Prison statistics

In response to this appalling story - America has the highest number of people in prison per capita than any other country in the world - my dear husband said, "That's because we don't use the death penalty on enough of them." He's kidding, but gross.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20080314_A_COUNTRY_BEHIND_BARS.html

"A COUNTRY BEHIND BARS"
DISTURBING NEW REPORT ON THE EXPLODING PRISON POPULATION

An eye-opening look at the explosion in the prison population around the country by the Pew Center on the States, the report paints a bleak picture of a nation whose priorities have gone haywire: spending more and more money locking people up - the number is now up to one in every 100 adults in American behind bars.

What does it say about us that this country now incarcerates more people, and has spent more on corrections than any other country in the world? That includes China and Russia.

Or that we now spend 60 cents on corrections for every dollar we spend on education?

Or that larger and larger percentages of state workforces are devoted to prison work, creating a state-sponsored "prison industrial complex" that costs the country $44 billion a year?
[. . .]
Pew has tracked these numbers for about two years. And implicit in their "One in 100" report is that the prison problem has been driven by policy, not by a crime-filled environment.

The problem is not just a social one. Prisons - especially those with increasingly aging and sick populations - are hugely expensive, and get more so all the time.

The report recommends a change in direction in a few areas: shorter stays, improved probation and parole policies, jobs and social services for ex-offenders, and alternative sentences - not jail time - for low-level offenders.