1% Of Americans Are In Jails And Prisons

I came across an article in The Correctional News that reported on a law enforcement expo, but it touched on some surprising findings on current US prison data. According to a recent Pew Center study, for the first time in history slightly more than 1% of United States citizens--one in 99.1 persons is held in jail or prison.

Currently the US leads the rest of the world in the number of inmates per capita, with "750 inmates per 100,000 residents." In 2007 the total prison population jumped by more than 25,000 inmates to almost 1.6 million.

At the American Jail Association's 27th Annual Training Conference and Jail Expo, over 2,000 attendees and 230 exhibitors gathered in sunny trenches of Sacramento, CA to address the latest issues facing our growing, overcrowded prison system. Robert Lamkey, director of the Sedgwick County Division of Public Safety discussed issues of overcrowding, re-entry, and recidivism (the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after experiencing negative consequences from it). Citing the Pew study, he told attendees at a conference that the increasing inmate population is "saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact on recidivism or overall crime."

According to the Correctional News, "Since 1987 collective spending on state corrections systems has increased from less than $11 billion to more than $49 billion in fiscal year 2007." Approximately 67 percent of state inmates are returning felons who commit another crime within three years of release.

With a growing convict culture and billions of dollars being invested into such programs--just about anyone can put two and two together and conclude something is seriously wrong with America's criminal justice system.

The recent expo wasn't a call-to-arms for a revolution, but it addressed issues that could provide agents of change. Members of the architecture firm Ricci Greene Associates discussed the benefits--for owners, staff, inmates, visitors, and the local community--of pursuing a progressive design approach in the construction of a new jail or facility addition. They believe elements of interior lighting and exterior design can have a subtle impact. A slightly less clinical environment with more emphasis on comfort and artistry can evoke some much needed imagination and humanity.

The firm also touched on environmental considerations such as off-setting carbon footprints. According to their website, "Responsible stewardship of limited natural resources is a key part of our design approach. Focus on life-cycle analysis of costs, human factors, and the “big picture” of how our buildings affect their communities and the planet drive this commitment to sustainability."

Correctional authorities from Lexington, Kentucky and Fort Lauderdale, Florida also held a conference on getting to know the inmates better, or more specifically managing special populations like gangs. Closer identification, classification, and unique housing for managing gang members can prevent radicalization of inmate populations.

America's Criminal Justice system is far from perfect, but there might be hope if such expos can continue to bring thousands together with the interest of improving it.

www.WeEarth.com

Federal Agents Can Now Seize Laptops At The Border

New policies recently disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security allow federal agents to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices when traveling to and from the border. Currently the policies only pertain to U.S. Citizens, with DHS officials saying it's a necessary to step to "prevent terrorism."

Apparently the measures have already been in place for some time, but were only disclosed recently after applied pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups. An increasing number of reports were showing up saying international travelers had their laptops, cellphones, and other devices removed and examined for lengthy periods of time. The policies also make hard drives, falsh drives, iPods, pagers, video, and audio tapes--as well as books, pamphlets, and other written materials fair game for seizure.

The policies in place require federal agents to take measures that would protect business information and attorney-client privileged material, and probable cause must be proven to exist for agents to keep materials. But the amount of time for these paperwork procedures to go through is anyone's guess.

Next time you travel out of the country, it might be easier to just forget your luggage and resist the urge to document anything. Although greater numbers of people at airports with no other belongings besides jeans, sandals, and a t-shirt is bound to raise suspicion at some point too.

www.WeEarth.com

Monkeys And Apes Threatened--Tourism Might Help

Deforestation and hunting for food are threatening the world's monkey and ape population. Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and head of the INternational Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) primate specialist group issued a statement saying, "We Have solid data to show that the situation is far more severe than we imagined."

According to the latest IUCN assessment, 48% of the 634 known species and sub-species of primates are at risk of extinction. Five years ago the percentage was at 39, and the organization ruled that it appears a lot more people are eating monkeys for dinner these days--no joke.

"Gorilla meat, chimpanzee meat and meat of other apes fetches a higher price than beef, chicken or fish" in some African countries Mittermeier told Reuters. He says some species are "literally being eaten into extinction."

A large part of why hunters have been able to persevere is because of deforestation. The burning and clearing of tropical forests not only destroys the creatures' habitats, but newly forming farmlands and roads cut to help loggers are opening up previously inaccessible regions to poachers.

