Land of the Free: America has the Worlds Highest Incarceration Rate in the World.

That's right. America is #1! But this time it's in how many people they incarcerate compared to the world's other countries. The USA has 4.4% of the world's population but incarcerates 22% of the world's prisoners.

In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners.[1] Corrections (which includes prisons, jails, probation, and parole) cost around $74 billion in 2007 according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Wiki



As you can see in the above map, America is kicking ass in terms of imprisonment.

But, this isn't because of our laws, it's due to political corruption and the privatization of prisons. Below is a graph that shows the insane imprisonment increase after we privatized prisons in the 80's



This isn't about how nonviolent drug offenders are being imprisoned for decades and costing taxpayers $20-30,000 per year for a 8x10 cell. This is about how capitalism and politicians betray citizens and use/create laws to profit from unjust sentences.

Politicians should have a cap on donations equivalent to the average citizens donation. They should also be heavily audited for any business conducted during and after their term. And all their finacial transactions should be made public from the moment they take office. Public servants should prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that they serve the public.

DISCLAIMER: North Korea may have a higher incarceration rate as it is estimated to be between 600-800 per 100k.


Ghost

originally posted by: ghostrager
That's right. America is #1! But this time it's in how many people they incarcerate compared to the world's other countries. The USA has 4.4% of the world's population but incarcerates 22% of the world's prisoners.

I find those numbers to be suspect. Do you think China, Middle Eastern nations and other developing countries care about reporting accurate incarceration numbers.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Who's to tell? Even if so, what does that bring us to, #20 out of 195 nations in incarcerations per capita instead of #1? I suppose the sun even shines on a dog's as.....you get the point

Ghost

Release those that got jailed for marijuana and the numbers drop.

The system is a joke

a reply to: luciddream

I agree that the draconian drug laws need to be addressed.

We have a lot of criminals...

Of course in many countries, the criminals probably never actually make it to a jail cell alive so i guess they wouldn't be counted as "incarcerated."

I do agree the justice system is screwed up royally, but the fact remains we have a lot of criminals. I personally don't want them walking the streets.

Hm. Actually this is common knowledge, I thought? Yes it's preposterous. More than China. Imagine.
And most of them are little pot smokers. Ridiculous. Obama has begun pardoning many of them though. There was a thread about it a while back. I'll see if I can find it if anybody is interested.

No one gets locked up for a "little pot" unless you consider moving say 50lbs of weed a small amount. Even then, you still probably won't get thrown in the clink for very long.

Most of these folks are REPEAT offenders and have a variety of charges, probation violations, etc.

I'm in Chicago and one of the problems we have now in our city is judges won't throw the book at these little gangbangers even when they caught on gun charges.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

I find those numbers to be suspect. Do you think China, Middle Eastern nations and other developing countries care about reporting accurate incarceration numbers.

Other countries just kill them...

I think this is a result of freedom, or those who can not handle it. When your oppressed you tend to not do crime, when you have all the freedom, idle minds....you get the point.

The USA is no1 in incarceration because its big business over there!!!

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold.

This is the why, and i find it appalling! Privatized prisons should not exist....

Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce.

Source

a reply to: Edumakated

Well, I'm NOT in Chicago and I can tell you people go to jail here quite often for having marijuana on them, especially if they've been busted before with a little. It's ridiculous. It certainly doesn't take 50 lbs. to get you in jail. They'd call the DEA in for that.....

a reply to: Xtrozero

I see now. Having higher imprisonment rates equates to more freedom.

Seems legit.

originally posted by: ghostrager
a reply to: Xtrozero

I see now. Having higher imprisonment rates equates to more freedom.

Seems legit.

You missed my point... Chad has one of the lowest, why is that? Must be a nice place to live, don't you think? I think the better question is why do people break laws that lead to imprisonment. Minus the 15% that are in there for only pot related crime, the other 85% committed, in most cases, really nasty stuff.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Other countries just kill them...

I think this is a result of freedom, or those who can not handle it. When your oppressed you tend to not do crime, when you have all the freedom, idle minds....you get the point

What kind of authoritarian doublespeak is this? The greatest uptick in incarcerations is due to the passage of insane drug laws. How is this a result of greater freedom? Also contributing to this uptick was the dismantling of our national mental health system — something that we can thank Reagan and friends for.

EDIT:

And here is a link from the BOP showing percentage of inmates by offense (48.4% drug, 9.1% immigration). According to the Prisoners in 2013 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2012, only 54% of those incarcerated by the state where sentenced for violent offenses with another 16% for drug offenses and 10.7% for "Public-order" offenses which it defines as those that Include "weapons, drunk driving, and court offenses; commercialized vice, morals, and decency offenses; and liquor law violations and other public-order offenses."

I'm from the country were our forefathers were convicts and we still have a lower incareration rate!

Oi Oi

originally posted by: theantediluvian

What kind of authoritarian doublespeak is this? The greatest uptick in incarcerations is due to the passage of insane drug laws. How is this a result of greater freedom?

Oppressed people tend to not have much of a will, they follow authority mindlessly. Americans are not oppressed and so have great will to do all kinds of things...

I see that over 60 countries have all forms of pot as still illegal, and even 9 countries around Europe too, so why are they not busting at the seems?

a reply to: Xtrozero

'Oppression' is an arbitrary word unless you hold to fallacies/ideals . Etc.; "other countries just kill prisoners off".

If you hold to fallacies/ideals, then you have to explain the statistics. America incarcerates the most citizens per capita. Even if you can argue anomalies in how these are calculated, you still won't bring the statistics into the upper half.

Even if you do prove that the US is barely in the upper half, it's still no less of a shame.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Decriminalization, lack of enforcement, cultural factors like variations in popularity and pervasiveness of usage? There's a host of potential factors.

Seems to me the most important comparison is the United States now versus the United States before the massive spike in prison population. Why were incarceration more or less stable at far lower percentage of the population for the 20th century right up until the late 70's? I would point to a number of co-occurring factors but here are the biggies imo:

1. The War on Drugs (Nixon declared "War on Drugs" in 1971)
2. The decline in manufacturing jobs which led to huge ghettos in Rust Belt cities (peak manufacturing employment occurred in 1975)
3. Privatization of the public mental healthcare system (particularly after Reagan took office in 1980)
4. The influence of the Broken Windows theory in criminology (introduced in 1982)

The concept of freedom is something the media repeats over and over to Americans.

In reality, there are so many issues keeping Americans from being truly free that you can't see the forest for the trees.

However, so long as everyone keeps BELIEVING you're free, no one will question it.

Yah, why is it that the average criminals get shot dead but the really nasty ones get kept in Prison?

What are they being saved for?