The US Prison System is Growing Out of Control

The US, which has 4.6% of the world population, incarcerates 22% of the world's total number of prisoners. The incidence of violent crime is no lower in the US than other industrialized countries that all have lower rates of incarceration.

Today in the US a record 2.1 million persons are behind bars. Over half of them committed non-violent offenses. In 1970, 1 in every 1000 people were behind bars. In just over 30 years, that rate has increased 7 times - a phenomenal rate of growth, mainly due to the galloping "war on drugs" prosecutions and a general get-tough mandatory sentencing policy on all classes of offenses.

The 2002 United States’ rate of incarceration of 701 inmates per 100,000 population is the highest reported rate in the world, now ahead of Russia’s rate of 611 per 100,000.

Race in US Prisons

Close to 7 of every 1000 African American men are behind bars at any given moment which is more than 7 times the rate for white men. Close to 5 in every 1000 African American women are in prison today which is over 6 times higher than the rate for white women. Minorities, primarily African Americans and Latinos, make up 65 percent of prison population while whites make up only 35 percent. In 1950, the percentages were reversed.

One in three African American men between the ages of 20 and 29 were under some form of criminal justice control (in prison, jail, parole or probation) in 1995. Other studies have shown that half the young men in Washington, DC, and more than half of the young men in Baltimore are under criminal justice control. An African American male born in 1991 stood a 29% chance of being imprisoned at some point in his life, compared to 4 percent for a white male born that year.

Taxation without Representation

Nationwide 2.28% of all voting age Americans - close to 4 million people - cannot vote because of their criminal records. This includes 13% of all African American men (1.4 million total). Eight states deny the vote for life to all ex offenders. Fifteen states bar felons from voting even after they have served their sentences. This accounts for the 1.4 million former offenders who cannot vote who have completed their criminal sentences. No other democracy denies as many people the right to vote because of their criminal records.

In the states with the most restrictive voting laws, 40 percent of African American men are likely to be permanently disenfranchised under the current trends. And consider that in Florida, it is estimated that 300,000 African American, Latino and Haitian voters were unable to vote in the most recent presidential election.

Cost of Prisons

Nationwide, the US incarcerates more than 2 million people at an estimated yearly cost of over 40 billion dollars. The California prison yearly budget for 2002-2003 was 5.37 billion (6.2% of total state budget) while the cost to the state of the University of California was only 3.6 billion in 2002-2003.

States around the country spent more building prisons than colleges in 1995 for the first time. There was nearly a dollar-for-dollar tradeoff between corrections and higher education, with university construction funds decreasing by $945 million (to $2.5 billion) while corrections funding increased by $926 million (to $2.6 billion).

Over the last twenty years California built twenty-one new prisons but only one new college. Since 1990, California laid-off over 10,000 professors and other university employees and hired a similar number of prison guards.

Drug offenders doing hard time!

- 27% of state prisoners convicted of drug offenses for possession only

- 16% for possessions with intent to distribute

- 58% of state drug prisoners – an estimated 124,885 inmates – have no history of violence or high level drug activity.

- Three-quarters of the drug offenders in state prisons have only been convicted of drug and/or non-violent offenses; one-third of the total have only been convicted of drug crimes.

- Four of every five drug prisoners are African-American (56%) and Hispanic (23%), well above their respective rates (13% and 9%) of overall drug use.

- 1 in 4 jail inmates in 1996 was in jail for a drug offense, compared to 1 in 10 in 1983; drug offenders constituted 21% of 1999 state prison inmates and 57% of 1999 federal prison inmates.

- 70% of those sentenced to state prisons in 1998 were convicted of non-violent crimes, including 31% for drug offenses, and 26% for property offenses. (www.sentencingproject.org)

Crack Sentencing Policy

Although the two types of cocaine cause similar physical reactions, the sentences that users and sellers of the drugs face are vastly different. For powder cocaine, a conviction of possession with intent to distribute carries a five year sentence for quantities of 500 grams or more. But for crack, a conviction of possession with intent to distribute carries a five year sentence for only 5 grams. A dealer charged with trafficking 400 grams of powder, worth approximately $40,000, could receive a shorter sentence than a user he supplied with crack valued at $500. Power can be injected with effects similar to crack.

Crack is also the only drug that carries a mandatory prison sentence for first offense possession. A person convicted in federal court of possession of 5 grams of crack automatically receives a 5 year prison term. The maximum sentence for simple possession of any other drug is 1 year for a first offense. A person convicted with 5 grams of powder cocaine will probably receive probation. The maximum sentence for simple possession of any other drug, including powder cocaine, is 1 year in jail. Defendants convicted of crack possession in 1994 were 84.5% black, 10.3% white, and 5.2% Hispanic despite the fact that 2/3s of the users are white and Latino. (www.sentencingproject.org)

People Getting Rich off Prisons

During the past 20 years, more than 30 states have legalized the use of prison labor by private companies. Three privately owned corrections management firms are trading on the stock exchange: Corrections Corp. of America, Wackenhut Corrections Corp., and ESMOR Corrections Services and 17 other private prison companies have built 100 incarceration facilities on factory design plans so the prison labor can serve corporate America. Microsoft uses prison labor to ship Windows Software, TWA to book flights, and Honda to make car parts.

Since the 1970's over 35 million jobs have been eliminated and nearly 3 million real manufacturing jobs have been lost. Today, 8.2 million Americans hold more than 2 jobs, twice the figure of the 4 million in 1970. On average, today Americans work the longest in the industrialized world, clocking in 1,966 hours at work as compared to the 1980 average of 1,883 hours. Productivity thus rose by 20 percent in the same period.

The wealthiest 2.7 million Americans have as much to spend as the poorest 100 million.

Sources:

- The Sentencing Project (www.sentencingproject.org)

- The Western Prison Project (www.westernprisonproject.org)

- Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics

(http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs)

- Justice Policy Institute (www.justicypolicy.org)

- International Labor Organization report