<Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> Our vast network of federal and state prisons, with some 2.3 million inmates, rivals the gulags of totalitarian states . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3">--Chris Hedges </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> Our vast network of federal and state prisons, with some 2.3 million inmates, rivals the gulags of totalitarian states . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3">--Chris Hedges </Td> </Tr> <P> Reporting at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (August 3, 2008), Becky Pettit, associate professor of sociology from the University of Washington and Bryan Sykes, a UW post-doctoral researcher, revealed that the mammoth increase in the United States's prison population since the 1970s is having profound demographic consequences that affect 1 in 50 Americans . Drawing data from a variety of sources that looked at prison and general populations, the researchers found that the boom in prison population is hiding lowered rates of fertility and increased rates of involuntary migration to rural areas and morbidity that is marked by a greater exposure to and risk of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV or AIDS . </P>

N the united states what do legislatures police courts and prisons make up