The estimated current population in the United States is 303.5 million people. The estimated current population of China is 1.32 billion people. However, the U.S. incarcerates 2,259,000 of its citizens while China incarcerates 1,566,000 of its citizens. So our rate of incarceration is 752 per 100,000 citizens while in China the rate is 119 per 100,000 of their citizens.
We currently lock up our citizens at a rate 5-8 times higher than any other western industrialized country. We incarcerate at higher rates than perceived gulag states like Russian and Cuba.
As the New York Times reports, we now incarcerate 1 in 100 U.S. adults. The interesting thing about this is that it's not a Republican versus Democrat issue. In Texas the biggest builder of prisons was Ann Richards. Bill Clinton created 50 new federal crimes and expanded the federal death penalty to 60 new offenses.
No one wants violent offenders out walking the streets, but it's clear that the U.S. has some systematic issues with our approach to crime.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
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2 comments:
You know, I’m so glad that you posted this, Ron.
It’s an issue that’s been gnawing at me ever since PJ’s idealistic diatribe on AHCL’s blog.
People just love to compare this country’s statistics with the statistics of other countries as some sort of testament to our failures over here, but it’s always a flawed comparison for one, very fundamental reason…the US is absolutely unlike any other country in the world.
Looking around China, who will you see? Mostly Chinese with a shared history and ideology.
Looking around Sweden, who will you see? Mostly Swedes with a shared history and ideology.
Looking around Cuba, who will you see? Mostly Cubans with a shared history and ideology.
Looking around Japan, who will you see? Mostly Japanese with a shared history and ideology.
Looking around the United States, who will you see?
This country is the only one in the world that is filled with all of the people of the world with a million ideologies and histories vying for position in one of the freest societies ever created.
I challenge you to take any free country, dump citizens from every place on earth into it, stir and see what happens.
The United States is a social experiment that simply cannot be compared to anything else.
Ron,
Another reason is the concentration of people in big cities. Most of our crime in centered in metropolitan areas. Were you to check incarceration stats in rural areas of America, I think you would find the rates far lower.
That said, we do have a problem. We need to revisit the mala prohibita crimes in this country. If you want to hurt yourself by gambling, doping, prostitution, then dozo, until you hurt someone else. You find far less tolerance to those offenses in the biblebelt states. It's going to take a radical change in societal mores.
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