As a contemporary social institution, prison presents itself as a massive failure on multiple levels. Erving Goffman observed some years ago that many "total institutions" seem to function as merely as storage dumps for inmates, while they present themselves to the public as rational organizations designed as effective machines for producing a few officially approved ends.
The new millennium was met with the pronouncement that the number of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons had reached the 2-million mark; by 2020 the number was 2.3 million; the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.
The United States comes in first, too, on a meaningful list from the prison-studies center, which ranks in order of the incarceration rates. The United States has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)
The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63.
The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.
A 2008 article in the New York Times states: "Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences."
In the process of a rapid increase in population and crime rate during the last century it required 90 years - from 1900 until 1990 - to reach the 1-million mark. This number was doubled from 1990-2000; more young black males are now in prison than in college.
A recent study concluded that over the past twenty years, expenditures for crime control have increased twice as fast as military spending. Crime control is now estimated to cost at least $100 billion annually.
These facts and figures and the horrific human suffering they represent are overwhelming. And, this is actually part of the problem: our prison situation is so extreme, it is easier to avoid thinking about it than to struggle toward a solution. There is little appreciation of the true complexity of the situation. Common simplistic solutions and snap judgments that rely on fear and scapegoating prevail.
As Bo Lozoff succinctly puts it:
"We've been led to imagine a legion of heartless monsters plotting to get out and hurt us again. The truth is, most prison inmates are confused, disorganized, and often pathetic individuals who would love to turn their lives around if given a realistic chance.
"Unfortunately, many of those nonviolent offenders will no longer be nonviolent by the time they leave prison. Prisons are not scaring offenders away from crime; they are incapacitating them so they are hardly fit for anything else... Many wardens, judges, and other officials know this, but it has become political suicide to admit it publicly."
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