Prison Nation

It's become a depressingly predictable event. Every few months, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, releases new figures showing that the US prison population has grown yet again and has reached a new all-time high.

As of June 30, 2008, more than 2.3 million people were behind bars in this country -- an increase of almost 20 percent just since 2000. This gives the United States an incarceration rate of 762 per 100,000 residents - the highest rate in the world, dwarfing those of other democracies like Great Britain (152 per 100,000), Canada (116), and Japan (63).

It wasn't always like this. For much of the 20th century, the US incarceration rate remained fairly stable. It began to climb sharply in the late 1970s, as a result of policy changes like mandatory minimum sentencing and the widespread abolition of parole. In the 1980s and 1990s, the "war on drugs" and "three strikes" laws fueled further growth. More people were going to prison, and staying there for longer periods of time. By 2004, the incarcerated population was six times what it had been in 1972.

Contrary to popular belief, the growing prison population has little or nothing to do with an increase in crime. In fact, crime rates fell steadily between 1991 and 2006, eventually reaching levels not seen since the 1960s. Yet the incarceration rate increased by more than 50 percent in that same period. It's clear, then, that political choice, not crime, has given the United States its massive prison and jail population.

There are signs that change may be on the way. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), long a critic of America's love affair with incarceration, has called the US criminal justice system "a national disgrace" and urged "a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long."

Our dysfunctional criminal justice system has been a long time in the making, and no one should have any illusions that it will be fixed overnight. But a National Criminal Justice Commission would be an important first step toward ending our shameful status as the world's leading prison nation.

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20090410/cm_huffpost/185377