A Nation Of Jailbirds- Far Too Many Americans Are Behind Bars

The Economist

Far too many Americans are behind bars

THE world’s tallest building is now in Dubai rather than New York. Its largest shopping mall is in Beijing, and its biggest Ferris wheel in Singapore. Once-mighty General Motors is suspended in a limbo between bail-out and bankruptcy; and the “war on terror” has demonstrated the limits of American military might.

But in one area America is going from strength to strength—the incarceration of its population. America has less than 5% of the world’s people but almost 25% of its prisoners. It imprisons 756 people per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the world average.

About one in every 31 adults is either in prison or on parole.

Black men have a one-in-three chance of being imprisoned at some point in their lives. “A Leviathan unmatched in human history”, is how Glenn Loury, professor of social studies at Brown University, characterises America’s prison system.

Conditions in the Leviathan’s belly can be brutal. More than 20% of inmates report that they have been sexually assaulted by guards or fellow inmates.

Federal prisons are operating at more than 130% of capacity. A sixth of prisoners suffer from mental illness of one sort or another.

There are four times as many mentally ill people in prison as in mental hospitals.............