[lbo-talk] Criminal stats question

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Wed Mar 31 14:01:16 PST 2004


Doug:
> Those are jail inmates. Jails are local institutions that hold people
> awaiting trial or convicted of minor offenses. You want prison
> inmates, who've been convicted of major crimes (prisons are state or
> federal institutions).
>

I understand that, but these are the only stats on inmate profile I could find. BTW, jails may also hold inmates for other institutions i.e. those awaiting trials, prison overcrowding etc.

What I was trying to find the is the number of inmates by income category - but I do not think that DoJ even bothers with collecting these data, because people with income simply do not go to jail - period. First, they are not prosecuted, but even if they are they usually cut some sort of cozy deals that let them off the hook with a slap on the writs.

In short - I always suspected that the criminal "justice" system in this country sucks big time - judging from the composition of the prison population - but I would like to support that with some stats, not just impressions.

In essence, I am fed up with the annual farce of showing for jury duty and waiting for the privilege of rubber stamping prosecutorial choices. Jury nullification is not an option because many defendants (cf violent criminals) actually deserve jail sentences - so nullifying them on the ground of selective prosecution is cutting one's nose off to spite one's face. The problem is not who gets before the jury but who does not due to fundamental corruption of this country's "justice" system. I am just looking for ways of not participating in that corrupt farce - it is an insult to anyone with a brain and a basic sense of decency.

Wojtek



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