We lock up tons of innocent people, and charge them for the privilege - a Bernie Sanders MUST READ

[peacebird]

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/we-lock-up-tons-of-innocent-peopleand-charge-them-for-the-privilege

The United States has a prison problem. We have just 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of its prisoners. Even though our imprisonment rate has grown more than 400 percent since 1970, locking people up has not proved to be a deterrent.

The prison problem also extends to jails, which hold defendants awaiting trial and prisoners sentenced for minor offenses. A new report from the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit focused on justice policy, reports that America's local jails, which hold roughly 731,000 people on any given day, are holding more people even though the crime rate is going down. Jails disproportionately detain people of color longer and for lesser crimes. The report also finds that jails are less likely to give inmates the rehabilitation and mental-health support that could keep them out of prison.

"I observe injustice routinely. Nonetheless even I—as this report came together—was jolted by the extent to which unconvicted people in this country are held in jail simply because they are too poor to pay what it costs to get out," writes Vera president and director Nicholas Turner. He described poor detention practices in which the mentally ill, homeless, and substance abusers are routinely jailed for bad behavior and described the practice as "destructive to individuals, their families, and entire communities."

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Kick for social justice.

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

2. Important message for POC - Bernie gets it...

Happy to K&R

[historylovr]

3. K & R