Subject: Reply
to Nay letter dated 6/18
Date: 8/24/99
Gwbush.com:
I have to response to a letter (6/18/99) from one of the intellectually bankrupt
and thoroughly un-American individuals who wrote to you (fortunately few at
that). Although he didn't sign the letter, it began, "In your 'But seriously'
web page, you state that hundreds of thousands of people are in jail for committing
victimless crimes. If 'hundreds of thousands of people' means only 300,000,
that's 6,000 people in jail in EACH of the 50 states. Do the math -- your
statistic is impossible!"
Allow me to help clear it up for you. You don't strike me as particularly
quick, and certainly as too lazy to research the information yourself. So
here you go...
1. As of June 1998, there were more than 1.8 million inmates nationally: 1.2
million in state and federal prisons and 600,000 in local jails. The overall
incarceration rate for the US is 668 per 100,000 residents.
Source: Cilliard, Darrell K. Gilliard., Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear
1998, Washington D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice
(1999, March).
2. In 1998, the United States imprisoned more than 1,185,000 people for nonviolent
offenses at an annual cost of more than $24 billion.
Source: John Irwin, Ph. D., Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, America's
One Million Nonviolent Prisoners, Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute
(1999), pgs. 2,7.
3. The U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations
of Wyoming and Alaska.
Source: John Irwin, Ph. D., Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, America's
One Million Nonviolent Prisoners, Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute
(1999), pg. 4.
4. In 1985, there were 744,000 inmates in custody in the United States. More
than 1 million inmates have been added since then.
Source: Cilliard, Darrell K. Gilliard., Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear
1998, Washington D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice
(1999, March).
5. From 1990 to 1997, the U.S. added an average of 63,992 persons to the inmate
population.
Source: Cilliard, Darrell K. Gilliard., Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear
1998, Washington D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice
(1999, March).
6. At of the end of 1997, there were 5.7 million adults in the 'correctional
population.' This means that 2.9% of the U.S. adult population was incarcerated,
on probation or on parole.
Source: Bonczar, Thomas & Glaze, Lauren, Nation's Probation and Parole Population
Reached New High Last Year, Washington D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics,
U.S. Department of Justice (1998, August 16).
7. Assuming recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of
every 20 Americans (5%) can be expected to serve time in prison during their
lifetime. For African-American men, the number is greater than 1 in 4 (28.5%).
Source: Bonczar, T.P. & Beck, A.J., Lifetime Likelihood of Going to State
or Federal Prison, Washington D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department
of Justice (1997, March), p. 1.
8. In the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1997, the Bureau of Justice
Statistics estimates the total costs of our judicial system for 1993. That
year, the United States had 1,364,881 adult jail and prison inmates, based
on this information our cost per inmate year was:
-- Corrections spending alone: $23,406 per inmate -- Corrections, judicial
and legal costs: $39,201 per inmate -- Corrections, judicial, legal and police
costs: $71,465 per inmate
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
1997, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997), pgs. 4, 464.
9. In 1995, drug law violators constituted almost 25% of all adults serving
time. The total number of drug law violators serving time in 1995 was approximately
379,700.
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Profile of Jail Inmates 1996, Washington
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1996, April), p. 1 & p. 4 [22% of 1995
jail population, which was estimated at 468,499 by adjusting downward the
1996 jail population of 496,609 by the jail population's average annual increase
rate of 4.6%]; Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 1996, Washington
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997), pp. 10-11 [23% of state prison
population, 59.9% of federal prison population].
10. Over 80% of the increase in the federal prison population from 1985 to
1995 was due to drug convictions.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics, Prisoners in 1996,
Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997).
11. In 1993, nearly 17% of the total federal prison population were drug-offenders
with no prior criminal history.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, An Analysis of Non-Violent Drug Offenders
with Minimal Criminal Histories, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office (1994), p. 3.
12. Eighty-four percent (84%) of the increase in state and federal prison
admissions since 1980 was accounted for by nonviolent offenders.
Source: Ambrosio, T. & Schiraldi, V., Executive Summary--February 1997, Washington
D.C.: The Justice Policy Institute (1997).
13. In 1995, only 13% of all state prisoners were violent offenders.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Prisoners in 1996, Washington D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office (1997), p. 11.
14. "Department of corrections data show that about a fourth of those initially
imprisoned for nonviolent crimes are sentenced for a second time for committing
a violent offense. Whatever else it reflects, this pattern highlights the
possibility that prison serves to transmit violent habits and values rather
than to reduce them."
