The growth of America's Prison population is currently 3 times the rate of its generic population growth.
Pew researchers are incredulous
The report by the Pew Charitable Trusts said one in 178 US residents will live in prison by 2011 and the increase could cost American taxpayers another [27.5 billion dollars over the next five years in jail spending.
"After a 700-percent increase in the US prison population between 1970 and 2005, you'd think the nation would finally have run out of lawbreakers to put behind bars," said the report by Pew's Public Safety Performance Project.
But we haven't run out of people to arrest. Why is that? How can this be?
You know there's more.....
3 words: War on Drugs.
And actually, there are even more people in jail than the report cites:
The Pew data does not include local prisons, whose population in 2005 was nearly 750,000, bringing the total US prison population to 2.2 million people, the largest in the world.
Another way to say this is that there are so many people incarcerated that it's hard to determine how to calculate the numbers. Why people in local jails and prisons would not be included in this study is odd to me. Locked up is locked up.
But back to why there are so many people in prison in the so-called "Land of the Free". How many of these people aren't really a threat to society?
The vast majority of people in jail for "drug offenses" might not be the folks YOU want to have dinner with, but they aren't remotely a threat to anybody. Many of the people in jail for drug possession MIGHT be the sort of people you'd have dinner with. They may be your neighbors, your friends, relatives, people you went to school with. Many of these prisoners are in for marijuana touching, something that should chap your ass raw.
Why?
Because it ain't cheap:
The jail growth will cost states another 15 billion dollars for prison operations and an additional 12.5 billion dollars to build new prisons.
And with just a tiny scratch or research those billions can be followed right into the pockets of companiestied intimately to republicans.
The nation's largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, and most of its senior officers, give nearly all their political money to Republicans, according to federal election filings through August.
CCA's political action committee has given 96 percent of its money to Republicans so far this election cycle.
[SNIP]
CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, has credited the Bush administration's expansion of federal police for creating new business for the firm.
Three times, the Corrections Corporation of America Political Action Committee made $15,000 donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. A number of $5,000 donations went to the Bush-Cheney campaign, the New Republican Majority Fund, and other GOP money groups.
Surprise, surprise: 49% of US Federal prison population is due to War on Drugs. cannabis prohibition fuels the growth of federal prisons and enriches the GOP finacially as well as politically.
When the police making the enforcement of cannabis prohibition Job #1, arresting 785000 people - your fellow Americans - for touching a plant you should think there is a problem.
When you learn that 785000 people were more than all the people arrested for real crimes (rape, robbery, murder) COMBINED, your ass - if not your soul - should hurt. You really shouldn't be rolling your eyes and glossing over it.
Now, while the Democratic Party is reclaiming some power and the GOP is falling into disarray and being seen increasingly as out of touch/out of step with America on a variety of issues, this is the time for the Dems to talk about reforming cannabis laws.
Cannabis isn't as harmful as reefer madness propaganda wants you to believe, certainly not as harmful as legal stuff like alcohol, tobacco and firearms. Yet the Federal Government spends billions spreading propaganda most people don't believe anymore. (Was there one of those infamously stupid ONDCP Superbowl ads this year? I never saw or heard anything about one.)
So why, exactly are police spending more time and resources chasong pot smokers than all violent criminals combined?
GOP ideology, courtesy of Democratic enabling through inaction. GOP ideology is the same as Federal ideology and that ideology is severely outdated. Their reports are bullshit that can't stand the light of day or 10 minutes uninterrupted discussion. The GOP has the power to keep rebroadcasting the same reefer mad bullshit and the Democratic party allows this to continue unfettered.
And yes, the issue goes well beyond the huge war on drugs. The wars on crime and terror, in conjunction with the war on drugs, makes declaring war on social issues an absolutel political and finacial goldmine for the GOP. Couple with their basic control of the media and the interlocking concerns of the wars on crime and drugs exploiting the "fears from within" and the war on terror exploiting fear from the outside" the framework for fascism is complete. Grotesquely oversimplified, this is a large part of the foundation of the GOP's political and financial power.
The inaction should stop and the Democratic party should begin talking about reforming cannabis prohibition and reigning in the war on drugs.
More reading on what I will call the GOP - private prison/contractor crimewave:
Jeb Bush's Faith-based prisons.
The GOP Protection Racket
The Private Contractor- GOP Gravytrain
[UPDATE: Human Rights Watch Report: Incarcerated America. Thanks to cewiller @ Smirking Chimp for the head's up on this: it's good.]
