Why does the US have the highest number of imprisoned citizens?

[OddBeMe]

Per 100,000 people, according to 2016 study. 2.1 million imprisoned.

Americans are dangerous, violent people

Capitalism isn’t meant for some “industries”

Other

[lightbulb27]

not sure... maybe we haven't had enough wars to thin the herd?

One is the govt theft machine that exasperates poverty while it feeds those whom are successful. We don't let companies fail, but we let people fail and toss them to the street. Go ahead and try to get services as an American citizen rightnow... like a home to live in, or benefits. Many people cannot... waiting list is long. The immigrants though.. they live in luxury hotels for now. unreal...

we for sure have a trauma generating society, at least in many democratic areas... and it chews up and spits out children and turns many into hopeless degenerates. Add that with a continual desire for people to come here, including criminals, as well as the promotion of wealth

the other issue is... we are the melting pot of the world... so many cultures, whom else has those possible frictions? We have a highly traumatized inner city black and hispanic cultures that has been a self fulfilling prophecy for generations. It just keeps spitting out hopeless messed up kids, large % of crime and thus prisoners come out of that. Add to them, those whom want to hit it big in prostitution, trafficking in humans and drugs, and you've got a lot of the problems.

Add to it other crimes. Id like to see the % makeup of criminals in jails by crime. we arrest people for having marajuana... that's stupid. If they smoke it and are caught, then nail their A$$, but having it... stupid. that leads to discipline... we lack that in school now and often at home, so we are heading deeper into hell as the children are poorly trained.

[OddBeMe]

Funny when it’s the govt that tries to feed people. But when you pass tax cuts…

[lightbulb27]

there's a sane balance of what works, just realize everytime they say "spend" they mean confiscate. they confiscate from everyone when it's inflation and proportionately more from rich people, but the poor get hit harder since each penny matters.
people I know that make big $ pay big taxes. tax the companies, I don't have issue with that.

[OddBeMe]

Yes we can cal, it confiscating. But you don’t bitch about confiscating to pay for over militarized police squads. Or tax policy that shifts more money to Bezos than the Hernandez’s down the street from me.

[lightbulb27]

maybe true, put it on the topic list. there's an AMT... alternative minimum tax. how they get away with paying no tax is beyond my knowledge. don't worry... watch a lot of rich people owning commercial real estate go down the tubes... to be bailed out by your govt.
police squads... lost me. I want well funded... loved... and socially awarded police. if you don't, just do so in your area and watch it implode. it's the people that need trained first, not the cops. Once most humans are trained well... you hardly need cops. that's the problem and noone talks about it. Chicago and SF paying the price as stores pull out. which loops back to... desperation, division of wealth, poverty. It's just gonna get worse...
we don't need the huge military if we stop being global police. we don't need the govt workers to be 50% of the workers and paid as high as they are, etc. the mess has been building a long time... there's no easy answers now.
plant food trees and grow a garden, raise some chickens... hope for the best.

[andreasderjuengere]

As it's Americanesia... I'd suspect that there's good money to be made with herding prisoners? The lobbyists can perhaps contribute some dollar-numbers?

I can only think of one other reason: Ami criminals are dumber than the world average - so they get caught more frequently (which does not count for Musk, Trump, Bezos or such)

[OddBeMe]

I like that word. We have rewritten history at least in our heads. Like we won WW2, against a racist Germany (whilst having a racist system as well).

[andreasderjuengere]

Yepp - 'history' is a sarcastic thing. But it never gets boring :)

[OddBeMe]

Unless you get tired of rhymes.

[Anonymous]

Because America is waaaaay to humane to criminals. You obviously have zero experience in the prison system. Go work in one and you'll see how things really work.

[OddBeMe]

It saying shit in prisons ain’t bad. But more harshness will only cause more shit. Same as violence begets violence. Or abuse.

[Opinion Owner]

You have zero experience in this matter. Get a job in a prison and you will change your tune.

[purplepoppy]

Is it because Americans commit more crimes than other countries? As a rule of thumb if you don't commit serious crimes you don't get sent to prison.

[OddBeMe]

Well it matters what is a crime. In Spain for instance, you can walk up and sniff cocaine right in front of a cop. Now he may try to get you to get treatment, of course.

