>From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Still more on P-2Million >Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 13:40:24 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Pubdate: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 >Source: Boston Globe (MA) >Copyright: 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. >Contact: letter@globe.com >Address: P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378 >Feedback: http://extranet1.globe.com/LettersEditor/ >Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ >Author: Gaylord Shaw, Newsday > >INMATE TOTAL NEARS 2 MILLION > >WASHINGTON -- On Jan. 1, 1900, there were 57,070 people locked up in local, >state, and federal jails and prisons in the United States. That was 122 >inmates for every 100,000 Americans. > >As of midnight Friday, a new study says, there will be 1,982,084 adults in >US jails and prisons. > >That is 725 inmates for every 100,000 Americans. Before the year 2000 is >two months old, America's prison population will reach 2 million - probably >hitting that level on Feb. 15, the study predicts. By the end of 2000, if >current rates continue, it said, the nation's prison population will reach >2,073,969. > >''Our incarceration binge is America's real Y2K problem,'' said Jason >Ziedenberg, coauthor of the study published this month by the >Washington-based Justice Policy Institute. ''As we approach 2 million >prisoners in 2000, we have to find alternatives to incarceration to solve >America's social problems.'' The cost of housing inmates will soon exceed >$40 billion a year, the study found, and state governments invariably are >spending more on prisons and jails than on colleges and universities. > >''As we enter the new millennium, the ascendance of prisons as our decade's >major public works project and social program is a sad legacy,'' said >Vincent Schiraldi, director of the institute, in the report titled ''The >Punishing Decade: Prison and Jail Estimates at the Millennium.'' The >institute describes itself as ''a policy development and research body, >which promotes effective and sensible approaches to America's justice >system.'' Others in the criminal justice field generally view it as a >liberal think tank supported largely by liberal foundations. The >institute's research is based largely on nonpolitical statistics from >government records dating back 100 years. > >When crunched in today's computers, the rows and columns of numbers become >charts and graphs depicting the results of new laws generated by >politicians throughout the country. The get-tough laws include mandatory >minimum prison sentences for a range of crimes, especially those involving >drugs and guns. By prescribing a fixed minimum jail time to be imposed upon >conviction of a crime - such as 15 years in prison for selling 2 ounces of >cocaine - the laws prohibit judges from considering extenuating >circumstances. > >The laws have been extended to such offenses as possession of marijuana >plants and have brought the imprisonment of an inordinate number of >first-time, nonviolent offenders, according to judges and others who decry >the trend. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, whose record in a >quarter-century on the Supreme Court is anything but soft on crime, has >been among the critics. ''These mandatory minimums impose unduly harsh >punishment for first-time offenders and have led to an inordinate increase >in the prison population,'' he told Congress this year. > >Others on the highest court also have spoken out. ''Judges should not have >their sentencing discretion controlled,'' said Justice Anthony Kennedy. New >York generally gets credit, or blame, for starting the trend toward harsher >sentences for drug crimes. > >In 1973, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller won enactment of laws mandating >years of jail time for possession of small quantities of drugs and up to >life imprisonment for trafficking. In the 1980s, other states enacted >drug-sentencing laws modeled on the Rockefeller laws. In 1986, Congress >federalized the Rockefeller-style drug laws, enacting statutes that allow >drug crimes to be prosecuted in federal as well as state courts, and >mandating long prison sentences. But researchers say any correlation >between incarceration and crime rates remains elusive. > >Contrasting New York and California, the study found that between 1992 and >1997, New York state's murder rate fell 54.5 percent while its prison >population grew by 30 inmates a week. At the same time, California was >adding 270 inmates each week but its murder rate fell by 28 percent > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: