Writers from the HBO show The Wire published an editorial in TIME Magazine speaking out against the drug war. Check it out here. Its quite incredible that writers for an extremely popular television show would come out and ask people to consciously defy draconian drug laws by voting to acquit in any case in which they are on a jury in a drug-related trial. The Wire was a television drama portraying life in inner-city Baltimore that “tried to portray all sides of inner-city collapse, including the drug war, with as much detail and as little judgment as we could muster.”
Writer’s from HBO’s “The Wire” Speak out on the Drug War April 3, 2008
Pew Report: One in 100 March 13, 2008
The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety Performance Project recently released a report on the state of incarceration in the U.S., titled One in 100: Behind Bars in America. It begins with a grave statement of fact: “for the first time, more than one in every 100 adults is now confined in an American prison.” (Pew 3)
The numbers within that 1% are even more striking, as one in 34 of all men ages 18 or older is behind bars, and for black males between the ages 20 and 34, the ratio is one in nine.
Re-incarceration also plagues the corrections system, the report illustrates, as “more than half of released offenders are back in prison within three years, either for a new crime or for violating the terms of their release.”
The report examines state responses to this reality as their budgets are impacted, with a total of $44 billion spent on corrections in 2007. This cost begins to affect financial priorities, as in the five states where corrections expenditures surpass higher education spending. (It is notable that Minnesota had the smallest ratio in this comparison, with 17 cents in corrections for every dollar spent on higher education.) Some states have responded to the increased fiscal burden by reducing prison admissions and shortening in-prison sentences.
The report concludes by highlighting a growing consensus that incarceration is an ineffective form of crime prevention. Thus, with the highest ever percentage of persons incarcerated, it may be a good time to reexamine corrections policy nation-wide.
Welcome to the CCJ Research Blog March 13, 2008
Welcome! This blog will provide updates concerning the Research department at the Council on Crime and Justice.
