FINALS

[needamocha]

Final tomorrow, 8 AM. I've been studying it up in the library for far too long. I have all these facts running around in my brain, and with my professor's permission, tomorrow at 10:30 I can start forgetting them.

For instance, I can tell you that:

• in the last 20 years the incarceration rate in the US has increased by 400 per cent.
• the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world
• if King county continues to arrest people for drugs at the same rate they are now, it will be bankrupt in 3 years.
• It is against the law to sit on the sidewalk in Seattle
• In Seattle African Americans comprise 8% of the population, but 65% of traffic stops.
• a person, with no priors, caught selling acid will get 20-25 years in prison.
• 1 in 3 African Americans males will be under the purview of the criminal justice system in their lifetime.
• 75 per cent of murders involve guns, 66 percent of those are unintential, and the shooter will know or be related to the deceased 90 per cent of the time.
• I can tell you that 70 per cent of those in federal prison are in for drug related crimes
• In 2000, 46% of drug arrests were for marijuana, 90% of those were for possession not distribution.
• there are 200 million guns in circulation in the US, and my cell phone has more safety features than a gun does
• it costs 5 times more to execute someone under the death penalty than it does to give them life in prison.
• over 103 people on death row have been proven innocent through new technology (DNA testing) innocent people have been executed
• the more time someone spends in prison, the more likely they are to end up back in prison
• In Texas a public defender is given a $5000 budget to try a capitol punishment case

there is a lot more where those came from, hopefully I’m ready.