Why Does The United States Have Such A Huge Prison Population?

[philateliceun]

Prison is College for criminals. You know what kinds of contacts you can get? Its like a beehive of criminals, everybody close together. All the people I know who have been to prison or other detention centres where all the 'bad' people were put together they got out worse.

[Anjaayla]

I know people think it sounds unconstitutional but if they had the eye for eye law a lot of crime if not all would decrease. I mean why waste weeks months and years on prisoners who murder and torture law abiding citizens.

[Darusdei]

@Anjaayla go ahead u.s. is becoming a third world country anyway...

[Iriatv]

It's because of the crooked laws.

[IceManLikeGervin]

Because it's big business we (citizens) are just a commodity for profit in the American Prison Industrial Complex.

You judge a Nation by their jails (US has the largest prison poulation on Earth) & by how they treat their most vulnerable citizens (Katrina- Superdome, Convention Center, Dazinger 7, Gretna Bridge) .

[Cruelhazard]

Singapore has life in prison for drugs, and yet they still have much less crime. It isn't because of drugs.

[lentmain]

controlled..  we can also make prisons profitable... At least, self supporting... it's an industry, like any other...

[lentmain]

when people decide to do bad things, things that require prison time, they have to spend time in prison... it all depends on whats legal , whats not legal and how much penalty there will be given for the crime... if we treated drugs as out patient problems, it wouldn't be a crime... no jail time... it was the cotton industry who stung marijuana in the Harrison Narcotic Act... You have to treat marijuana like Alcohol...  taxed and controlled... state controlled not gang ..

[boosra]

It has a such a huge prison population because it is a batshit insane police state where cowardice and ignorance allows conservatives to basically wage war against their own people - and any nouns such as "terror" and "drugs" that they can think of.

25% of the prison population of the entire world is in the US prison system, even though the US has perhaps 5% of the world population.

That. Is. Fucked. Up.

[aviomaster]

USA is one big  goulag ... Soviet Union did not have this many prisoners as USA ....

[Zurround100]

Anybody here seen the movies ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and ESCAPE FROM LA? i think John Carpenter was aware of the prison overcrowding problem.

[koffiekpatcha]

It is because of islam. Islam creates criminals.

[1975Aspen]

Because the United States is being turned into a Police State. Da!?!

"American is home to the largest number of free" and "imprisoned people in the world" are two diametrically opposite statements.

Now, with this community policing (gang stalking) going on they must be bucking to go from 25% of the world's prisoners to 50% (half) of the world's prisoners. Look up "gang stalking" on YouTube.

[GodGunsGlory]

the liberal is right. we do have an insane prison population, but the solution is simple... more people need to be given the death penalty. drug dealers, sex offenders, and repeat drug offenders should be put to death so we can save more money and have more space in the prisons. BRING BACK THE ELECTRIC CHAIR!

[copcorona]

Legalize it and end this waste of taxpayer dollars and police time. legalize it and end the Mexican drug wars. Legalize it and balance the budget.

[diah4]

The tax dollars are being wasted on criminals, they're being pocketed by the owners and regulators of the prisons.

It is a waste still, just not on what they are telling us it's being wasted on.

[CommonSenseJoe]

Your half right.

[armyveteran101st]

Because our judicial system insists on incarcerating people for stupid things like marijuana possession, and because many people in this country think that it is OK to disregard the law and do as they wish.

[fight2Bfree]

if the prison population is exploding, it's a sure sign somebody is making money from it. They get $20,000+ taxpayer money per year for each inmate. Yeah.. they want to fill up the hotel to maximum occupancy for the longest stay.

[LiberalHuntingSeason]

DIEversity is great!

[Fockersnextdoor]

40% of prisoners in the U.S. are people who broke into our peacefull country and killed citizens.

[xchanxzenx]

Drug laws...end the them free up the jails for real criminals. PS private prisons and their lobbyist are too blame too.

[2uberu]

Why? Rap music. Rather than encouraging people to work within the system, rap music ecourages people to fight against it. The system is not rigged unless you think it is. Look at all of the 3rd world risking their lives just to get here. They know that witha all of it;s flaws it's worth the effort.

[spareaxe]

It's over populated partly because the death penalty doesn't work......a lousy court system, and stupid cops on the loose.

