All This Is That: 1 out of 99 Americans are now in prison: we've cracked the 1 in 100 barrier

Friday, February 29, 2008

1 out of 99 Americans are now in prison: we've cracked the 1 in 100 barrier

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We've finally cracked that elusive barrier: more than 1 out of 100 Americans are now in the hoosegow, calaboose [1], jail, prison, penitentiary, and medical lockup.

According to an Associated Press/CBS story, for the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison. I was going to do the math to figure out when 10%, and even when all of us, will be in jail. But I didn't; it's too depressing.

[1] A word I learned of reading Herman Melville, my favorite American novelist. [cal·a·boose /ˈkæləˌbus, ˌkæləˈbus/ noun Slang. jail; prison; lockup. Origin: 1785–95, Americanism; (<>
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Who says we're not all in prison now? Maybe the only difference is that the people in institutions get free meals.; 3/02/2008

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