Crime rates are down, and the prison population is way up. Last year 1 out of every 138 US residents was behind bars. That's 900 new inmates a week. 2.1 million total. That's four times the number of inmates in 1980 and more than any other country in the world.
Many of these people are non-violent drug-offenders. Because of "get tough on crime" laws passed in the '80s and '90s they are thrown in jail, and not into re-hab.
Don't get me wrong, violent criminals, murderers, rapists and the like should be behind bars. But that's clearly not the case here.
But if you think about it, could things be any different?
For the last thirty years the economy, in terms of GDP, productivity and employment has grown at a snail's pace compared to the post-war boom that continued into the early 1970s. Not counting the 2.1 million behind bars and those who have stopped looking for work, official unemployment is still at 5.2% More and more people are falling into poverty each day. Despite relatively minor fulctuations, the number of Americans in poverty has climbed steadily since the 1970s.
It's no coincidence that alongside poor economic performance and increasing poverty we've seen an increase in the number of people behind bars. In the absence of an effective education and welfare system and a healthy, expanding economy capable of providing good jobs for all who want to work, the government has turned to the US prison system to keep the under- and unemployed from getting out of hand. Rather than a war on poverty, we have a war on the poor.
1 comment:
Post a Comment