Peyvast
Peyvast has moved to beyondmedia.blog.com“Land of the Free” …..no more !
by David ET on Feb.29, 2008, under Uncategorized
According to a newly published report, 2,319,258 Americans were behind bars as of January 2008. This means 1 in 99 Americans currently reside in Federal, State or local prisons!16 of the 50 US states have less population than the 2.3 million Americans who are behind bars! In other words if all the US inmates are put in to one state, their numbers would slightly be less than the whole population of the state of Nevada but more than either states of: New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont or Wyoming. The number of US prisoners are higher than the population of the last 4 listed states combined!
- Comparing to the US cities, a city filled with US inmates would rank as the 4th populated city in the United States, only falling behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The city of inmates would have more population that other major US cities such as Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas, Detroit, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver or San Jose.
While the United States government (or the land of the free as she still wish to be called !) is blaming the people of the middle east and the rest of the world for its lack of sense of security , it is quietly putting more and more of its own disenfranchised population behind bars. Unless America quickly address the source of it’s growing social problems, it may soon find out that the true challenge to the it’s security, does not reside outside the US borders but within America….and by noone but the millions of Americans who have been left behind. 2.3 million of them already behind bars and many others: not yet!.
Many US inmates are released much earlier than the term of their verdict due to the overcrowding and if there were enough room available, the actual number of inmates would have substantially been higher than 2.3 million .
Scary how American society in so many ways resembles Iran; Instead of addressing the roots of their self-inflicted social problems and violence, they both incarcerate or execute their citizens.
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February 29th, 2008 on 1:14 pm
Eye-Opening ,TY David.
In my local paper today a drug dealer was sentenced to prison with a ‘geographic location restriction’ as a deterrent for picking up where he left off upon his release. However to eliminate the # of incarcerated individuals ending back up in prison I like the new legislation that is being formulated now here in MA. At the forefront of it is a law that will require each felon to be part of a 9 month Re-Entry progarm to educate & rehabilitate the ex-con to avoid further incarceration. I think ‘that’ is key to help lower the #’s in prisons over time. Here’s a link to the article: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0223/p01s02-usju.htm
February 29th, 2008 on 2:23 pm
Helping the inmates re-enter the normal life is a GREAT idea.
ALSO , the whole judicial system must re-adjust towards rehabilitation versus punishment, since it is by now obvious that the only punishment has not been effective.
A little extra investment in rahabilitaion and education would save much long run by preventing repeat offence.
Not to mention that more fundamnetal social problems, imabalances, lack of education or improper standards go to the root of the bigger issue.
An ounce of PREVENTION ….