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	On Anniversary of Guatemalan Bishop''s Murder, Demand Accountability for Mass Atrocities by Human Rights First Guatemala   Ten years ago, famous Guatemalan human rights defender Bishop Juan Gerardi was murdered. Bishop Gerardi was killed just days after publicly releasing a report that documented more than 200,000 killings during Guatemala''s 36 year civil war. The report laid blame on the Guatemalan government for over 90 per cent of the conflict''s human rights violations.   While individuals have been convicted for the murder of Bishop Gerardi, there has been no justice for the victims of Guatemala''s 422 documented massacres. None of the former military or police officials allegedly responsible for committing the worst atrocities during the conflict have been held accountable.   Through his courageous efforts to reveal the truth, Bishop Gerardi left Guatemala an important legacy. However, without action by the authorities, that legacy will never be fully realized.   Urge the Guatemalan Attorney-General to immediately act on the criminal petitions filed by victims almost a decade ago. Those petitions allege that former police and military leaders committed crimes against humanity and genocide during the civil war. Visit the related web page
	The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world by Reuters   Feb 29, 2008   A new report, by the Pew Centre on the States, says the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults at the start of the year. The report also says for the first time in US history, more than one in every 100 American adults is confined in a prison or jail.   The far more populous nation of China ranked second with 1.5 million behind bars, with Russia a distant third with 890,000 inmates.   "Beyond the sheer number of inmates, America also is the global leader in the rate at which it incarcerates its citizenry, outpacing nations like South Africa and Iran," the report said.   Tough sentencing laws have contributed to the United States having the largest prison population and the highest rate of incarceration in the world, criminal justice experts say.   The latest report tracked similar findings on the US prison population by the Justice Department and various private groups.   A report in November by a criminal justice research group found the number of people in US prison had risen eight-fold since 1970.   The new report said that the national prison population has nearly tripled between 1987 and 2007.   "The number of people behind bars in the United States continued to climb in 2007, saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," it said.   The US last year spent more than $US44 billion ($46 billion) on corrections, the report said, compared with $US10.6 billion ($11.17 billion) in 1987, the report said,   It added the rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending.   The report said the current prison growth has not been driven mainly by a parallel increase in crime or a corresponding surge in the nation''s population.   "Rather, it flows principally from a wave of policy choices that are sending more law-breakers to prison and, through the ''three-strikes'' measures and other sentencing enhancements, keeping them there longer," it said.   The report said some states, such as Kansas, have acted to slow their prison population growth, with greater use of community supervision for lower-risk offenders and sanctions other than prison for minor probation and parole violations, such as missing a counselling session.   The American prison system is predominantly operated by the private sector on a for profit basis.
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