At year-end 2016, 12 states had imprisonment rates that were greater than the national rate of 450 per 100,000 U.S. residents of all ages: Louisiana (760 per 100,000 state residents), Oklahoma (673 per 100,000), Mississippi (624 per 100,000), Arizona (585 per 100,000), Arkansas (583 per 100,000), Alabama (571 per 100,000), Texas (563 per 100,000), Missouri (532 per 100,000), Kentucky (518 per 100,000), Georgia (512 per 100,000), Florida (481 per 100,000), and Nevada (460 per 100,000) (table 7). ...
More than 1% of all males in seven states were in prison on December 31, 2016: Louisiana (1,469 per 100,000 male state residents), Oklahoma (1,207 per 100,000), Mississippi (1,200 per 100,000), Arkansas (1,095 per 100,000), Alabama (1,085 per 100,000), Arizona (1,071 per 100,000), and Texas (1,040 per 100,000).So Texas is one of only seven states that incarcerates more than one percent of men. That's an unfortunate club in which to claim membership.
The report also noted a red flag for Texas: Admissions in Texas rose by 2,500 from 2015 to 2016 - one of only three states to see such an increase.
These sorts of data are why Grits sometimes tires of crowing about Texas' 2007 community corrections reforms credited with leveling off prison population growth, which had seen a steep upward trend before then. Even so, Texas remains vastly over-incarcerated. And 2007 was now more than a decade ago. It's nigh past time in 2019 for the Lege to take additional steps.
RELATED: From the Houston Chronicle, "Texas female prison population rises as male population decreases."
Hmm, lessee —
ReplyDeleteWe could increase the population by one with Ken Paxton.
If the Harvey Weinstein, James Franco, Al Franken etc. conduct is typical of male behavior, that 1% number might be a little low.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:22
ReplyDeleteThat is an unfortunate stereotype. The majority of males employed are descent fathers, sons and brothers of good moral character. While the majority of rapists and sex offenders may be male it does not mean that the majority of males are rapists and sex offenders.
Well Lee..I don't know if what you said is accurate or not. Per the 2010 census there were approximately 119 million adult males in the U.S. 69% of sexual assaults go unreported and of those not everyone is convicted.
ReplyDeleteIf they are convicted they may have plead to a lesser offense and are not on the sex offender registry. As of 2106 there were 859,500 people on the registry, which has increased since then. So at least in this one aspect there are a lot more sex offenders out there than are on the registry...if you do the math. And the registry does not include domestic abuse convictions either..which is a whole other story. And what about all of the other crimes..reported or unreported..that occur? My point is that, yes there are a lot of good people out there, but not nearly as many as you make it out to be. There are a lot of bad people in this world and most people have no idea who they are.
If 69% are unreported how do YOU know about them? :/
Delete8:20am. Why don't you look up false accusations and how easy it is for females these days to falsely accuse sex assault/rape. Too many vindictive, hateful women walking around nowadays! These women know all takes is an ACCUSATION, the police and prosecutors "will find" a way to get a conviction.
DeleteLong time reader...first time poster.
ReplyDeleteThis is a judicial or DA issue isn't it? Not that you cannot talk about judicial issues. Not my point. Probation departments can see an offender violate, recommend modification, but if the court doesn't agree, they go to jail and probation departments are portrayed as the bad guys revoking people. Yes, that isn't the focus of this article I know. Even DA's recommend modifications and the court may still choose to incarcerate.
What we do not know is how many of the 1% were given multiple chances to stop their behavior but continued to commit crimes; were recommended for lesser sanctions, but were overridden by the courts; chose prison in lieu of probation (2 yrs vs. 5yr probation); or were on parole, but violated and went back. So many variables, but yet Texas is seen as bad for having this many in prison. Please do not misunderstand me, I hate prisons (they are warehouses), I think we over-punish with our penalty ranges and believe there are innocent incarcerated. But this statistic of 1% is very vague as it doesn't explain all the possible variables that have inflated it. I wish we could actually see how many people the court actually incarcerated and not include those who did not want probation/jail, who were sent back to CID because they could not follow a set of rules.
Use some common sense anon 9:14. I never said I KNOW who they...but there are a large number of people out there who have never gotten caught, reported or convicted. Compare it to people who speed while driving...practically everyone does it every day, but only a very small number of people get pulled over and get a ticket. If you think that everyone that has committed a felony has been adjudicated then you live in a fantasy world.
ReplyDeleteThey aren't made up statistics..the 69% figure comes from The Department of Justice NSOPW site. Do your research..it's facts and not fear mongering.
Delete"Approximately 30% of sexual assault cases are reported to authorities." Is Mr. Finkelhors conclusion from interviewing a pool of offenders. You cannot infer that 69 percent of ALL crimes go unreported, just that for those offenders he interviewed they admitted to an average of two additional offenses (not necessarily victims) than they were prosecuted for.
DeleteThe point still is that it is poor policy to legislate against hypotheticals. I agree that the rate of sexual assault is likely much higher than the number of people convicted for the same, but I believe we need to solidify the numbers we use with solid, repeatable, research so that in a year or five years or ten years we can measure how successful we have been.
Otherwise if we simply assume every offenders has 3x as many offenses we can't show any progress if we catch more offenders. Catching more offenders then means 3x as many victims could be assumed to exist. We're then punishing offenders for the victims we assume they have instead of finding victims and punishing their offenders.
I am using common sense. Made up statistics are bad policy.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember Greg Abbot's push to save all those child prostitutes forced to work the Super Bowl in Dallas? 100,000 estimated! Reality: 105 arrests made, two of minors.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/super-bowl-prostitution-100-000-hookers-didnt-show-but-americas-latest-political-scam-did-6421853
I'm all for measurable solutions to measurable problems. Fear mongers like you and our esteemed leader stand in the way of real solutions.
Hypotheticals keep the jails full and that is what's it really all about. TDCJ, like TSA, is in fact a massive jobs program. My brother got 20 years for one case of sexual assault. His photo albums of past sexual antics were used to portray him as a serial jolly seeker. Too bad that the court was careful to ignore the fact that most of the explicit photos were of his wife of nearly 10 years and her promiscuous friends. Lying by omission is a strong point of courts in sex cases.
ReplyDeleteHe gets out soon and the family is planning a rendezvous with NYC media.
@5:22am-
ReplyDeleteNone of those three listed has been convicted of sexual assault. Accusations do not equal guilty.
@8:20am-
"Per the 2010 census there were approximately 119 million adult males in the U.S. 69% of sexual assaults go unreported and of those not everyone is convicted...As of 2106 [sic] there were 859,500 people on the registry, which has increased since then."
I'm not sure how you are doing the math. How are these statistics related?
Whether right or wrong, when I hear about a man being accused of sexual assault/rape, I tend to just roll my eyes. These types of accusations have become so common place, I find them hard to believe most the time. If it's a child's accusation, first thing I want to know is whether there is some type of family issues or custody dealings. People need to learn what critical thinking skills are and learn to use them before making judgments!
ReplyDelete