If the U.S. is such a free country...

[pitabread]

... why is it you guys have the highest incarceration rate in the world?

And especially when it comes to a lot of the supposed freedom loving Southern states (e.g. Texas) which have higher than average incarceration rate relative to the U.S. as a whole?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

 

[Abaxvahl]

... why is it you guys have the highest incarceration rate in the world?

And especially when it comes to a lot of the supposed freedom loving Southern states (e.g. Texas) which have higher than average incarceration rate relative to the U.S. as a whole?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

One of the main causes is drug laws AFAIK. Very sad.

 

[BNR32FAN]

... why is it you guys have the highest incarceration rate in the world?

And especially when it comes to a lot of the supposed freedom loving Southern states (e.g. Texas) which have higher than average incarceration rate relative to the U.S. as a whole?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

Maybe because more people break the law here.

 

[Goonie]

Maybe because more people break the law here.

Or you have a lot more laws to break, and elected prosecutors and judges that see being 'tough on crime' an election winner. Hey you got to supply the privately run prison sweat shops with labour after all.

 

[Brihaha]

Many prisons in America are for profit businesses. Elites have always exploited the poor here. Now white collar crime is worse than blue collar crimes. Because there seems to be no accountability for malfeasance any more in America. Personal responsibility has seemingly disappeared too.

 

[d taylor]

-
You told you that lie that america is a free country.​

 

[spiritfilledjm]

Because people confuse freedom with the freedom to do what they want apparently.

Freedom, in the context of America, is freedom to think what one wants, feel how they want, say what they want, believe what they want, without fear of government reprisal against them. Freedom is also the ability to accomplish whatever one wants to set their mind to without being hindered by the law because they're not in the right class of society.

 

[BNR32FAN]

Or you have a lot more laws to break, and elected prosecutors and judges that see being 'tough on crime' an election winner. Hey you got to supply the privately run prison sweat shops with labour after all.

What laws exactly are you referring to?

 

[BNR32FAN]

Many prisons in America are for profit businesses. Elites have always exploited the poor here. Now white collar crime is worse than blue collar crimes. Because there seems to be no accountability for malfeasance any more in America. Personal responsibility has seemingly disappeared too.

Really? Which ones turn a profit?

 

[BNR32FAN]

Or you have a lot more laws to break, and elected prosecutors and judges that see being 'tough on crime' an election winner.

And they wouldn’t get elected if the majority of the people didn’t agree with that.

 

[spiritfilledjm]

Really? Which ones turn a profit?

Any of the ones administered by third-party contractors.

 

[RDKirk]

What laws exactly are you referring to?

Here is one at the federal level:

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

I'd also throw "three strikes" laws in to that category.

 

[BNR32FAN]

Here is one at the federal level:

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

I'd also throw "three strikes" laws in to that category.

So these shouldn’t be punishable by jail time? No see what I’m looking for are laws that are punishable by jail time here in America that aren’t punishable by jail time in @Goonie ’s country. That’s what I’m interested in learning.

 

[RDKirk]

Really? Which ones turn a profit?

Here is an interesting take on the issue:

"Now, of course, the influence of private prisons will vary from state to state and they have in fact lobbied to keep mass incarceration going; but far more influential are political benefits that elected officials of both political parties harvested over the decades by being tough on crime as well as the billions of dollars earned by government-run prisons’ employees and private contractors and vendors.

The beneficiaries of public prison largess love it when private prisons get all of the attention. The more the public stays focused on the owners of private prisons, the less the public is questioning what would happen if the government nationalized the private prisons and ran every facility itself: Either way, we’d still have the largest prison system in the world.

But if private prisons aren’t at the root of mass incarceration, that doesn’t mean that private investors haven’t found ways to make our criminal justice system worse. The sins of the prison and jail telephone industry trying to charge families $1 a minute for simple telephone calls are well-documented. And the private bail industry keeps legislatures from passing sensible bail reforms that would allow poor, unconvicted people who pose no public safety threat to wait for their trial at home rather than in jail."

What I find most worrisome is the rush of private money to fuel the development of “alternatives” to incarceration like electronic monitoring or private probation services that ensnare people who previously would never have been under criminal justice system control. And worse, because many of these services are paid for by the person being monitored, they remove any fiscal barriers to large-scale unnecessary use.

Are private prisons driving mass incarceration? | Prison Policy Initiative

 

[spiritfilledjm]

Here is one at the federal level:

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

I'd also throw "three strikes" laws in to that category.

Three-strike laws typically only go against violent felonies...this means that someone committed a violent, felonious act against an individual three times...not something like selling drugs or robbing an empty house, things like that.

 

[Goonie]

What laws exactly are you referring to?

Well one recent one is that one of the states has made it a felony punishable for upto 4 years, to make a typo on your voting registration.

 

[RDKirk]

Three-strike laws typically only go against violent felonies...this means that someone committed a violent, felonious act against an individual three times...not something like selling drugs or robbing an empty house, things like that.

No, they don't, at least not in all states. Frequently the "third strike" is even something like writing a bad check.

 

[Albion]

... why is it you guys have the highest incarceration rate in the world?

Probably because it is one of the freer countries.

If it were tightly run with secret police and electronic surveillance everywhere and a brutal penal system like many dictatorships operate, I am certain that there would be more of a deterrent to crime.

 

[spiritfilledjm]

Well one recent one is that one of the states has made it a felony punishable for upto 4 years, to make a typo on your voting registration.

Source?

 

[Semper-Fi]

There is no freedom without law