The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation comprised of 34 countries, representing many of the wealthier countries in the world. Its members include North American countries (Canada, Mexico and the U.S.), much of Western Europe, as well as New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Israel, Japan and South Korea. Data from the OECD is readily available online and makes for a great data source for cross-country comparisons.
In this particular study, we examined the incarceration rate, as defined by the prison population per 100,000 national population. When we look across the OECD countries, we see that the U.S. has an incarceration rate that is off the charts compared to other wealthy countries. In 2008, the U.S. had a rate of 760 prisoners per 100,000 population or more than seven times higher than the median rate for OECD countries. The country with the next highest rate was Israel (325 prisoners per 100,000 population) with Chile (317 prisoners per 100,000 population) and Estonia (273 prisoners per 100,000 population) being the only other OECD countries with rates over 250 prisoners per 100,000.
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peacechants said on 29 Friday 2011 pm31 10:35 pm: When and if a majority of the American populace wakes up to realize the imposition of a total control society, devoid of any right to dissent or privacy, and complete with a fusion of corporate and government power - is well on its way to implementation, the infrastructure of gulags will be fully in place to receive those bold enough to demand the restoration of their rights as citizens. The media, the politicians, and everyone who profits financially by maintaining extraordinarily high rates of imprisonment all serve as cogs in a machine that ultimately serves the interests of the global elite. The observations in this article are mere reflections of a snapshot which shows a burgeoning, and profitable system facilitated by human traffickers utilizing three strikes and excessive minimum sentencing to feed its need for inmates. The media maintains an ongoing climate of fear among the public of crime, and corporations seldom hire individuals with prior records. Pre-employment background checks are performed for even the most menial of positions nowadays, and anyone with theft or any type of violence in their past is denied employment throughout the society. We are creating a permanent class of untouchable prior offenders while popular culture, also supported by corporations, glorifies all kinds of violence and gang culture among the youth. It is a system designed to entrap and use human beings as a means to corporate ends, and it is utterly perverse and amoral in its conception and in its implementation. |
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Faced with this observation about the extraordinary U.S. incarceration rate, one can ask some simple questions: Why does the U.S. have an incarceration rate that is so much higher than other wealthy countries? Is America's underlying crime rates so much higher? Is America's policing so much more effective than other countries? In general, incarceration rates are a combination of many factors including the underlying crime rate, the rate people report crimes, the likelihood that police interview and arrest criminals, the incarceration rate for those convicted criminals, the sentencing lengths for those convicted criminals and the rates of recidivism. So, ideally we could break down the differences in incarceration rate into the components listed above to understand why the U.S.'s rate is so different from other countries but, unfortunately, much of that cross-country data is not available.
Instead, I'll look at a more readily answerable question, how did the U.S. come to have such an enormous incarceration rate? The rate wasn't always this high, but it has been growing steadily over time and is now almost four times what it was in 1980. The rise was mostly due to policy changes on sentencing, especially with respect to drug laws. In fact, three key policy changes enacted in the 1980s drove this soaring incarceration rate: mandatory minimum sentencing laws, Three Strikes laws, and the criminalization of drug usage. Evidence of this factor may be seen in the increase in the number and percentage of prisoners incarcerated for drug crimes: from eight percent of the prison population in 1980 to more than 50 percent of the federal prison population by 2009.
A number of elements played a contributing role in the rising incarceration rates. Many citizens actively support the escalating incarceration rates as they feel it has made America safer and supported the legislation passed in the 80's. Politicians see this as a no-lose proposition - can you name an elected official that got humiliated at a debate or thrown out of office for being "too tough" on crime? For-profit prison companies of course love it as it represents more business. Some towns compete to be the site of a new prison because of the economic benefits and the political strength that prison gerrymandering can provide.
As the U.S. continues loading its jails and looking for new places to build larger prisons, we should be asking more questions. Why does the U.S. need so many more prisoners than other countries? Why does our incarceration rate keep growing even through crime rates are so much lower than decades ago? Why do we eagerly spend so much money on building jails yet feel so comfortable cutting back basic supports for the poor and working class?
