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Excludes federal prisoners. In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners.
or something to that effect 😉
originally posted by: 191stMIDET
"Always remember, that the war on drugs is really a war on personal freedom" Bill Hicks.
originally posted by: Puppylove
Ending the war on drugs is a good start.
The U.S. Justice Department announced plans on Thursday to phase out its use of privately operated prisons, calling them less safe and a poor substitute for government-run facilities.
In a move hailed by civil rights groups and longstanding critics of for-profit prisons, the department said it planned a gradual phase-out by letting contracts expire or by scaling them back to a level consistent with recent declines in the U.S. prison population.
Shares of the two leading U.S. private prison companies plummeted on the announcement. GEO Group Inc (GEO.N) ended down 39 percent at $19.51 on the New York Stock Exchange while Corrections Corp of America (CXW.N) sank 35 percent to close at $17.57.
The phase-out of private contractors is in line with President Barack Obama's efforts to reform the U.S. criminal justice system, which he has said incarcerates too many people, particularly minorities.
In 2015, the United States held 25 percent of the world's prisoners even though it only accounts for 5 percent of the world's population, according to the White House.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Local courts that jail poor defendants because they can't afford to pay bail are unlawfully discriminating against the poor, federal attorneys say in a legal brief in a Georgia lawsuit.
The U.S. Justice Department says such policies are unconstitutional.
The federal brief was filed Thursday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit of a north Georgia man who spent six days in jail in the city of Calhoun because he couldn't afford $160 bail following his arrest on a misdemeanor charge.
U.S. Justice Department lawyers argue that such policies "unlawfully discriminate" against poor defendants by using preset bail amounts that don't take into account the accused person's ability to pay.
originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Tempter
Personally speaking, I think the Prison Industrial Complex can only be solved one way.
The running of prisons by any entity other than state and federal government, ought to be banned, and all private companies currently involved in the process should be liquidated. Detention and correction of convicted criminals, should be the SOLE responsibility of the government alone, local or national, and never be given over to profit making entities to take care of.