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by PhxDragon from Glendale

Last Post 32 days, 19 hours Ago


National Incarceration Rate
Feb 29, 2008 | 6:26 AM
Category: News
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According to a report from the Pew Center on the States, more than 1 in 100 American adults are in jail or prison.

Now, in my line of work, that would mean steady business, but in the overall scheme of things, this is NOT a good thing.  We are ahead of the Chinese in prisoners!

The United States has 750 inmates per 100,000 people.  By comparison, South Africa has 341, Iran has 222 and China has 119 inmates per 100,000 people.  These figures are from the World Prison Brief.

It seems the "ME" generation has finally done it.  Put themselves ahead of everyone and everything else, and placed themselves in prisons and jails at a rate that even the Russians can't keep up (628 per 100,000). 

Want to stop the money wasted? $49 billion (with a B) was spent on corrections nationwide last year, averaging 6.8% of each state's budget.

Let's teach our children to respect others and their belongings, and stop thinking about themselves only!  WE need to stem this flow and now.

The majority of the prisoners we receive are new inmates, not re-offenders. 

For the record:

2,319,258 people will not vote for the Presidential election.  That is the number of inmates in the U.S. on 1 January. 

15 Comments |  Add a Comment

Member Comments Total Comments: 15
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GrnFlamingos read my blog view my photos
Feb 29, 2008 | 9:58 AM

Is the majority of prisoners new because the old are still incarcerated? They are doing longer sentences for greater crimes? If we have to keep building more facilities maybe that line of punishment isn't working.

When socialites can't serve their complete sentence because of overcrowding you know there's a problem all down the line.
azRazz read my blog view my photos
Feb 29, 2008 | 12:39 PM

Instead of locking up illeagles send them back to where they came from & secure our borders should take care that problem.
RDJVZ read my blog
Feb 29, 2008 | 3:16 PM

How about not locking up people for possessing a joint or residue in the bottom of a pipe. And don't give me that crap about pot being a gateway drug. If the Corrections Facilities would concentrate on rehabilitation instead of incarceration there wouldn't be half the problem there is now.
littlefoot1979 read my blog
Feb 29, 2008 | 3:40 PM

1 out of 100 adults....and to think that 25% arent even legal citizens of the US....fun thoughts huh?
GrnFlamingos read my blog view my photos
Feb 29, 2008 | 5:36 PM

You mean like rehabilitating all the drunk drivers works?
azslammer1
Mar 1, 2008 | 6:26 PM

that sttistic is probably right except for the state of arizona. arizona's incarceration rate is like 1 in 10 people!lol this state should just close all entry ports and ship all citzens off to somewhere else,or hire them as prison guards! then gov. janet and nickelbag joe get to build all the prisons and run them like the concentration camps that used to be in arizona! then you can keep the border open year round in arizona,just let em walk right in and lock em up!!! we'll see how many people try crossing the border then!ladmo bags for everybody,feed em on 5 cents a day.let the prisoners do all the farming and labor,don't have to be worried about real citizens being harmed! SEIG HEIL!!!!
azslammer1
Mar 1, 2008 | 6:29 PM

the voting issue in maricopa county is the same with all the felons! nickelbag joe has the plan to keep getting elected make as many people that are against him felons,plain and simple!!!
Common_Sense read my blog
Mar 2, 2008 | 2:24 PM

I think BLEEP-slammer1 has spent some time "inside." Thus his screen name.
PhxDragon read my blog view my photos
Mar 3, 2008 | 8:44 AM

Rehabilitation? There isn't enough time in most sentences for rehab. How do you rehabilitate a drug abuser when they are only sentenced to 5 years? It takes longer than that to get them off the abused drug, and stable, much less take care of the DT's and then attempt to redirect the behavior to more healthy and accepted means of outlet.

DUI's take even longer to rehab. If it is a single incident that is a mistake, it doesn't take long to rehab. If it is a recurrent problem, 20 years won't make it.

Don't mistake prison for rehabilitation. It's about the punishment first. You as jurors chose to punish them with the time to keep them away from you and your families. If you want rehab, sentence them to facilities that specialize in that.
RDJVZ read my blog
Mar 3, 2008 | 10:56 AM

Phxdragon you are so wrong. There are new ways to get the drugs out your system within 48 hrs thus diminishing the time a user needs to be rehabbed. On that same note. Why should someone who is caught smoking pot for their own enjoyment be sentenced to the same time a murder is? Yep our court system makes a lot of sense.
PhxDragon read my blog view my photos
Mar 3, 2008 | 12:04 PM

Getting drugs out of your system and getting the need or "habit" out of your system are two different things. Marijuana is still listed as an illegal drug. If you want to get that "fixed," contact your legislators.
RDJVZ read my blog
Mar 3, 2008 | 12:44 PM

My point is not getting drugs out of your system. My point is that more people are in prison for minor offenses such as getting busted with a joint then need be. The court system is broken has been for a long time. When someone has a picture of child porn on their computer and hasn't acted out they get 25 years for it and a murderer gets 10 years? Something is terribly wrong. When a person is busted with a joint and gets 5 to 10 and someone driving drunk might get 1 to 5 for killing someone, something is wrong. The whole system is broken from the court sentencing to the way prisons are run. This blog is about the incarceration rate not drug abuse. If the courts would prioritize then the incarceration rates might drop. Some people do deserve Rehabilitation and others just need to sit and rot. Don't misconstrue what I've stated. i could contact my legislators until I'm blue in the face and they couldn't care less. It's the way the Government is run.
PhxDragon read my blog view my photos
Mar 3, 2008 | 9:30 PM

Why, imagine my surprise when I see the blog (which I wrote) was about the incarceration rate.

We can only enforce the laws that are handed down by the legislature. If the legislature stipulates certain crimes to be sentenced within specific guidelines, the juries must follow those guidelines. Look at the public records of court cases where certain judges impose penalties disproportionately against certain genders. A man and a woman can commit the same crime, sometimes as co-defendants, yet their sentences are so different, one looks like a murderer and the other looks like a litterer. It goes both ways, by the way, men more than women then women more than men, depending on the judge.
petersdraggin view my photos
Mar 4, 2008 | 11:24 AM

well if we get rid of all the illigals in our jails and gas the people on death row instead of letting them sit in our prisons and cost us money,our jails would not be so full.
GrnFlamingos read my blog view my photos
Mar 4, 2008 | 4:13 PM

Exactly. They are not getting parole so why use up tax money better spent elsewhere.

Rehab only works as a vacation resort for the wealthy.
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PhxDragon

I am a state employee, and regard your safety as the highest goal to achieve each and every day. I have been a news reporter for print, audio and television media. I despise any media outlet reporting partial or erroneous material(s). Hockey is my passion (not as a participant), and my sons are playing and learning. Go 'Yotes!

Member Since: 5/21/2007


 

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