Source: Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., "The Past and Future
of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment,"
American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998), p. 720.
15. Not including federal funds, states spent $28.9 billion on Corrections
in 1997 alone. To compare, states only spent $14.0 billion on welfare to the
poor.
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). 1997 State
Expenditure Report, Washington, DC: NASBO (May 1998), pgs. 50, 80.
16. The United States operates the biggest prison system on the planet.
Source: Currie, E., Crime and Punishment in America, New York, NY: Metropolitan
Books, Henry Holt and Company, Inc. (1998), p. 3.
17. In 1985, our incarceration rate was 313 per 100,000 population. Now it
is 645 per 100,000, which is three to 10 times higher than rates of the other
modern democratic societies. The largest single factor contributing to this
imprisonment wave is an eight-fold rise in drug arrests. In 1980, when illicit
drug use was peaking, there were about 50,000 men and women in prison for
violating drug laws. Last year, there were about 400,000.
Source: Reinarman, C. & Levine, H.G., "Casualties of War," San Jose Mercury
News, (letter), (1998, March 1), Sect. C, p. 1.
18. The overall U.S. incarceration rate is six times that of its nearest Western
competitors.
Source: Currie, E., Crime and Punishment in America, New York, NY: Metropolitan
Books, Henry Holt and Company, Inc. (1998), p. 61.
19. The United States incarcerates African-American men at a rate that is
approximately four times the rate of incarceration of Black men in South Africa.
Source: Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., "The Past and Future
of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment,"
American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998), p. 714.
20. If one compares 1996 to 1984, the crime index is 13 points higher. This
dramatic increase occurred during an era of mandatory minimum sentencing and
"three strikes you're out."
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports 1996, Washington
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997), p. 62, Table 1.
21. According to the Department of Justice, studies of recidivism report that
"the amount of time inmates serve in prison does not increase or decrease
the likelihood of recidivism, whether recidivism is measured as parole revocation,
re-arrest, reconviction, or return to prison."
Source: An Analysis of Non-Violent Drug Offenders with Minimal Criminal Histories,
Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice (1994, February), p. 41.
22. Since the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users, the
Federal Bureau of Prisons budget has increased by 1,350%. Its budget has jumped
from $220 million in 1986 to $3.19 billion in 1997.
Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
1996, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997), p. 20. Office
of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the White House, National
Drug Control Strategy 1997, Budget Summary, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office (1997), p. 111.
23. From 1984 to 1996, California built 21 new prisons, and only one new university.
Source: Ambrosio, T. & Schiraldi, V., "Trends in State Spending, 1987-1995,"
Executive Summary--February 1997, Washington D.C.: The Justice Policy Institute
(1997).
24. California state government expenditures on prisons increased 30% from
1987 to 1995, while spending on higher education decreased by 18%.
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers, 1995 State Expenditures
Report, Washington D.C.: National Association of State Budget Officers (1996).
The anonymous writer goes on to say, "And numbers aside, when is the last
time someone did time for possession of a modest amount of a drug (i.e., a
'victimless' crime)? It rarely happens."
1. In 1996, 641,642 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses; that's
approximately one arrest every 49 seconds. About 85% of those were for simple
possession--not manufacture or distribution.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United
States 1996, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997).
2. Although may people think that the Drug War targets drug smugglers and
`King Pins,' of the 1,506,200 arrests for drug law violations in 1996, 75%
(1,131,156) were for possession of a controlled substance. Only 25% (374,044)
were for the sale or manufacture of a drug.
Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy, "Law Enforcement," Drug Facts,
Washington, DC: Office of National Drug Control Policy Website (1998).
But the writer isn't finished impressing himself just yet. He goes on, "And
does 'Joey' deserve to go to jail for selling LSD, a lethal drug? That's really
not a tough call -- that is NOT a victimless crime. There are very few people
in this country who think that selling LSD is okay. People die from LSD every
day of the week. And each death encompasses multiple victims (i.e., spouse,
parent, child, friend)."
1. A recent study by Columbia University confirms what many criminologists
have long known: alcohol is associated with more violent crime than any illegal
drug, including crack, cocaine, and heroin. Twenty-one percent of violent
felons in state prisons committed their crimes while under the influence of
alcohol alone. Only 3% were high on crack or powder cocaine alone and only
1% were using heroin alone.
Source: Califano, Joseph, Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America's Prison
Population, Forward by Joseph Califano. The National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University (1998).
