Land of Oz

Land of the Free?

What the hell? I knew it was bad, but this is amazing apalling. Thank goodness Congress is covering its ass covering Clement's ass instead of important stuff like 1 out of 99 adults is in jail! If you're a young guy, that rate triples and if you're young and black, basically you're screwed. If you are a 20 year-old black man and you have 9 friends, one of you is heading for the clink. But thank god, that baseball will be positive steroid test free - yeah, do we live in a great country or what?

The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails - a total 2,319,258 out of almost 230 million American adults.

The report said the United States is the world's incarceration leader, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations which make up the rest of the Top 10.

"For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling," the report said. "While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine."

Using updated state-by-state data, the report said 2,319,258 adults were held in U.S. prisons or jails at the start of 2008 - one out of every 99.1 adults, and more than any other country in the world.

Labels: crime, freedom, government