Six Million People Are Under Correctional Supervision in the U.S.—More Than Were in Stalin’s Gulags

January 25th, 2012

Via: New Yorker:

For a great many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is a destination that braids through an ordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich white ones. More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today—perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. That city of the confined and the controlled, Lockuptown, is now the second largest in the United States.

6 Responses to “Six Million People Are Under Correctional Supervision in the U.S.—More Than Were in Stalin’s Gulags”

  1. AHuxley says:

    Going to a gulag, in a gulag, home from the gulag.
    With todays controls, the gulag is your life.

  2. pessimistic optimist says:

    along the same vein, many “cults” in todays world boast a larger membership now than the entire worlds population when spirituality/religion first became organized. then theres the major world religions membership numbers. thats alot of belief.

  3. pookie says:

    The really sickening part is that victimless “crime” constitutes 86% of the federal prison population. Most are in for drug offenses, and only about 8% are incarcerated for violent crimes.

    “It isn’t just offenders whose lives are damaged. [Researchers] Western and Pettit note that 54 percent of inmates are parents with minor children, including more than 120,000 mothers and 1.1 million fathers. One in every 28 children has a parent incarcerated, up from 1 in 125 just 25 years ago. Two-thirds of these children’s parents were incarcerated for nonviolent offenses.”

    Stats are from:
    http://www.libertariannews.org/2011/09/29/victimless-crime-constitutes-86-of-the-american-prison-population/

    Quotation is from:

    http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/08/prison-math

  4. Miraculix says:

    But hey, it’s profitable!

    And it’s one of America’s new growth industries!

    Made in America : the Privatized Gulag…

  5. LoneWolf says:

    The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

    25 cents an hour?

    by Vicky Pelaez

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

    Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells …

  6. Zuma says:

    victim, criminal, or cop -if you ain’t one of those you’re criminal by default for subverting the script…

    http://deoxy.org/meme/Carceral_State

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