Animated GIF of US Prison Population Explosion

[aligncare]

No, we're not becoming a police state.

 

Politicians have gotten tougher on crime in the past 30 years. As a result, prisons have become inundated as longer sentences are handed down for various crimes.

Here’s a graphic that illustrates how much the prison population has exploded in each state since 1978, via MetricMaps:

America's prison population explodes in real-time

[aligncare]

So much in modern America is becoming criminalized. By lunch tomorrow, many of you will have broken any number of laws, some of which could carry prison time. Recall that recently Dinesh D'Souza nearly went prison for giving too much money to a Republican Senate candidate, which broke our arcane campaign finance laws. Should Dinesh D'Souza be considered a criminal for what he did?

[truth_seeker]

It would be useful to learn how much by country is due to drugs.

[Oceander]

The graphic:

I wonder how much of some of the imbalance has to do with federal prisoners and where they're housed, since federal prisoners can be housed any where, not just the state of which they were a resident when arrested/convicted.

[Dexter]

A lot of people from all sides of the spectrum understand that this is largely due to the absolute failure that is the war on drugs, and that that same war is responsible for the militarization of the police. I don't understand why we can't do something about this.

[truth_seeker]

A lot of people from all sides of the spectrum understand that this is largely due to the absolute failure that is the war on drugs, and that that same war is responsible for the militarization of the police. I don't understand why we can't do something about this.

Alcohol made criminals out of previously ordinary law abiding citizens. Then after just a few years the society had the common sense to restore people's freedom to consume alcohol, if they wanted to.

However drugs have been quite the opposite. For some reason the "powers that be" have held sufficient power to scare society into believing that drugs are horrific, and that adults shouldn't be able to get and use them.

Sure drugs can be abused. I am clean and sober, for over 20 years. I use nothing, ever period, no matter what.

But one of the biggest drug problems we have, is NOT with ghetto-barrio thugs. It is with white, elderly people strung out on prescription pain meds.

Police and prison unions probably do more to keeps drugs illegal. Instead how about spending a small fraction, on education, treatment and recovery?

[Dexter]

Instead how about spending a small fraction, on education, treatment and recovery?

http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics

A lot of good could be done with that wasted money.

Not to mention the fact that we would not only save that money, but gain even more.

"Tax revenue that drug legalization would yield annually, if currently-illegal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco: $46.7 billion"

Legalizing and taxing drugs would give us a net gain of almost 100 billion annually.

[EC]

Instead how about spending a small fraction, on education, treatment and recovery?

You know the biggest problem with the last word there as well as I do.

They have to want to recover. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, right?

[Dexter]

You know the biggest problem with the last word there as well as I do.

They have to want to recover. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, right?

This is true, but there are not enough resources available even for the ones that do want to recover. Ending the war on drugs could easily provide that, as well as making more addicts comfortable with being honest about their addiction because they will no longer be seen as criminals.

[EC]

This is true, but there are not enough resources available even for the ones that do want to recover. Ending the war on drugs could easily provide that, as well as making more addicts comfortable with being honest about their addiction because they will no longer be seen as criminals.

Look - I can only tell my story, and it was alcohol, not hard drugs. I like the odd joint as much as the next guy, take phets if needed for work, and am far to familiar with morphine derivatives, but none of them hooked me.

Booze did. I was, before I quit, on a bottle of brandy a night. That's a full bottle - 70 cl over here. A few people would tell me I had a problem. My answer would be "What problem? I'm just winding down." Total denial that there was anything to fix. You go to AA, you'll hear that over and over and over again.

[truth_seeker]

This is true, but there are not enough resources available even for the ones that do want to recover. Ending the war on drugs could easily provide that, as well as making more addicts comfortable with being honest about their addiction because they will no longer be seen as criminals.

I've served on the board of a non-profit 12 step meeting facility. We operate near the margin, and cannot afford security or paid full time management.

As a result, it has become a loitering spot, for all forms of folks. We would like to run the hard core career criminals off, but haven't the resources to grapple with it.

Our reputation has gone down hill, over a handful of incidents involving males groping assaulting women in/around "the program."

[aligncare]

This is true, but there are not enough resources available even for the ones that do want to recover. Ending the war on drugs could easily provide that, as well as making more addicts comfortable with being honest about their addiction because they will no longer be seen as criminals.

Dex, you're singing my song. Drug and alcohol addiction (an unnecessary dichotomy, because alcohol IS a drug--no different from any other) is a medical problem and should be completely separated from the criminal justice system.