Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt of Fareed Zakaria's column in this week's TIME Magazine, which you can read in full here, behind a paywall.
By Fareed Zakaria
“Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today,” writes the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik. “Over all, there are now more people under ‘correctional supervision’ in America - more than 6 million - than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height.”
Is this hyperbole? Here are the facts. The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That’s 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 Britain - with a rate among the highest - has 153....
This wide gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world is relatively recent. In 1980 the U.S.’s 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.
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’s 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....
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.
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.
The results are gruesome at every level. We are creating a vast prisoner underclass in this country at huge expense, increasingly unable to function in normal society, all in the name of a war we have already lost....
Read the full article at TIME.com.
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IRAN IS AND WILL MAKE THE NUC WEAPONS MARK MY WORDS, IF WE DONT STOP THEM NOW IT WILL BE A NIGHTMARE TO THE WORLD AND PEACE.
IRAN TOOK MANY SCIENTISTS FROM PAKISTAN, IRAQ AND SYRIA AND THEY WORKING AROUND THE CLOCK IN QUM AND OTHER AREAS.
IRAN IS A TERRORISTS REGIEME FUNDING AND HELPING THE TERRORISTS HIZBOALLAH AND THE KILLERS THUGS SHIIA IN SYRIA BASHAR AL KALB.
IRAN IS KILLING PEOPLE IN IRAQ BY HELPING NORI AL MALEKI AND OTHER SHIIA SPIES LIKE AHMAD AL JALABO AND MOQTADA AL QATHER, MAHDI ARMY ,ASHAB AL HAQ, HIZBOALLAH, BADER ARMY AND OTHER TERRORISTS.
IRAN DID TORTURED 400 USA BACK IN 1984 AND KILLED USA MAN ON A WHEEL CHAIR.
IRAN RA PE AND KILL CIVILIANS AND PRISONERS. AND THEY ARE EXPORTING TERROR , GIVING ARM AND WEAPONS TO TERRORISTS IN AFRICA AND SHIIA THUGS IN SYRIA ,LEBANON AND HAMAS
IRAN IS PURE EVIL AND MULLA THUGS USA AND THE FREE WORLD MUST GET RED OF THOSE EVIL MULLAS.
You and few more like you should be tied to a nuclear missile and fired on Iran etc and then you would be a first Marty for the great cause you are pleading others to fulfill.
Alarmist! Deal with the log in your eye before you talk of the speck in someone else' eye.
this is a true statement if you are a jew, and if you are nazi then jews are the terrorist, so lets get along.
So, when are you leaving? I hope you're not another one of those chickenhawks eager to send someone elses kids to fight your battles. You're not just going to sit on your sofa and watch on CNN are you? Again.
We're not interested in your words. That won't do anything. Get over there and make it your job to stop Iran and those mullahs. Maybe when you're done you can get rid of the Christian mullahs here as well.
Don't forget to write.
Dude, I think you misunerstood the context of this article – the US has 99 problems but iran aint one. Or actually shouldnt bee. Why is US trying to save the world when there are even more severe problems within the contry itself. US should get back to the isolation-politics.
you probably need to take a breath first before spewing nonsense without any factual research or solid support to back it up.
Hasn't anyone ever told you not to feed the trolls...
All the resources that are squandered chasing school kids for downloading music that's played on the radio for free or smoking a joint should be used to root out bribery and corruption in government.
Look out for Iran, they already stole this guy's caps lock key.
troll level = -1
If only Ronald Reagan hand't sent US contractors over to Iran in the 80's to build their nuclear power plants with our technology. And you are scared of Iran? Scariest country in the world is the US....and I served my country so don't say I'm a hater. I'm just pragmatic.
You are stupid !
The real terrorists are the US, England, & Israel.... The Fourth Reich.
As much as i agree with you, please don't call the collective United Kingdom "England". There's four countries. One of them is called England, however we are united under the term of the United Kingdom. Thus any foreign politics are done under a British, not an English banner. It's like calling the US Texas.
Sincerely, a welsh-american.
Doncha hate it when cousins marry?
This guy works for military contractor. Some company, which will take over billions of our tax money on yet another boogie man. This is not a statement, this is sales pitch. Thank you, sir, will call you once the real threat is actually there.
