One of Every 32 Americans In Trouble with the Law in 2005

I had wanted to blog about this last week when I first came across the story but got swamped. Anyway, so can you believe this statistic? If you know thirty-two people, one of them (possibly YOU) were in trouble with the law in the year 2005. According to [http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2689183|a November 30, 2006 article] from AP.org available over at ABCNews.com, there are a whole lot of Americans who have broken the law. Check out this cutting from the article:

A record 7 million people or one in every 32 American adults were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday. ... "Today's figures fail to capture incarceration's impact on the thousands of children left behind by mothers in prison," Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group supporting criminal justice reform, said in a statement. "Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails." From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth.

WELL, at least they're in prison for a good reason! Or not! Those numbers are absolutely absurd!! You know all those extremist Christians who are always whining about how America is becoming more and more decadent and so on? Well, I'm beginning to agree with them!! I don't think Christianity is the solution. I'm thinking a hearty dose of the golden rule would be good, though. If people were taught to think about other people as people just like themselves, I like to think they'd commit fewer crimes. Also, we've got to stop sending people to jail for fucking drug offenses. This is ridiculous. Nearly half of the rise in the number of people in prison were put there because of drugs. Who the hell do drug offenses hurt? OK, dealers, I can see--but users and possessors? Legalize that shit and license and tax it through the government. That's how you solve the drug "problem." But that still leaves a bucket-load of people in prison for other crimes. CHRIST, people!! STAY IN SCHOOL!! CRIME DOESN'T PAY! Hm, guess we better do more than just give you platitudes and rhetoric. Um... Just say no?

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