US JAILS TWO MILLIONTH INMATE

Vigils were mounted in more than 30 cities in the United States this week
to draw attention to the arrival of the country's two millionth jail
inmate. The US comprises 5% of the global population yet is responsible for
25% of the world's prisoners.

It has a higher proportion of its citizens in jail than any other country
in history, according to the November Coalition, an alliance of civil
rights campaigners, justice policy workers and drug law reformers. The
coalition is seeking to draw attention to what campaigners feel is a trend
for locking up ever more offenders, most of them non-violent.

"Incarceration should be the last resort of a civilised society, not the
first," said Michael Gelacak, a former vice-chairman of the US sentencing
commission.

"Two million is too many," said Nora Callahan of the coalition, which is
calling for alternatives to prison for the country's 500,000 non-violent
drug offenders. "We are calling on state and federal governments to stop
breaking up families and destroying our communities. Prison is not the
solution to every social problem," she said.

In New York city the prison moratorium project is focusing on the fact that
one in three black youths is either in custody or on parole. Kevin Pranis,
of the project, said: "New York state is diverting millions of dollars from
colleges and universities to pay for prisons we can't afford."

Criminal justice is already a campaign issue in the presidential race. The
Republican frontrunner, George W Bush, governor of Texas, is a staunch
supporter of both the death penalty and stiffer sentencing for drug
offences. Since he took over in Texas in November 1994 the prison
population there has risen from 41,000 to 150,000, mainly as a result of
jailing people for drug possession.

Of those held in federal rather than state prisons, 60% are drug offenders
with no history of violence. Aminah Muhammad, who is organising the Los
Angeles vigil, said: "My husband is doing 23 years for just being present
in a house where drugs were found, so my 10-year-old son doesn't have his
father."

The vigil also coincides with the publication of Lockdown America, a report
by an academic, Christian Parenti, analysing the US criminal justice
system. He notes the expansion of the private prison sector, which now runs
more than 100 facilities in 27 states, holding more than 100,000 inmates.

It is estimated that firms such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch write
between $2bn and $3bn in prison constructions bonds every year. Critics of
the system suggest that so much money is invested in incarceration that
politicians would find it difficult to reverse the trends against the
wishes of their financial backers and lobbyists.

The cost of building jails has averaged $7bn a year for the past decade,
and the annual bill for incarcerating prisoners is up to $35bn. The prison
industry employs more than 523,000 people, making it the country's biggest
employer after General Motors.

Crime rates have fallen over the past few years, a statistic that is cited
in support of heavier jail sentences. But prison reformers say that the
economic boom (see Finance, page 12) and democratic shifts explain the
decline in crime.