7M in U.S. jails, on probation or parole - Yahoo! News

7M in U.S. jails, on probation or parole

By KASIE HUNT, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 18 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A record 7 million people — or one in every 32 American adults — were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday....

..."Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails."

From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth.
====================

I'm starting to wonder- no, that's a lie, I've been wondering for several decades now- just what the reactionary, fear-based thinking of the Conservative Right is worth. They seem to keep demanding actions and penalties that only serve to make a potentially bad situation worse. As in prohibition, they sought to eliminate a "social problem" only to create a host of new problems while failing to eliminate that which they feared. On top of it like-minded conservatives demanded action in the "War on Drugs" that accomplished little more than helping to empower not only the drug cartels and criminal gangs but have inadvertently helped provide incredible wealth to groups like the Taliban and al Qeada.
Wouldn't it make more sense to reduce our prison population and rip the profits out from under the drug cartels, criminal gangs and terror groups like the Taliban and al Qeada by legalizing them?
It should have been done a long time ago, but it's that "lure of easy money" that has apparently prevented that. It has a very strong appeal!

Sadly, as a result, we currently have more people per capita in prison in this "land of the free" than any other nation on earth- including the most repressive ones!

Something is very wrong with this picture!

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.

how is this a conservatives dream? Is it a liberals dream to allow all the muderers, rapists, chronic drug abusers, theives, and child molesters to run the streets? Oh, thats right--it is. Quite obviously the liberals dont care about the lives in the ghettos who give them votes in the elections?

Here we have a perfect example of a blinded leftist aka progressive.
Which party has imprisoned more people? I say the leftist aka progressives.

Which party was in charge when thousand of Americans of Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry were incarcerated in internment camps? I believe it was the leftist aka progressives. This was done in what name? To make America safer.

Which party takes credit for passing domestic violence laws, hate laws, drunk driving laws and gun control laws? You know most of the laws people doing time now are charged with. I believe it is the leftist aka progressives.

Which party is demanding that more American citizens and more private property be searched in the name of making America safer? I believe it is the leftist aka progressives.

I don't think George the Monkey is a "leftist aka progressive" is he? He and his buddies managed to force through the Patriot Act, set up secret prisons, tortured people sub rosa, got a law passed to allow torture, abrogated the Constitutional rights of Americans by spying on them illegally, suspended parts of the Bill of Rights so that "terrorists" (anybody they didn't like) could be disappeared, and lied to the American people in order to start another deadend war.

__________________
The apocalypse is coming... we're gonna need more ammo.

To ReddAlert and Diehard

I think you forget that it is, and was, conservatives- - notably Christian Conservatives , that created this reality, out of reactionary fear- based thinking. Know what a very conservative Georgia redneck told me once?
He told me :

"Don't ever let something scare you so bad that it makes you hurt yourself"

And that is precisely what folks like you have done, and we can see the consequences of that fear- based reactionary thinking in the fact that we have more people in prison per capita of any nation on the planet, including the most repressive ones.

I don't believe that was the case when the Democrats were in power.

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.

Where are these secret prison camps you are talking about and what Americas are in them? I can show you pictures of American citizens being rounded up and herded into internment camps. A pretty leftist aka progressive name for concentration camp.

Couple of things to think about. First, if the percentage of people in jail and on parole is roughly the same as in the past, then the AP writer is not doing her homework. Remember, we just passed the 300 million mark. Second, we are being inundated with illegals. I recently read a report that said 4 million to 10 million illegals crossed into the US in 2005 alone. Along with this, you have to consider what percentage of illegals are in jails. If I'm not mistaken, illegals make up around 25 to 30% of the prision population.


Kramer

Come on leftist aka progressives where are the secret prisons you rant and rave about?

Oh by the way if you know about them there secret prisons I have news for you. They are not secret prisons.

How many Americans are locked up in these so called secret prisons?

That's the perfect proof! There are no secret prisons. Either they don't exist, or you can prove that they exist, in which case they don't exist.

It's like saying "You can't prove there infections are caused by invisible germs. If we can see them - they're not invisible! What's that, you can't see any? Then germs don't exist!"

Priceless...

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Hey leftist aka progressive I did not say them there secret prisons existed. I believe the leftist aka progressives are the ones crying about secret prisons.

The prison population has soared because of "three strike" laws and mandatory drug sentencing.
We now have a higher percentage of people "in the system" than either the old Soviet Union or apartheid South Africa.

The system is broke, and it needs fixing, and it's an opportunity to seriously reduce the cost government, I hope the new majority party makes it a major issue.

__________________
“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

Hey offender of the perversion of homosexuality aka big government lover take a look above you and you might catch a glimpse of the point flying right over your head.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

See how twisted leftist aka progressives are. Did I say I defended big government? No, I simply pointed out which party has rounded up and herded into internment camps( leftist aka progressive pretty name for concentration camp) more Americans citizens then the conservatives. I believe that party was the leftist aka progressives. You know democrats.

True enough - you big-government liberals sure do have some funny ideas.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Quit looking for excuses, Kramer. It won't fly!

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.