[Anonymous]

There are many reasons but perhaps the most obvious and shocking differences between the US and Europe would be that in the US prisons are businesses run for profit, so it is in the interests of some people for there to be prisoners, this is a conflict of interest which would be completely unacceptable in Europe.

Also 28 states have a 'three strikes and you are out' policy, the 3rd offence, no matter how serious is an automatic life sentence.

Your system is not about rehabilitation either, it is entirely punitive, your goal is vengence.

The European approach to crime and punishment is completely different, when society doesn't function properly we all pay for it, so we want society to function and so every aspect of our system has that goal in mind.

We have also been working hard for decades to dismantle systemic and socitial racism, but in the states it is as bad now as it has ever been.

You have no social safety nets and no interest including everyone in your society.

[Avicenna]

Your interview for Pravda went so well they've decided to hire you to propagandize.

[Opinion Owner]

@Avicenna These are simply objective facts.

I you feel harmed by them you should disassociate your ego from your nation.

[Avicenna]

Your arrogance equals your ignorance, which is quite a feat even for a European. Your "dismantling" of racism has resulted in heavy criminalization of speech (about to be outdone by your Irish neighbors) yet hasn't dismantled racism. Racism in the US is quite different these days- it's mostly aimed at whites, which you no doubt approve of.
There is a safety net in the US. Is it the world's best? No, but it certainly exists. Whatever propganda organ you waste your time getting inaccurate information from apparently wasn't interested in being close to right. Or maybe you just like to lie.

Despite the drawbacks of our criminal justice system, it's also inaccurate to say that it's entirely punitive: www.usnews.com/.../prison-education-programs-what-to-know

[Telekinetic-Potato]

Because a lot of our prisons are privately owned. It makes money to have laws where people are imprisoned easier. We've been trying to undo some of these damaging laws but it's causing other problems.

Also this is a big place. There are thousands of millionaires here who sell drugs and are involved in gangs. They don't believe in fist fighting, they shoot eachother over small stuff. If you're in a gang and someone beats you up, other people will think your weak and come after your assets and colleagues.

[OddBeMe]

Yes.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Multiple factors,

You got the problem of running private prisons as an industry, which force the states to "simply round up" some future inmates when the prison has too many empty cells so the company still makes a fortune. In every other country its good news when prison are empty, in the USA shareholders fear losing money.

You also got the "no rehab" policy, instead of doing something, like education, released prisoners have no other way to legaly make a living, so they end up in prison sooner or later.

And many poor citizen, even when innocent, accept a plea deal, from their lawyer, who have nog enough time to really defend their client in court. They just accept 3 months and hope for the best.

[RavVid]

Quite simply countries like my own (Australia) are too soft. In my own local gov't area the lefties on the council opposed street CCTV because it victimized the vulnerable. Sounds quite reasonable until you think about it. The vulnerable are those that do street crimes because they are on drugs. They are victimized by CCTV because it makes it more likely they will get caught.

I can't say caught and punished. Sadly. Because it is quite unlikely the court system will ever hand out a custodial sentence.

At a higher level the left scream that this group of people are overly represented in jails. Heavy implication of cultural and racial bias slamming the poor babies into jail cause they aren't white. It wouldn't be that group do more crime would it? No, it couldn't possibly be that, could it?

The US might have higher rates of incarceration but that just means you are sticking to civil standards. Keep doing it is my recommendation to you.

[Ptrmbrs88]

Right, sure, it's once again the "lefties" fault, an absurd and meaningless label if ever there was one. In the U. S. they imprison people because it's PROFITABLE to do so. Why on Earth would anyone want to emulate them? I suppose you also want to do away with Medicare, because you think that the system they have over in the U. S. is a good one.
As for CCTV, I don't want that either. I don't like the idea of being spied upon, the presumption of guilt that it implies, and I don't want to see Australia become like China, where they use CCTV to monitor, control, persecute and punish.

[OddBeMe]

@Ptrmbrs88 yes.

[RavVid]

@Ptrmbrs88 Predominantly I think people should be able to be safely in public spaces without risk. Sadly there is so little consequence to violence that no one caught will be dissuaded from doing it again. The advantage of CCTV is that the violent people are less inclined to do violent things in view of the cameras and so make it safer for ordinary people.

