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Filling Prison Beds for Profit - by Stephen Lendman
At yearend 2010, America's prison population topped 2.4 million, including federal and state facilities, local jails, Indian, juvenile, and military ones, US territories, and numbers held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In addition, over seven million more are under correctional supervision, and over 13 million pass through US prisons and jails annually. About 70% are for nonviolent offenses. Nearly half of those are drug-related. In 1980, 40,000 drug offenders were imprisoned. It's now over 500,000, victimized by unfair "war on drugs" laws.
Since 1970, America's prison population grew eightfold. It hasn't been for more crime. It's because of:
-- racism;
-- police state toughness;
-- judicial unfairness;
-- political persecution;
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