U.S. Incarceration Rate
i try not to be political in my blog. but there are some things that i have to comment on.
recently, the feds released statistics on the US prison and jail population. in the past year, it's grown by 2.6 percent-- more than double that of the population growth.
the US has 0.736% of it's population behind bars-- both the most in number AND percent of any country in the world. the next closest is Russia, with 0.53% of the population behind bars. and the NEXT highest ranking western country is the UK with less than 0.20% behind bars.
i don't know what the reason for this is... maybe we just have an excellent police force :)
but there is something wrong when the "land of the free" is by far the land of the most jailed.
i just don't think that most americans realize how out-of-whack our numbers are with the rest of the world. there are important questions that aren't being asked.
here's a link to a very political commentary: The US Gulag Prison System
recently, the feds released statistics on the US prison and jail population. in the past year, it's grown by 2.6 percent-- more than double that of the population growth.
the US has 0.736% of it's population behind bars-- both the most in number AND percent of any country in the world. the next closest is Russia, with 0.53% of the population behind bars. and the NEXT highest ranking western country is the UK with less than 0.20% behind bars.
i don't know what the reason for this is... maybe we just have an excellent police force :)
but there is something wrong when the "land of the free" is by far the land of the most jailed.
i just don't think that most americans realize how out-of-whack our numbers are with the rest of the world. there are important questions that aren't being asked.
here's a link to a very political commentary: The US Gulag Prison System
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