I don't understand why you think violent people should not be prosecuted and punished. Perhaps you live in a safer are. I can tell you in my area we raised a community group to force better policing, install CCTV for our safety but the left wing Greens tried to block community safety at every turn. They were very concerned at the privacy of criminals.

If any thing is absurd it is protecting the privacy of criminals whilst committing crime yet that is exactly what the left wing council members wanted to do. So it was those lefties fault.

[Ptrmbrs88]

"I think people should be able to be safely in public spaces without risk."

Oh, so it's all about "safety" then, is it? Isn't that what governments like to say when they try to diminish our rights? "Oh, this is for your own good, really it is. We just want you to be SAFE". Screw that! I don't want to be "safe", I want to be free, with all of the risk that entails.

"Sadly there is so little consequence to violence that no one caught will be dissuaded from doing it again. The advantage of CCTV is that the violent people are less inclined to do violent things in view of the cameras and so make it safer for ordinary people."

Yeah, that's bullshit. CCTV is no deterrent at all. All it does is help the police catch the criminal after the crime has been committed; it means less work for them, and the need for fewer staff overall. People who have no conscience generally don't care whether or not they're seen, because they actually believe that what they're doing is right, and therefore have nothing to apologise for.

[RavVid]

@Ptrmbrs88 Well stay away from St Kilda then.

In what way isn't it about public safety? You don't have any right to assault anybody or to take their property or to demand their property with threats. You think you do have a right to assault?

OK, a waitress at a cafe near me finished her shift and walked home. As she walked past a small side street a guy came out of it and king hit her. He could have asked politely for her phone but instead fractured her cheek bone and orbital. Just easier and less fuss for him.

By tooth and claw red? I and nearly all of St Kilda objected to the way you want to run the world and kicked (figuratively only) Council into compliance. We backed our Police up against Council bylaws. We started a campaign of inflicting reputational damage and got stuff on TV and radio.

CCTV is certainly part of that precisely because it does help the police catch the criminal after committing a crime. You want technology to catch criminals before they commit a crime? It does indeed make Police more efficient which is a blessing.

It certainly isn't that thugs don't have any conscience - they just have a realistic judgement they can get away with it. Reducing the chance of getting away with it reduces the likelihood of personal crime. Custodial sentencing would work even better.

With your attitude you are a large part of the problem.

[Ptrmbrs88]

"You don't have any right to assault anybody or to take their property or to demand their property with threats. You think you do have a right to assault?"
Strawman argument. No, I don't, and I never said that anyone did. You "conservatives" are all the bloody same, telling outright LIES in order to push your sick agendas, and attributing to your opponents that which they never said and don't support.

"With your attitude you are a large part of the problem."
So now it's MY fault somehow? GO FUCK YOURSELF! Stupid bloody WANKER!

[RavVid]

@Ptrmbrs88 Well from the get go you yourself injected a number of strawman assertions. And you said that "I don't want to be "safe", I want to be free, with all of the risk that entails" which appears to endorse freedom to be violent. If you don't endorse that than you are invalidating your arguments against stopping violence from violent people by facilitating apprehension and appropriate punishment.

You call me conservative. So I have to assume you are on the left. You certainly use left wing argument techniques of gross exaggeration, shouting, and insults. Of course that is an honored tradition on the left that has descended from and endured from Karl Marx in a degenerated fashion.

Karl Marx was far better at it than you will ever be as you cannot do better than coarse words. It is rather sad to see the left degrade so badly.

[Stoner710]

Because we don’t kill the vast majority of our prison population. Also we have the biggest population outside the main country that killed it’s in prisoned people. If China kills a lot of its criminals. I’m sure if they can get away with it without getting highly criticized by the international community. (And with Joe Biden they could get away with this by frankly.) they could right now round up every Uyghur Turk and kill them all for committing the crime of being Muslim you’re required to be atheist in China.

Frankly in the United States, our prison population isn’t big enough. Why isn’t the guy who pushed that Asian woman in front of a subway in prison? It’s because he’s black Alvan Bragg didn’t give a shit. Yet he goes after trump. New York L. A Portland seattle Chicago need bigger prison populations, if we’re not going to execute people

[OddBeMe]

I was comparing more with other western countries. Tho we do “imprison” less people that China in the first place. So your reasoning still doesn’t fly.

