Random Thoughts

When are going to see that it is wrong to have so many people in jail? When are we going to see that the privatized jail system is completely screwed up.  There are people profiting off of jailing people and that is seriously a confilct in interst as far as I am concerned. It is time for changes.

From Newsvine / AP

Correction: June 27 Inmate Numbers Story
Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:27 PM EDT
politics, us-news, justice-department, corrective, population, fixed, prison-population
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — In a June 27 story about an increase in prison population, The Associated Press, relying on information from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, reported erroneously the growth of Idaho’s prison population in 2006. The number of inmates in Idaho prisons grew by 6.9 percent, not 13.7 percent.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Prisons and jails added more than 42,000 inmates last year, the largest increase since 2000.

The total number of people incarcerated by federal or state authorities in the year ending June 30, 2006, was roughly 1.6 million, the government said Wednesday. That translated to a 2.8 percent increase from the previous year, due to people being put in prison at a faster rate than those released.

Overall, the number of people behind bars — including those held in local jails — was more than 2.2 million, according to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Forty-two states and the federal system reported increases, with the largest jumps in Alaska (9.4 percent), Vermont (8.3 percent) and Georgia (8.1 percent). Eight states had declines, led by Missouri (down 2.9 percent), and Louisiana and Maine (both down 1.8 percent).

The number of federal prisoners increased by 3.6 percent to reach 191,080.

Nearly 6 out of 10 people behind bars nationwide were black or Hispanic.

“Once again, communities of color are paying for our troubled criminal justice policies,” said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute. “The population increase in the already overburdened prison system indicates an alarming growth that should not go unchecked.”

(This version SUBS 4th graf to CORRECT — based on DoJ data revised after the report’s release — that Idaho did not have the largest inmate increase — and ADD that Georgia had the third largest increase.))

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