Second perhaps to those incarcerated either in penal institutions or the slave labor camps that supply our retail stores with cheap consumer crap, the United States of America under the GOP has claimed one of the more infamous titles:
Government of the world's largest prison population.

According to a DOJ just released report the U.S. now has a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year. Of those, 2,193,798 were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year

THE COST PER YEAR: $25,000.00 - $30,000.00. Taking the more conservative figure of $25,000 (which represents both cost of providing security and/or parenthetically, that which reflects the level of inadequate care or uncivilized conditions,) that comes out to approximately $60 billion a year.

Though currently there are more prison releases, the report said, admissions still exceed releases. More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005.

COST OF PROBATION OR PAROLE: The Bureau of Justice statistics does not have the number.

"Impossible," said Stewart Smith BOJ spokesperson. "And who cares," he continued to me over the phone. He then went on to characterize the aggregate number of prisoners as "murderers and rapists," and "no one wants them living in their neighborhood."

However, depending upon the state/county system the cost of probation (alternative sentencing to incarceration) was $1.48 per day keep a person on probation in 1990 or $2.13 total cost per day per offender in 2005 Texas, the home of The Executioner, George W. Bush.

The cost was $3.32 per day to keep a person on parole in 1990 and "The cost, on average, of supervising one person on probation or parole is about $200 per year," in 2005 according to a report from Bradford Plumer, assistant editor of MotherJones.com.

Men still far outnumber women in prisons and jails, but the female population is growing faster. Over the past year, the population females in state or federal prison increased 2.6 percent while the number of male inmates rose 1.9 percent. By year's end, 7 percent of all inmates were women. Despite the reports of a rise in violent crimes by females and average 20% were for nonviolent drug offenses which included sales and possession.

"Today's figures fail to capture incarceration's impact on the thousands of children left behind by mothers in prison," Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group supporting criminal justice reform, said in a statement.

There does not exist an aggregate cost figure for the "care" for these children, but the majority of these children belonged to the single female parent. Without her far too many are housed by either the state of private care facilities funded by local, state and federal government.

"Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails."

From 1995 until 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth of which 20% were for non-violent drug offense.

Racial disparities among prisoners persist. In the 25-29 age group, 8.1 percent - about one in every 13 - of black men are incarcerated, compared with 2.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.1 percent of white men. And it's not much different among women. By the end of 2005, black women were more than twice as likely as Hispanics and over three times as white women to be in prison.

CLASS AND INCOME LEVEL:

Almost all prisoners are poor or working class

Most have no finished HS. Many are functionally illiterate

Nearly 1/2 were unemployed at the time of arrest - of those arrested they were working at or below minimum wage

2/3 were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs during the time of arrest

There are very few middle class - upper middle class or rich people in prison!

There are subjective issues far beyond statistics that are beyond the scope of this missive. To be cryptic, we live in a culture of shame. We live in a class and racially separated society that believes in "winners" and "losers," that is a society that accepts Social Darwinism as its code. We live in a society that loves Wal Mart for its cheap prices with absolutely no regard for the millions of people in China that are held as slave labor producers.

It is then simple to understand why Americans, especially white, middle class Americans don't care: Lock'm up and through away the key. See the unemployment figures - we're doin' great. Better them than me. Bring in more immigrants to fill the low level job needs - oh, and build walls on the borders to control that labor market as well.

What these Americans do not understand because our mis-education system abhors abstract thinking, (as in social consequence,) is that no democracy can stand under these circumstances. It will rot and crumble from within because of its own morally bankrupt, greed driven consumption ... or will become a class dictatorship ... and rot and crumble from its own dysfunction, ala the Soviet Union.

Welcome to reality America!