[Stoner710]

My reasoning still applies, china to kills those who obey the law aka the one party your side is trying to walk up Trump for no reason, trust me, I don’t plan on voting for Trump in the primaries. I hope Ramaswamy. Wins the primary and becomes the president. You will disagree with him, but Ramaswamy. Versus Joe Biden, who are you going to buffer between those two?

[Badkitty41]

We have one way to punish and it's obviously not working.. time to switch it up and leave prison to actual violent crimes. We need to make the punishment fit the crime.. you steal you lose a finger things like that.. if you didn't commit the crime while driving then let don't take thier licence.. locking people up only creates anger it teaches very few the few it does teach was because that got brought up with good structure and morals and responsibility for ones action for ones self.. it's to easy to not own your own shit.. there's always a way out. it's lack of responsibility for self

[Fuentes]

Well majority of those people are doing crime due to the fact people like you vote in retards who fuck our economy up and force the poor to steal and commit crimes and then come back here and ask ignorant questions meanwhile ignore the crime rate and see how high it jumped once your buddy Sleepy Joe came into office.

Multiple states are fighting to be murder capital and with the high price raised in gas and food due to massive inflation well ifc people would steal walmart has had to shut down stores do to it lol but the US is in good shape under Biden right? Even though homelessness has GROWN, do you think those people will sit there and starved or get evicted and lose everything? No their gonna do crime haha but all your globalist democrat retards care about is giving money to Ukraine damn the people. Make them broke. But you'll continue to vote for them and come back here and ask this ignorant question lol liberals

[OddBeMe]

It’s always a leftie conspiracy or Marxism. You only have one ringtone…

[Fuentes]

So homelessness is whose fault right now? Inflation is whose fault right now? Or are u just that down bad to admit your liberal ways have failed and doomed everyone

[OddBeMe]

So…cities are where the majority of people are. That’s physics. But if you look at crime “per 100,000” it’s your Republican southern states. Funny huh?

[Fuentes]

The President caused inflation and job loss and stupid covid bs reason to cause more unemployment. Sending money to Ukraine how can Republicans thrive in a country where the president is fucking it to hell. So it's the Republicans fault food and gas are high? No duh it would cause crime duhhhhhhh!!!

[OddBeMe]

Wow freak out!

1) inflation was always on the radar since Trumo fcked up Covid.
2) how does sending money and guns to Ukraine cause crime in America? Or are you a Putin cocksucker? Hopefully paid….

[OddBeMe]

Don’t let Putin take advantage of you! Set some ground rules. Like no swallowing!

[Fuentes]

I don't care about Putin lol I care about Americans I idgaf if he invaded Ukraine not our problem. So we should clearly not throw billions when our people are in need.

What do you not get?

If Gas Prices and food are high? And jobs are scarce, what are most of the people going to. turn too crime? Duhhhhhhhh come on bro. You can't sit here and tell me people are doing crime for fun hahahaha

[OddBeMe]

You don’t think Russia and gas and inflation isn’t related?

That perhaps him invading Ukraine is one facet of our problems worldwide? And maybe we should check Putin before he starts a war with nato and your inflation bitching gets turned up 150x…

[Fuentes]

Lol Putin wouldn't start a war with NATO he is loosing a massive amount if troops. Russia has never been tough in the 80s in Afghanistan, they lost, in Chechnya or whatever u spell it it took them tolwo times to take it. In Georgia they has mass casualties and we destroyed the soviet union in the 90s and we were on the verge of war during the cold War that is still going on to this day so really if Russia was gonna attack NATO aka US they woulda done it already

[OddBeMe]

So now you’re so anti Putin your pro Ukraine?

[Fuentes]

No I never been lro Ukraine anything and I never liked those commie Russian retards every I just don't think we need to throw billions of our dollars to them when our AMERICANS our people need it first, then clearly they wouldn't be locked up for doing crime here.

[Avicenna]

Odd, you do know it's Democrat-supporting groups in the southern states that have by far the highest crime rates, right? Interestingly, those southern states are more likely to imprison whites than the northern states, which have an especially disproportionate incarceration of blacks relative to whites.

