Glenn Quagmire
Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2012
- Messages
- 4,809
- Reaction score
- 4,343
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
"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
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