Primates are feeling the most heat in Asia, with 71% of all species at risk, versus Africa where the rate sits at 37%.

Mittermeier believes the trends can "absolutely" be reversed, however. Pushing global warming legislation that would regulate deforestation is certainly a helpful measure, but he also believes "eco-tourism" can play a hefty role. According to his logic, local people will have a greater stake in conservation if their income from tourism is higher than from hunting--saving the planet through straight economics. The only difficulty is trying to generate greater interest in nature-based tourism. Mittermeier plans to do his part by helping to promote a new trend in "primate watching." Bird watching is already extremely popular around the globe, and believes primates can be just as fascinating if not more so to look out for.

He himself has seen 350 out of the 634 known species and sub-species of primate in the wild, making him one of, if not the world's greatest record-holder. He plans to launch a website that lists the the top experts' sightings in hopes of making the hobby more popular. Of course, monkeys and apes aren't nearly as common to spot as birds, and will require expensive plane tickets to exotic lands, so whether or not this becomes a viable method to save endangered primates has yet to be seen.

www.WeEarth.com

Hit Movie Theme Songs a Thing of the Past

Remember the days when a film’s theme song would help sell the movie, not to mention help sell the soundtrack? Never since 1997, when the epic, record breaking Titanic arrived in theatres has there been such campaigning for movie theme songs. There simply aren’t songs for blockbuster films like “My Heart Will Go On,” sung by Celine Dion and written by songwriting pro Diane Warren. Why is this? Why don’t films like the newly released Dark Knight have a song people can subconsciously link to the film? It mainly has to do with money.

Back in the day, the success of a film’s theme song used to be able to gauge the success of the film before release. Bryan Adams delivered the melodramatic tune “Everything I Do (I Do it For You) for the Kevin Costner version of Robin Hood in the 90’s, Whitney Houston sang her heart out in The Bodyguard theme song “I Will Always Love You,” and Aerosmith practically carried the film Armageddon’s success by their mega hit “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing.” But where are the hit songs for franchises like X-Men or Pirates of the Caribbean?

They’re simply too expensive. “Artists want a ton of money now,” Kathy Nelson, president of film music for Universal Pictures, told Billboard Magazine. “I remember the days when I would spend 300,000 dollars for a soundtrack like Pulp Fiction and I thought the cost would put the label under. Now artists want 300,00 just to show up.” Which is particularly why the Spiderman 3 soundtrack was so expensive, as soundtrack producers paid for an original theme song from band Snow Patrol. Another reason why hit theme songs aren’t helping to sell films is because record sales are also at an all time low.

This is why the trend made by writer/actor/director Zach Braff is starting to become successful. His quirky 2004 film Garden State basically compiled a lot of hip, Indie songs on the soundtrack by bands like Remy Zero and Coldplay, selling 1.2 million copies in the states alone. More recent films like Juno and Little Miss Sunshine have been benefiting from the same idea.

Another trend of avoiding the bank-breaking theme song as well as not dating the film is to create an original tune with an original artist that fits “the fabric of the movie.” (Mark Savage, BBC News) For example, Annie Lennox teamed up with Howard Shore to create the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King theme song, “conceived as an Elvish lament for those who have sailed across the Sundering Sea.” Now obviously these types of songs may not make it to the top 40 list, but nonetheless, they compliment the film directly. The new Chronicles of Narnia installment Prince Caspian composer Harry Gregson-Williams had a similar idea, collaborating with quirky Indie singer Regina Spektor to create its theme song.

Hans Zimmer, who co-wrote the score for The Dark Knight, says “there was never any doubt that we were going to be songless, and trust me, we were flooded with requests from every band in the world. I actually had to say no to some really interesting people.” But his reasoning, along with writer/director Chris Nolan’s, wasn’t much about the money. The film’s budget would have been able to yield a pretty hefty soundtrack with big hitters in the music industry. But Zimmer points out that in the first Batman film, Prince songs were added onto the soundtrack, which “really dates the movie.” Directors like Nolan and composers like Zimmer, who are hardly rookies in the entertainment industry, have been following the trends of pairing music with film, and wish for their collaborations to remain timeless.

Scientists Develop Exercise In A Pill

Scientists are currently developing wonder drugs that could theoretically allow people to gain muscles without lifting a finger. The new "lazy man's exercise pill" is found in two drugs tested at the Salk Institute in San Diego: Aicar and GW1516. So far both substances have already excited and frightened enough people to start wondering how to keep it out of the hands of athletes.

