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I read recently that the U.S. has a greater percentage of its population locked up than any other country in the world. Despite budget cuts and tax shortfalls housing inmates costs the country almost $600 billion a year.
Even more stunning, in 2009 there were 7.2 million people in prison and under official supervision like probation -- a larger population than the state of Washington. And 4 in 10 prisoners return to state prisons within three years of release.
I also read that it costs New Jersey $253 million every year to house just its death row prisoners -- $11 million apiece.
Guess how much is being spent here
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
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Did You Know . . .?
A thimbleful of tobacco can fetch up to $50 at a maximum security prison.
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HISTORICAL EVENT
Upon his release, Hiss immediately declared that he wished to "reassert my complete innocence of the charges that were brought against me by Whittaker Chambers."
The controversy over the facts in the Hiss case is also here forever. It remains a highly charged issue. His defenders argue that Hiss was a victim of the Red Scare that swept through the U.S. during the 1940s and 1950s. Others are equally adamant in maintaining his guilt, claiming that documents recently released from Soviet archives strongly support the case that Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union.
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WORD FOR TODAY
imprisonment
noun
- putting someone in prison or in jail as lawful punishment.
- the state of being confined; "he was held in confinement."
- the act of restraining of a person's liberty by confining him.
Imprisonment is a legal term. It refers to the restraint of a person's liberty. Imprisonment is no other thing than the restraint of a man's liberty, whether it be in the open field, or in the stocks, or in the cage in the streets or in a man's own house, as well as in the common gaols; and in all the places the party so restrained is said to be a prisoner so long as he hath not his liberty freely to go at all times to all places whither he will without bail or mainprise or otherwise.
--From Wikipedia
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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
(born November 27, 1957)
Caroline Kennedy is an American author, attorney, Ambassador to Japan, and member of the Kennedy family. She is the only living child of U.S. President John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Bouvier.
(Nov 27, 1940 - July 20, 1973)
Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong American martial artist, action film actor, martial arts instructor, filmmaker, and the founder of Jeet Kune Do. Lee is widely considered by commentators, critics, media and other martial artists to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time, and a pop culture icon of the 20th century. He is often credited with helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films.
(born November 27, 1964)
Robin Givens is an American stage, television, and film actress. Givens began her acting career after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in 1984. In 1986, she won the role of Darlene Merriman in the ABC sitcom Head of the Class. She remained with the series for its entire five-year run. After the series ended in 1991, she continued her career with film roles and guest starring roles on television. Givens has since had recurring roles on The Game, Tyler Perry's House of Payne, and Chuck. In 2007, Givens released her autobiography Grace Will Lead Me Home.
(born November 27, 1955)
Bill Nye is an American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, writer, and scientist who began his career as a mechanical engineer at Boeing. He is best known as the host of the Disney/PBS children's science show Bill Nye the Science Guy (1993-98) and for his many subsequent appearances in popular media as a science educator.
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The burning of an author's books, imprisonment for opinion's sake, has always been the tribute that an ignorant age pays to the genius of its time.
--Joseph Lewis, Voltaire: The Incomparable Infidel, 1929
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