1 in 100 U.S. Citizens Behind Bars?

That's what a recent study from the Pew Center on the States says. It's worrying because this is money -- keeping all 230 million people in jail -- that's wasted. Actually, it's wasted people as well as wasted money ... $49 Billion to be exact.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars. See more on this New York Times story at 1 in 100 U.S. Citizens Behind Bars

The Boston Globe reports that "Vermont Tops the List of States Spending More on Prison than College." And in Michigan, AP Reporter David Eggert reports that Michigan is right behind Vermont, spending $1.19 for every $1.00 spent on higher education, "Michigan is 1 of 4 states to spend more on prison than college." Meanwhile, Georgia ranks seventh in prison population with more than 55,000 people imprisoned and a growing population that tripled the U.S. average.

The Pew report says that states don't really make active choices about whether prisons or colleges are the most important to spend money on, but still, a dollar spent one place is a dollar that isn't available for other spending.

In terms of the effect of what seems to be our nation's growing need for prisons, one sometimes un-noticed effect is how some small towns have fought for prisons to build in their communities as a means of creating new jobs. For more info on this growing trend, see Big Prisons Small Towns.

At My Rural America, we deplore the idea that our rural economy should get to the point that our jobs might depend upon others committing crimes. Better ideas would be to push for cost of production protections for our agriculture producers, new broadband connections so that small businesses have an easier time competing for business and of course, to get serious about investing in our children so that they don't grow up to be criminals.