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AMERICA BEHIND BARS Welcome to the United States of America; home of the brave, land of the free. Well not completely free. Matter of fact America has the highest prison population rate in the world, some 738 per 100,000 of the national population, topping out over countries like Russia and China. During 2007, the prison population increased more rapidly than the U.S. resident population. To put this in perspective, take Germany’s prison population: 93 people for every 100 adults are behind bars. In the U.S, the rate is roughly eight times that. There is constant talk about the over crowding of prisons nation wide where the prison system in our country is operating at 32 percent over rated capacity. The state of California built 21 new prisons and only one new university over the last two decades. They also spent 8.8 billion dollars on corrections for the year 2007. With a total of 42.9 billion dollars spent on corrections nation wide; compare that to the 24.7 billion spent on public assistance (social welfare i.e. food stamps, medical assistance etc.). There is clearly an issue on our hands. With increases of correctional control rates in a majority of states; if these rates continue to grow, these conditions could potentially jeopardize public safety. So why

is our nation facing this problem? Is violent crimes really so abundant? Well, actually no, they only account up to about 40 to 50 percent of the prison population. So why are the other 50 percent behind bars? Simply put; drugs. In Federal prisons 55 percent of inmates are drug offenders serving an average sentence length of three and a half years. This is critical in addressing the prison population crisis. First, regardless on your stance on drugs, these offenders spend over three years behind bars, which ends up a very costly stay. Who pays? You, of course, the great American tax payer. When these offenders get done serving their three years behind bars full of drug addicts, murderers. rapists do you think they are going to come back into society as perfect little angels? Actually its a fact that 1 in every for non violent offender serving time will come back for a violent crime. Our Nations Correctional Control has many problems that Americans need to be aware of. We need to resolve these matters in a timely fashion before the problem gets out of our control. Below are statistics by state that break down how great our prison population rate is, and shouldn’t be.

1 in 35 eleven percent women

1 in 53 seven percent women

1 in 54 nine percent women


1 in 38 six percent women



1 in 27 �ve percent women


1 in 27 four percent women


1 in 29 ten percent women




1 in 36 twelve percent women


1 in 26 eight percent women



1 in 32 thirteen percent women












Alabama Alaska ARIZONA ARKANSAS CALIFORNIA COLORADO CONNECTICUT

DELAWARE FLORIDA HAWAII ILLINOIS

KENTUCKY MASSACHUSETTS MICHAGAN

MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI MONTANA NEBRASKA NEW MEXICO

NORTH CAROLINA




1 in 40 one percent women








ohIo oklahoma oregon pennsylvanIa






IOWA KANSAS MAINE

NEVADA NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW YORK

north dakota


rhode Island south carolIna south dakota

tennesse texas utah vermont vIrgInIa washIngton west vIrgInIa wIsconsIn wyomIng


NEW JERSEY

GEORGIA IDAHO INDIANA

LOUISIANA MARYLAND MINNESOTA

highest twenty percentlowest twenty percent

State

Amount spent (in cents) compared to one dollar spent on higher education

Total amount spent on corrections

Percent increase from last year ( *decrease)

Total amount of adults incarcerated

HI

6,036 / 1.2205m

31

WY

2,053 / 2.9*82m

23

HI

6,036 / 1.2205m

31

AK

5,306 / 4.7227m

77

WA

18,126 / 3.2832m

55 ID

7,319 / 2.7179m

56 MT

3,431 / 3.9*142m

81 ND

1,440 / 5.655m

24 MN

9,573 / 5.1438m

17 WI

22,690 / 3.2*890m

73 MI

50,326 /2.4*2.06b

1.19

OR

13,855 / 1.1684m

1.06 NV

13,552 / 5222m

43 SD

3,302 / 1.7*74m

41 IA

9,419 / 6.1313m

38 IL

45,305 / 0.41.12b

51 IN

26,249 / 0.6649m

40

CA

171,444 / 2.3*8.8b

31

AZ

37,800 / 5.3895m

77

UT

6,533 / 1.6324m

41 NE

4,472 / 1.5172m

28 MO

30,324 / 0.5586m

67 KY

22,402 / 12454m

35

NM

6,540 / 1.5*205m

31

CO

22,841 / 1.6599m

78

KS

8,756 / 0.7*312m

40 AR

14,314 / 4.3314m

46 TN

26,838 / 4.2619m

41

OK

25,918 /1.2*461m

51 LA

37,718 / 1.9552m

46

TX

171,790 /0.2*3.3b

51

AL

29,412 / 4.1*388m

23MS

22,335 / 6227m

30

OH

50,730 / 3.21.76b

69

WV

6,056 / 5.6171m

36

VA

38,555 / 5.11.14b

60

GA

55,205 / 4.6998m

50

NY

62,620 / 1.1*2.62b

73

PA

46,028 / 3.71.64b

81

DE

7,081 / 1.7*240m

1.00

NJ

26,822 / 2*1.47b

67

NC

38,425 / 2.61.08b

33

SC

24,217 / 2.5444m

49

VT

2,132 / 3.7111m

1.37

CT

20,784 / 1.1661m

1.03

NH

2,991 / 6.692m

73

ME

2,144 / 1.1122m

49

MA

11,364 / 31.14b

98

RI

3,807 / 0.7157m

83

MD

23,342 / 1.71.08b

74

FL

97,416 / 4.82.72b

66

AVERAGE COST OF INMATE PER DAY

1 IN 99

$67.55253,300 inmates for drug offenses

$17,110,415a day to imprison drug users with an average sentence of 3 & 1/2 years

divided by

equals

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