US Justice ( Archived) (92)

Over 2.3 million Americans (about 1% of the population) are currently incarcerated. That is the highest percentage in the world, ahead of Russia, Cina, St. Kitts and Nevis, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Turkmenistan. It is the highest % prison population that any country has ever had in known History.

I was astonished when i read the above facts. I was wondering what people in the US thought of the fact that over 1% of their adult population is in prison?

Do you think this is right? Do you think maybe judges are to quick to send people to prison? Are you in favour of the 3 strike rule?

It costs taxpayers about $23,000 a year to house and feed each prisoner so having 1% of adults locked up is costing the country a fortune.

I am not critising the US judicial system as I don't live there so I can't really comment on it in a good or bad way but surely something must be wrong somewhere if the prison population is that large?

Would have been good to be able to compare those stats with the crime rate per head of polutation, and the "clear up" rate against it.

Maybe they just got bloody good cops and a judical system that supports them.

Maybe but they are huge figures. If you consider that the prison population has people leaving all the time and new people arriving. The amount of ex cons in the country must be huge.

It sucks, big time. But it is what it is, and until we get rid of all the "politically right" crap it will remain so.

They only rank 24th in the murder per head of Population worldwide table?

Rank Countries Amount
# 1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
# 2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
# 3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
# 4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
# 5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
# 6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
# 7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
# 8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
# 9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
# 10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people
# 11 Ukraine: 0.094006 per 1,000 people
# 12 Papua New Guinea: 0.0838593 per 1,000 people
# 13 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0802565 per 1,000 people
# 14 Thailand: 0.0800798 per 1,000 people
# 15 Moldova: 0.0781145 per 1,000 people
# 16 Zimbabwe: 0.0749938 per 1,000 people
# 17 Seychelles: 0.0739025 per 1,000 people
# 18 Zambia: 0.070769 per 1,000 people
# 19 Costa Rica: 0.061006 per 1,000 people
# 20 Poland: 0.0562789 per 1,000 people
# 21 Georgia: 0.0511011 per 1,000 people
# 22 Uruguay: 0.045082 per 1,000 people
# 23 Bulgaria: 0.0445638 per 1,000 people
# 24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people
# 25 Armenia: 0.0425746 per 1,000 people
# 26 India: 0.0344083 per 1,000 people
# 27 Yemen: 0.0336276 per 1,000 people
# 28 Dominica: 0.0289733 per 1,000 people
# 29 Azerbaijan: 0.0285642 per 1,000 people
# 30 Finland: 0.0283362 per 1,000 people
# 31 Slovakia: 0.0263303 per 1,000 people
# 32 Romania: 0.0250784 per 1,000 people
# 33 Portugal: 0.0233769 per 1,000 people
# 34 Malaysia: 0.0230034 per 1,000 people
# 35 Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of: 0.0229829 per 1,000 people
# 36 Mauritius: 0.021121 per 1,000 people
# 37 Hungary: 0.0204857 per 1,000 people
# 38 Korea, South: 0.0196336 per 1,000 people
# 39 Slovenia: 0.0179015 per 1,000 people
# 40 France: 0.0173272 per 1,000 people
# 41 Czech Republic: 0.0169905 per 1,000 people
# 42 Iceland: 0.0168499 per 1,000 people
# 43 Australia: 0.0150324 per 1,000 people
# 44 Canada: 0.0149063 per 1,000 people
# 45 Chile: 0.014705 per 1,000 people
# 46 United Kingdom: 0.0140633 per 1,000 people
# 47 Italy: 0.0128393 per 1,000 people
# 48 Spain: 0.0122456 per 1,000 people
# 49 Germany: 0.0116461 per 1,000 people
# 50 Tunisia: 0.0112159 per 1,000 people
# 51 Netherlands: 0.0111538 per 1,000 people
# 52 New Zealand: 0.0111524 per 1,000 people
# 53 Denmark: 0.0106775 per 1,000 people
# 54 Norway: 0.0106684 per 1,000 people
# 55 Ireland: 0.00946215 per 1,000 people
# 56 Switzerland: 0.00921351 per 1,000 people
# 57 Indonesia: 0.00910842 per 1,000 people
# 58 Greece: 0.0075928 per 1,000 people
# 59 Hong Kong: 0.00550804 per 1,000 people
# 60 Japan: 0.00499933 per 1,000 people
# 61 Saudi Arabia: 0.00397456 per 1,000 people
# 62 Qatar: 0.00115868 per 1,000 people

Nothing wrong with a huge ex-con population, if the rehabilitation programme is a good one !

Well if what I see on TV is anything to go by then US prisons are not about Rehab....they are punishment and do very little to rehab the prisoners. Matbe thats the problem?

Thats the problem ex service men/women dont even get proper rehab into civi street so they are not going to spend money on ex cons and that also goes for the UK. when are these governments going to realise that charity begins at home and to look after your own DONT COME BACK AT ME HERE WITH THESE PEOPLE DONT DESERVE HELP . Oh and bring back national service will solve a lot of the problems here.

I don't know about bringing back National Service. You can't really force young people to join the military in a democracy. And it would be the usual story with rich kids getting the easy roles and probably being excused totally and kids from poorer areas being screwed.