[Fuentes]

@Avicenna he thinks Democrats are perfect

[Avicenna]

Yeah, just like the idiots who supported Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Castro and Pol Pot.

[MrOracle]

It's because the US has the worst drug problems, in large part because of the insane southern border policies, and because of incredibly permissive drug use policies in many states. The drug trade accounts for an enormous amount of crime. But as long as there is a massive political divide about drug and border policy, we will have lots of crime.

[OddBeMe]

True. Possession shouldn’t be a crime so much as perhaps forced treatmemnt. Especially if there’s children.

[Ptrmbrs88]

The prison system is big business over in the U. S., isn't it? And is it just a coincidence that if you're black you're more likely to end up in prison, regardless of the crime committed?

"... except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted". How convenient! So you've abolished slavery without having actually abolished it! What an absolute disgrace!

[richardcory]

Its an outrage. Not only do we have the most prisoners per capita, but very few have had jury trials, and many haven't even been convicted. Many are ethnic minorities

I think its a combination of things, but I think the for-profit prison system is significantly to blame. We have (partially for this reason) created a system where once someone has been to prison its very difficult for them to go back to a normal life, much easier to get back into criminal activity.

[ironmidget]

Because our country is the most corrupt. All the media promotes is narcissism, instant gratification and racist barriers. Our government promotes violence and greed and we expect the kids to know the difference between right and wrong. when they literally know no consequences for their actions, it’s not until they had adult age where they get in trouble for the things that they used to do as children. However they were never taught how to be an adult.

[OddBeMe]

True. But is it the media’s fault or ours for watching?

There’s a reason Karadsshian sluts are billionaires and teachers are scraping by.

[Anonymous]

People are under the illusion that America is a capitalist country bit that hasn't been true since the 70s. What we have is feudalism 2.0.

[OddBeMe]

Well…. yeah you’re right. Oligarchy not far from Russian mobsters.

[mommymommymommy]

We imprison people for the smallest of cases

So that when they get out, if they ever do, they can't vote

It's all about voting

[OddBeMe]

True.

[Juxtapose]

Because of money and how "work detail" is legalized slavery. It's a huge conflict of interest.

[OddBeMe]

Bingo

[LazerBean]

Because we are too nice to our prisoners. We need to do like the Philippines and let them starve to death if their family doesn't bring them food.

[OddBeMe]

I guess that one way to go…

[strateguy632]

surprised, hard to believe but i guess "law enforcement" is better quality here.

[OddBeMe]

Riiight

[Avicenna]

The War on Drugs and a large number of mentally ill people out on the streets who shouldn't be there account for most of it.

[exitseven]

Prisons in America are like 5 star hotels in Russia. If they were really bad people would not want to re-offend.

[Pixel343]

My dad would tell me "There's no order without law"

[OddBeMe]

Would higher crime rates be a good determiner of how little order we have? Higher than other industrialized countries at least.

[msc545]

Prisons generate a lot of money for people that are not imprisoned, and provide a lot of work essentiqally unpaid, for inmates.

[Cheerfull009]

Most of prisoners are Muslims, brought from Iraq, Libya Syria and Afghanistan, captured during invasion on these countries

[OddBeMe]

Um, actually no. In Cuba, sure. But America it’s pretty significantly Christians. No atheists though.

[HippieVeganJewslim]

Yankeeland is a screwed regime. Why is Turkmenistan and my country also quite high, comrade?

[Noah2023]

It’s tied to punishment methods and unable to cut crime from its roots

[Swxaddy]

If sex work was legal it would be totally like that

[OddBeMe]

Explain please.

[Anonymous]

The for profit prison industrial complex

[OddBeMe]

Bingo

[4ngelic]

the war on drugs laws

[MysticDevice]

Cause they committed crimes?

[OddBeMe]

That is an obvious interpretation. Any state can pass a law. Like “being black in a white area”

[MysticDevice]

Not since the Civil Rights act of 1964 they can't.

[slatyb]

The "war on drugs"

[Anonymous]

America is full of gun happy nut jobs.

[Anonymous]

It's complicated, there's many reasons

[OddBeMe]

Fair enough I’ll delete the post.

[captain_voidwalker]

Because other nations just execute thier criminals