2. Federal statistics show that a large percentage of crimes are committed
'under the influence' of alcohol (30.7%), a smaller percentage under the influence
of a combination of alcohol and other drugs (16.1%), and an even smaller percentage
under other drugs alone (8.8%).
Source: Rasmussen, D. & Benson, B., The Economic Anatomy of a Drug War, Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (1994), p. 106.
If only he was finished, but no. I will skip his, Shrub-is-a-good-guy garbage
and finish with his final witless comments on the Drug War Against Americans.
"The reason that drug use is still strong is because we are not putting people
on jail. Believe me, if a ten-year-old kid did six months in jail for smoking
pot, that would be the last time he smoked pot. The drug laws are a joke precisely
because they aren't enforced -- there's no jail space for the more serious
offenders, never mind the offenders of 'victimless' crimes -- everybody knows
that. Where do you get your statistics from?"
Well, having already covered most of this, let me expand on his theme of family.
Adding women (particularly those who don't testify against their spouses)
to prison is part of the government's Cultural Cleansing of America program.
1. 146,000 American women are behind bars.
Source: Gilliard, Darrell K. Gilliard., Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear
1998, Washington D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice
(1999, March).
2. The number of women incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA is approximately
10 times more than the number of women incarcerated in Western European countries,
even though Western Europe's combined female population is about the same
size as that of the USA.
Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence:" Violations of the
Human Rights of Women in Custody, Washington, DC: Amnesty International (1999,
March), p. 15.
3. Women are the fastest growing and least violent segment of prison and jail
populations. 85.1% of female jail inmates are behind bars for nonviolent offenses.
Source: John Irwin, Ph. D., Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, America's
One Million Nonviolent Prisoners, Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute
(1999), pgs. 6-7.
4. From 1986 (the year mandatory sentencing was enacted) to 1996, the number
of women sentenced to state prison for drug crimes increased ten fold (from
around 2,370 to 23,700) and has been the main element in the overall increase
in the imprisonment of women.
Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence:" Violations of the
Human Rights of Women in Custody, Washington, DC: Amnesty International (1999,
March), p. 26.
5. From 1985 to 1996, female drug arrests increased by 95%, while male drug
arrests increased by 55.1%.
Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports 1985, Washington
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, p. 181, Table 37; Federal Bureau of
Investigation, 1997 Uniform Crime Report, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office, p. 231, Table 42.
6. In 1996, 188,880 women were arrested for violating drug laws.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports 1996, Washington
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (1997), p. 231, Table 42.
7. The most serious offense for 40% of women in state and federal prisons
is the violation of drug laws.
Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence:" Violations of the
Human Rights of Women in Custody, Washington, DC: Amnesty International (1999,
March), p. 18.
8. More than two-thirds of all women in state prison have children.
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Special Report: Survey of State Prison
Inmates, 1991 (1997, February), p. 10.
9. As of June 1997, two-thirds of the AIDS cases in Hispanic women were directly
linked to injecting drug use: 42.8% of Hispanic women contracted AIDS by injecting
drugs, and an additional 23.2% contracted the disease through sexual intercourse
with male injecting drug users.
Source: National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations.
HIV/AIDS: The Impact on Minorities. Washington, DC: National Coalition of
Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations, Figure 6, pg. 16 (1998).
10. African American women accounted for over 50 percent of all injection-related
AIDS cases among women in 1997, although the made up only 12 percent of the
female population. Similarly, Latina women accounted for almost 25 percent
of all injection-related AIDS cases among women in 1997, although they made
up only 10 percent of the female population.
Source: Dawn Day, Ph.D., Health Emergency 1999: The Spread of Drug-Related
AIDS and other Deadly Diseases Among African Americans and Latinos, The Dogwood
Center (1998), p. i.
11. The rate of imprisonment for black women is more than eight times the
rate of imprisonment of white women; the rate of imprisonment of Hispanic
women is nearly four times the rate of imprisonment of white women.
Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence:" Violations of the
Human Rights of Women in Custody, Washington, DC: Amnesty International (1999,
March), p. 19.
I hope that this has cleared things up for Mr. Nobody Goes To Jail for Drug
Offenses in the Great American Empire. I've provided all relevant sources
for you (although you did not see fit to do the same). And such is the current
state of America's Great Cultural Cleansing of Americans Who Use Drugs (besides
the Empire-sanctioned drugs, alcohol and tobacco, caffeine, etc.) during the
beginning of the Fall of the American Empire.
Casey
http://www.lp.org
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