U.S. Jails More People Than Any Other Country: Chart of the Day

[muppet]

U.S. Jails More People Than Any Other Country: Chart of the Day

By Max Raskin and Ilan Kolet - Oct 15, 2012 11:00 PM GMT+1300


The U.S. has the world’s highest incarceration rate, with Department of Justice data showing more than 2.2 million people are behind bars, equal to a city the size of Houston.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows that, with a rate of 730 people per 100,000, the U.S. jails a higher proportion of its citizens than any other country, according to data from the International Centre for Prison Studies, an independent research center associated with England’s University of Essex.
Chart: Launch graphic


“The model is, if you build it they will come,” said Daniel D’Amico, a professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans. “Because we have all these prisons and all of these other resources funneled into our criminal justice system, we have this ability to enforce things that would otherwise be unenforceable.”
“That includes the drug war, but it’s also including everything from the Martha Stewart types to immigration policies,” D’Amico said. “The scope of things that are now criminal in corporate law is exponentially higher than it was merely twenty years ago.”
The U.S. also leads the world in the number of prisons in operation at 4,575, more than four times the number of second- place Russia at 1,029. U.S. states spent $52 billion to construct and operate those prisons in 2011, more than quadruple the $12 billion spent in 1987, according to data from the Pew Center on the States.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-1...f-the-day.html

Oh dear.
New Zealand is not too far behind the USA.

[eri]

all of north korea is a jail...

[Ryann]

Yet USA is said to be one of the most democratic/liberal countries.Quite ironical.

[cube]

Yet USA is said to be one of the most democratic/liberal countries.Quite ironical.

Democratic, in a 'if you have the money' way, yes, but I wouldn't put it on a liberal list.

[speights boy]

Democratic, in a 'if you have the money' way, yes, ........

Too right, cube.
Shameful corruption of the process.....

Efforts intensify to mislead US voters

In Florida, Virginia and Indiana, voters have received phone calls that wrongly told them there was no need to cast a ballot in person on Election Day because they could vote by phone.

In Ohio and Wisconsin, billboards in mostly low-income and minority neighbourhoods showed prisoners behind bars and warned of criminal penalties for voter fraud - an effort that voting rights groups say was designed to intimidate minority voters.

And across the United States, some employers - notably David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who help fund the conservative group Americans for Prosperity - are pushing their workers to vote for Republican Mitt Romney for president.

www.stuff.co.nz/world/7859344/Efforts-intensify-to-mislead-US-voters/

[mattinvestor]

I am not surprised. Half of the American jail population are incarcerated for smoking weed and coming to the country illegally to find a better life. It is truly sad to me...

[gavinc]

I have never been in jail = maybe it's because I don't break any laws.
Simple really - if you don't want to go to jail don't break any laws that will send you there.

[Damap]

In America one can be incarcerated, albeit briefly, for having a broken taillight or a missing mudflap so that is not absolutely correct Gavin

[Bob Kane]

U.S. Jails More People Than Any Other Country: Chart of the Day

Perhaps the US prefers to keep the bad buggers off the streets.
Some other countries let the bad buggers rule the streets.
Which country would you prefer to live in?

[Davo36]

Some naive statements here.

The war on drugs is failing. AND taking down the US in the process. They can't afford it.