ALL LOCKED UP, NOWHERE TO GO

A new report by Mother Jones, "Debt to Society," has compiled extensive
data on the United States' ever-expanding prison system. With
state-by-state comparisons and a series of essays about the
prison-industrial complex, Mother Jones has created a reference center
meant to combat our national obsession with incarceration.

Particularly useful is the Incarceration Atlas. Click on a state, and you
can see its incarceration rate, prison spending, education spending, and
its growth in such spending over the past twenty years. It also shows the
state's prison percentage of drug offenders and its incarceration rates for
whites compared to non-whites.

A smattering of statistics garnered from the report (unless otherwise
stated, all statistics are for the year 2000):

* Ranking of the U.S. among other countries' incarceration rates: First.

* Percentage of U.S. prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses in 1980: Eight.

* Percentage of U.S. prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses in 1998:
Twenty-three.

* U.S. incarceration rates of Caucasians per 100,000 residents: 235.

* U.S. incarceration rates of African-Americans per 100,000 residents: 1,815.

* Minnesota's ranking among U.S. incarceration rates: Fifty-one (includes
District of Columbia).

* Minnesota's ranking among U.S. education-spending per capita: First.

* District of Columbia's ranking among U.S. incarceration rates: First.

* District of Columbia's ranking among U.S. education-spending per capita:
Fifty-one.

* Percent change from 1980 to 2000 in U.S.'s per capita spending on
schools: 32 percent increase.

* Percent change from 1980 to 2000 in U.S.'s per capita spending on
prisons: 189 percent increase.

* Percent change from 1980 to 2000 in Texas' per capita spending on
prisons: 401 percent increase.

Some Illinois figures include:

* The percentage increase of prison spending per capita in Illinois between
1980 and 2000: 214 percent.

* The percentage increase of education spending per capita in Illinois
between 1980 and 2000: 47 percent.

* Illinois ranks fifth among all states regarding the percentage of inmates
imprisoned for drug offences.

Learn more by checking out the whole Mother Jones Prison Report at
www.motherjones.com/prisons.

This short comes from Alternet. The news service of the alternative press.