[haze42082]

interesting

[BUDDAWG2004]

I blame the criminals.I dont break the law so I guess I dont have to worry about going to prison. simple concept, one I have passed on to my son. maybe the fathers in the black community should pace this along to their kids before they split. I am not being racist put it is an actual fact that blacks make up up a great amount of the prison population.

[imaginepeace63]

It is the system not the criminals

[bluedragonrrj]

Actually Buddawg has a point. The black community is filled with fatherless homes. Many young, black males have no father to look up to as a role model. Instead, they have gang members and rappers as their idols. I'm from a fatherless home and if it wasn't for my grandparents, I would most likely be a criminal as well.

[imaginepeace63]

Not evryone in prison is guilty. Ruben Hurricane Carter was proof of that.

[Tressco]

1.2 % of world's population is imprisoned in the US...

Easy money for the corporations!

This is our all future after collapse...

[topthickproducer]

Reflecting a trend similar to the US military complex, that needs wars to grab power, the "justice" complex needs prisoners to grow its economic power.

This trend reflect the economic and human suffering that "Privatization" exerts on us.

Lawyers, Judges, Parole/Probation Agents are hell bent on continuing applying and defending dumb drug laws.

In California, there is a cottage industry of Rehab centers, of all kinds, run by persons that prior to opening them were part of the legal system.

[NWKBricks1]

Failed drug war

Mandatory Minimums

Politicians afraid of being seen as "soft" on crime

Warehousing inmates as opposed to rehabilitating those who are able to be reintroduced to society

Prison industrial complex

[djzacmaniac]

Yes.

[MikeRoch6969]

its amassing how cruel the us gov can be to its citizens, and the people just take it and even like it! the right wing has been in power for 30 years and this is the result

[StateOfTheArts]

That's because everything is a fucking Felony - a terroristic threat(whatever that is) is a FELONY - Harrass a Peace Officer is a Felony - America has more Felonies on the Books more than any other country.....

[djzacmaniac]

The drug war is the cause.

[StateOfTheArts]

Nope sorry it's not the drug war.... Everything little thing is a Felony in the U.S. - Did u know Owning a alligator in Florida is a Felony ? lol - Animal cruelty is now a Felony, Any law u break inside a Las Vegas Casino is a Felony......

[djzacmaniac]

Yes, but what are people arrested for most often? It is not any of the "crimes" that you mention. Do a little research, and then tell me I'm wrong.

[Kkrazy92]

Actually, you both are correct.

[hajqbvii]

The Justice and Penal System feeds off each other on stae as well as federal levels....it makes money for each other!

[joshuag5732]

End the war on drugs and you'll wipe out the gangs in Mexico and the United States.

[thetruthaboutstuff]

"Why Does The United States Have Such A Huge Prison Population?" this is simple... Drug War, look up the numbers

[4rcane]

how many ppl in jail is related to drug

[thetruthaboutstuff]

over 700,000 people went to jail or fined last year just for having weed. Not for anything else but for having weed. The simple face is prohibition has made what was at one time something that people did openly and with no big hurt to the nation has turned it into a black market that people fight and die over. If we really wanted to do the right thing we would end the "war on drugs" and legalize it and tax it.

[thetruthaboutstuff]

Do you know any group of people in the USA saying "please tax us"? Weed smokers are! Why? we know if you take it out of the hands of black market then we can buy and smoke are weed with out braking laws and even help pay for the cop to keep us safe. Really, its not that hard to set up a system that runs just like alcohol and keep people from braking the law. This would mean more money for the states and less people in jail

[baronderothchild]

it's about the fucking money lebowski!

[bionicarcher]

Prison is like a 24/7 homeless shelter where you get your basic needs met. I'm not surprised so many people end up there.

[djzacmaniac]

I hope that is a joke.

[Duobitdezo]

Most of the people in prison owe money, or do weed. Most are non-violent anyway.

[cyber9sockpuppet]

it's because we truly aren't free. the repubs would say we're taking dangerous criminals off the street. well, they are just dumb IMO.

