Friday, December 13, 2013

13-12-13 US: Land of the Free...

The post below forgot the most important stat: According to ACLU, the US holds 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's prisoners' population. jz
Number of Prisoners: 1st place is U S: 2,019,234 & 2nd place is China 1,549,000

# 1 United States: 2,019,234 prisoners
# 2 China: 1,549,000 prisoners
# 3 Russia: 846,967 prisoners...Continue Reading







Number of Prisoners: 1st place is U S: 2,019,234 & 2nd place is China 1,549,000

# 1 United States: 2,019,234 prisoners
# 2 China: 1,549,000 prisoners
# 3 Russia: 846,967 prisoners
# 4 India: 313,635 prisoners
# 5 Brazil: 308,304 prisoners
# 6 Thailand: 213,815 prisoners
# 7 Ukraine: 198,386 prisoners

The rest are here:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_pri-crime-prisoners

Per Capita
# 1 United States: 715 per 100,000 people
# 2 Russia: 584 per 100,000 people
# 3 Belarus: 554 per 100,000 people
# 4 Palau: 523 per 100,000 people
# 5 Belize: 459 per 100,000 people
# 6 Suriname: 437 per 100,000 people
# 7 Dominica: 420 per 100,000 people

The rest are here: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_pri_per_cap-crime-prisoners-per-capita

*****

"Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today -- perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system -- in prison, on probation, or on parole -- than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under 'correctional supervision' in America -- more than six million -- than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height." -- Adam Gopnik, "The Caging of America" http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik

*****

In an age when freedom is fast becoming the exception rather than the rule, imprisoning Americans in private prisons run by mega-corporations has turned into a cash cow for big business. At one time, the American penal system operated under the idea that dangerous criminals needed to be put under lock and key in order to protect society. Today, as states attempt to save money by outsourcing prisons to private corporations, the flawed yet retributive American "system of justice" is being replaced by an even more flawed and insidious form of mass punishment based upon profit and expediency. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/prison-privatization_b_1414467.html

*****

In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education. In 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons, versus $5.7 billion on higher education. Since 1980, California has built one college campus; it's built 21 prisons. The state spends $8,667 per student per year. It spends about $50,000 per inmate per year.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/30/zakaria-incarceration-nation-2/

*****

Of the 50 states that make up the Union, 38 are bleeding billions of dollars from their education budgets, according to facts from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. However, 22 percent of the United States population is functionally illiterate. Figures from the National Center or Education Statistics affirm that 68 million people read below basic levels, but less money is spent on education. She uses Texas as an example, where they have eliminated $4 billion from the budget along with the financing of programs that serve 100,000 at risk children.

Other cuts have forced public schools to close, like in California, where — believe it or not — they even devised and published a “best practices guide” for carrying out the disastrous policy.

Needless to say, without an education there are even less employment opportunities, and unemployment creates very serious imbalances in society, impacting quality of life, mental and physical health, and causing a host of constraints; in a few words, marginalization, the formation of a subclass, and sooner or later just one course: crime and prison.

And the numbers are exact: Of the 2.3 million prisoners in the United States, 46 percent lack a high school diploma and don’t have the skills to compete in an ever-shrinking job market. 

But more is invested in prisons, and she cites corporations like Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan and Walmart, big also in the business of private prisons, which give them greater profits for the greater the number of inmates, and who are linked to the formulating of and influence in educational policies.

Rich and poor, prisons and schools are intertwined in a highly damaging system.

http://watchingamerica.com/News/146017/prisons-or-schools/

*****

#PoliceState #PoliceStateUSA #Amerika #PrisonsForProfit #NDAA #IndefiniteDetention #LandOfTheFree



How the Feds Fund and Create the Local Police State

Why does a police department which hasn’t had an officer killed in the line of duty in over 125 years in a town of less than 20,000 people need tactical military vests like those used by soldiers in Afghanistan? For that matter, why does a police department in a city of 35,000 people need a military-grade helicopter? And what possible use could police at Ohio State University have for acquiring a heavily-armored vehicle intended to withstand IED blasts?

Why are police departments across the country acquiring heavy-duty military equipment and weaponry? For the same reason that perfectly good roads get repaved, perfectly good equipment gets retired and replaced, and perfectly good employees spend their days twiddling their thumbs—and all of it at taxpayer expense.

It’s called make-work programs, except in this case, instead of unnecessary busy work to keep people employed, communities across America are finding themselves “gifted” with drones, tanks, grenade launchers and other military equipment better suited to the battlefield. And as I document in my book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, it’s all being done through federal programs that allow the military to “gift” battlefield-appropriate weapons, vehicles and equipment to domestic police departments across the country.

http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2013/11/21/how-the-feds-fund-and-create-the-local-police-state/#.Uqqhg9JDuDk

‪#‎Corporate‬ & ‪#‎Institutional‬ ‪#‎Terrorism‬ in the new ‪#‎Amerika‬...

‪#‎Corporatocracy‬ ‪#‎PoliceState‬ ‪#‎PoliceStateUSA‬ ‪#‎US‬ ‪#‎Terrorists‬ in DC
How the Feds Fund and Create the Local Police State

Why does a police department which hasn’t had an officer killed in the line of duty in over 125 years in a town of less than 20,000 people need tactical military vests like those used by soldiers in Afghanistan?  For that matter, why does a police department in a city of 35,000 people need a military-grade helicopter? And what possible use could police at Ohio State University have for acquiring a heavily-armored vehicle intended to withstand IED blasts?

Why are police departments across the country acquiring heavy-duty military equipment and weaponry? For the same reason that perfectly good roads get repaved, perfectly good equipment gets retired and replaced, and perfectly good employees spend their days twiddling their thumbs—and all of it at taxpayer expense. 

It’s called make-work programs, except in this case, instead of unnecessary busy work to keep people employed, communities across America are finding themselves “gifted” with drones, tanks, grenade launchers and other military equipment better suited to the battlefield. And as I document in my book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, it’s all being done through federal programs that allow the military to “gift” battlefield-appropriate weapons, vehicles and equipment to domestic police departments across the country. 

http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2013/11/21/how-the-feds-fund-and-create-the-local-police-state/#.Uqqhg9JDuDk

#Corporate & #Institutional #Terrorism in the new #Amerika...

#Corporatocracy #PoliceState #PoliceStateUSA #US #Terrorists in DC




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