Dr. Ronald Evans, leader of the Salk group, tested the drugs on inactive mice. Aicar increased the mice's endurance on a treadmill by 44 percent after just four weeks of treatment. Mice who received GW1516 experienced a 75 percent increase in endurance, but only if they combined it with some exercise. The drugs basically trick the muscles into thinking they went through an intense workout.

According to the Herald Tribune Evans is sure the pills would have the same affect on humans as we have the same underlying genes as mice. If proven safe, he imagines them doing wonders for those enduring physical therapy sessions, and being especially helpful to health problems like diabetes.

On the front page of the article; however, the Tribune writes:

But such muscle-enhancing drugs would also have obvious appeal to athletes seeking to gain an edge in performance. With funds from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, Evans has devised a test to detect whether an athlete has taken the drugs, and has made it available to the World Anti-Doping Agency, which prepares a list of forbidden substances. Officials at the anti-doping agency confirmed that they were collaborating with Evans on testing procedures but could not say when they would start using them.

Personally, I find it extremely fascinating that tests are already being devised to see if a person is on the drugs--before anyone has even tried them. Aicar is a well known drug that was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for a heart condition, but neither Aicar nor GW1516 have been tested in people for muscle endurance, meaning long term health effects are still unknown.

With a culture obsessed with body image, it can almost go without saying that pharmaceutical companies are keeping a close eye on the pills as they're bound to make big money. It really wouldn't surprise me if the FDA approves them for over-the-counter sale as soon as possible.

www.WeEarth.com

Battling it Out for the Planet

In attempts to stomp the rumor that they're the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, The U.S. Army is looking to cut their emissions to reduce their "bootprint", and in doing so, will save the lives of soldiers in Iraq. Ted Davis, deputy assistant secretary for the environment, safety and occupational health in the Army said, "The goal is to bring Army emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide down by 30 percent by 2015." (Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters) Davis's goal is to first gauge how much emissions are processed by the army, then work to reduce that number.

The Army has previously worked to environmentally sustain its bases, starting with the massive Fort Brag in North Carolina back in 2001. This involved changing the way training ranges were incorporated for combat. "Each village used to cost up to 400,000 dollars to build. Now they are made of recycled truck-sized shipping containers at a cost of about 25,000 dollars," Davis added. The shipping containers are separated from the solid waste stream.

In the first couple years of the Iraq War, long supply chains stretching from Kuwait to the battlefield put convoys at risk from "makeshift bombs called IEDs." Most of that cargo was fuel. When there's less fuel involved, there's less risk for those soldiers on the frontline. Davis's idea to replace fuel consumption and diesel generators by wind or solar could reduce supply convoys that are being attacked by IEDs.

Poorly insulated Army tents on location in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Djibouti showed 85 of the energy going towards air conditioning units. But keeping the tents cool by alternatively placing foam insulation sprayed directly on the tents "cut the loss of energy by 45 percent."

Limiting greenhouse emissions from Army vehicles proves to be a more difficult challenge. But Davis said emerging technology is allowing for lighter-weight armor, as well as hybrid vehicles being designed for large military fleet vehicles.

Mainly, once the Army tackles exactly the magnitude of emissions they are putting out there, people like Davis will be able to better assess their needs. But he admits there is lots of work to be done. For example, Fort Carson in Colorado emits 205,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year, which equals the same as a town of 25,000 people.

Save Some Money With the $5 Bill Plan

Today’s economy is rough and it seems to feel worse every day. Even though I’m young enough that I should still have quite a few working years ahead of me, I’m still always interested in trying to save a few bucks. Which is why I found the $5 bill plan so interesting.

Marie C. Franklin of the Boston Globe recounts in an article how she managed to save a little over $12,000 in three years. She admits that she was always a habitual saver, but that saving became more difficult when she was simultaneously putting two daughters through college. So when she came across an Internet posting with '10 Tips for saving money,' she was especially interested.

Although the advice rather skeptically claimed that there are less $5 bills in circulation than other bills, the author still decided to go ahead and follow the plan: save your $5 bills and put them in a separate bank account. It worked. It is now three years later and Franklin is ahead $12,000.

Franklin admits that she was very disciplined and quite literally saved every $5 bill she had. When she had $50, she would make a deposit. When the account reached $2,000, she would then put it in a CD to earn higher interest.

Sounds good to me. Like a more elaborate piggy bank, with greater results.