World News and Trends: Record number of Americans on probation or parole
Four and one-half million Americans were on probation or parole in 1999, with 1.86 million more behind bars, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The 6.3 million under some form of correctional supervision set another all-time high in a decade of steadily climbing numbers.
In 1980 slightly more than 1 percent of the American adult population was under correctional supervision. The figure has since tripled to more than 3 percent, or one of every 32 American adults.
Although violent crime decreased during the 1990s, assault arrests increased by 28 percent, and drug-related arrests rose 34 percent. Arrests for embezzlement, forgery and fraud grew by 37 percent.
The largest increase came in the number of people placed on probation. Those convicted of drug-related offenses and such crimes as embezzlement, forgery and fraud are often given probation rather than incarcerated, meaning that the flow of inmates into prisons has largely stabilized.
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: September - October 2000
Course Content
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Melvin Rhodes
Melvin Rhodes is a member of the United Church of God congregation in Lansing, Michigan.
