Prisons

I started to write an article on how a modern police force -- with an emphasis on preventing crime through regular patrols and detective work -- impacted the penal system, replacing brutal punishments intended to deter crime, with long prison sentences intended to "reform" criminals.  However, I found that 18th century enlightenment had already turned against executions, and the first national penitentiary was completed in London in 1816, 13 years before the Met was established.

But while looking at current prison statistics, I was shocked.  I apologise for going wildly off topic, but this is staggering.

In 2008, England and Wales had a prison population of 72,517, which is 153 per 100,000 residents. By comparison, the US has 756 prisoners per 100,000 residents, five times higher! To put that in perspective, the US has less than 5% of the world's population, and 23.4% of the world's prison population.

So I looked at the historical incarceration rates between the US and the UK:

How can the US incarceration rate go up by 500% while the UK rate fell by 50%?  I checked the crime rate and it has dropped over the past 20 years, but not because America got 'tough on crime' -- it dropped in the UK as well.  So what would cause the disparity? Three words: War on drugs.

So the US decided to criminalize drug use to the point where 51.6% of inmates (according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons) are in for drug-related offenses, swelling the inmate population from 500,000 to nearly 2,500,000 in 25 years, and costing five times more (in real terms) than any other country.  I don't think it makes sense, but it's a democracy, so that's fine...as long as it is implemented fairly.


Except now look at these statistics:

• In 2000, the US population was 69.1% white and 12.1% black.
• According to a 2008 study, illicit drug use was 10.1 percent for blacks and 8.2 percent for whites.
• According to a 2004 study, over 60% of drug dealers are white while 15% are black.
• In 1999, a study showed blacks comprise 62.7% and whites 36.7% of all drug offenders admitted to state prison.
• Another study showed African-Americans, who only comprise 13% of regular drug users, make up for 35% of drug arrests, 55% of convictions, and 74% of people sent to prison for drug possession crimes.

Those are staggering figures.  To put it simply, a black man is six times more likely to go to jail than a white man, even though drug usage is relatively even and drug dealing is higher for whites! Even more incredible, in 1986 Congress passed a law making the minimum sentence for crack cocaine (the choice of poor blacks) 100 times harsher than powder cocaine (the choice of affluent whites). At the time, blacks were already being given sentences that were on average 11% longer than whites, but by 1990 the average federal drug offense sentence for blacks was 49% higher than for whites.

I'm not cherry-picking statistics to make a point; in fact, I looked for statistics that would counter this and couldn't find any.  This is the new racism: The black man is portrayed as a dangerous criminal, then incarcerated for petty, non-violent offenses, and locked away in a self-fulfilling cycle that absolutely destroys families, communities, and hope. It's segregation taken to the next level, and no longer restricted to the Southern states.  I've long been against drug laws and other "victimless" crimes, but suddenly I'm realizing there is a very real victim here:

• In 1980, black men in college outnumbered black men behind bars by a ratio of more than 3 to 1. In 2000, 791,600 black men were behind bars and 603,032 were enrolled in colleges.
• Today, one in every 20 black men over the age of 18 in the United States is in state or federal prison, compared to one in 180 white men. In some states, one in 13 black men are in prison.
• 13% of adult black men -- 1.4 million -- have lost the right to vote because of felony convictions. That's more than were ever disenfranchised under the Jim Crow laws.

By the way, here's another staggering statistic: A 2008 study estimated that legalizing drugs would inject $76.8 billion a year into the U.S. economy — $44.1 billion from law enforcement savings, and at least $32.7 billion in tax revenue. That a $237 refund per year for every taxpayer. It always seems the same people who want to be 'tough on crime' are the same people who want to reduce taxes, so if I can't convince you of the inhumanity of the current system, maybe you'll consider it to save a few bucks.

Think about it.

P.S. The UK isn't faring much better: A 2007/08 report by the Ministry of Justice shows that while blacks make up only 2.2% of the population, they account for 13% of stops and searches, 7.4% of arrests, 14% of trials, and 15% of inmates.  The prison population has nearly doubled since 1993, and England's incarceration rate is higher than any other European country.