Here is an interesting statistics about the Land of Freedom: According to the World Prison Population List, in more than 200 countries, there are about 9 million prisoners. The US prison population is currently 2.3 million. Thus although the US population is only 4% of the world's population, American prisoners make up a quarter of all prisoners. Anybody care to discuss the topic??
Do the citizens of other countries feel as safe? Are their police doing their jobs or just looking for payoffs? China almost only arrests political dissidents. Part of the reason that there is less crime there has to do with the fact that the people fear they will get gunned down for even the pettiest of crimes. Here, people may feel the risk vs. the reward is worth committing the crime. They know they will do some time, but don't care. Does that mean we should not make them face the penalties? I do agree that there may need to be some rethinking of our penal codes, but I don't believe that a major overhaul is necessary.
Since when Americans feel themselves safe? Well, I do, and we never lock our doors, actually we don't even have keys to our house. But you should see my arsenal of weapons! Just kidding on that one, but sure, Americans don't feel themselves safe, just watch Fox news! I know that the Japanese police have a 98% conviction rate, thus pretty much everybody whom they arrest get convicted. Now I think if a country has 6 times the imprisonment rate of the average, there must be something wrong... Edit: Some statistics I found: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm Japan has 1/11th of the US rate and England has 1/5th, just for comparison... Friendly advice: Don't get arrested in Kenya. It has the prison occupancy level at 343%!!!! The female ratio (8.7%) is also the highest among American prisoners!!! Yeah, tough ladies they are...
Well, I am not a sociologist, just play one on ET, but: -- too many people jailed for non-violent crimes, specially drug use -- lack of social security -- too many weapons in the hands of the people -- low level of general education P.S.: WE could outsource prisoners to Turkey, their occupation rate is only 77%... Now, that is a business idea!!
Prohibition FACTS: Drug Offenders In The Corrections System â Prisons, Jails and Probation Race, Prison and the Drug Laws Mandatory Minimums Crime Year:2004 Total Violent Crime Arrests: 590,258 Marijuana Possession Arrests: 684,319 Total Drug Arrests: 1,745,712
The government devotes greater law enforcement resources to prohibition enforcement and the seizing of political prisoners and their property... than it devotes to fighting child molesters, murderers, and terrorists combined. Does this seem right to you?
BSmeter is correct. The ratings of crime shows, the fact that there is actually a horror movie genre, at all, suggests so. Perhaps, the support for pointless , vindictive and just stupid laws derives from some perverse puritan ethic-they are afraid of being punished, hence the strident support of laws that would just as likely see the those supporters imprisoned for stuff all. Perhaps being "seen" to support "tough on crime " measures is some sort of perverse thrill for the neo-con mindset, and more important to the average person than reality and common sense, and standing up for reasonable ideas and concepts. Just a theory.