From the Drug War Chronicle by Phillip Smith
source: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/153508/are_we_moving_towards_reform_for_the_first_time_in_40_y...
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- percipi224
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This article by Smith is very informative. The prison populations has gone down for the first time decades. More prisoners were being released than being incarcerated for the first time since 1977 when records started being kept.
"In two reports releases last week, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced that for the first time since 1972, the US prison population had fallen from the previous year and that for the second year in a row, the number of people under the supervision of adult correctional authorities had also declined.
In its report Prisoners in 2010, BJS reported that the overall US prison population at the end of 2010 was 1,605,127, a decrease of 9,228 prisoners or 0.6% from year end 2009. The number of state prisoners declined by 0.8% (10,881 prisoners), while the number of federal prisoners increased by 0.8% (1.653 prisoners)."
Drug offenders in state prisons make up 18% but in federal prison they make up a "whopping" 51%.
At the end of 2010, about 7.1 million people, or one in 33 adults, were either in prison or on probation or parole. About 1.4 million were in state prisons, 200,000 in federal prison, and 700,000 in jail, for a total imprisoned population of about 2.3 million. Nearly 4.9 million people were on probation or parole.
America's experiment with mass incarceration may have peaked, exhausted by its huge costs, but change is coming very slowly, and we are still the world's unchallenged leader in imprisoning our own citizens.
"In two reports releases last week, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced that for the first time since 1972, the US prison population had fallen from the previous year and that for the second year in a row, the number of people under the supervision of adult correctional authorities had also declined.
In its report Prisoners in 2010, BJS reported that the overall US prison population at the end of 2010 was 1,605,127, a decrease of 9,228 prisoners or 0.6% from year end 2009. The number of state prisoners declined by 0.8% (10,881 prisoners), while the number of federal prisoners increased by 0.8% (1.653 prisoners)."
Drug offenders in state prisons make up 18% but in federal prison they make up a "whopping" 51%.
At the end of 2010, about 7.1 million people, or one in 33 adults, were either in prison or on probation or parole. About 1.4 million were in state prisons, 200,000 in federal prison, and 700,000 in jail, for a total imprisoned population of about 2.3 million. Nearly 4.9 million people were on probation or parole.
America's experiment with mass incarceration may have peaked, exhausted by its huge costs, but change is coming very slowly, and we are still the world's unchallenged leader in imprisoning our own citizens.
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percipi224
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I am one to banter around numbers like 3/4s of prisoners are drug offenders. I was glad to see not so much, but wondered how many prisoners were in for violent offenses that were drug related. We still incarcerate more people than anywhere else. Given the fact of so many on probation or parole we need to do more to keep people out of prison and bring them back into society. We are failing in that regard.
- 5 months ago
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percipi224
