US: Prison Numbers Hit New High*

06 Jun 2008 03:11:59 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch

(Washington, DC, June 6, 2008) New figures showing that US
incarceration rates are climbing even higher, with racial minorities
greatly overrepresented in prisons and jails, highlight the need to
adopt alternative criminal justice policies, Human Rights Watch said
today. Statistics released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a
branch of the US Department of Justice, show that as of June 30, 2007,
approximately 2.3 million persons were incarcerated in US prisons and
jails, an all-time high. This represents an incarceration rate of 762
per 100,000 US residents, the highest such rate in the world. By
contrast, the United Kingdom's incarceration rate is 152 per 100,000
residents; the rate in Canada is 108; and in France it is 91.

"The new incarceration figures confirm the United States as the world's
leading jailer," said David Fathi, US program director at Human Rights
Watch. "Americans should ask why the US locks up so many more people
than do Canada, Britain, and other democracies."

The new statistics also show large racial disparities, with black males
incarcerated at a per capita rate six times that of white males. Nearly
11 percent of all black men ages 30 to 34 were behind bars as of June
30, 2007.

In May 2008, Human Rights Watch released its report, "Targeting Blacks:
Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States," in which it
documented racial disparities in US drug law enforcement, with black men
11.8 times more likely than white men to enter prison on drug charges,
despite the fact that blacks and whites use illegal drugs at similar
rates. Although whites, being more numerous, constitute the large
majority of drug users, blacks constitute 54 percent of all persons
entering state prisons with a new drug offense conviction.

"Decisions about drug law enforcement play a major role in creating the
staggering racial disparities we see in US prisons," said Fathi. "The
'war on drugs' has become a war on black Americans."

The US has ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), a treaty that requires the
US to guarantee, without distinction as to race, color, or national or
ethnic origin, "[t]he right to equal treatment before the tribunals and
all other organs administering justice." In May 2008, the Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which monitors compliance with
ICERD, expressed its "concern with regard to the persistent racial
disparities in the criminal justice system of [the United States],
including the disproportionate number of persons belonging to racial,
ethnic and national minorities in the prison population." The committee
called on the United States to undertake "further studies to determine
the nature and scope of the problem, and the implementation of national
strategies or plans of action aimed at the elimination of structural
racial discrimination."

Human Rights Watch urges public officials in the United States to
eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for all drug offenses and to adopt
community-based sanctions and other alternatives to incarceration for
low-level drug offenders. Human Rights Watch further calls on the United
States to enact legislation that, in accordance with ICERD, prohibits
policies or practices in the criminal justice system that have the
purpose or effect of restricting the exercise and enjoyment of human
rights and fundamental freedoms on the basis of race, color, descent, or
national or ethnic origin.