How many people have passed through the Prison-Industrial Complex in the United States? How large is its population today? "Overall, corrections authorities incarcerated 2,212,475 prisoners at the end of 2003. . . . As of December 31, 2003, one in every 140 U.S. residents was confined in a state or federal prison or a local jail" (US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, "U.S. Prison Population Approaches 1.5 Million," <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/p03pr.htm>, 7. Nov. 2004); "In 2003, 6.9 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend 2003 -- 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 32 adults" ("Corrections Statistics," <a href="http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.htm">); "[A]ssuming that recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of every 20 persons (5%) can be expected to serve time in prison during their lifetime" ("Lifetime Likelihood of Going to State or Federal Prison," <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/llgsfp.htm>); and "The reality is inescapable: America has become a nation of ex-cons. Thirteen million people have been convicted of a felony and spent some time locked up. That's almost 7 percent of U.S. adult residents. If all of these people were placed on an island together, that island would have a population larger than many countries, including Sweden, Bolivia, Senegal, Greece, or Somalia" (Tom Cochran, "Executive Director's Column" [dated 7 May 2004], U,S, Mayor Newspaper 71.9, <http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/us_mayor_newspaper/documents/05_10_04/cochran.asp>, 10 May 2004 -- see, also, Human Rights Watch, _No Second Chance: People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing_, <http://hrw.org/reports/2004/usa1104/usa1104.pdf>, 2004). That's not counting foreigners whom Washington has detained in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere; rendered to other governments; summarily executed; or tortured to death. In terms of scale of incarceration, the US Prison-Industrial Complex has already surpassed the Gulag in the Soviet Union.
>Deaths as a Result of Poor Treatment:
>
>Gulag: At least two to three million. Mass burials were often
>employed to keep death rates secret (camp commanders sometimes
>received permission to remove gold fillings before burial). In some
>particularly brutal periods, camp commanders simply executed
>thousands of prisoners. But deaths due to overwork were much more
>common. It is estimated that 25,000 gulag laborers died during the
>construction of the White Sea Canal in the early '30s. One convoy of
>"backward elements" destined for the Gulag in 1933 included about
>6,000 prisoners; after three months, 4,000 were dead. "The survivors
>had lived because they ate the flesh of those who had died,"
>according to an account cited by Applebaum.
"The prevalence rate for HIV antibody in prisons and jails is 2.1%, according to the Department of Justice statistics" (John G. Bartlett, Louis C. Tripoli, Ellen S. Rappaport, and William Ruby, "HIV in Corrections," <http://www.cm-institute.org/hivin.htm>, 1 Jul. 2000). -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Monthly Review: <http://monthlyreview.org/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>