ABC News: 1,000 Incarcerated Per Week From '04-'05

"This is not a sign of a healthy community."

No shit, Sherlock.

Experts say that the problem stems from sentencing guidelines, removing judicial discretion, and drug laws.

It is time to stop the ridiculous war on drugs!

ABC News: 1,000 Incarcerated Per Week From '04-'05:

"WASHINGTON May 21, 2006 (AP): Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.

The total on June 30, 2005, was 56,428 more than at the same time in 2004, the government reported Sunday. That 2.6 percent increase from mid-2004 to mid-2005 translates into a weekly rise of 1,085 inmates.

Of particular note was the gain of 33,539 inmates in jails, the largest increase since 1997, researcher Allen J. Beck said. That was a 4.7 percent growth rate, compared with a 1.6 percent increase in people held in state and federal prisons.

Prisons accounted for about two-thirds of all inmates, or 1.4 million, while the other third, nearly 750,000, were in local jails, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. "