Please learn how to flip burgers for now. World piece is on.
syria killed 14,000 civilians to date bashar al asad is war criminal along with russia leaders and iran leaders who pay and give weapons to syria and hizboallah.
iran killed more than 120,000 civilians in iran, iraq, lebanon and syria.
all those are terrorists why usa is silent, SILENCE IS CRIME......HELPING RUSSIA IS CRIME.....HELPING SYRIA AND IRAN IS CRIME AGANIST HUMANITY.....
Offer your services to US army and ask them to send you to the front- line so you can taste the Iranian blood first hand. Are you trembling?
The Bush administration killed over a 100,000 Iraqi civilians and over a million Iraqi's in total in an unjust war from 2003 to 2008. I am pretty sure he is playing golf or sipping tea by the poolside somewhere right now!
Это америка стала центром тероризма. Без ее участия ничего не происходит в мире.
Ваша цель стравливать всех друг с другом и на их костях строить свою империю.
Ну почему, как руский так полный идиот.
Re Russian comments; why when it's Russian it's always an idiot?
whts this column have to do with iran syria or lebanon. p
Fareed, as you point out, there is a HUGE incentive to states to maintain this status quo, plus, with so many conservatives voting in elections, I predict there will NEVER be any backing off from America's tone-deaf "war on drugs", not even to legalize marijuana. You know how it's done in America – sens and reps are in the pockets of the lobbyists, and this prison lobbyist situation is no exception. Indeed, many conservative Americans are PROUD of the outrageous incarceration rate in this country. Their only interest is in reducing important public benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and in cutting spending for ALL programs that don't benefit their rich capitalist patrons. That's the sorry state of affairs in conservative-dominated America.
Quite true, ProgressivesRule. These right-wing fanatics are indeed quite proud of the high rate of incarceration in this country. They seek to use these statistics along with all these useless and unnecessary wars to prove just what "superheroes" they are". It's all right-wing baloney and some of these conservatives are no better than the criminals themselves!!!
It's all about bragging how efficient the authorities are in combating crime. Very often it's the small fish that they catch and fill the prisons with.
Both conservatives and liberals are to blame for this war on drugs, and particularly for cannabis prohibition. In fact, quite a few conservatives have come out calling for legalisation or decriminalisation of cannabis. Ron Paul and Pat Robertson are but two recent examples.
David is spot on. This isn't Red vs. Blue, conservative vs. liberal. This is us vs. a group of powerful people looking to get paid at our expense. That is the thing about donkeys and elephants, their $#!& smells the same: bad.
Perhaps economic realities and some courageous youth movements with society's new instantaneous ability to take up new & just causes will change things.
It would be curious to see what the education looks like. Compare these developed countries with high incarceration rates, to those with low incarceration rates. I'm willing to bet the level of education is higher in those with low. It's no secret the U.S. is lagging far behind other developed countries and it's not only a huge problem for the job market, but socially as well.
Joe
http://www.waiting4departure.com
Prisons are now big business even in developing countries. Privatization is a real curse on today's economy. It makes the rich hyper rich and the poor a lot worse and ... pay.
Quite true Noureddine, quite true.
It's called the prison-industrial complex. For it to succeed it need a lot of "criminals" – usually accomplished by making what should be legal behavior become a "crime" (victimless at that).
I think it's a little more complicated than just the war on drugs. At the same time the war on drugs began, there was a dramatic increase in the privatization of prisons. The corporations that run the prisons and the lobbyists for police and prison organizations need prisoners to exist. Legalizing marijuana would mean a loss of business. It's ALWAYS about the money.
The FDA, The Prison Industrial complex, the DEA , the ATF , the CIA and all off there corporate benefactors stand to lose greatly from the legalization of marijuana. Its an uphill climb but if they don't give the people their weed we may actually finally be able to organize enough people to take back power from the entrenched techno aristocrats.
There are consequences for legalizing drugs too. If you go to Copenhagen, you have to worry a lot more about low level crime because people are desperate for money to sustain their addictions. Drugs lower productivity. However, Fareed is right that we are spending vast amounts of resources in our war on drugs. We are financing organized crime by keeping drugs illegal because if drugs were legal, open market trade would become cheaper and safer than dealing through gangs.
Marijuana, unlike most other legal (such as alcohol and tobacco) and illegal drugs, is not physiologically addictive.
