On Apr 6, 2009, at 2:29 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
> At 07:53 PM 4/4/2009, Joanna wrote:
>
>> I never said that people ought to be in prison because of drug use.
>> And that covers at least half of the people who are in prison in
>> the U.S. right now.
>
>
> This is incorrect. In state facilities the percentage hovers around
> 20. In federal it's higher and I believe did reach 50% in the past
> but has gone down. The federal system, with fewer than 200,000
> inmates is far smaller than the state, with well over a million in
> custody.
<http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/corrtyp.htm>
Over 50% are in state prisons for "violent" offenses, defined as: "Violent offenses include murder, negligent and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault, extortion, intimidation, criminal endangerment, and other violent offenses."
American society produces a lot of people who perform violent acts. But most of the people in prison did commit those violent acts.
I was at an event many years ago at which an audience member tried to assert to Christian Parenti - who, remember, wrote a great book on the prison system, Lockdown America - that most of the people behind bars were innocent. He dismissed her with scorn.
Doug