American Justice

DALLAS – The United States may soon see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other.

The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.

"It's a reversal of a trend that's been going on for more than a generation," said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. "In some ways, it's overdue."

The U.S. prison population dropped steadily during most of the 1960s, and there were a few small dips in 1970 and 1972. But it has risen every year since, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

About 739,000 prisoners were admitted to state and federal facilities last year, about 3,500 more than were released, according to new figures from the bureau. The 0.8 percent growth in the prison population is the smallest annual increase this decade and significantly less than the 6.5 percent average annual growth of the 1990s.

Overall, there were 1.6 million prisoners in state and federal prisons at the end of 2008.

You'd think it would also occur to them that executing prisoners costs a lot more than locking them up for life. Still, we saw this coming and is probably the only positive outcome of the current recession.

Americans imprison more people per-capita than any nation on the planet. It must be because most criminals are Americans.. or something.

/adding

I take that back.. found more good news as a result of the recession.

MINNEAPOLIS – David Walsh said when he was assembling his first report card on video game violence 13 years ago, children were attacking on-screen monsters or aliens with imaginary chain saws and guns.

"When I saw kids as young as 8, 9 years old literally doing facial contortions as they killed and dismembered people, it was pretty shocking. And I think what happened is a lot of other people got shocked as well," Walsh recalls. "I don't think we want our kids' culture defined by killing, mayhem and dismemberment as entertainment."

That first report card, which singled out bloody first-person shooter games "Doom" and "Duke Nukem," made an instant splash on Capitol Hill in 1996 and made the annual reports issued each holiday season by Walsh's National Institute on Media and the Family a news fixture.

But there was no video game report card this year, and there won't be any more. The institute is closing its doors, a victim of the poor economy. Walsh, the group's founder and president, is packing his books as his staff of eight full-time employees prepares to shut down Dec. 23.

Doom and Duke Nukem were awesome, pioneering games. It's very nice to see the bat shit crazy people who think they are allowed to have an opinion on what games I play go out of business.

I'm sure there are stories of churches going bankrupt also. That would warm my heart this holiday season.

/edit

I'm shocked... really...

FALFURRIAS, Texas – Rapper Lil Wayne and 11 people traveling with him were briefly detained Friday night after U.S. Border Patrol officers found marijuana on two of his tour buses, authorities said.

Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, and the others were questioned and released, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the case was referred to the Brooks County Sheriff's Office.

In Texas.. stopping tour busses belonging to black rappers? Really? No way!

Decrminalizing pot is the obvious way to deal with this "problem".