by Fareed Zakaria in CNN Online.<\/p>\nThe Text:<\/strong> \u201cMass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today,\u201d writes the New Yorker\u2019s Adam Gopnik. \u201cOver all, there are now more people under \u2018correctional supervision\u2019 in America – more than 6 million – than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height.\u201d<\/p>\nIs this hyperbole? Here are the facts. The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That\u2019s not just many more than in most other developed countries but seven to 10 times as many. Japan has 63 per 100,000, Germany has 90, France has 96, South Korea has 97, and \u00adBritain – with a rate among the \u00adhighest – has 153….<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This wide gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world is relatively recent. In 1980 the U.S.\u2019s prison population was about 150 per 100,000 adults. It has more than quadrupled since then. So something has happened in the past 30 years to push millions of Americans into prison.<\/p>\n
That something, of course, is the war on drugs. Drug convictions went from 15 inmates per 100,000 adults in 1980 to 148 in 1996, an almost tenfold increase. More than half of America\u2019s federal inmates today are in prison on drug convictions. In 2009 alone, 1.66 million Americans were arrested on drug charges, more than were arrested on assault or larceny charges. And 4 of 5 of those arrests were simply for possession….<\/p>\n
Bipartisan forces have created the trend that we see. Conservatives and liberals love to sound tough on crime, and both sides agreed in the 1990s to a wide range of new federal infractions, many of them carrying mandatory sentences for time in state or federal prison. And as always in American politics, there is the money trail. Many state prisons are now run by private companies that have powerful lobbyists in state capitals. These firms can create jobs in places where steady work is rare; in many states, they have also helped create a conveyor belt of cash for prisons from treasuries to outlying counties.<\/p>\n
Partly as a result, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education in the past 20 years. In 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons vs. $5.7 billion on the UC system and state colleges. Since 1980, California has built one college campus and 21 prisons. A college student costs the state $8,667 per year; a prisoner costs it $45,006 a year.<\/p>\n
The results are gruesome at every \u00adlevel. We are creating a vast prisoner under\u00adclass in this country at huge expense, increasingly unable to function in normal society, all in the name of a war we have already lost….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Article: by Fareed Zakaria in CNN Online. The Text: \u201cMass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today,\u201d writes the New Yorker\u2019s Adam Gopnik. \u201cOver all, there are now more people under \u2018correctional supervision\u2019 in America – more than 6 million – than were in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Incarceration Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are now more Americans in jail than there were in Stalin's Gulag Archipelago, and we can thank the War on Drugs for it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Incarceration Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are now more Americans in jail than there were in Stalin's Gulag Archipelago, and we can thank the War on Drugs for it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prose Before Hos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-25T14:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-09T16:28:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/prison.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/\",\"name\":\"Incarceration Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-25T14:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-09T16:28:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\"},\"description\":\"There are now more Americans in jail than there were in Stalin's Gulag Archipelago, and we can thank the War on Drugs for it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Incarceration Nation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\",\"name\":\"Prose Before Hos\",\"description\":\"The Far Side Of Politics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\",\"name\":\"Article of the Day\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Incarceration Nation","description":"There are now more Americans in jail than there were in Stalin's Gulag Archipelago, and we can thank the War on Drugs for it.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Incarceration Nation","og_description":"There are now more Americans in jail than there were in Stalin's Gulag Archipelago, and we can thank the War on Drugs for it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/","og_site_name":"Prose Before Hos","article_published_time":"2013-05-25T14:00:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-12-09T16:28:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/prison.jpg"}],"author":"Article of the Day","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_site":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Article of the Day","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/","name":"Incarceration Nation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-05-25T14:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-09T16:28:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e"},"description":"There are now more Americans in jail than there were in Stalin's Gulag Archipelago, and we can thank the War on Drugs for it.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/25\/incarceration-nation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Incarceration Nation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/","name":"Prose Before Hos","description":"The Far Side Of Politics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e","name":"Article of the Day","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork"],"url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139587"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139686,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139587\/revisions\/139686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Incarceration](\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/prison.jpg\")
<\/p>\n