Racist incarcerations on the rise
By
Gloria Rubac
Published May 4, 2005 5:23 PM
Newly-released numbers by the Justice
Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics confirm what those living in
poor and oppressed communities already knew: way too many people are going to
prison and the war on drugs is nothing but a war on the oppressed.
For the
Justice Department’s latest statistical period, mid-2003 to mid-2004, the
jail population grew by 3.3 percent, the state prison population by 1.3 percent
and the federal prison population by 6.3 percent. The number of women in prison
increased during this time by 2.9 percent. There are now over 100,000 women
incarcerated.
Nearly 1,000 new individuals are locked up each week,
bringing the U.S. rate of incar ceration to a startling 726 per 100,000 people
and maintaining this country’s status as the world’s leading jailer.
Rates in other countries per 100,000 are: England, 142; France, 91; Japan, 58;
and Nigeria, 31.
It took the U.S. 200 years to imprison the first million
people but only another 10 years to lock up the second million. In 1970, fewer
than 200,000 people in the U.S. were behind bars. By contrast, during the 1990s
alone, 840,000 were sent to prison. By 2002 the U.S. hit the 2 million mark. Now
there are 2.1 million locked up.
Over the past two decades, on average one
new jail or prison has been built in the U.S. every week.
The cost of
keeping 2 million prisoners behind bars is $40 billion a year or about $20,000
for every man, woman and teenager serving time.
The U.S. comprises 5
percent of the world’s population, yet has fully 25 percent of the
world’s prisoners.
The human costs of imprisoning over 2 million
people—amounting to wasted lives, wrecked families and troubled
children—are incalculable. There are adverse social, economic and
political consequences of weakened communities and extensive
disenfranchisement.
Just as shocking is the racist disparity of
incarceration. Although African Amer icans are only 12 percent of the U.S.
population, 44 percent of all prisoners in the U.S. are Black.
Nearly 5
percent of all Black men are behind bars, compared to 0.6 percent of white
men.
According to Human Rights Watch calculations based on the 2000 U.S.
Census, the proportion of Black people in prison exceeds the proportion among
state residents in every single state in the U.S. In 12 states more than 10
percent of African American men from ages 18 to 64 are
incarcerated.
Around 12.6 percent of all African American males in their
late twenties are in prisons or jails, compared to 3.6 percent of Latinos and
1.7 percent of whites in the same age group.
African American men of all
ages are incarcerated at more than seven times the rate of white men. In 13
states, Black men are locked up at more than 10 times the rate of white men. No
state is free of significant disparities.
The Sentencing Project is a
national leader in the development of alternative sentencing programs and in
research and advocacy on criminal justice policy. They document that despite
falling crime rates since 1991, the rate of incarceration has increased 49
percent since then, especially in the area of drug convictions.
The rise
in imprisonment is due to policy changes and not crime rates. These include such
measures such as “three strikes,” mandatory sentencing and
“truth in sentencing.”
Crime and violence in the U.S. arises
from a capitalist system built on crime and violence, from the theft of Native
lands to the kidnapping and enslavement of Africans. This country spends
billions on war and less and less on human needs.
The education system is
inherently racist and woefully inadequate, particularly in poor communities. The
state and the federal governments do not sufficiently fund education, health
care and jobs. President Bush’s own home state of Texas has the lowest
percentage of children covered by health insurance.
When the workers
topple the Pentagon and the corporations and establish a socialist society that
they control to provide for human needs, then the real criminals, the bosses and
their repressive goons, will do the time and the poor and oppressed will finally
be free of the violence of prisons.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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