Land of the Free Update
Good news for conservative, law & order Republicans:
New High in U.S. Prison Numbers
With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads
the world in both the number and percentage of residents it
incarcerates, leaving far-more-populous China a distant second, according to a study by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.
Got that? We’ve more people in jail than China, which has over four times our population (more than a billion more people than us). In terms of percentage in jail, China isn’t even on the map, while we exceed but keep such illustrious company as Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Cuba.
America #1!
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Free The Animal is an eclectic writing project about everything since November 2003. 23 years, 5,500 posts, 5 million words.
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comon, Richard… you're over-reaching.
First you don't really trust the numbers, provided by China, do you?
Even assuming what China is giving us is the right number…. (Did I mention I doubt it?_)…how much of the difference is due to the fact that most countries, China included, tend to dole out the death penaty more often. and for ostensibly lighter offenses? How many ahve died in prison due to conditions, and so on?
Sorry, but I don't buy it.
The shamefulness of the magnitude of the American prison system, laws for all sorts of things that don't harm anyone, prosecutorial abuse, and ego "justice" don't rely on China's behavior, or the behavior of any other nation for that matter.
They're provided merely for perspective and everyone is perfectly free to place whatever stock in them they like.
Well, the comparison figures are bogus at the off.
Then we get into the justification behind that prison population. You are making the implicit assumption that if someone is in jail, it's unjustified. That unjustified improsonments happen occasionally goes without much question… but your implication is tha it's a significant percentage… and that holds up about as well as your comparison to China's figures.
"You are making the implicit assumption that if someone is in jail, it's unjustified."
No, I'm stating facts that would shame and embarrass any rational, decent person.
How's that for implicit?