Jails and prisons are the correlate of schools. The less a country has of the latter, the more it requires the former. 

The US has the largest prison population per capita and the most women in prison than any other country on Earth. More than China, Saudi Arabia, etc., not to mention the right-wing driven mercenaries like Blackhawk and entire military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned of. It is a monstrous, money making, evil, dehumanizing industry. Golden Ages were distingusihed by excellence in literature, humanities and arts. Dying civilizations are identified by the degree of their systemic corruption which includes militarism.

• The United States currently incarcerates 750 inmates per 100,000 persons, the world average rate is 166 per 100,000 persons.  Russia, the country with the second highest incarceration rate, imprisons 624 per 100,000 persons.  Although crime rates have decreased since 1990, the rate of imprisonment has continued to increase—-along with privatization of prisons for profit.

• Growth in the prison population is due to changes in penal policy and practice, not changes in crime rates.  Changes in sentencing, both in terms of time served and the range of offenses meriting incarceration, underlie the growth in the prison population.  

• Changes in drug policy have had the single greatest impact on criminal justice policy.  The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 created mandatory minimum sentences for possession of specific amounts of cocaine.  The Act instituted a 100-to-1 differential in the treatment of powder and crack cocaine, treating possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine the same as possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine.  Crack cocaine is typically consumed by the poor, while powder cocaine, a significantly more expensive drug, is consumed by wealthier users. Mandatory minimum sentences for low-level crack-cocaine users are comparable (and harsher in certain cases) to sentences for major drug dealers. 

• The composition of prison admissions has also shifted toward less serious offenses, characterized by parole violations and drug offenses. In 2005, four out of five drug arrests were for possession and one out of five were for sales.  The crime history for three-quarters of drug offenders in state prisons involved non-violent or drug offenses.

• The prison system has a disproportionate impact on minority communities.  African Americans, who make-up 12.4 percent of the population, represent more than half of all prison inmates, compared to one-third twenty years ago.  Although African Americans constitute 14 percent of regular drug users, they are 37 percent of those arrested for drug offenses, and 56 percent of persons in state prisons for drug crimes. African Americans serve nearly as much time in federal prisons for drug offenses as whites do for violent crimes.

• The U.S. prison system has enormous economic costs associated with prison construction and operation, productivity losses, and wage effects.  In 2006, states spent an estimated $2 billion on prison construction, three times the amount they were spending fifteen years earlier.  The combined expenditures of local governments, state governments, and the federal government for law enforcement and corrections total over $200 billion annually.  In addition to these costs, the incarceration rate has significant costs associated with the productivity of both prisoners and ex-offenders.  The economic output of prisoners is mostly lost to society while they are imprisoned.  Negative productivity effects continue after release.  This wage penalty grows with time, as previous imprisonment can reduce the wage growth of young men by some 30 percent.

• Prisons are housing many of the nation’s mentally ill.  Prisons are absorbing the cost of housing the nation’s mentally ill.  The number of mentally ill in prison is nearly five times the number in inpatient mental hospitals.  Large numbers of mentally ill inmates, as well as inmates with HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis also raise serious questions regarding the costs and distribution of health care resources.

• The United States faces enormous problems of offender reentry and recidivism.  The number of ex-offenders reentering their communities has increased fourfold in the past two decades.  On average, however, two out of every three released prisoners will be rearrested and one in two will return to prison within three years of release. 

Rest of the article from Above:  (The quotes above should have been around all those paragraphs except my comments at the end)

 Douglass High School teachers and staff appeared to be concerned and caring people, but the poor quality educational outcomes demonstrate that concern and caring is not enough. The virtually empty classrooms, filmed on back-to-school night, suggested little parental interest in their children’s education. School day behavior demonstrated little student interest. Some students spent class time laughing, joking and tussling with one another. Others had their heads lying on their desks or appeared uninterested in the teacher’s discussion. Many of those engaged in student-teacher exchange on academic topics showed very limited reasoning ability.

Frederick Douglass was founded in 1883 as the Colored High and Training School before it was renamed. It is one of the nation’s oldest historically black high schools. It was a draw for Baltimore’s brightest black students. Success stories among its alumni include Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway, as well as several judges, congressmen and civil rights leaders. I guarantee you that if Douglass High student test scores of that earlier era were available, they wouldn’t show today’s achievement gap. Also, a 1940s or ’50s Douglass High graduate would find no comparison between student behavior during their school years and that shown in the documentary.

Politicians and the teaching establishment say more money, smaller classes and newer buildings are necessary for black academic excellence. At Frederick Douglass’ founding, it didn’t have the resources available today. If blacks can achieve at a time when there was far greater poverty, gross discrimination and fewer opportunities, what says blacks cannot achieve today? Whether we want to own up to it or not, the welfare state has done what Jim Crow, gross discrimination and poverty could not have done. It has contributed to the breakdown of the black family structure and has helped establish a set of values alien to traditional values of high moral standards, hard work and achievement.

 Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

http://economics.gmu.edu/wew/articles/08/Black%20Education.htm 

Pew Report on US Prisons. One out of every adult in US is in jail, most for minor crimes that leads to overcrowding and then violent criminals who should remain incarcerated are released early. The system as it exists hasn’t increased public safety despite the overwhelmingly increased costs: http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=35912