Such data is not, however, available in any satisfactory form. While the streets aren't safe, the human rights violations perpetrated against people in prison is equally alarming and startling. Over the past 20 years, prison and jail populations have quadrupled, placing more than two million people behind bars. As a nation, we have the largest incarcerated population in the world, and we are caught in a vicious cycle of uncontrolled prison construction and fear. The majority of prisoners are non-violent offenders.
Women are the fastest growing section of the U.S. prison population.
While in prison, the police are amazingly brutal with excessive force, in acts that include handcuffs and even rape. Warnice Robinson was serving a sentence for shoplifting. She was pregnant. When she told the guards she was in labor, she was handcuffed while being transported. Even worse, she was shackled to a metal bedpost when she arrived in her hospital room.