Why does America have a larger percentage of its Population incarcerated than any other country on earth?

Question

Even more than the dreaded China that the chicken littles fear so much.
What does this say about America?

Answer 1

This is not an easy question, and I am sure that I can only hope to answer the smallest bit of it, if incorrectly. My thought is that things are this way for two main reasons
1. BIG GOVERNMENT
2. BBIIIIIGGGG GOVVERNNMEENNTTT
We live, mostly thanks to our politicians and special interest groups like large corporations, in a constant state of fear. We also live in what essentially is the worlds largest nanny state, just without any of the benifits of the worlds social democracies live with. Not that I think we should head in that direction at all, I don't. We, no, correct that, our legislators, make more and more laws each year. Many of these new laws are ones who's penalties include jail or prison timel. Far too many of them are felonies, with long prison terms. The methods and laws being used to accomplish this mass imprisonment of our countries citzenry is reminiscient of the gulags in the former soviet union. First you make everything that your government has no bussiness in your governments bussiness. Secondly you make everything a criminal act. Third, you convict as many people as possible of these new crimes. The next two things involve placing the rest of your population in two distinct groups, or at least making them believe that they are part of one group or the other. The first group are those you convince that they will benifit or be protected from some imagined crime by these new laws, this makes it easier to pass more such laws and also makes it easier to get people to give up their rights and justify forcing others to do so also. The second group are those that because of cultural and financial situations will live in fear of these new laws, knowing their way of life or financial situation will in all likelihood force them to break said laws. Also, as more of these laws are passed law enforcement gains new powers, which is already happening, and the average citizen finds him/herself without any recourse or protection. Law enforcement, like the public education system and the rest of big government, is self propogating, always, always claiming to need more, providing less tangible results, and removing any obstacles that might stop it from growing yet larger. I am not against government, law enforcement, or education, I merely believe that they have completely overstepped thier bounds and gotten out of control. Lastly, I think that all this really says about America is that we have forgotten, hopefully only temporarily, that this great nation was built on the backs of the little guy, not big money, big oil, or big anything, and that we have to get back in the game or it will only get worse. We need to cut the head off of the serpent now as peacefully as possible. Otherwise thomas Jeffersons words to James Madison will ring true in terrible ways. "The tree of liberty needs to be refreshed from time to time with the blood patriots" Let's all do our part to keep it from that, at least for now.

Answer 2

The vast majority of this disparity can be explained just by the extremely high number of non-violent drug offenders incarcerated in US prisons at any given time. Of course in some countries like Iran,Saudi Arabia and China many of those same people would be executed,so at least we haven't gone that far. Although some supposed Conservatives have suggested it in the past.

Jack

Answer 3

The soaring prison population can be attributed mostly to the failing War on Drugs (tm). (Ever notice that when you declare a war on an idea or an inanimate object, it is doomed to failure before it even begins?)
Law enforcement's main focus has been primarily on punishment rather than rehabilitation. As a result, when prisoners are eventually released, they lack any skills or knowledge to re-integrate themselves back into mainstream society; they inevitably revert back to their old ways, thus, a high recidivism rate.

There is also a correlation to the surging pirson construction boom and the decline of spending on education overall in most of these jurisdictions.

Answer 4

A unfastened united states of america can not exist the place everybody is jailed for issues that reason no harm to others If we've been given rid of a few of those victimless crimes, there could be severely much less people in penitentiary

Answer 5

If you'll count parolees, the total US penitentiary population will be around 8 mln. That's 3 times more than GULag ever had (2.5 mln in 1952).

The major problem is penitentiary system itself: it causes more recidives than any other system.
Forced labor is not a bad thing in the prisons, especially juvenile facilities. "Arbeit mach frei" aren't empty words: there is a great sample of Ukrainian PM Viktor Yanukovich who served as a juvenile criminals, but his behavior was effectively corrected by forced labor.

Answer 6

Drug wars made drug dealing more lucrative than a PhD, in any field.

Ever heard of supply and demand?
Supply goes down, price and value goes up, which entices suppliers to supply more. Happens every day in legal industries.

Answer 7

Well, for starters, China doesn't incarcerate....they exterminate.


Over 2million executed every year. Where is your outrage?


Oh yeah...why do you care? Or is this just another stupid question asked by a stupid european in an attempt to discredit America? Your jealousy is quite flattering. Thank you.

Answer 8

Probably because so many of the criminal element sneaks in through our borders and gets caught. The other major factor is drugs, either dealers or buyers. I think it's a complete waste of time to incarcerate these people. But, I don't make the laws.

Answer 9

It says that either we criminalize things that shouldn't be criminalized, we catch people more frequently for committing crimes than other nations do, or we have really bad people.

I'm going with one of the first two.

Answer 10

Because we have more prisoner recidivism than most countries. China...since you brought it up...has abhorrent conditions for their prisoners. No one in their right minds would want to return to conditions like they experienced. Our prisoners are so coddled and babied that incarceration is not really a punishment...just an inconvenient time-out.