United States & Texas #1

A report from the Pew Center on the States released yesterday documents that the United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. Including China with its 1.3 billion people. For the first time in its history the United States has more than one in every 100 adults in jail or prison. At the start of the new year, 2,319,258 adults were behind bars. That's one in every 99.1 adults in the United States. In stir. The United States leads the world in both the number of citizens jailed and the percentage of its citizens jailed.

Almost $50 billion is spent yearly to incarcerate the 2 million plus inmates.

Texas leads the United States in its number jailed, with 171,790 behind bars. Texas also leads the nation in number of executions.

So, doesn't it seem that maybe there might be something wrong here? Besides there apparently being way too many criminals. Could part of the problem be maybe some things should not be punished by jail time?

For instance, a couple weeks ago I blogged about The Soviet State of Texas. I wrote about what happened to a friend of mine down in Corpus Christi over a bounced $20 check from years prior. For a few days she was one of the 1 in 99.1 adults in jail. Read what she had to say about her experience in what I call the Texas Gulag, but which she refers to as a Concentration Camp.

"I saw more pain in that Concentration Camp of torture than I ever need to see again. The Judge in Dallas who wanted to extradite me back to Dallas to account for this $20 check to Kroger I don't even remember. It was my worst nightmare. They held me with no charges from 8:30am my last day until 11:30pm that night. I thought I was gonna die there. They took me off all my meds and provided no treatment for my diabetes. I went thru withdrawal from all my meds. You can't imagine."

The U.S. frequently complains about China's supposed human rights abuses. I wonder if someone can get thrown in jail in China over a bounced check?

Such things don't just happen in Texas. I have another friend who had a similar experience, but this was up in Washington. This also was over money, and in my opinion, a malicious prosecution by an unscrupulous, amoral prosecutor. The victim was also a female, she also was denied her meds. (why do I know so many female jailbirds?) On arrival at the jail she was strip searched and spent her first night chained to a toilet that was used by dozens of others. The judge was sympathetic to her plight and released her after 3 days.

Til I heard her story I did not realize such things happened in America. Good Christian human rights loving nation that we are, land of the free, home of the brave. The majority of Americans consider themselves God-fearing Christians. Isn't one of Jesus's things something like "that which you do to the weakest among you, you do to Me."?

There are too many people thrown into jail for nonsensical things. It needs to stop. Meanwhile, O.J. remains free. As are many other actual serious crime perpetrators. While who knows how many modern day Jean Valjeans are having their lives ruined because they were so hungry they took a loaf of bread without asking? Or bounced a check? Or didn't realize calling a prosecutor an idiotic baboon would result in a vendetta that would end in jail time?