approx. 80% of people in prison in the US are there for non-violent crimes.
-----
The US government spends roughly 6 times more supporting over 1.5 million non-violent prisoners than it spends in supporting needy children.
-----
Minorities represent over 70% of the prison population.
-----
America's non-violent prisoner population is over 3 times the population of violent AND nonviolent prisoners COMBINED in the entire European Union.
-----
over 660 people have been executed since the death penatly was reinstated in the 70's; over 500 in the past 10 years.
-----
The US violates international conventions by convicting and executing juveniles and mentally handicapped offenders, while failing to provide competent attorneys to the majority poor who face the death penalty.
-----
the prison population has increased by 75% over the past 10 years in the US.
-----
Even though the general prison population has increased, the number of VIOLENT offenders has decreased by more than 7%.
-----
US prisoners represent 1/4 of the worldwide prison population.
-----
rate of incarceration is about 700 per 100,000 citizens.
-----
Assuming recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of every 20 Americans can be expected to serve time in prison during their lifetime. For African-American men, the number is greater than 1 in 4.
-----
States spent $32.5 billion on Corrections in 1999 alone. In comparison, states only spent $22.2 billion on cash assistance to the poor.
poverty stats.....
Over 11 million children in America live below the poverty level.
-----
Over 1 billion people worldwide live in absolute poverty.
-----
Approx. 4 million children go hungry every year in the US.
-----
There are appox. 174 million Malnourished children worldwide.
-----
The richest 1% of US population own almost half of all property, While 80% own only 16%.
-----
In 20 years, the income of the richest 20% US families has increased by almost 50%, and the income of the poorest 20% of citizens have decreased by about 10%.
-----
1 out of 6 Americans has no health insurance.
-----
The US has the highest child poverty rate of all developed nations, at almost 30%.
-----
The US does less than any other developed nation in reducing child poverty....with a reduction rate at less than 2%.
-----
Almost 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in America each year.
-----
According to the USDA, appox. 130 pounds of food per person ends up in landfills each year, enough to feed roughly 49 million hungry people.
-----
The number of people who received food stamps in 2001 decreased by over 10 million since 1994, a drop of over one-third in program participation.
-----
The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that only 40 percent of the drop is due to a stronger economy, other sources report that about 50 percent of the decline is due to problems implementing the 1996 welfare law, and as much as 8 percent is due to limits on eligibility established in the welfare law.
-----
America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest network of food banks, reports that 23.3 million people turned to the agencies they serve in 2001, an increase of over 2 million since 1997. Forty percent were from working families.
environmental stats.....
It is estimated that about 10,000 species are driven to extinction per year.
-----
Although forest areas make up only 30% of global land area, they hold 90%+ of all plant/animal species.
-----
76% of the world's original forest areas have been destroyed or degraded.
-----
The EPA estimates that tightening ozone and fine particle air standards would result in 9,000 few hospital admissions, 250,000 fewer cases of respiratory problems, 60,000 fewer cases of broncitis and save 10's of thousands of lives each year.
-----
the US uses about 65,000 different chemicals commercially each year, with about 1,000 new chemicals added each year. Only 300 have ever been extensinely tested for toxicity.
-----
In 1998, the US Wildlife Services used over $20 million to kill over 100,000 "predators" including bears, wolves, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, etc....
-----
If one year's budget for the US military force in the middle east was spent on making US buildings more heat-tight, this would save more oil than the country imports from the middle east.
-----
Since 1950, 20% of the world's forest cover have been cleared, and tropical forest destruction is about 5.4 million acres/yr. At this rate, all tropical forests will be gone within a century.
-----
Mining companies can purchase any public land that contains hard-rock mineral deposits for less that $5 per acre.
violence stats....
The percent of gunshot victims in the US under the age of 14 is 21 times the numbers of 25 other industrialized countries.
-----
10-15 children are killed by by guns everyday in the US on average.
-----
between 1986-1992 the total number of children killed by firearms rose by 144%.
-----
In 1996, handguns were used to in the murders of 2 people in New Zealand, 15 in Japan, 30 in Great Britain, 106 in Canada, 211 in Germany, and 9,390 in the US.
-----
on average, 2000 children die every year due to domestic violence....of those, approx. 1,100 are killed by their mother, 250 by stepfathers, 513 by live-in boyfriends, and 137 by biological fathers.
-----
Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes.
-----
In the 1995 edition of its Uniform Crime Report, the FBI charts criminal violence with a clock indicating in the United States there was one violent crime committed every 18 seconds. There was one murder every 24 minutes.
Drug Stats....
In 2000, there were 1,579,566 drug arrests in the US. Of those, 46.5 percent -- 734,497 arrests -- were for marijuana. There were 646,042 arrests for simple possession of marijuana in 2000.
-----
Drug Trafficking represents eight percent of the world's trade, an untaxed and unregulated $400 Billion annually.
-----
The U.S. federal government will spend over 19.2 billion dollars at a rate of about $609 per second on the War on Drugs this year. State and local governments will spend at least another 20 billion.
-----
African-Americans represent only 15% of all drug users, yet they compromise almost 60% of felony drug offenders in state prison.
-----
Return to Site