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America becoming a garrison stateSUNNYSIDE--(Saturday 3-29-99)--If it hasn't happened yet, it's on the brink. We're going to beat Russia in the percentage of citizens we toss in the slammer.
The Associated Press says "The number of Amercian adults imprisoned has more than doubled over the past 12 years".
Justice Dept. statistics, revealed March 21, show "The United States soon may surpass Russia as the country with the highest rate of incarceration."
Ronald Reagan once called the Soviet Union--led by Russia--"The Evil Empire". We'll show 'em evil, alright. We beat 'em to the moon, didn't we?
In mid-1998, American jails and prisons held about 1.8 million people, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report. At the end of 1985, the figure was 744,208.
In Russia, 685 people out of every 100,000 are behind bars, according to the Sentencing Project, a U.S. group critical of the general trend toward harsher sentencing of Americans. But the U.S. rate is gaining rapidly.
A big majority of incarcerated Americans have committed "crimes against the state"--not other persons. America has developed the abhorrent mentality of the elementary school hallway monitor. Like Russia.
But Russia plans amnesty soon for about 100,000 of its prisoners.
Since U.S. figures are growing--often due to drug busts in homes of essentially peaceful persons--we'll soon become the world's leading jailer. It will happen "in a year or two" said Jenni Gainsborough, a Sentence Project spokeswoman.
The U.S prison population has grown for more than a quarter century--about the length of the drug war--topped by a "get tough" policy on those who commit all crimes.
Reports say two-thirds or 1.2 million of the nation's inmates were in state and federal prisons in mid 1998. Local jails held about 600,000 men and women.
We cannot, we must not, let Russia stay ahead of us. Let's break into a few homes. Let's get the peaceful occupants on the floor and put our knees in the middle of their backs. Lets put our .357s to their heads. Get the cuffs out. Let's put 'em in the slammer. We will rock you, Russia.
--LA