ACLU Mass Incarceration Infograph
Via Adam Serwer, a pretty scary infograph illustrating the sheer enormity of the problem with mass incarceration in this country. Adam writes:
Keep in mind when you look at the statistic regarding the fact that half of inmates in state prisons were convicted of nonviolent offenses, that state prisons house the majority of the prison population, 1,404,053 people in 2010according to the Pew Center on the states. Federal prisons house about two hundred thousand.
This is neither morally acceptable or financially sustainable. It’s time to stop spending so much money locking people up, and shift our resources to education and job training instead. Likewise, it’s time to stop focusing so much of our effort on non-violent offenders, and focus on real criminals, sexual predators, and other actually dangerous people.