One per cent of Americans now in jail
The land of the free is fast becoming the land of the incarcerated with a new Pew Centre report confirming that 1% of America's population are now behind bars.
One out of every nine black men aged between 20 to 34 is now imprisoned. That's a simply horrific figure.It says that nationwide there are now 1.6 million people in prisons, translating into one in every 99.1 adults. It has never been so high and can be traced back to a surge of prison sentences handed down through the 1990s, although the rate has continued to trend upward since 2000.
The findings also underline America's position as the most prison-heavy country in the world, far outstripping China, which has the second highest rate of imprisonment as well as Russia, ranked third.
For minority groups the picture is especially bleak. One in every 36 Hispanic adults is currently behind bars, while the number for African American men is one in 15. More stunning is the rate of imprisonment for black men aged 20 to 34, where one out of every nine is now serving time.
In particular, its authors urge states to consider focusing on alternatives to imprisonment for non-serious offenders, for instance sending drug-related criminals on counselling courses and others to community service programmes. They note that some states, notably Kansas and Texas, have already begun such experiments. There is no question that putting violent and chronic offenders behind bars lowers the crime rate and provides punishment that is well deserved," said Adam Gelb, the director of the Pew Centre's Public Safety Performance Project. "On the other hand, there are large numbers of people behind bars who could be supervised in the community safely and effectively at a much lower cost – while also paying taxes, paying restitution to their victims and paying child support."
Commending Texas and Kansas, the report states: "The new approach ... is allowing the two states to ensure they have enough prison beds for violent offenders while helping less dangerous lawbreakers become productive, taxpaying citizens."
When one in every hundred of your population are behind bars it does seem that one could consider other punishments, especially when that figure increases to one in every fifteen if you are black.
I've never heard a figure like that. It's simply astonishing, especially when one considers that regimes which are routinely portrayed as oppressive, like Russia and China, are actually jailing fewer of their citizens than their American counterparts.
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