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In addition, another 7.3 million are under correctional supervision, and 13 million pass through US jails annually. Since 1970, the population exploded eight-fold to become a prison-industrial complex exceeding $60 billion annually plus another $100 billion for private security.
In the 1980s and 90s, about 1,000 new prisons and jails were built, creating a racially imbalanced system that doesn't deter crime, exploits people for profit, punishes and doesn't rehabilitate, treats children like adults, and lets politicians look tough on crime. It punishes juveniles in shamefully high numbers, many tens of thousands at any time, including nearly 2,400 receiving LWOP sentences.
Most are arrested for minor, nonviolent crimes, yet are prosecuted, sentenced, and incarcerated in the adult criminal justice system, in violation of international law by imposing cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment, mostly against children of color.
Constitutional rights are denied, and wrongful convictions are common because due process and judicial fairness are absent. Worst of all, it affects children, society's most vulnerable. Short of fundamental reform, America's criminal justice system will stay broken and corrupted, but profitable to a thriving, growing industry, preying on human beings as commodities, including kids never getting a chance to become productive adult citizens.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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