One of the main effects of the prohibition of drugs is the gangs induced by the traffic are the best support to terrorism that feeds on its enormous gains. Internationally.
Excellent article!
fair sentencing act passed by obama is a decent step. and some states are relaxing their marijuana laws.
i think decriminalization of marijuana combined with mandatory drug rehab/treatment and some kind of consumption tax will be worth trying.
i dont think congress will act so boldly. only states and local governments with local public consensus can show the nation what to do. just like gay marriage issue.
Weed, should be legal.
Weeds are legal, you should see my yard.
"Since 1980, California has built one college campus and 21 prisons".....Not to be picky but there have actually been 4 new public college campuses since 1980 in CA. UC Merced (2005), Cal State Channel Islands (2002), Cal State San Marcos (1988), and Cal State Monterey Bay (1994).
We are a Christian nation. We demand harsh punishment for those who break rules. We don't want to pay for university because we value ignorance. We want our money spent on prisons and weapons to invade islamic countries in order to continue the 1500+ Christian Crusades.
sorry real truth, but we are not a chiristian nation. The first amendment openly states that we have no official religion in this country, unlike most of the states in the middle east.
The issues a re a little bigger than religion and punishment.
Admittedly, Rick Santorum would like to disagree with you and the First Amendment. I'm sure many others in government share his opinion.
Ridiculous, I know...
Um, I think the sarcasm might have went over your head. Continuing the crusades should have been your clue.
Anytime your Prison population rises that dramatically it is an indicator of bigger social problems within the country.
1. we are locking people up for crimes like possession of marijuana that should not be spending extended amounts of time in prison
2. typically most crime is a result of financial inequity within a system and lack of opportunity for those that are committing the crimes.
3. with less and less work available for people with a high school education or less it is creating an increasingly desperate situation for people in the lowest income brackets, crime is a byproduct.
4. I also feel that in the legal profession there is a tendency to target "blue collar " crime versus " white collar" crime. Many DA's "run up their numbers" on simple drug convictions.
5. It is also an indictment of our schools and our loss of core family values which is another of the roots of the growing drug problem in the US which gets targeted by law enforcement with greater frequency than other possible types of crime .............
I could go on and on, its not a liberal or conservative issue , its an American issue that needs a good hard look at reform and change.
this is why the country is so villified... we say freedom but search for opportunities to feed the prison industrial complex. keeping slave labor to skew statistics and fool people into thinking the government actually has concern for their safety... http://redd.it/r39tz
Yes pretty bad news, we are treating are prisoners better than our children. Oh, then we also have recenty passed into law the California Dream Act. Give away free education to illegal immigrants and on top of that were shutting down Sonoma State Univerisity for spring semester because of lack of funds. World gone mad, unions have built this country and CCPOA and Calpers which are correctional officers/ Police officers union and Teachers and educators union. Two of the most powerfull unions in the "Country"... Blow it all up before it blows itself up. Needs to be fixed Badly...
Reblogged this on Occupy The Polls.
$9,863 = cost of educating a child in California. $47,102 = cost of housing an inmate in a California prison. Not having an educated enough workforce to pay for housing those inmates? Priceless...
Why is the country that claims to be the best and most forward thinking always the last to figure out it's problems?
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To many hotshot lawyers trying to make a lot of money and fame at our expense! We need to take out behind the barn and WELL!
With all due respect to Fareed Zakaria, the real issue is not incarceration for drug use. The issue is Why are so many Americans "using" illegal drugs. That's what needs to be examined.
Maybe you have not noticed, but the entire economy runs on the profits from illegal drugs.
How do banks and Wall Street make most of their money? Through laundering illegal drug money.
How does the CIA make most of its money for its operations colluding with private companies such as Google? It's profits from facilitating the drug trade.
I'm sure the CIA, Wall Street, and the big banks will just sit back and let the naive peasants vote on legalizing drugs......NOT!
Perhaps they should make prison a horrible place to be again rather than the luxury it's become today.
And the killings. Don't forget the killings. The American state has developing country levels of state killings of convicted felons. Only China, Saudi Arabia and a few middle Eastern and African dictatorships compare with America on state killing rates.