Data note: We used the most recent year available for each OECD country between 2007-2009 available from the link provided. Comparisons were made to the median, not the mean value because the U.S. data point is such a large outlier.
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Wes Moore: Why We Can't Incarcerate Our Way Out of Crisis
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Illegals are put by some sources at 17 percent, and others at much less are not divided by race in those I read.... It streches creduality to believe the entire criminal justice system has increased by a factor of seven because of illegal immigration. It is only logical to assume that part of the issue is longer sentences, stricter enforcement and increased prosecution of drug offenses
I wonder what our incarceration rate if (a) non-violent drug offenders were subtracted from the total, and (b) the numbers of african americans were statistically adjusted so the incarceration rate was the same as white folks convicted of the same crimes.
Estimates of the underlying crime rate are notoriously bad, and so there is phrase the “dark figure of crime” to describe the amount of crime which is unreported or undetected. To give you an example, in the British Crime Survey for 2009-2010 (where they sample ordinary citizens rather than just look at police recorded crimes) it was estimated that the crime rate that is about twice as high as the officially recorded crimes rate.
Do you think the crime rate in the U.S. is 7 times higher than in other wealthy countries? Not likely, but what is most different is how our justice system handles criminals, especially low level repeat offenders and drug crimes.
However, if you got rid of chickensheet policework you would probably acheive the same ends.
1. In many "Western" countries, laws against personal use of narcotics are not taken seriously and rarely policed (if there even are such laws--which is not always the case).
2. In these same "Western" countries significant parts of their urban zones are over-run by gangs, petty-crime and even not so petty-crime. They often just live with it.
3. We've got WAY too many lawyers and those lawyers all need periodic feeding.
Go figure.
Come on people we can do better than this...all though we are #1.....USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
i guess we all need to invent or sell soon, become a corp. some how. Ill prob bring back BOSS, IOU, GUESS, some cheap 80s glasses etc. to sell in Iraq soon.
You no longer live in The United States of America, you now live in The Corporate State of America.
Here is how it works.
The "bad actor", Ronald Regan, opened the Government doors "WIDE OPEN" to the Corporate State and that State walked through doors in droves.
Here is one fine case in Pennsylvania where TWO Judges were convicted in accepting $2.6 million from a PRIVATE AND CORPORATE run youth detention center in Pennsylvania.
The bribes were given to those Judges to ensure that EVERY cell in the detention center OCCUPIED so their Corporation could BILL THE GOVERNMENT accordingly.
One youngster, who was unknown to police and had never been in trouble before, was in the company of another youngster who was apprehended for SHOPLIFTING. Not only was the FIRST OFFENDER youth jailed at this facility for shoplifting, the other youngster was also sentenced to 3 MONTHS in order to keep the head count billing at 100% at that facility.
And these were only TWO judges that were caught TAKING KICKBACKS from PRIVATE PRISON CORPORATIONS.
When you add in the big Corporate names of such as Corrections Corporation of America, Wackenhut , Pricor, U.S. Corrections, Corrections Concepts, Inc. and others, the U.S. prison population is being OUT SOURCED to for-profit Corporations.
Thus, the higher the occupancy rate in a private prison, the more PROFIT the Corporation makes.
So, I repeat, you now live in The Corporate State of America.
These children need help to lead normal lives. 66% of youth in our juvenile justice systems suffer from mental health issues with fully half of them suffering from multiple, chronic and serious disorders.
U.S. courts routinely prosecutes children as young as twelve in our criminal justice system.
American jails are filled with children/juveniles who have no escape or protection from families steeped in generational violence and drug and alcohol abuse. It's a wonder we don't have prison statistics 12 or 20 times those of other nations (which we do if we are compared to the 23 other industrialized nations that treat drug crime in a restorative manner).
5% of the world population and 25% of the world's prison population. Minneapolis MN arrested 44% of its adult Black men in 2001 (no duplicate arrests).
We have become the Jail & Prison capital of the world and it is children that pay the price.
http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2011/04/16/whats-it-gonna-take-judge-lucy-wieland-is-dead-right/
quit making up facts, your full of s**t