>From: "Peter McWilliams" <peter@mcwilliams.com>
>Subject: Happy New...oh, fuck it!
>Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 03:43:35 -0800
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>
>
>As you may know, I have never used "fuck" in print, and certainly never as a
>heading for an e-mail, but 2 MILLION PRISONEERS, 1.5 MILLION IN FOR
>NON-VIOLENT CRIMES is beyond my breaking point.
>
>The point of forbidden words is to use them when the time are foreboding.
>It's the literary equivalent of throwing a bomb.
>
>I don't believe in throwing bombs, but if throwing out a "fuck" is what it
>takes to get some people's attention...
>
>The time is here.
>
>Enjoy (in spite of it all)
>
>Peter
>
>
>US WI: Column: 2 Million Inmates, With No Solution In Sight
>
>       URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n1403.a03.html
>
>       Newshawk: Frank S.  World
>       Pubdate: Mon, 27 Dec 1999
>       Source: Capital Times, The (WI)
>       Copyright: 1999 The Capital Times
>       Contact: tctvoice@madison.com
>       Website: http://www.thecapitaltimes.com/
>       Author: Dave Zweifel
>       Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1346/a10.html and
>       http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1393/a08.html
>
>       2 MILLION INMATES, WITH NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT
>
>       As Americans, we're going to set a dubious mark in about six
>weeks.  For the first time, more
>       than 2 million of our citizens will be in prison.
>
>       What that means is that the United States will have more people
>incarcerated than any other
>       country in the world, large or small, democracy or dictatorship.
>And, yes, that includes
>       Russia.
>
>       In just 10 years our prison population has risen by 70 percent.
>With 2 million prisoners, we
>       now have one-fourth of the world's incarcerated people.
>
>       As has been reported several times on these pages, most states,
>including Wisconsin, now
>       spend more on prisons than they do on higher education.  The cost
>of operating prisons
>       nationwide next year is expected to hit $40 billion.
>
>       Anthony Lewis of the New York Times says that two-thirds of those
>2 million inmates are
>       there for nonviolent offenses.
>
>       "Chances are good that by the time they are released -- after
>sentences that are among the
>       longest anywhere -- they will be thoroughly brutalized,'' he wrote
>recently.
>
>       Many of them, of course, are in prison for drug offenses.  Our
>pandering politicians have seen
>       fit to enact no-nonsense, get-tough-on-drugs laws that require
>judges to send people to prison
>       for extraordinary lengths of time.
>
>       If you are caught with more than 100 marijuana plants on your farm
>or in your garden, for
>       example, it's five years in the penitentiary, no questions asked.
>
>       The laws leave absolutely no leeway for treatment.
>
>       We don't throw people in the pen for blatant alcohol abuse.
>Instead, we try to get them in
>       treatment centers or Alcoholics Anonymous groups.  Marijuana
>users, however, are thrown in
>       the slammer and the rest of society pays for their incarceration,
>not to mention the problems
>       that many of them have after those prison experiences.  If they
>weren't hardened lawbreakers
>       before they went in, they are when they get out.
>
>       According to Lewis, the incarceration figures are so stunning that
>even some experts who long
>       have advocated a hard line on crime think it is time for a
>reappraisal of criminal justice
>       policies.
>
>       "The value of imprisonment is a portrait in the law of rapidly
>diminishing returns,'' Professor
>       John J.  DiIulio Jr.  of Princeton said.  Known as a hard-liner,
>DiIulio now thinks 2 million is
>       quite enough.
>
>       We have much the same problem here in the Dane County Jail.
>Sheriff Gary Hamblin is the
>       first to admit that there are many in the county's overstuffed
>jail who should be receiving
>       treatment for mental illnesses and addiction problems instead.
>
>       The problem will never be addressed, however, if our political
>leaders keep trying to capitalize
>       on fear instead of pushing long-range solutions that can get us
>out of this expensive mess.
>
>       Dave Zweifel is the editor of The Capital Times.
>
>
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