Prison population highest in the US why?

Question

I dont just mean a little bit and I don't just mean compared to nations like N Korea. I am talking about the percentage of US citizens incarcerated in the US is 7 times higher than the percentage incarcerated in every other western industrialzed nation.

Neither drugs nor violent crimes account for the discrepancy. If all drug related incarcerations were illiminated in the US and if all violent crimes were illiminated in all countries, the US would still incarcerate 3 to 4 times more of its citizens than other western industrialized nations. Sources below.

I can only think of two possible answers.

1) The people of the US are more wicked and have darker hearts than all the peoples of the rest of the world.

Or 2) Law enforcemnt theory in the US places an characteristically high and usualally rigorous degree of importance on punishment.

Jerry

http://www.satellitemagnet.com/research.html

more soures

http://www.geocities.com/jerrywickey/incarceration

Answer 1

Part of the problem is that we expect the legal system to do our social engineering. Rather than taking the responsibility to raise well-adjusted children, we simply wait for the legal system to catch them.

Many, if not most people (contrary to your assertion) in jail are there because of drug or alcohol-related "offenses". Often the crime might be theft or forgery or something similar, but if you look behind the scenes, you'll find that many are actually drug or alcohol related.

I know one man spending 9 months in jail for breaking a restraining order and showing up at a sober club for an AA meeting. One of my friends just got out of jail for a drug offense. Most of the people in the local jail are there for similar offenses.

In the United States, there was supposed to be laws prohibiting the arrest of people for being drunk. What most localities then was to simply change the offense to "disorderly conduct".

In the end, the problem might be that we don't know how to help people be responsible citizens. Hopefully, things will someday change.

Answer 2

Prison Population is high because every foreigner comes here and thinks they can get away with all types of crimes. It is not only the Americans that have been incarcerated, but many foreigners. The people in the United States are not more wicked. We have many good hearted, kind , Christian people in this wonderful country. Evidently the only people you know in the United States are wicked. Too bad you hang around with the wrong crowd. But you are 100 % WRONG. You don't know diddley about the Americans except to spread your total False Propaganda. The American People have sweet, red hearts that have sent their hearts and good favors to un-grateful wretches like you. They have given money and been volunteers to help the hands that turn around and bite them. Nope your way off base and if your an American , you are not educated enough to be able to make a statement like yours. If your not an American then you can kiss my ***.

Answer 3

I always thought it was b/c of drugs that our incarceration rates were so high, but maybe not.

Obviously nobody really knows the answer to this question, if someone did we could fix the problem.

Personally I think it has alot to do with people having bad childhoods and unstable home environments as children

Answer 4

Maybe because we take our laws seriously and arrest criminals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can you compare us to Cuba or the Cayman Islands? We are about( guessing here) 500 times bigger than Cuba. We probably have 50 cities that are bigger than the Cayman Islands. Our National Parks are bigger than France and Spain put together. A really good comparison would show percentage of all people in the prison population.

Answer 5

The U.S. prison population is out of control because of the mandatory minimum laws that were passed in the 1980's.
Additionally, the federal government withholds funds to states that will not comply with the 85% goodtime rule.

Larry Levine
Owner
www.americanprisonconsultants.com

Answer 6

Both points are good. I wonder if some places (like North Korea and Saudi Arabia) with more brutal punishments (beheadings for adultery, for instance) tend to skew the results.

Answer 7

I think the main reason for the high prison population is that those convicted of crimes are afforded appeal after appeal here in the US, that they are not allowed in other countries. Your "possible answers" sound to be somewhat slanted and biased, but are probably all you wanted to say, anyway.

Answer 8

Beacuase they arrest people for stupid reasons like an 18 year old F@#$ing a 16 year old, marijuanna, prostitution, and they entrap a bunch of people for things they didn't do.

Answer 9

i think they all wanted to get with pinky

then they resorted to crime and drugs and stuff

Answer 10

because our government cuts costs on education and schools to expand prisons. and makes it so expensive for people to live, forces poverty, lack of education and poverty are almost guaranties to lead you to get in trouble and land yourself in prison