...is the United States Code. I can pretty much guarantee if you look through the code hard enough you could find some reason to put anyone in prison, including Mother Teresa.
Posted on 02/28/2008 4:45:28 PM PST by Sub-Driver
U.S. incarcerates more than any other nation: report Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:20pm EST
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and for the first time in the nation's history, more than one in every 100 American adults is confined in a prison or jail, according to a report released on Thursday.
The report by the Pew Center on the States said the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults at the start of the year.
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," according to the report.
Tough sentencing laws, record numbers of drug offenders and high crime rates 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The land of the free and the home of the brave.
As far as I can see, Americans are better off with most of the criminals inside prison, unlike other countries where they roam the streets... or government buildings.
>> So what’s your point?????
Well, it’s the Pee-Yew Foundation, so their point must be “America bad, rest of world good!”.
They buried the lead, though. “Higher crime rates” is the reason. Freedom is not well-suited for the irresponsible.
Just lock everyone up and then there will be no crime and health care for all!
...nation of meth addicts. It’s a real problem with teachers, security guards and Homeland Security employees around here.
We’re number 1.
Eat your heart out, China.
...nation of meth addicts. It’s a real problem with teachers, security guards and Homeland Security employees around here.The meth epidemic is ridiculous. I've been some places where the entire town is fat people and meth addicts. Crazy.
yep I wondered that too. As long as we’re not locking up political prisoners or others who don’t belong there, why is this news? They mention high crime rates as contributing to the level of incarceration. Ok, sounds like cause and effect, then. Commit the crime and do the time.
Shouldn’t living in North Korea or Cuba count as being incarcerated?
End the stupid WOD
I have heard that illegal aliens in federal and state prisons compose anywhere from 29% to 40% of the population.
It just shows the discontent in this nation, obviously Americans conversion to liberalism, is leading to poverty, which leads to civil disorder.
...is the United States Code. I can pretty much guarantee if you look through the code hard enough you could find some reason to put anyone in prison, including Mother Teresa.
No it shows we’re in desperate need of CHANGE and HOPE! Or was it HOPE and CHANGE??(sic..I can’t keep them straight.)
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
And piss on the victims, fa la la!!!!!
right, but liberals promise hope and change as well. we need to repent and start fearing God again. unfortunately that isn’t going to happen for some Americans and big government only pisses people off.
you hit the nail on the head.
Marion Jones, the Enron guys, Worldcom guys...everyone is in jail.
I can pretty much guarantee that 99% of the people in prison deserve to be there.
In other words, 1%. Am I the only one NOT shocked by such a small percentage? What's the big deal?
I wonder, if one subtracted all black males between 15 and 40, and all illegal aliens, and their racial and age counterparts in prison from the entire calculation, what the final ratio would be. Perhaps 1 in 200? 300? 500?
Deterrence: You never want to end up in a Chinese or Russian prison!
I'm willing to bet this is NOT the case in Iran, east Asia, or Russia.
1. End incarceration for ‘’victimless’’ crimes, or crimes where the victim and the perpetrator are one and the same.
2. Bill the home nations of illegal alien criminals for the costs of their arrest, prosecution, and incarceration, and if they don’t pay, ship them home.
3. Respect the 2nd Amendment for all law-abiding Americans. Make crime an occupation with a high risk of death, so criminals can either choose not to be criminals or eliminate themselves from the population.
Those three items would easily reduce prison and jail populations by 90% at absolutely no cost to the taxpayers (save a one-way plane ticket for the illegals). But conservatives are afraid of #1, and liberals are afraid of #2 and #3, and there’s no money in any of it for the politicians, so it won’t happen.
Ping.
It’s not a coincidence that the nation with the widest distribution of wealth is also the nation that enforces the rule of law the most. You can’t have widespread wealth and first world status if you also have high crime and corruption.
The prison population would decrease substantially if we were more enlightened like Cuba, Saudia Arabia, Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Darfur, Somalia, South Africa.
Thank your for your comments. Those were great obsservations by you both. I wish there were a way to rate posts as both of you would be rated Grade A Freepers for posting interesting facts along with thoughful and logical comments. The logic is easy to follow and cause one to wonder why the current situation is tolerated.
The reason China has fewer incarcerated people is because the organ trade leads to more executions. Dead or in prison, which is worse?
Stories like this remind me that, if we wish, we can feel good about paying taxes. It’s just a matter of attitude, really. Think of the good things we do.
Then from what’s left after that, take out the ones that are incarcerated for prostitution and pot. Because these are not crimes in other countries. Once you do that, I’d bet our incarceration rate is about the same as any other westernized nation.
Yes,that is the Republican position. Another way to ask the question is why do people steal to buy drugs and why do people make meth? Well, the answer is because drugs are expensive and lucrative to make and sell. So why is this? Oh, they are illegal. Hmmm. Therefor positions like yours. Without pointing fingers or taking postions, I merely want to point his out so you understand why we imprison so many people. As was pointed out by another FReeper, we used to take care of small problems ourselves without using the heavy hand of government.
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers.”
Quote by: Ayn Rand
(1905-1982) Author
Source: “Atlas Shrugged”, Part II, Chapter 3
Not sure what I'd do about meth, that stuff is really damaging to the brain.
Well, some people's whole reason for being is to serve as bad examples for others. Let'em go, they won't last long, and who knows how many they will scare off drugs. A small price to pay for the greater good, you could say. And if the meth users didn't kill themselves with meth, they would fine other ways anyhow.
subtract all the illegals and the number will be reduced byt 30%.
Since they are on total or near total welfare, seems like a great way to remove a large percentage from those economic numbers.
Prisons have always seemed like a great waste of human capital, to me.
I was wondering how that % affected our total prison population numbers.
Even on the low end, that brings us down to 1.6million.
I somewhat disagree with your theory. I think the reason people steal to buy the drugs is because they can’t hold a regular job because of the addiction. I personally don’t want to rely on a meth addict at work.
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