USA Dwarfs Other Nations
Wed Apr 23, 2008 at 06:33:47 PM PDT
Sure, it is true, we are a pretty big country. Some claim we are the richest nation in the world. Some claim we are the only "superpower" remaining in the world. All of the claims are somewhat tenuous, especially considering current economic times, and let's not mention two wars that are straining our military and our budget into extremes.
Tonight, proudly (?) we can proclaim that the USA Dwarfs Other Nations...in...the number of inmates! That's right, the USA imprisons more people per capita than any other country in the world! In fact, this little statistic might shock some...
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.
Of course, deep down, most of us already knew this, but the New York Times offers us an article on the topic today at http://www.nytimes.com/...
Some other nifty little facts on how we accomplish that dwarfing of the rest of the world...
Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.
And wow, for every prison we build, we make sure we can house them (in fairly cramped quarters. Look at how many we are housing?
The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.
Here is another fact. Much as we malign China, the article offers this with their disclaimer...
China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)
Perhaps China has merely perfected what we are attempting to do in Guantanamo Bay, or with our renditions, or our enemy combatants detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and who knows where...
Now you will be pleased in noting that Russia is not far behind our rate of 751 per 100,000...
The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England’s rate is 151; Germany’s is 88; and Japan’s is 63.
I encourage all to read the article in its entirety, and to contemplate some other facts not offered by the article. Think about your local, state and federal taxes, and then think about how much of your tax dollars are spent funding prisons and caring for the prisoners within their walls. It is an industry all unto itself.
Then, think about those who are imprisoned, some quite needlessly, especially those who are drug addicts where the money spent might be better utilized in rehabilitation efforts. Think about the cost to those imprisoned who have families. Longer sentences mean some children might not ever have a mother or father while they are growing up.
Certainly, I don't suggest nobody should be in prison, however, I do believe that as it relates toward some crimes, prison is not useful, nor do I believe in many instances it is actually a deterrent.
Honestly, I find some shame in the fact that the USA dwarfs other nations in the number we house in prison. Where is that good old fashioned ingenuity that Americans claim we have...surely...there is a better way!
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