Pubdate: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 Source: Free Press, The (NC) Copyright: 2002 Kinston Free Press Contact: http://www.kinston.com/Contact.cfm Website: http://www.kinston.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1732 MORE HUMAN LIVES WASTED IN PRISON The U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported this week that the number of Americans under correctional supervision - prison, jail, probation, parole - reached another new record at 6.6 million as of Dec. 31, 2001. That's about 3.1 percent of the adult population, or one of every 32 adult Americans. Those people actually behind prison bars number just under 2 million. In 1972 about 330,000 Americans were in jail or prison. Does anybody feel safer, with six times as many people incarcerated, than he or she did in 1972? (As a percent of population, the number of people in prison is about 4.4 times higher than in 1972.) It looks as if, after dramatic increases in prison population for the last 20 years, incarceration rates show signs of beginning to level off. From 1995 through 2001 the correctional population grew at an annual rate of 3.6 percent (on top of almost tripling between 1980 and 1995). But from 2000 to 2001 the increase was 2.3 percent. Prison population at the state level is unlikely to increase dramatically soon. The state-level prison population grew by 0.3 percent last year, while the federal prison population grew by 8 percent. States are cutting back on growth in imprisonment, but the federal system's urge to incarcerate shows no sign of abating. What's driving it is mostly the drug war. Marc Mauer is assistant director of the Sentencing Project in Washington, DC, which favors alternatives to incarceration. In a newspaper interview he said the leveling off at the state level is due to declining crime rates throughout the 1990s and the fiscal crisis most states are experiencing, especially since 9/11, which is leading to cost cutting and sentencing reform in some states. Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas all eased sentencing laws, openly and explicitly to cut costs. Louisiana, for example, eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent crimes and liberalized its "three strikes" law. Mississippi eased its "truth in sentencing" laws, allowing non-violent offenders to be eligible for parole after serving a shorter portion of their sentence. Texas simply increased the number of prisoners paroled by 31 percent between 2000 and 2001. The impact on African-Americans is especially disproportionate. One in 10 African-American males between 25-29 is in state or federal prison, about half for drug offenses. About the same percentage of white males use drugs as black males, but only 1 percent go to prison. Most states don't allow felons or former felons to vote - ever. Thus 13 percent of black males will not be allowed to vote this November. This decreases their sense of having a stake in the community or the system. It's becoming evermore clear: Fighting drugs with prison isn't working and is creating new problems and resentments. That's the real story in the prison population numbers. We can do better. - --- MAP posted-by: Tom