Imagine If America's Incarcerated Population Were Its Own Country Revealing the Disturbing Statisics

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/statistics-americas-incarceration-nation

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Here’s a profile of Incarceration Nation:

Population size: As a country – as opposed to a prison system – Incarceration Nation is on the small side. Nonetheless, a population of 2.4 million is perfectly respectable: Incarceration Nation has a larger population than about 50 other countries, including Namibia, Qatar, Gambia, Bahrain and Iceland.

Geographic area: There are more than 4,500 prisons in the United States. Let’s assume that each of those prisons takes up about half a square mile of land – a reasonable (and probably quite low) estimate given that most prisons are, for security reasons, surrounded by some empty space. That gives Incarceration Nation an estimated land area of about 2,250 square miles: small, but still larger than Brunei, Bahrain and Singapore.

Population Density: No matter how you look at it, Incarceration Nation is a crowded place. If we assume a land area of 2,250 square miles, it has a population density of roughly 1,067 people per square mile, a little higher than that of India. In 2011, federal prisons were operating 39 percent above capacity; in many state systems, overcrowding was much worse.

A nation of immigrants: Like many of the smaller Gulf States, Incarceration Nation relies almost entirely on immigration to maintain its population. You might even say that Incarceration Nation is a nation of displaced persons: most of its residents were born far away from Incarceration Nation, which has a nasty habit of involuntarily transporting people hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away from their home communities, making it extraordinarily difficult for residents to maintain ties with their families.

[MindPilot]

1. That population is also essentially a slave labor force.

Federal Prison Industries, Inc or Unicor "employs" prisoners for pennies an hour to manufacture all sorts if things. Check out Unicor's website for a complete product listing and their "escape-proof guarantee". Seriously that is what they call their product warranty..."escape-proof". Most recent stats for Unicor:

Number of Inmate Workers: 13,369
Percent of Eligible Population Employed (medically-able/sentenced): 8%
Employment Goal: 25%
Inmate Pay Rates: 23 cents to $1.15 per hour (trust me, ain't nobody at the high end of that pay scale)
Number of Factories: 81
Percent of FPI inmates working within 2 years of release: 22%
Percent of FPI inmates that are veterans: 8%
Distribution of FPI Revenues:
77% toward purchase of materials/supplies from private sector vendors;
20% for staff salaries;
3% for inmate pay

https://www.unicor.gov/about/overview

And consider too; a big percentage of the Federal prison population is people who are there for immigration violations. That makes the Federal Government the de facto biggest employer of illegal immigrants.

[kelliekat44]

2. There's profit to be made from prisons. And it's "legal" slavery. nt