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DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 04:41:48 PM EST
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The Justice Department released a new report today.

Nearly 7 million adults were in U.S. prisons or on probation or parole at the end of last year, 30 percent more than in 1995, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

That was about one in every 31 adults under correctional supervision at the end of 2004, compared with about 1 in 36 adults in 1995 and about 1 adult in every 88 in 1980, said Allan J. Beck, who oversaw the preparation of the department's annual report on probation and parole populations.

Sentencing "reforms" of the 1990's reportedly are the cause.

The Justice Department's press release is here. The full report is available here.

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    DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons | 12 comments (12 topical)
    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:41 PM EST
    And doesn't Colorado lead the country per capita?

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#2)
    by Lww on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:41 PM EST
    It's 2,250,000, give or take 10,000.... How a trifling ten thousand (people) became such a miniscule number is evidence of the sorry shape this country is in. Someone has to have the guts to change things. Why would someone like Bill Clinton ask for 100,000 more cops on the street? If this is what we get from the so-called liberals we're doomed.

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#3)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:41 PM EST
    Wow, that's a record! I mean aside from the 7M in prison or on parole, calling the doj liars and blaming Clinton all in one comment;-)

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#4)
    by Lww on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:41 PM EST
    Instead of answering the question you take a cheap shot at me.... Why did Bill Clinton act like Thomas E.Dewey when he was president? To help the trial lawyers or to get in good with the Congressional Black Caucas?

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#5)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:41 PM EST
    Because LWW, only rabid delusional frothing at the mouth cranial-rectal inverted idiot wrong wingers believe Clinton was a liberal. Where does that set you? The point of this topic, which of course will escape most people, is that the US is one of the league leaders in locking people up. And we are darn proud of it. We now currently have more people locked up in our prisons than most countries have as a total population! The idiot drug war, which is a pet cause of most wrong wongers intent on controlling individual lives through mandated morality is to blame for the US locking up more per capita of it's citizens than almost any other nation on earth... Hard to believe that a country which allows massive abuse of alcohol to go unhindered, and even encouraged (ever see the super bowl? You know, the event where violence and alcohol consumption is highly encouraged but a white man ripping a black womans clothes off is an offense? Oh man, I could write a novella on that crap)loks up people accused of victimless crimes at the rate we do... Now I know all you wrong wingers will pull your heads out of your collective butts long enough to say "yeah but, a whole TIT was shown on the superbowl, my KIDS watch that..." Well, my kid watches CNN, and it wont be long before she asks me why behavior which is destructive only to an individual is punishable by federally mandated sentences (drug use, specifically marijuana) and behavior which has been proven time and time again to rip apart families is nearly condoned (alcohol abuse... every two weeks in a lutheran church they celebrate the sacrifice of christ by imbibing an intoxicating substance. If it was an herb growing on the prairie, the wrong wngers would have their panties in a bunch)... Where was I? Never mind...

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#6)
    by Lww on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:42 PM EST
    Cranial-rectal inverted....I love that one. If Clinton isn't a liberal why do the left wingers think him and his wife are the second coming of Camelot inverted? My point was (frothing at the mouth)why would a president who depends on the votes of the people most impacted by tough anti-crime measures, go along with it?

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:42 PM EST
    Thanks for publicizing the extent that the prison-industrial complex has ballooned....

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#8)
    by jamesepowell on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:42 PM EST
    The report shows that 26% of persons on probation are there for drug offenses. There is no similar breakdown for persons in prison. Is that information available anywhere?

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:42 PM EST
    Dr. Ytterby here Proud to count myself among the 7 million. And don't forget to count the millions who have been incarcerated inthe past but have completed their parole/probation/supervised release. The game ain't over for them, either (would you hire one?). Which makes the final number closer to 5-10% of the total adult population, in my best estimate.

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#10)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:42 PM EST
    If Clinton isn't a liberal why do the left wingers think him and his wife are the second coming of Camelot inverted?
    Who thinks that?

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#11)
    by peacrevol on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:42 PM EST
    They produce these numbers and then smile and pat each other on the backs and dunk donuts in each other's coffee and laugh about their crazy stories of chasing the stoner around the low income housing development. And from the Denver thread about voting to make possession of less than 1lb quasi-legal, the guy said "we dont need voters telling us how to do our jobs". My point? (yes I have a point) It sounds to me like these guys get off on busting people for petty bs like minor pot possession. And our federal govt incourages it! So what you have is thousands upon thousands of people on probation for minor drug offenses and if they ever have another offense of any kind, since they already have a rap sheet, they may go to prison wheras in other cases, they may not. So many more of those in prison can be indirectly tied to the drug war as well. It's not just what prisoners are there b/c of drug related crimes as much as it is how many of the prisoners are in prison and would not be if it were not for the bogus "war on drugs". I imagine that if that stat were produced, it would be an extremely high percentage of those in prison.

    Re: DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:15 PM EST
    In a recent discussion at Los Angeles City College Sociology Class on the subject of rehabilitation/recidivism I asked the class what they would do to turn that state of conditions around. I'd like to ask the protagonists in this stream what they would do about the 7 million under some form of penal supervision.

    DOJ Report: 7 Million in U.S. Prisons | 12 comments (12 topical)