How about playing online poker, should we put people in jail for that? Washington State believes so. It is a class C felony to play online poker in the state of Washington(15 year sentence). Don't worry about poker players though, because they can just go play poker at the tribal casinos. See the world is in balance. People shouldn't play online poker because you can play at the casinos who donate money to politicians. It's the biggest no brainer. All online poker players should be in jail.
If the USA will not stop killing people in name of democracy and freedom and will not stop producing terrorists to defeat its enemies, it will soon become south America.Taliban were produced to defeat Russia in Afghanistan and to win the cold war.American people should wake up and face the truth of crime rate increase in USA.See the CNN report on how much drug Afghanistan is producing now as compared to when Taliban were ruling.One can easily find out what Mr Bush has done for drug masters to rule the world.
Would like to read the entire article here at CNN. Nice to see CNN finally making an effort at presenting the facts to the American public that the War on Drugs is a total failure. Of course the statistics don't show the number of innocent people killed as a result of this insanity. Imagine this: You are a father of a 3 year old and are scheduled to have a custody meeting in three days. A police officer in a state that has a Medical Marijuana Law thinks he smells marijuana and notifies Child Protective Services, who in turn obtains a court order to remove the child from you. When CPS along with the police arrive at your house, you put up a fight about the removal of your child and are shot dead in front of your child by the officer. The irony, the toxicology report shows that you are clean, no alcohol, no drugs, no marijuana in your system. The officer isn't charged with a crime, because the officer claimed self defense. My bet: a vast majority of Americans would put up a fight to keep their children from being ripped from their arms. Since I see more than one person providing a link I will too.
Michigan Father Killed in Marijuana Child Removal Incident
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2012/mar/24/michigan_father_killed_marijuana
Prohibition causes more harm than good, but prohibitionists fail to understand that. End the war on drugs. Legalize it.
Questions:
What percentage of the prison population is
White
Hispanic
Black
Life without parole
non violent
Drug possession
Now take all non violent put an ankle bracelet on them charge them a fee and send them home where they can go to and from work to home and that’s it. Let a computer monitor their where abouts every five minutes.
next all non citizens deliver them to law enforcement in their native country. Let their own country pay for their incarceration.
Now for those with life without parole we find a piece of land five miles on a side no people on that land and put up a triple fence, middle fence electrified, with cameras, motion sensors, vibration sensors. Enough guards to keep the fence under observation with no guards inside the fence. Hand the felon a pack with garden seeds and hand tools for working the soil and put them through the fence where they can take care of them selves. No fly zone above the place with automatic shoot down.
Then dismantle the war on poverty. That is the biggest single factor among minorities breaking up families and putting young men in prison.
The above should save this nation at least half the current cost of our prison system and leave the prison population at or below 10% of what it was.
of course the reason usa has hi count of inmates is because the inmates and their familys have
conned the folks into abolishing death for bad crimes, and instead throw them out on the
streets too early --- obama, the man who siad he was gonna change everything fumbled
on this too....... he should have made admin law that law enforcement officers be given 2 pistols
one each hip and a sawed off shotgun 12 guage 0000 so when any criminal gave any lip
or any resistance our armed guys could blast away until the dummy stopped moving, etc etc
maybe we will some day get a president with balls of steel who is not afraid of his own shadow
and anyway spends all his time sucking up to foreigners who have pots of loot so he can honeydip
his hands into their loot and walk away with some without the dummiies knowing or as some
upfront payoff for bribes ongoing, one never knows....
Fared Zakaria does not get his reports of the news corrct because all he does is read the news published in India (east India) where he is from so he can translate into usa language and then mickey mouse his report so looks good, i.e. he
is good at window dressing, dumb as to discovering real news, and has scrambled brains to where he can not
figure out day from night nor if he is in east India or downtown new york city - o well ho hum ....................
Your commentary was misleading on Sunday April 1, 2012 on the number of incarcerated persons in the USA, with private business running our prisons. You pointed to California with its high cost to incarcerate a prisoner. The truth in California it is the high cost of the public service unions, which control California prisons and contributed large amounts of money to the California Politicians in return for lucrative public servant contracts. We recently saw the effects of this when Governor Davis was recalled in California, in part because of his relationship specifically with the State’s Prison Guard Union. Just look at the cost per prisoner across the states. Private business has nothing to do with California prisons including the medical services.
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