The Race to Incarcerate: 2,000,000 and Growing

by Giles Larsen/Andy Jones (glarsen6 [at] hotmail.com)

Fri, Jun 29, 2001 4:32PM

Visit http://utah.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=703&group=webcast
for the full story - put together from Angela Davis' speech in Utah during International Women's Day, a workshop about prison issues during the "People's Summit on Globalization" in Colorado in March, and interviews with local activists and officials.

During the '90s, the United States surpassed South African, Russia, and China in the proportion of its citizens locked up behind bars. The race to incarcerate has been fueled by a "rage to punish," but in the process, we have inadvertently recreated all the vestiges of a forgotten horror - slavery. Minorities form the majority demographic within the prison system, where they are stripped of their humanity, and exploited for economic gain by the private sector. Some states even permanently disenfranchise their felons. When newborn black males have more than a 1 in 4 chance of going to prison in this country during their lifetimes while white males have a 1 in 23 chance of serving time, we have the moral obligation to reorient our convictions of crime and punishment.

Add Your Comments

§Rates of Incarceration

by Pat Kincaid (laughter [at] aol.com)

Sat, Jun 30, 2001 9:25AM

Incarceration rates are actually -declining- in the U.S.

Also, it's funny how no-one has made the connection between record incarceration and record crime drops.

PK

Add a Comment

§USA versus civilized nations. Incarceration.

by Disinformation buster.

Fri, Jul 20, 2001 8:19PM

Actually, the US incarceration rate is NOT declining, though it may be stabilizing at an astronomical level. And how come other nations have much lower murder rates and a fraction of our incarceration rate?

*WORLD DRUG WAR CHARTS. JUST THE CHARTS. Tables and rates. For incarceration, race, jail, prison, cannabis, drugs, mandatory minimums, drug related crime, poverty, murder, and more. Revised. Very few notes. The USA has over 2 million of the world's 8 million prisoners. So, the USA has 5% of the world's population, and 25% of the world's prisoners. The USA surpassed Russia in the year 2000 and now has the world's highest incarceration rate! It is 5 to 17 times higher than all other Western (long democratic traditions) nations. 6.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend 1999 in the USA. That means 3.1% of all U.S. adult residents were under correctional supervision.
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/charts2.htm and
http://members.fortunecity.com/multi19/charts2.htm

Add a Comment

Support Independent Media

We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!