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September 25, 2000
TEXAS
THE HIGHEST INCARCERATION RATE
IN THE WORLD
By Douglas Scott Mickey, Death Row, San Quentin Prison
According to recent Justice Department figures, Texas Governor George W. Bush's "compassionate conservative" brand of law-n-order has produced the largest prison population with the fastest growing incarceration rate of any state in the country.
In fact, Justice Policy Institute Director Vincent Schiraldi said if the Lone Star State were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Out of the state's population of about 14 million adults, George W. Bush's system of justice retains more than 700,000 Texas citizens either behind bars, under probation, on bail or under some other form of law enforcement constraint.
Yet, Justice Department figures show that, even though the Texas prison population has been growing at the alarming rate of 11.8 percent a year over the past decade, its high incarceration rate has not translated into the socially desired effect of decreasing the state's crime rate.
That is, Texas' crime rate fell only 5.1 percent during that ten year period, which is a much slower pace than the 10 percent decline in crime nationwide and the lowest among the five largest states: California's crime rate fell by 23 percent, New York's crime rate declined 21 percent, Illinois' by 9 percent and Florida's by 5.9 percent.
Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, defends the fact that one out of every twenty adult Texans are under some form of police control by declaring that the state's high incarceration rate was the direct result of "voter approved" get-tough policies being imposed upon the lower working class by Governor George W. Bush's administration.
Indeed, his leadership record as high executioner and chief law enforcement officer of Texas reveals the coercive spirit that underlies Republican Presidential Candidate Bush's "compassionate conservative" philosophy. If he should be elected along with a Republican controlled Congress, then it is reasonable to expect Bush and his social conservative supporters ( the NRA and the Religious Right Movement) to push for nationwide "get tough" legislation that can conceivably result in well over 9 million impoverished American citizens being criminalized and kept under some form of government surveillance and/or legalized detention.
For comments you may write:
Douglas Scott Mickey
C-73900
San Quentin Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974
USA
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