[whoo689]

Well, to be real, there is Israel. I'm not the first to say that our relationship with Israel is a kiss-ass butt-buddy "you're our best friend" bs-fest. Why is Israel so necesary to defend?? It's a tiny nation with only 6 million people in a huge region of the world, a state the size of New Jersey! Pardon me for saying this, but if Israel were wiped out, would the world REALLY be any worse off? The terrorists would suddenly be so much more powerful if they somehow wiped out Israel? please

[whoo689]

Obama promised to get out of Iraq pretty quickly on the campaign trail. And then he comes to office, and whaddya know, it's gonna take supposedly 16 months to bring the troops home. Meanwhile, we're INCREASING troop levels in Afghanistan!  I say just get the hell out of both nations. They were ill-conceived, ridiculous wars. I mean, Afghanistan b/c a bunch of a terrorists, NONE OF WHOM were from Afghanistan, attacked on 9/11?? B/c the Taliban supposedly has all these training camps?

[WhatsAfterThisPlace]

Obama actually said, that he will withdraw from Iraq and send troops to Afghan. The only thing is there is a lot of things he said, and probably though were easy to do, once he became president he has to deal with the publics opinion, the Media, Other Nations bullshit needs, Lies from with in his own party and Media, its a never ending cycle. Being president of the worlds only Superpower is hard.

[whoo689]

The sad thing is that Obama's already lost all his hope and change momentum, and it hasn't even been a year! The more this healthcare fight drags on, the less able he'll be able to get his entire agenda as a whole dealt with. Obama and his team planned this shit out poorly. Very poorly. When is he gonna work to abolish NCLB? Didn't he promise to do that at least once on the campaign trail? What about the speech where he "promised" to be a leader on gay rights, just a few weeks ago?

[whoo689]

Obama's movement is failing because the Obama support and planning had too much enthusiasm and not enough coordination. I mean, he has a Democratic Congress, but he STILL can't rein his party in. They're making a mockery of him. Not that I really care. I could care less what happens to either party, so long as gov't doesn't get bigger and further burden society.

[whoo689]

Training camps which I bet hardly any, if none, of the hijackers even went to, esp. for an extended period of time. It's all so fucked up. The only people involved with 9/11 who were connected to Afghanistan were OBL and KSM, and a few others. Of course, NEITHER of those men committed the actual attack. They merely PLANNED it. It's ironic that we're treating KSM, the 'mastermind' of 9/11 who probably wasn't even in America then, even worse than guys like Moussaui, the would-be 20th hijacker.

[whoo689]

I'm so sick of the neocons and their BS rationale for Afghanistan. They say that if we lose, the terrorists will become ever-strong. Well, I doubt they could become stronger nowadays than they were on or before 9/11, what with the War on Terror. And anyways, who cares?? It's time to end this bogus "war on terror" and get back to reality. Get back to a rational, sane approach to terrorism, not this war nonsense. NO other nation goes to war with other nations b/c of "terrorism." It's sick.

[whoo689]

The Lebanon war was just sick. Israel had no right to risk 100s of civilian lives just to get a few Hezbollah terrorists, whether or not they were actually in the areas and buildings Israel claimed they were at.

[whoo689]

If a person is 18 and fucks some 15-year-old girl, no matter how emotionally and mentally mature the 15-year-old is, he could go to jail, just b/c she's not of the "age of consent", a bullshit social construct that's totally unscientific. Age DOESN'T MATTER! It's maturity that matters. Maturity and ability to handle and defend yourself. Who cares if some student fucks a teacher? I mean, on a professional-student level, there's a definite conflict of interest, but morally, nothing wrong.

[whoo689]

American criminal law is perhaps the most draconian of any true liberal democracy. I mean, we have INSANE drug laws and lots of other silly victimless crime laws. Until just 36 years ago, it was illegal to get an abortion! We have nonsensical age-of-consent laws that probably, if there are any studies done on the matter, doesn't contribute to a lessening of rape of underage girls (or boys by gay men, although that's much less frequent). I mean, pedophiles do their sick acts regardless.

[whoo689]

The key here is CONSENT. THAT'S what most morality should be based on, not traditionalist bullshit that has no real rhyme or reason. Or Biblical "values." Premarital sex is wrong, they say. Why?? Who cares if a few teens in a relationship fuck before marriage? As long as they're responsible, I could care less.

We need a real freedom revolution in America. And it starts with Ron Paul. Elect Ron Paul in 2012 for REAL change, not that phony hope and change with Obama.

[jokerbookshop]

prison-ism is big business in America, ask Dick Cheney.

[FantasmaBAnco]

Old dude... please be quiet and let your guests finish their answer.

