Sunday, December 10, 2006
U.S.A. Is Number One
The United States has the dubious distinction of being the number one country in prison population as well as prison rate, Reuters reports.
That's right, America, home of the brave and land of the free leads China and Russia, according to the "International Center for Prison Studies at King's College in London."
That's right, America, home of the brave and land of the free leads China and Russia, according to the "International Center for Prison Studies at King's College in London."
The U.S. incarceration rate of 737 per 100,000 people in the highest, followed by 611 in Russia and 547 for St. Kitts and Nevis. In contrast, the incarceration rates in many Western industrial nations range around 100 per 100,000 people.The prison population has escalated exponentially after folks like soon-to-be former Sen. George Allen got tough on crime and started locking every lawbreaker up. One out of 32 Americans is either "behind bars or on probation."
What a waste of human capital. Now ain't we proud of ourselves?!?Ryan King, a policy analyst at The Sentencing Project, a group advocating sentencing reform, said the United States has a more punitive criminal justice system than other countries.
[...]
"We send more people to prison, for more different offenses, for longer periods of time than anybody else," he said.
// posted by Howling Latina @ 6:13 AM 
