It has a higher proportion of its citizens in jail than any other country in history, according to the November Coalition, an alliance of civil rights campaigners, justice policy workers and drug law reformers. The coalition is coordinating protests across the US to draw attention to what they feel is a trend for locking up ever more offenders, most of them non-violent. We are calling on state and federal governments to stop breaking up families and destroying our communities. In New York city, the Prison Moratorium Project will focus on the fact that one in three black youths is either in custody or on parole.
Criminal justice is already a campaign issue in the presidential race.
The Republican frontrunner George W Bush, governor of Texas, is a staunch supporter of both the death penalty and stiffer sentencing for drug offences. Since he took over in Texas, the prison population there is up from 41,000 to 150,000, much of this as a result of locking up people for drug possession. This is one of the reasons that commentators have pressed Bush to be more open about his own alleged drug use in the past. The vigil also coincides with the publication of Lockdown America, a report by Christian Parenti analyzing the US criminal justice system. A total of 18 private firms are involved in the running of local jails, private prisons and immigration detention centers.