The thought that the next five years will bring a 29% increase in demand for criminal justice 'professionals' is not comforting or surprising. I wonder if this group has seen the following graphs? Twenty-nine percent sounds a little low, given the rapid increases in other key elements of this rapidly expanding Growth Industry:
Notice how much faster the number of people on probation appears to be growing than the incarcerated population? There's a number of reasons for this, one being that a lot of people get busted for mostly harmless crap that's not remotely worthy of imprisonment, like civil disobedience, minor drug possession and consensual sodomy. That's right. Sodomy.
Our enlightened Virginia General Assembly has once again left an archaic anti-sodomy law on the State's books-certain naughty things are illegal here, even if you are doing them with your spouse. An odd thing to keep illegal, considering what happens in prisons and behind those 'closed-door'
General Assembly sessions.
Another reason would be the already overcrowded prison system. As seen below, violent crime is way up, and those bastards do belong in jail. Where ya gonna put 'em? There's a lot of them, more every day, it seems.
The truth, of course, is that an increase from 250,000 prisoners in 1980 to almost 1,500,000 in 2004 is statistically more dramatic than a jump from one million to four million probationers in the same time span.
Of course, once the correctional industry is wholly privatized and turned into a for-profit enterprise, there will be more prisons than Motel 6's and plenty of cells for everyone. Everyone who isn't drafted or a cop, that is. Probation will be discouraged, as it's marginally profitable at best. Parole will remain flat-lined, or just abolished altogether. Can't send invoices for'em if ya ain't got 'em locked up.
(I'm sure they will,anyway).
Notice the disparity in Drug and Property rates until the late 1980's/early '90's- the heyday of the "War on Drugs". If you were around back then, you'll recall that marijuana became difficult to find and cocaine was everywhere. It's a lot easier to get busted for doing coke with strangers than it is for smoking a joint after work, hence the spike in drug convictions. (The idiocy of mandatory drug sentencing didn't help much either). Since then, the two offenses have dovetailed quite neatly, leading me to suspect that the person who stole my car stereo probably sold it for drugs. Maybe I should sign up for one of them there Crim Justice jobs. I like to read and I like to sleep. I'd be a great private security guard. They coined the term 'Napster' centuries before the first Univac set Armageddon's wheels in motion.
The pay must be pretty good. Look how much money the government spends protecting us from each other:
Holy shit! Corrections spending is up 529% in twenty years! That's like 25% a year. The last time a business sector sustained a growth rate like that was the porn industry after VCR's fell below $200 retail.
When Corrections Incorporated goes public , you'd better get in on that action right away.
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