Prison Fun Facts

From CNN this evening:

• As of last December 31, there were 97,491 women in state or federal prisons, or about 6.8 percent of all inmates and one in every 1,656 women. There were over 1.3 million male inmates, or about one in 110 men.

• About 10 percent of all black men between 25 and 29 were incarcerated last year, compared with 1.2 percent of white men and 2.4 percent of Hispanic men. Overall, the 586,700 black men in prison outnumbered both the 436,800 white males and 235,000 Hispanic males. Black males account for about 45 percent of all inmates serving a sentence longer than a year.

• Privately operated prisons held 93,771 inmates, about 5.8 percent of state prisoners and 12.4 percent of those in federal jurisdictions.

• At year's end 2002, the federal government held 8,748 people at immigration detention facilities, 2,377 at military jails and 16,206 in U.S. territorial prisons.Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we cut spending on education around the country. We can cut teachers' salaries, recycle textbooks written in 1989, overstuff classrooms, and shorten the school day. And then, we can just put that money into prisons. We can build more of 'em. Yeah. That way, we'll be able to adequately compensate for the increase in the prison population. So when all the youngsters who slipped under the radar during their school years get a little older, like 15, they will have a place to live.  I'm not sure where my sarcasm has come from of late. Just sick of shit, I guess. I saw a skunk tonight. Right outside. It's a strange thing to see a skunk outside of a sliding-glass door. But I did. I went to take a picture but it went away. And I wasn't about to open the door. With my luck I would have been sprayed. So I just let this little photo op pass me by. I'm hanging out with some friends tomorrow night at this place called the Townhouse. I went there every so often when I lived here. I think I'm also going to get back to Foucault tomorrow. I'm shaming myself for not having been a more astute student during these summer months. I have managed to crawl into my head, though, and do quite a bit of studying there. It turns out it was pretty dark up there, but I think I managed to find some lights for it and I just may be doing a little better.

I'll just continue to tell myself that, had I not done that, then the semester would have sucked. So that's that. My head is clear. I'm ready for pop culture, cultural criticism, and identity movements. I'm going to go to bed now. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep. The sound of crickets, surprisingly, is not as soothing as sirens and traffic.