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   From: DEMI_GOD_@SHAW.CA   
      
    Some Facts on Prisons   
      
   There are 2 million people locked up in federal, state, and county   
   facilities. More than 6 million people are under state supervision in the   
   form of parole or probation. The United States incarcerates more people than   
   any other in the world. Statistically, one out of every 130 people will   
   serve prison time at some point in their lives.   
      
   These numbers are worse if you are a person of color. One of every three   
   young (20-29) African American men are under some kind of correctional   
   control-whether they are imprisoned, paroled, or on probation.   
      
   Prisons are expensive. It costs more to keep someone in prison for one year   
   than it would to send them to Harvard University. And, yet, approximately   
   three-quarters of all prisoners have been convicted of non-violent offenses.   
      
   Prisoners are under-educated and under-employed. Most prisoners have not   
   completed high school. Many can barely read. Roughly one-third had been   
   unemployed prior to imprisonment. Another third had annual incomes of less   
   than $5,000.   
      
   Drug arrests have tripled in the last 20 years -- reaching more than 1.5   
   million drug arrests each year. Of these, 4/5 are for possession and only   
   1/5 for drug sales. As more people have been arrested for drug offenses, the   
   sentencing laws for such have been made more harsh. Mandatory sentencing   
   means that judges can no longer use any discretion and must sentence drug   
   offenders to prison time. The sentences themselves are also becoming longer.   
   Despite the fact that almost 30% of prisoners have been convicted of drug   
   offenses and more than half of all prisoner had been under the influence of   
   drugs or alcohol at the time of their action, prison treatment programs have   
   been disappearing.   
      
   US prison conditions violate the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for   
   the treatment of prisoners and have been condemned by Amnesty International   
   and Human Rights Watch.   
      
   There are almost 100,000 women in US prisons today. Overwhelmingly, they   
   have been convicted of economic crimes. 80% reported a pre-incarceration   
   annual income of less than $2,000. Almost all of these women are single   
   mothers.   
      
   States are spending more money on prisons than education. Over the course of   
   the last 20 years, the amount of money spent on prisons was increased by   
   570% while that spent on elementary and secondary education was increased by   
   only 33%.   
      
      
      
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