Obama Increases Number of Prisons, Cops
Rady Ananda
President Obama's 2010 budget proposes $105 million for two new federal prisons. The new budget will also add $3 billion to the Department of Justice budget from 2008 figures, putting 50,000 more cops on the payroll.
Though only comprising 5% of the world's population, the US jails more citizens, in raw numbers and as a percent, than any other nation on the planet. Obama proposes to jail another 3,000 citizens, devoting scarce dollars to the prison industrial complex.
To highlight some prison fun facts from a prior article: With the federal government's war on drug users, women now comprise a growing portion of those imprisoned. In 1925, the US jailed one in 100,000 women; in 2006, the US jailed one in 746 women. Under Obama's proposed federal prison budget, West Virginia will take the remaining $55 million for a new federal prison. The US convicts people of color at rates far above those for whites, and for longer terms. In 2006, the incarceration rate per 100,000 for whites was 409, and 2,468 for blacks. That's an imprisonment rate of nearly 3 in 100 for blacks, or six times higher than for whites.
In the economically distressed town of Mendota, California, formerly an agriculture community, Mendota officials see economic opportunity in jailing people. With over $49 million in federal funds, the new prison scheduled to open in 2010 will employ only 314 people. No one is sure how many, if any, of them will be Mendota citizens.
Author's Bio: OpEdNews Senior Editor. In 2004, Rady Ananda joined the growing community of citizen journalists.
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Initially focused on elections, she investigated the 2004 Ohio election, organizing, training and leading several forays into counties to photograph the 2004 ballots. She officially served at three recounts, including the 2004 recount. She also organized and led the team that audited Franklin County Ohio's 2006 election, proving the number of voter signatures did not match official results. Her work appears in three books.
Her blogs also address religious, gender, sexual and racial equality, as well as environmental issues; and are sprinkled with book and film reviews on various topics. She spent most of her working life as a researcher or investigator for private lawyers, and five years as an editor.
She graduated from The Ohio State University's School of Agriculture in December 2003 with a B.S. in Natural Resources.
All material offered here is the property of Rady Ananda, copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. Permission is granted to repost, with proper attribution including the original link.
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