Democracy Has Prevailed.

December 10, 2006

WOO-HOO! We're # 1!!!

Not only is the US number one in the world in terms of just total raw numbers, we're number one per capita.

At what does the Good Ol' US of A excel so spectacularly?

Imprisoning our own citizens:
A U.S. Justice Department report released on November 30 showed that a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year. Of the total, 2.2 million were in prison or jail.
Did you catch that?

Let me repeat it:
. . . one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year.
The article goes on to say:
"We send more people to prison, for more different offenses, for longer periods of time than anybody else," he [Ryan King, a policy analyst at The Sentencing Project] said.

Drug offenders account for about 2 million of the 7 million in prison, on probation or parole, King said, adding that other countries often stress treatment instead of incarceration.
WTF?!

Can we say that this is not working?

Does this even sound like we're talking about a democracy?

Is it possible for a country to call itself a democracy with this percentage of citizens behind bars?

And if that weren't depressing enough, A Spork in the Drawer tells us why if you're in prison, you'd best be certain to get right with God -- as long as it's the right God of course (and that God is not Catholic, Jewish or Muslim for sure).

[sigh]

3 comments:

Mark Rauterkus said...

I had noticed the same news.

At least in the past year we've slowed down the assembly line called death row. So, that's some good news.

And, we are not #1 in the world in terms of the number of deaths in mines. China killed off 6,000 last year. So there.

To bad we can't ship em to Australia like in the good old days of England. (joking)

The fix comes in two, among many, positive moves, IMNSHO.

1. End the war on drugs.
2. Coaching.

Anonymous said...

This line of reasoning is a little confusing.

Try this:

1. Don't break the law.
2. Don't engage in the use or sale of illegal drugs.
3. Stay out of jail.

Anonymous said...

I've been doing that, x, but the USA still has more people in jail than any other country in the world.

What went wrong?