Pubdate: Thu, 02 Mar 2000 Date: 03/02/2000 Source: Guardian Weekly, The (UK) Author: John McMurtry * Drug arrests in the US have multiplied by more than ninefold since 1968, with arrests of blacks for drug offences rising almost 500% between 1986 and 1991 (compared with 110% for whites), with prison sentences after conviction on federal marijuana charges averaging 42 months with no parole, compared with 35 months for sexual assault. Experts estimate that almost 90% of the 2m people in US prisons, about six times per capita more than the average of Britain, France and Germany, are there for non-violent offences. But there is a lot in it for the usual suspects. Military-industrial corporations selling to the prison boom, Wall Street bond merchants lending to prison builders, corporate mass media fanning public fears, law-and-order demagogues now running the US Senate - all of these do very well out of caging the poor in ever greater numbers. John McMurtry, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada