1 in 100 American Adults now in Prison

A report released today by the Pew Center on the States says that 1 in every 99.1 American adults are now incarcerated. That’s a total of 2,319,258 people in jail at the start of 2008. This makes the US by far the world’s leading incarcerator, whether you look at per capita or raw numbers. And for one more frightening statistic, the US spent more than 49 billion dollars in 2007 on our prison system.

Now, to bring it to a local level, here are some stats for Maryland. Of the 23,342 prisoners in Maryland, 70% are there for drug or drug-related offenses.

Obviously, there are a number of questions that this information begs to be asked. The first should be, are law-abiding citizens safer now than we were 20 years ago? Also, can we afford to keep this many people in prison? And, are these people being rehabilitated so they can contribute to society upon their release?

I think Maryland’s current violent crime and murder rate would say that the answer is no. If this trend continues and the numbers of people in prison grows, there is a point where states just cannot afford to run prisons, at least in the same way.

So, the question really becomes this. How do we keep law-abiding citizens safe, deter crime, punish violent criminals, all while lowering the amount of money spent on the prison system?

Suggestions are welcome, because no one has come up with an actual answer to this question yet. Some have suggested rehabilitation programs in lieu of prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders. While I agree that prison does little good in helping someone kick a drug addiction, I also don’t necessarily believe that mandatory rehabilitation will work if the user is not committed to the program.

This is a growing problem that needs to be addressed immediately. The problem is that no one is talking about this issue. Have you heard this mentioned in any presidential debates? I haven’t.

Here’s one more point from the report, “the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending.”

So, what do you think the answer is? Lower sentences for non-violent offenders? Increase spending and lock up more criminals? Something I didn’t mention?

It’s beyond time to start talking about this. It’s a very real problem and a factor that is working to destabilize the economy by using our resources ineffectively and diverting them from other places.