That's right,
one in every 133 people in this most honorable country of ours is in state or federal prison... and I'm going all in on the bet that this number doesn't even take into account the transient homeless or the border jumpers...
From 2000 through 2002, I volunteered at the maximum-security Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, NY -- upstate. The car pulled up to the monstrous concrete barricade. Into the lobby, past the tired and emotional mothers, brothers, sisters and wives. Shoes off, belts off, wire bras off. Metal detectors. I go off -- it's the metal in my arm. Every time.
Down the dark hallways, past windows offering a close-up view of the yard, the courts, the weights... Past lines of prisoners. They look you in the eyes. Head nods... Past guards, at strategically placed intersecting hallways and heavy metal doors. Looks of condemnation, hate, fury.
And we deny culpability for the prison mentality, for recidivism.
During this time that, weekly, I visited Green Haven, locked up there was
Terrence Stevens, a mostly paralyzed, humbled 30-something-year-old black man convicted eight years earlier on cocaine charges. He had been blessed with the MINIMUM sentence -- 15 years to life, or the same as that for murder and kidnapping and more than that for
rape, manslaughter and armed robbery.
He was wheeled into the meeting room, one wall a map splattered with dots for all the prisons nationwide and another a floor-to-ceiling burner (graffiti-style mural). The volunteers and inmates hugged, exchanged daps, gathered in a circle. The group discussed -- in English and Spanish -- current events, politics, and prison conditions. Guard abuse. Rape. Racism. Crimes committed. Dreams. Nightmares.
In January 2001, Terrence Stevens was granted clemency by then Governor George Pataki. No repayment for the time lost.
By the next year, the walk down the halls took us on an intentionally circuitous route, across the prison, cell block after cell block, up the stairs, past the the wood shop and library, the mosque and the church. Into a closet-sized box in a remote corner. White walls. Cameras in two out of the four corners. No hugs. No daps. Door slammed shut.
And we wonder why in prison weed heads become con men and con men become cop killers.
(Get to know the 1971
Stanford Prison Experiment.)
And it gets worse.
U.S. Prison Facts 1. Today, there are 2,424,279 inmates incarcerated in the United States. As of 2007, the total federal, state, and local adult correctional population -- incarcerated or in the community -- had already grown to more than 7.2 million. About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults, were incarcerated or on probation or parole. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007, 2009.)
2. From 2000 through 2007, the number of sentenced prisoners increased by 15%, while the general population increased by 6.4%. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2008.)
3. From 1975 to 2000, the number of state prison facilities increased approximately 70%. (Urban Institute, 2004.)
Rest of World4. Almost half of the people held in penal institutions throughout the world are in the United States, China or Russia. (International Centre for Prison Studies, 2007.)
5. At 738 per 100,000 of the national population, the United States has the highest prison population rate in the world. Turkmenistan is at 489, Cuba at 487, Belarus at 426. And more than 3/5 (61%) of the countries have rates below 150 per 100,000. (International Centre for Prison Studies, 2007.)
Violent v. Non-Violent6. State prisons held a total of 1,296,700 inmates on all charges at yearend 2005 -- 166,700 for murder, 177,900 for robbery, 129,200 for assault, and 164,600 for rape and other sexual assaults; and 253,300 for non-violent drug offenses, and 98,700 for public-order offenses (e.g., being homeless in public). (U.S. Department of Justice, December 2008.)
7. Federal prisons were estimated to hold 179,204 sentenced inmates in 2007. Of these, 15,647 were incarcerated for violent offenses; 95,446 were incarcerated for drug offenses, and 56,237 were incarcerated for public-order offenses. (U.S. Department of Justice, December 2008.)
8. The U.S. non-violent prisoner population alone is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska. (Justice Policy Institute, 1999.)
9. Since the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget has increased by 1,954%. Its budget jumped from $220 million in 1986 to more than $4.3 billion in 2001. (U.S. Department of Justice, 1997; Executive Office of the President, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2002.)
Racism10. Of the 253,300 state prison inmates serving time for drug offenses at year-end 2005, 113,500 (44.8%) were black, 51,100 (20.2%) were Hispanic, and 72,300 (28.5%) were white. (U.S. Department of Justice, December 2008.)
11. Nationwide, black men are sent to prison on drug charges at 13 times the rate of white men. (Human Rights Watch, 2000.)
12. Most drug offenders are white. Five times as many whites use drugs as blacks. Yet blacks comprise the great majority of drug offenders sent to prison. (Human Rights Watch, 2000.)
13. Nationwide, one in every 20 black men over the age of 18 is in prison. This compares to one in every 180 white men. (Human Rights Watch, 2000.)
18. At the start of the 1990s, the United States had more black men (between the ages of 20 and 29) under the control of the nation's criminal justice system than the total number in college. (Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., "The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment," American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998).)
Abuse & Isolation19. In December 2000, the
Prison Journal published a study based on a survey of inmates in seven men's prison facilities in four states. The results showed that 21% of the inmates had experienced at least one episode of pressured or forced sexual contact since being incarcerated, and at least 7% had been raped in their facility. (Human Rights Watch, "No Escape: Male Rape in US Prisons - Summary and Recommendations," 2001.)
20. A majority of parents in both state (62%) and federal (84%) prison were held more than 100 miles from their last place of residence. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000.)
21. As early as 1999, 2.8% of all children under age 18 had at least one parent in a local jail or a state or federal prison -- a total of 1,941,796 kids. One in 40 has an incarcerated father. (U.S. Department of Justice, December 1999.)
22. An estimated 809,800 prisoners of the 1,518,535, or 53+%, held in the nation's prisons at mid-year 2007 were parents of minor children, or children under age 18. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009.)
Recidivism23. Department of corrections data show that approximately 1/4 of those initially imprisoned for non-violent crimes are sentenced for a second time for committing a violent offense. (Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., "The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment,"
American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998).)
Threat to Public Safety24. As early as 2001, the prison system was operating at 32% over capacity. (Executive Office of the President, Budget of the US Government, Fiscal Year 2002.)
Monetary Cost25. States spent $42.89 billion on corrections alone in 2005. To compare, states only spent $24.69 billion on public assistance. (National Association of State Budget Officers, 2005.)
26. Expenditures for operating the nation's justice system increased from almost $36 billion in 1982 to more than $185 billion in 2003, an increase of 418%. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2004.)
27. The average daily cost per state-prison inmate per day in the U.S. is $67.55. State prisons held 253,300 inmates for drug offenses in 2005. That means states spent approximately $17,110,415 per day -- or more than $6 billion per year -- to imprison drug offenders. (American Correctional Association, 2006; U.S. Department of Justice, 2007.)
Economic & Political Benefits (Urban v. Upstate)28. The economic benefits of new prisons may come from the flow of additional state and federal dollars. In the decennial census, prisoners are counted where they are incarcerated, and many federal and state funding streams are tied to census population counts. The federal government distributes over $140 billion in grant money to state and local governments through formula-based grants. (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2003; Urban Institute, 2004.)
29. Every dollar transferred to a 'prison community' is a dollar that is not given to the home community of a prisoner, which is often among the country's most disadvantaged urban areas. In New York, for example, 2/3 of state prisoners are from the city, while 91% of prisoners are incarcerated in upstate counties. (Urban Institute, 2004.)
30. The effect of prisoner location on population counts may influence the allocation of political representation and, therefore, political influence. (Urban Institute, 2004.)
