US prison population largest in world

www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-24 09:21:35


WASHINGTON, Oct.23 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States has the world's largest prison population and the figure is still growing, a government report said Sunday.

According to a report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of US Justice Department, the US prison population, already the largest in the world, grew 1.9 percent to 2,267,787 people last year.

However, the growth rate was lower than the average 3.2 percentin the last decade.

The report said the US incarceration rate, also highest among all countries, hit 486 sentenced inmates per 100,000 last year, up 18 percent from 411 a decade ago.

The five states with the highest incarceration rates in 2004 were all from the South, led by Louisiana with 816 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 residents.

Meanwhile, the five states with the lowest rates were all from the North, with Maine experiencing 148 sentenced inmates per 100,000 residents.

Paige Harrison, coauthor of the report, attributed some of the prison population rise to tougher sentencing policies implemented in the late 1990s.

She said the average time served by prisoners today is seven months longer than it was in 1995.

"You bring more people in, you keep them longer......inevitablyyou're going to have growth," she said.

The Justice Policy Institute, a legal thinktank, said the statistics show little relationship between prison population growth and the crime rate, which has been falling in recent years.

An earlier government report said the US violent crimes during 2004 were at the lowest level in over three decades.

Given the ever-expanding prison population, US legal experts urged policy-makers to reconsider current sentencing policies, in order to avoid expensive incarceration costs and to invest in moreproductive prevention and treatment approaches to crime.

Land of the free indeed.

Originally posted by 500lbguerilla
Land of the free indeed.

yeah, truth in advertising???

It is probubly the biggest because we have the most technilogically advanced country, the most lawyers and a large population. Also, we take decades to put our murderers to death. SOme countries just shoot the bastards and are done with it.

I blame a lot of this overpopulation on the crankheads. They are violent, insidious druggies who'd steal from their own grandmas to get their fix. They are everywhere and nothing is stopping them, not even the laws forbidding sales of cold medicines. They just buy the stuff off the internet.

Question--do they have drug/crime problems in
Communist/fascist countries?

A high crime rate is one of the prices we pay for living in a free society. There was very little thievery in Nazi Germany. An old woman could walk the streets laden with gold and jewels and all would leave her alone, even in bad neighborhoods.
Of course, the REAL crime was committed at the very highest levels of government.

Also, we are a violent culture and crime is glorifed here, even well thought of in many circles. Al Capone is considered an ok guy just providing what people wanted and would have gotten somewhere else anyway. Billy the Kid, Belle Starr, Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Jesse James, and many more, are part of our mythology. The fact that most of the above , excepting Dillinger, were 2-bit crooks doesn't prevent people from thinking they were something special--

Crime sells--look at the movies, books, literature. It is a part of America. It IS America.

Garbage, absolutely useless propoganda by the Chinese to fool their citizens who don't know better.

Victor Belenko, a Soviet fighter pilot who defected to the U.S. in '76, ran into as much. The crime rate in the Soviet Union was unbelievable, politically well connected thugs always got away with their crimes, ex-cons locked into a certain city after they got out of prison would wantonly kill, and get away with it, Chechens who believed that a man didn't become a man till he killed at least one Russian, women being stripped of every single stitch of clothing by thugs to sell on the black market, NONE of these crimes were reported in the Soviet newspapers or television. But you could always hear about the crime rate rising in the U.S., or how the economy in the U.S. is doing badly, or how rotten the U.S. really is. I suspect much the same thing about Communist China.


America puts her dirty laundry right up where everyone can see it. Americans are a very self criticizing/scrutinizing people. We'll report our crime, poverty, jobless rates, illegitimacy, obesity and whatever. Other countries tend to hide such things from world opinion, and from their own citizens. So, my question is what are the Chi-coms hiding? Especially when it comes to political prisoners, slave labor, gulags and the way ANY chinese citizens are treated if they are unfortunate enough to be of European decent. THAT would make for some very interesting reading, dammit.

Rendova,

I'll agree that illegal drugs fuel most of the crime rate in the U.S. Some should be legalized, marijuana would make a good example.

Of course, the REAL crime was committed at the very highest levels of government. yeah its not like we have that here...

America puts her dirty laundry right up where everyone can see it. Americans are a very self criticizing/scrutinizing people. We'll report our crime, poverty, jobless rates, illegitimacy, obesity and whatever. Other countries tend to hide such things from world opinion, and from their own citizens. No they aren't. If we were so self critical we wouldn't tell the rest of the world to fuck off when they offer any criticism. Instead it would be "maybe you're right and maybe you should work on X." If the US cared so much for law and order we would be in on the International Criminal Court. Instead nationalists cry but the worlds leaders are corrupt and we cannot trust them. Completely ignoring the irony of such a statement coming from the US.

Screw China. Wage slavery at its finest. They've out capitalized the US and all under the guise of communism...Americans love cheap useless shit.

Originally posted by 500lbguerilla
Screw China. Wage slavery at its finest. They've out capitalized the US and all under the guise of communism...Americans love cheap useless shit.
For once, we're in total agreement.

For once?

You've agreed with me a number of times in the past few weeks. Are you embarressed to admit it? Why do you deny our love?
:flowers:

This IS true....

Okay, I love you, 500, my little commie bitch! :D (Okay, okay, I know you're not a commie...)