Monday, May 22, 2006

Society is not working

From Daily Kos - click here to read more...

It's shocking enough to read that 1 in 136 Americans is incarcerated, according to AP :
U.S. Prisons, Jails Grew by 1,000 Inmates a Week From '04 to '05; 1 in 136 Residents Behind Bars
Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.

But to read on and find out it's because the untried are swelling the ranks takes your breath away:

The report by the Justice Department agency found that 62 percent of people in jails have not been convicted, meaning many of them are awaiting trial.

Sixty-two percent! Still in the category of "innocent until proven guilty," yet doing time. Why that's starting to sound like ... a certain American-run Cuban detention center, spread out within our own borders.

This speaks to such a sweeping failure of society on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin. We can start, I suppose, with funding the justice system adequately so that "right to a speedy trial" is something more than a pipe dream. Next we could take a look at how many of these arrests are due to the "war on drugs" and how that little PR adventure can be feeding people who are no danger to others into an overcrowded and clearly dysfunctional system - yes, dysfunctional. If close to two-thirds of people imprisoned in this country haven't even been found guilty, you've got yourself a system that is inarguably not working.

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