[KlPi79]

Land of the free, home of the incarcerated...

Look at the statistics for black males!

[timedjumpoff]

I have and blacks commit crimes way out of proportion to their numbers. A lot more of them should be in jail. Along with the Muslims.

[KlPi79]

Got Sarah's book yet?

[timedjumpoff]

Not yet, KIP, but I intend to.

[nekedemus]

Americans are bad people.

Most of them are Christian fundamentalists like Pat Buchanan.

Christian fundamentalists has no morals.

They lie steal and fuck around just like Palin and the folks from C street.

Lock up all of them fucking Yankees and let´s have some peace for a change.

[callouschristian]

I heard that the recidivism rate is far less in countries like Thailand where they cane people. I remember a story of an American who got it for keying cars. He never sat right again. But he never keyed another car either. Frankly, I think it's the perfect answer for the Republican Problem.

[Lynx787]

What is needed are incentives to Not commit crimes. In our "justice" system, criminals don't have much of an incentive to stay straight. The only ex-cons I know of who are decent people are ones who became fathers, which gave them the incentive to be a positive influence on their own lives. The lack of real punishment and real reward causes repeat offending in multiple cases.

[sethvicious]

I'm confused, are you saying we should cane republicans to cure them of their "republicanism"?

if you are please go drink some bleach

[callouschristian]

No, we should cane our republican leaders for plunging us into two illegal wars, turning record surpluses into record deficits then ripped off our banks and now do book signings and speaking tours. They should be caned and then any follower who keeps up with the terroritst philosophy of republicans would be next. Why pay for their jail time?

[sethvicious]

democrats are just as responsible. it's delusional to think otherwise

[deveousdevil]

we have a prison problem because DRUGS are the most DAANNGGEROUS THING ON THIS PLANET!! AND JAILING PEOPLE FOR USING THEM SOLVES THE PROBLEM!! right, it doesn't. 500,000!!!! of american prisoners are there for NON VIOLENT OFFENSES!!!! people who smoke pot these days go to jail longer than the average MURDERER!!! FUCK THIS SHIT!!!

[leesagrrl]

"Why Does The United States Have Such A Huge Prison Population?"

It's the Prison Industrial Complex. Completely corrupt hand-off between the Complex and the Judges.

[Kitswain59]

CIA brings the drugs into the US. People get arrested and convicted. BIG Profit for the private prisons. What a racket!

[mynameisbobtoo]

why? Because slave labor is free.....

[callouschristian]

It's the master plan of "compassionate conservatism"........create an equation where crime is the only alternative. Easy. Cut funding for public education, cps, after school programs - chalk them off to failure of 'big government'. Then build prisons and arrest this abused and uneducated population whilst 'creating jobs' in the prison system. Sick, Grotesque, Outlandishly and foolishly Expensive..... and the Republican Way.

[Mrcharliebobo]

How is that the republican way when Clinton locked up more people, mostly black than Reagan or H.W.Bush combined you idiot!

[mynameisbobtoo]

Reagan was the biggest drug dealer in American History....Read a little about how we funded the war in Grenada...Good old Ollie North...so maybe Clinton locked them up but they were Reagan's junkies.....

[Mrcharliebobo]

Please!!! You buy into the dog and pony show and think you know whats going on? think again assclown! their all on the same page and you think because you picked a fucking side that someone in DC is looking out for you, think again chucklehead! they all have the same agenda and your too stupid and gullible to grasp that fact, wake up idiot you are being punked by both sides!!!

[mynameisbobtoo]

and of course you have all the answers....care to enlighten us bobo? Or are you going to keep all the wisdom to your self and insult people with different opinions than yours?

[leesagrrl]

Hey mynameisbobtoo.

I agree.

I haven't run into your thoughtful commentary in a while. 'Guess we've been running in different circles.

[mynameisbobtoo]

Leesagrrl

I was ill....getting better. I see time has made you even wiser. Nice to see a smart person in here. Happy Thanksgiving. Take care and I look forward to reading more of your posts soon

Bob

[leesagrrl]

mynameisbobtoo:

Glad you are better!

I've been away for a while... and as soon as I can stomach all the vapid shallow CON posts and the Paid-For (by the Think Tanks) posts... I'll be back... I need a nap first.

Semper Fi!

[callouschristian]

So now you think Clinton went around locking people up? