Incarceration Industrial Complex

[Glenn Quagmire]

We’re jailing way more people who’ve been convicted of exactly nothing

"If jails are for criminals, why are there still so many people behind bars after decades of declining crime? The answer is both surprising and disturbing."

"According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of U.S. jail inmates rose from 621,000 in 2000 to 744,600 in 2014. But as the lower part of each bar in the chart shows, this increase was not driven by the jailing of more convicted criminals. Instead, jails are now overflowing with people who are awaiting trial (upper part of each bar). These individuals, who may be innocent of the crime they're charged with, account for 95 percent of the growth in the jail population over the past 15 years."

"Adjusting for growth in the overall U.S. population, the incarceration rate per 100,000 for jailed convicts dropped 11 percent from 2000-2014, but the rate for those in jail who have not been convicted of a crime has risen 17 percent over the same period. That’s a formula that keeps jails crowded with inmates in an era of diminished crime."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ed-of-exactly-nothing/?utm_term=.7e6a3780b7cc

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv15.pdf

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

We’re jailing way more people who’ve been convicted of exactly nothing

"If jails are for criminals, why are there still so many people behind bars after decades of declining crime? The answer is both surprising and disturbing."

"According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of U.S. jail inmates rose from 621,000 in 2000 to 744,600 in 2014. But as the lower part of each bar in the chart shows, this increase was not driven by the jailing of more convicted criminals. Instead, jails are now overflowing with people who are awaiting trial (upper part of each bar). These individuals, who may be innocent of the crime they're charged with, account for 95 percent of the growth in the jail population over the past 15 years."

"Adjusting for growth in the overall U.S. population, the incarceration rate per 100,000 for jailed convicts dropped 11 percent from 2000-2014, but the rate for those in jail who have not been convicted of a crime has risen 17 percent over the same period. That’s a formula that keeps jails crowded with inmates in an era of diminished crime."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ed-of-exactly-nothing/?utm_term=.7e6a3780b7cc

View attachment 11643

An era of diminished crime? Do you expect people to actually take this article seriously?

I guess all the rioting in the news never happened. I guess the reports of violent crime in Chicago are lies.

You really are a fool Glenn. Just another example of a liberal ignoring reality to push a narrative.

The fact is we are having epidemic crime levels. Violent crime at that.

What did your boy Obama do about it?

 

[Kev3188]

The available data doesn't support your assertion.

 

[FWAAA]

Crime rates, especially violent crimes, like murder, are down substantially from the very high levels of 25-30 years ago. Yes, Chicago has recently experienced a substantial uptick in murders, but the 2016 total was still just a fraction of the total from the late '80s and early '90s. In LA and NYC, murder rates are down 50% to 75% from the levels of 25 to 30 years ago.

That said, more people were murdered in Chicago last year than in LA and NYC combined. Chicago has a localized issue, but CHI's 2016 murders were still down substantially from the drug war era of Pres G H W Bush (41).

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

https://www.rt.com/usa/376757-murder-rate-analysis-trump/
The US murder rate is on the rise, climbing at its fastest pace since the 1970s, according to a new report. However, homicides are likely still lower than they have been for more than a quarter century.
Because national crime statistics for 2016 will not be released for eight months, the Economist looked at the homicide statistics in 50 major cities over the last year “to get an early sense” of how much the murder rate grew from 2015. The murder rate grew 11 percent from 2014 to 2015, the biggest single-year increase in homicide rates since 1971, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-national-homicide-rates-20170104-story.html
Though mostly far below their record levels in the 1980s and 1990s, homicides have jumped dramatically in some U.S. cities over the last two years, breaking from America’s decades-long decline in violent crime as Trump prepares to take control of federal law enforcement agencies.

Then homicides began to jump in some cities in 2015, leading to a new generation of theories, speculating that the causes could be due to surging heroin use, more inmates being released from prison, and “the Ferguson effect,” which claims that criticism and protests of police over a few highly controversial cases had led to less aggressive policing overall.

 

[FWAAA]

https://www.rt.com/usa/376757-murder-rate-analysis-trump/
The US murder rate is on the rise, climbing at its fastest pace since the 1970s, according to a new report. However, homicides are likely still lower than they have been for more than a quarter century.
Because national crime statistics for 2016 will not be released for eight months, the Economist looked at the homicide statistics in 50 major cities over the last year “to get an early sense” of how much the murder rate grew from 2015. The murder rate grew 11 percent from 2014 to 2015, the biggest single-year increase in homicide rates since 1971, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report.

Too funny - citing to Russia Today to discuss crime rates in the US.

 

[Dog Wonder]

Desperation is setting in.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Too funny - citing to Russia Today to discuss crime rates in the US.

Not sure where the RT thing came from?

I don't see many replies to these threads from trolls long blocked/ignored.

If someone cites RT, it is a clear sign that the Russian troll farms have done their job in planting influence in the heart of American politics and policy discussion.

Sad.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Crime rates, especially violent crimes, like murder, are down substantially from the very high levels of 25-30 years ago. Yes, Chicago has recently experienced a substantial uptick in murders, but the 2016 total was still just a fraction of the total from the late '80s and early '90s. In LA and NYC, murder rates are down 50% to 75% from the levels of 25 to 30 years ago.

That said, more people were murdered in Chicago last year than in LA and NYC combined. Chicago has a localized issue, but CHI's 2016 murders were still down substantially from the drug war era of Pres G H W Bush (41).

This link was in my original post. I'm not sure how this conversation went astray. Maybe some willing to go with RT rather than the NYT, WAPO, RCP, or 538?

I have a book recommendation: "The Death of Expertise", by Tom Nichols.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-death-of-expertise-9780190469412?cc=us&lang=en&

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv15.pdf

 

[delldude]

We’re jailing way more people who’ve been convicted of exactly nothing

"If jails are for criminals, why are there still so many people behind bars after decades of declining crime? The answer is both surprising and disturbing."

"According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of U.S. jail inmates rose from 621,000 in 2000 to 744,600 in 2014. But as the lower part of each bar in the chart shows, this increase was not driven by the jailing of more convicted criminals. Instead, jails are now overflowing with people who are awaiting trial (upper part of each bar). These individuals, who may be innocent of the crime they're charged with, account for 95 percent of the growth in the jail population over the past 15 years."

"Adjusting for growth in the overall U.S. population, the incarceration rate per 100,000 for jailed convicts dropped 11 percent from 2000-2014, but the rate for those in jail who have not been convicted of a crime has risen 17 percent over the same period. That’s a formula that keeps jails crowded with inmates in an era of diminished crime."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ed-of-exactly-nothing/?utm_term=.7e6a3780b7cc

View attachment 11643

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv15.pdf

You aware of the unfilled judicial vacancies all across the fruited plains?
That's part of the problem.
Many can't make bail.
That's part of the problem.
Many can't afford a good attorney.
That's part of the problem.
Many are socio-economically disadvantaged relying on criminal activity as a livelihood.
That's part of the problem.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

You aware of the unfilled judicial vacancies all across the fruited plains?
That's part of the problem.
Many can't make bail.
That's part of the problem.
Many can't afford a good attorney.
That's part of the problem.
Many are socio-economically disadvantaged relying on criminal activity as a livelihood.
That's part of the problem.

I am aware of the severe lack of appointments and lack of funding for public defenders in the states. Tie that to the republican legislature agendas in those states.

Don't look now, but Sessions wants to bring back the war on drugs. We all know how successful that was...in building the private prison industry.

Of course it did nothing to solve any problem.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-new-orleans-public-defenders-decision-to-refuse-felony-cases/

 

[delldude]

I am aware of the severe lack of appointments and lack of funding for public defenders in the states. Tie that to the republican legislature agendas in those states.

Don't look now, but Sessions wants to bring back the war on drugs. We all know how successful that was...in building the private prison industry.

Of course it did nothing to solve any problem.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-new-orleans-public-defenders-decision-to-refuse-felony-cases/

As they drop like flies from opiates.
Trump interdiction at the border will help that some, but I'd expect an almost military response when the cartels 'kick it up a notch' for interfering with their livelihood.
I was warmly touched as an American when I saw Hannitty and Rick Perry on a THP gunboat sporting twin M-60's fore and aft. WTF has our country come to?

So legalize dope and pay on the other end in recovery programs.

Real lawyers should be required to do public defender pro bono work in lieu of their comfortable lifestyle and salary.

 

[EastUS1]

Don't look now, but Sessions wants to bring back the war on drugs. We all know how successful that was...in building the private prison industry.
......

No argument here. While I personally have no use for chemically inciting any more jaw-dropping wonder at the utter insanity of our species and the world we've made; I've NO/zip/Zero notion that anyone should criminalize what other citizens opt to ingest into their very own bodies, so long as they inflict no direct harm on others from doing so. Alcohol has proven an extremely deadly drug on highways alone, yet "money talks" and there's no criminal aspect to ingesting it, likewise many "prescription" drugs, that are none-the-less DRUGS and literally kill thousands every year. Latest stats indicate far more people tragically die from overdoses of fully government-approved "prescription" drugs than any oher kind.

The whole "War on Drugs" BS came from a frustrated-would-be-"Tricky Dick"tator who couldn't find any legal way to otherwise suppress demonstrations against the Viet Nam war. Umm...a "small" question on that regard though: WHY is it so "surprisingly" the case that NO, not so much as even a single ONE of the "liberals" later elected President EVER did ANYTHING to even slightly reduce the criminalization of what our very own citizens ingest? What exactly was your messiah obama's excuse for wholesale inaction?. Does even your "loving and caring" Party essentially despise personal Rights for those they only laughably "represent"? Just WHY have the "liberals" been so happy over having the "civilized" world's highest percentage of their/our society's citizens made "criminals" and imprisoned for what's ingested into their own personal bodies?...Sigh, one might "almost" assume that NO aspect of "guv-mint" EVER wants to willingly surrender even the slightest CONTROL over other's lives once said control is obtained?....Even purely laughably and only supposedly "caring" liberals? Morons all methinks. Per "politician" sociopaths of either "side" in recent decades, precious few of which could ever be improperly mistaken for "Americans" in any possible way other than via the "cute" little Flag pins they sometimes sport on their lapels to baffle the the utterly ignorant. While I equally despise supposed "Republicans" for their treasonous BS that the Founding Fathers would've cheerfully hanged them for; the whole "liberal thing" seems entirely intent on eliminating all Freedom to the the individual citizen...."They civilize Freedom till no one is Free"

 

[EastUS1]

.....

What did your boy Obama do about it?

"He" totally handled all of America's concerns well, as so well-proved in the following video....We all must reasonably assume that the later filmed (and truly "Presidential") clip where "he" presumably wore only "Presidential Seal" emblazoned knee pads was shot in a far more intimate setting and made for the enduring amusement of the saudi "royal" family only.

 

[FWAAA]

Real lawyers should be required to do public defender pro bono work in lieu of their comfortable lifestyle and salary.

WTF? Whose stupid idea is that?

Should airline mechanics be required to fix poor people's cars at no charge for a week or two each year? Not all Airframe and Powerplant licensed mechanics know how to competently fix automobilies. Should flight attendants be required to donate their time to staff soup kitchens and homeless shelters for a couple weeks each summer?

Most "real" lawyers in this country don't have the slightest clue how to serve as an effective public defender. If there aren't enough public defenders, society needs to step up and raise their pay and hire sufficient numbers of them.

Instead of requiring high income professionals to "donate" their time doing something they probably won't do very well, increase their taxes and hire well-trained public defenders with the proceeds.