Day: March 12, 2008

The American gulag. This is so shameful. Fortunately McCain, Obama, and the Clintons have all pledged to cut these numbers in half. Not.

1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says
By ADAM LIPTAK, NYT
Published: February 28, 2008

For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

The report, from the Pew Center on the States, also found that only one in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 are behind bars but that one in 100 black women are.

The report’s methodology differed from that used by the Justice Department, which calculates the incarceration rate by using the total population rather than the adult population as the denominator. Using the department’s methodology, about one in 130 Americans is behind bars.

Update: What's even more scandalous is these concentration camps are increasingly being privatized. Read here about the appalling medical conditions of prisoners left untreated by these beneficiaries of the "free market."