According
to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of
Justice, more than two million men and women are now
behind bars in the United States. The country that holds
itself out as the "land of freedom" incarcerates a
higher percentage of its people than any other country.
The human costs — wasted lives, wrecked families,
troubled children — are incalculable, as are the adverse
social, economic and political consequences of weakened
communities, diminished opportunities for economic
mobility, and extensive disenfranchisement.Contrary
to popular perception, violent crime is not responsible
for the quadrupling of the incarcerated population in
the United States since 1980. In fact, violent crime
rates have been relatively constant or declining over
the past two decades. The exploding prison population
has been propelled by public policy changes that have
increased the use of prison sentences as well as the
length of time served, e.g. through mandatory minimum
sentencing, "three strikes" laws, and reductions in the
availability of parole or early release.
Although these policies were championed as protecting
the public from serious and violent offenders, they have
instead yielded high rates of confinement of nonviolent
offenders. Nearly three quarters of new admissions to
state prison were convicted of nonviolent crimes. Only
49 percent of sentenced state inmates are held for
violent offenses.
Perhaps the single greatest force behind the growth
of the prison population has been the national "war on
drugs." The number of incarcerated drug offenders has
increased twelvefold since 1980. In 2000, 22 percent of
those in federal and state prisons were convicted on
drug charges.
Even more troubling than the absolute number of
persons in jail or prison is the extent to which those
men and women are African-American. Although blacks
account for only 12 percent of the U.S. population, 44
percent of all prisoners in the United States are black.
Census data for 2000,which included a count of the
number and race of all individuals incarcerated in the
United States, reveals the dramatic racial disproportion
of the incarcerated population in each state: the
proportion of blacks in prison populations exceeds the
proportion among state residents in every single state.
In twenty states, the percent of blacks incarcerated is
at least five times greater than their share of resident
population.