proteanmix
Plumage and Moult
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
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This has come to my attention recently, I may turn it into a thread.
I've been reading about the prison economy via Prison Industrial Complexes which use inmates as cheap sources of labor. This isn't a new concept but in conjunction with the prison economy that has seen rapid growth in the United States over the last 15 years it has been labeled abusive especially in private prisons that are paid by state and federal governments per prisoner and sometimes per day in addition to per inmate. Incentives to keep the prison population growing right there. God knows how many politicians are getting their coffers filled from the support of private prisons.
From what I understand the logic behind this booming industry is the idea that more prisons will deter criminals. That has not been the case. To me it seems like expanding a highway to alleviate traffic when all that highway does is fill up again within five years. And if this idea is applied elsewhere then building new schools should have the same effect but obviously it doesn't. And obviously this is fraught with racial issues because most of America's prison population is people of color (blacks and Hispanics). Currently there are more black men aged 18-24 in prison than in college. And while rate of violent crime in the US has fallen from 1991-2004, prison building increased.
As of June 2007 Source
I've been reading about the prison economy via Prison Industrial Complexes which use inmates as cheap sources of labor. This isn't a new concept but in conjunction with the prison economy that has seen rapid growth in the United States over the last 15 years it has been labeled abusive especially in private prisons that are paid by state and federal governments per prisoner and sometimes per day in addition to per inmate. Incentives to keep the prison population growing right there. God knows how many politicians are getting their coffers filled from the support of private prisons.
From what I understand the logic behind this booming industry is the idea that more prisons will deter criminals. That has not been the case. To me it seems like expanding a highway to alleviate traffic when all that highway does is fill up again within five years. And if this idea is applied elsewhere then building new schools should have the same effect but obviously it doesn't. And obviously this is fraught with racial issues because most of America's prison population is people of color (blacks and Hispanics). Currently there are more black men aged 18-24 in prison than in college. And while rate of violent crime in the US has fallen from 1991-2004, prison building increased.
As of June 2007 Source
- 2,299,116 prisoners were held in federal or state prisons or in local jails – an increase of 1.8% from yearend 2006, less than the average annual growth of 2.6% from 2000-2006.
- 1,528,041 sentenced prisoners were under state or federal jurisdiction.
- there were an estimated 509 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents – up from 501 at yearend 2006.
- the number of women under the jurisdiction of state or federal prison authorities increased 2.5% from yearend 2006, reaching 115,308, and the number of men rose 1.5%, totaling 1,479,726.
