13% of black men in late 20s in jail or prison

[Clandestino]

U.S. Prison Population Soars in 2003, '04

1 hour, 37 minutes ago U.S. National - AP


By SIOBHAN McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Growing at a rate of about 900 inmates each week between mid-2003 and mid-2004, the nation's prisons and jails held 2.1 million people, or one in every 138 U.S. residents, the government reported Sunday.

By last June 30, there were 48,000 more inmates, or 2.3 percent, more than the year before, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The total inmate population has hovered around 2 million for the past few years, reaching 2.1 million on June 30, 2002, and just below that mark a year later.

While the crime rate has fallen over the past decade, the number of people in prison and jail is outpacing the number of inmates released, said the report's co-author, Paige Harrison. For example, the number of admissions to federal prisons in 2004 exceeded releases by more than 8,000, the study found.

Harrison said the increase can be attributed largely to get-tough policies enacted in the 1980s and 1990s. Among them are mandatory drug sentences, "three-strikes-and-you're-out" laws for repeat offenders, and "truth-in-sentencing" laws that restrict early releases.

"As a whole most of these policies remain in place," she said. "These policies were a reaction to the rise in crime in the '80s and early 90s."

Added Malcolm Young, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which promotes alternatives to prison: "We're working under the burden of laws and practices that have developed over 30 years that have focused on punishment and prison as our primary response to crime."


He said many of those incarcerated are not serious or violent offenders, but are low-level drug offenders. Young said one way to help lower the number is to introduce drug treatment programs that offer effective ways of changing behavior and to provide appropriate assistance for the mentally ill.


According to the Justice Policy Ins ute, which advocates a more lenient system of punishment, the United States has a higher rate of incarceration than any other country, followed by Britain, China, France, Japan and Nigeria.


There were 726 inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents by June 30, 2004, compared with 716 a year earlier, according to the report by the Justice Department agency. In 2004, one in every 138 U.S. residents was in prison or jail; the previous year it was one in every 140.


In 2004, 61 percent of prison and jail inmates were of racial or ethnic minorities, the government said. An estimated 12.6 percent of all black men in their late 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.7 percent of white men in that age group, the report said.


Other findings include:


_State prisons held about 2,500 youths under 18 in 2004. That compares with a peak, in 1995, of about 5,300. Local jails held about 7,000 youths, down from 7,800 in 1995.


_In the year ending last June 30, 13 states reported an increase of at least 5 percent in the federal system, led by Minnesota, at about 13 percent; Montana at 10.5 percent; Arkansas at 9 percent.


Among the 12 states that reported a decline in the inmate population were Alabama, 7 percent; Connecticut, 2.5 percent; and Ohio, 2 percent.


___


On the Net:

Bureau of Justice Statistics: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs


maybe these tough policies are why the crime rate went down...

[Nbadan]

In 2004, 61 percent of prison and jail inmates were of racial or ethnic minorities, the government said. An estimated 12.6 percent of all black men in their late 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.7 percent of white men in that age group, the report said.

Everything else being equal, Blacks and Hispanics are also more likely to be searched than caucasions. Drug abuse and selling runs equally rampant through almost every racial group and income status in the U.S., the difference is that minorities are usually the low-level dealers, and are more likely to be arrested or investigated by law enforcement. Especially once they are repeat offenders. I agree with the author that drug treatment and education can work better than incarcaration in most cases.

[exstatic]

The "war on drugs" has about as much relavence as the war in Vietnam: someone once thought they both were a good idea, and they both turned into money pits and charnal houses.

[MannyIsGod]

But no, slavery has no lingering effects on society. None.

[Clandestino]

crime has fallen, number of people in prisons has risen.. sounds like something good to me...

re:slavery... jews were slaves for a long time, but you don't see them topping the criminal charts...

[MannyIsGod]

Jewish assimilation and segregation is much different. It also doesn't change the fact that black slavery in the United States left at the very least indirect effects on today's society.

[timvp]

Damn, I only got three or four more years. Better make the most of it.

[exstatic]

Wear your shirt when the time comes, LJ. Much less chance to wind up on Cops.

[Clandestino]

Jewish assimilation and segregation is much different. It also doesn't change the fact that black slavery in the United States left at the very least indirect effects on today's society.

you love to blame all the problems on slavery.. time for them to stop making excuses and do something productive...

[MannyIsGod]

Gun shot victims love blaming everything on the damn bullet too. Geez, why don't they hury up and heal already?

It is a FACT that slavery has had a negative effect on the African American population and you posted the statistics to back it up. I'm STILL waiting for a reason why slavery shouldn't be taken into account in these statistics.

[Gatita]

I say good riddens to bad rubbish. I would rather have them locked up in jail, then getting "treatment" or "counseling".

[desflood]

Gun shot victims love blaming everything on the damn bullet too. Geez, why don't they hury up and heal already?

