cannabisnews.com: Nations Prison Population Climbs to Over 2 Million





Nations Prison Population Climbs to Over 2 Million
Posted by FoM on August 09, 2000 at 21:16:50 PT
Reuters
Source: Washington Post
The number of people held in U.S. prisons, jails and other correctional facilities surpassed 2 million at the end of 1999, a Justice Department report released yesterday said.The department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said the U.S. prison and jail population, long the world's largest, added nearly 74,000 inmates in 1999 for a total of 1.89 million. The rate of increase, 3.4 percent, was the smallest in 20 years.
In addition to inmates of prisons and jails, there were about 106,000 juveniles held in various facilities, 18,000 in territorial prisons, nearly 7,700 in U.S. immigration facilities, nearly 2,300 in military facilities and 1,600 in American Indian jails.The nation's prison population has swelled by 77 percent since 1990, an increase of nearly 600,000 inmates, the 16-page report found. One in every 110 men in the United States has been sentenced to at least a year's confinement, the report said.About one in every 11 black males in his late twenties was serving a sentence of a year or more in state or federal prison. At the end of last year, blacks made up 46 percent of all inmates with a sentence of at least a year, while white inmates accounted for 33 percent and Hispanics 18 percent.Allen Beck, a statistician who wrote the report, attributed the overall increase in the prison population in the 1990s to several factors, including a more than 50 percent increase in the number of parole violators returned to prison and longer average time served behind bars.Thursday , August 10, 2000 ; A04 © 2000 The Washington Post Company Related Articles & Web Site:War On Drugs Clockhttp://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htmMake War On The War on Drugshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6527.shtmlAnger Grows as US Jails Its Two Millionth Inmate http://cannabisnews.com/news/4/thread4721.shtml Prison Population to Reach 2 Million in 2000 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread3934.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 10, 2000 at 13:48:18 PT
I'm Depressed Too
I might as well jump in here and say I'm very sad. I live in a area where I haven't heard of a drug bust since the 70s and that was for possession but that was a 20 to 40 year term years ago and then they decriminalized marijuana and that was that.We owned a video business in our local town for 10 years and we had about 5000 members. People would come and go all the time and you think about how nice some people are and how nasty others are. I keep thinking of how nice this family was just because of showing such manners while renting videos. Well this man was at work where he has worked for 25 years and got a call at work and said they are raiding your house! He left and ran out the door and when he arrived at home they arrested him without any resistance. We have a weekly paper and the front page picture is a picture of them loading up ATV's onto a trailer. They were taking them and taking pictires of his earthmoving equipment. What is different is the cops looked really sad. I'm sure they are friends. One of the new cops in town has a marijuana leaf tatooed on his arm. This is sad because this whole family is going to ruined by this. This is a big bust considering it is the only one to my knowledge. They aren't even counting extra fields of pot they found but they got over 100 plants which is bad news. They said that this bust didn't come from any informer it was from a helicopter from up north that was crossing thru the county on it's way back to wherever they keep it and spotted them and called the local police and this is the result. Just needed to vent. Peace, FoM!
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Comment #5 posted by Kanabys on August 10, 2000 at 07:36:15 PT
I got one better.....
My father in law is ex military. He thinks that we should mobilize troops along both north and south borders, solid!! Then on top of that, he thinks we should execute drug dealers and users. That would solve the 'problem' eh? I wonder if he would watch as they flipped the switch on me?I'm a little depressed too, Rainbow.
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Comment #4 posted by dddd on August 10, 2000 at 07:20:16 PT
Dad
I know what you mean Rainbow.I tried to tell my Dad about the prison industry/drug war thing,and he said;"that's good,it makes work for people".I love my Dad,but he is an idiot in many ways.....dddd
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Comment #3 posted by rainbow on August 10, 2000 at 07:02:42 PT
all the same
YEP and many in our country my Dad included think that it does not matter. You break the law you go to jail period.God, I am depressed,PeaceRainbow
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Comment #2 posted by romper on August 10, 2000 at 04:28:58 PT
exactly
  Thats one of the main problems with the press they are just looking for a story no matter who it hurts or if it is even proven true. The way they see it all crimanls are the same be a murderer a rapist or a common person who just wanted to enjoy theirself by doing something that our corrupt government says is wrong.Don't get me wrong I have read some really decent articles lately hopefully some more reporters will step up to the plate VOTE NADER 
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Comment #1 posted by dddd on August 09, 2000 at 23:24:00 PT
strange
 Note how there is no mention of the percentage ofdrug POWs'....dddd
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