMANIAC!

Definitely gonna steal this line!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Menolly

(P.S: A roommate of mine once introduced me to a gorgeous guy by saying "This is my roommate. You two would get along. Her mind is an organized chaos of important trivia."

I was tempted to have that printed on a T-shirt. But your line is still better!)

Ken did indeed get that same study I got, that you wanted on the New York Prison System.

It's a PDF file, available at:

<http://www.corrassoc.org/images/State%20of%20the%20Prisons.pdf>

Ken, stand up and take a bow, dear.

JDW, he sent me the weblink again, since I'd deleted it.

Menolly