Study: Prison Population On The Rise

In my view this is because this country is locking up Americans for profit. The prison "business" is very lucrative now, and states are making money off of sending people to jail for longer sentences for lesser crimes as are the "Prison Companies" that have privatised prisons in over thirty states including healthcare that has wound up costing people their lives.

My question is: WHERE ARE THE JUDGES? Are they so corrupt too as to not see that the structure of these sentences in many cases is unfair in proportion to the crime? What has this country become? Where the hell has our moral compass gone? Do we now place so little value on human dignity that we can simply turn our heads like this to obvious corruption, torture, and greed? Please tell me how we differ from the corrupt barbaric regimes in centuries past, because lately I am having a hard time distinquishing the two except for the clothes worn.

Is this not state sanctioned slavery? Surely there are those who deserve to be in prison, but in America it does not abrogate your constitutional rights nor your right to humane treatment. Anyone wondering why Abu Ghraib happened need only look as far as the people put in charge, as many of them were also employed right here in our prisons before they were sent to Iraq. I have always believed that how we treat our own under any circumstances defines our character as a nation. Based on the current conditions of our prisons, this country has no character and we should all be ashamed.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0214-07.htm

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 15 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Get-tough policies that lock up offenders for longer sentences are propelling a projected increase of nearly 200,000 in the nation's prison population in the next five years, according a private study released Wednesday.

The increase — projected by the Pew Charitable Trusts study to be three times faster than overall population growth in the U.S. — is expected to cost states more than $27 billion.

"As a country, we have a problem," said Susan Urahn, managing director of policy initiatives for the Pew Charitable Trusts, which funded the study by its Public Safety Performance Project.

The study is the first of its kind to project prison populations in every state through 2011, based on state projections, current criminal justice policies and demographic trends.

snip

There are more than 1.5 million inmates in the nation's state and federal prisons, a number that is projected to grow to more than 1.7 million by the end of 2011, a 13 percent increase. The nation's population, by comparison, is projected to grow by 4.5 percent in that time.

States are projected to spend up to $27.5 billion on the new inmates, including $12.5 billion in construction costs, according to the study.

snip

"There's a pretty long list of people who deserve to be locked up forever, but it's not the majority of people in prison," Lawlor said. "If you can get people into a room instead of a campaign debate it's really easy to come to consensus."

The term predator class is almost an understatement.

corrupt and criminal foreign governments. We are corporate run, and armaments driven thugs.

"The best kept secret in outsourcing"

http://www.unicor.gov/services/

social workers and guards and vice versa and it'll be as good for the economy as K Street.

But it's totally true. There are companies that sell things to prison inmates, like shampoo and such, and the prisoner's friends and relatives pay for that.

Like the military industrial complex, prisoners become the fodder for some companies to make $$.