It is a FACT that slavery has had a negative effect on the African American population and you posted the statistics to back it up. I'm STILL waiting for a reason why slavery shouldn't be taken into account in these statistics.

Because they are not slaves anymore. They now have choices. If they choose to commit crimes, I'll gladly help them on their way to prison.

[MannyIsGod]

Because they are not slaves anymore. They now have choices. If they choose to commit crimes, I'll gladly help them on their way to prison.

Individuals hav choices. You don't look at an entire segment of society and then catagorize what causes their actions by such a genralization.

I've made this arguement a million times, and what I wish people would understand when they decide to make the rebuttal that everyone has choices is that those two things are not mutally exclusive. Individuals can have a choice and slavery.

I sense that many people here have difficulty looking at from the sociological equivilant of a birds eye view. Yes, we are all individuals who have the ability to affect our outcomes with our choices, but when looking at an entire society individuals don't account for much.

An argument that slavery and the discrimination that followed it is not one that says a black person cannot make themselves into everything a white person can. It simply states that those afformentoined actions have had an effect on the entirety of black society as a whole; an effect we can still see today.

Success in life is not mearly dependent on your decisions. Many of the factors in this include the tpe of education you recieve, the type of environment you develop in, and whether or not you encounter any forms of discrimination in your life. This is overly simplified in order to make a point in one post.

Generations in the past encountered much more of the former; direct discrimination. But many subsequent generations, including the current one, suffer from negative results from the discrimination which in turn have led to a substandered level of education and developmental environment.

So whether or not you believe that there should be active intervention because of it, it is undenaible that slavery's ill effects are still felt today.

[MannyIsGod]

Because they are not slaves anymore. They now have choices. If they choose to commit crimes, I'll gladly help them on their way to prison.

Oh, and the most ironic thing about this post is the quote it's followed by in your signature.

[The Ressurrected One]

Crime is down and prison populations are up. There's got to be a correlation -- regardless of the race of the incarcerated.

Granted, if more white criminals were put in jail, crime would drop faster and prison populations would rise proportionally. However, making the argument that putting more blacks in jail than whites is unfair just doesn't wash.

Who really cares what the race of a criminal is, so long as he's behind bars? Would you really have them reduce the number of black criminals that are incarcerated simply because they're disproportionately represented in the prison population?

I notice that few are arguing the innocence of black prisoners -- just that they are disproportionately picked on...

I say we arrest more white criminals instead.

[MannyIsGod]

I'm all for putting all criminals in jail, and I never said otherwise. I'm talking about the dispraportions and what causes those rates of higher criminal activity in said culture.

[The Ressurrected One]

I'm all for putting all criminals in jail, and I never said otherwise.

Okay.

I'm talking about the dispraportions and what causes those rates of higher criminal activity in said culture.

I can answer that one. The cause is -- drum roll please -- CRIMINALS!

[desflood]

Oh, and the most ironic thing about this post is the quote it's followed by in your signature.

I thought you'd say that. What is their excuse for raising "broken men"?

[desflood]

Manny, you're a of a debator, but you should know this: When you consistently defend certain minorities as "victims of their society", even as they leave an ever-increasing number of true victims in their wake, it comes across as biased, even a tad prejudiced. I don't think you are (although my opinion probably means jack-squat to you), but it does come through in your arguments at times.

[SPARKY]

They're right where they belong.



[/tparkkk]

[The Ressurrected One]

Actually, Frederick Douglass was a strong defender of the U.S. Cons ution and an avid admirer of the great men who founded this country and wrote that do ent -- even with it's flaws related to how blacks were treated.

Funny how few black leaders today can have the temperment and wisdom of Frederick Douglass.

In many of his speeches, Mr. Douglass refused to apply contemporary conventional wisdom to the founding fathers and, further, he recognized the difficulty with which those men were faced -- both abolitionists and pro-slavery colonialists.

But, I digress...referencing his signature quote from Frederick Douglass was irrelevant to the conversation.

[exstatic]

I say good riddens to bad rubbish. I would rather have them locked up in jail, then getting "treatment" or "counseling".

One of the most ignorant things I've seen posted here, and that's saying a lot. You'd better hope that if you ever come upon some unfortunate cir stances in your life that you don't run into someone with your level of "compassion".

[The Ressurrected One]

One of the most ignorant things I've seen posted here, and that's saying a lot. You'd better hope that if you ever come upon some unfortunate cir stances in your life that you don't run into someone with your level of "compassion".

unfortunate cir stance = criminal act?

Do elaborate...

[Clandestino]

there is no excuse for raping, murdering, dealing drugs, etc... do the crime, do the time. if more blacks C H O O S E to make their living illegally then more blacks will be incarcarated...

many mexicans who come over come from terrible lives, but the hispanic rate is way lower than the black rate...

it is their choice.. choose to work hard or choose to try to take the easy way out...

[exstatic]

Were those Mexicans ever slaves? Did they have to wait 100 years to go to public schools with white kids?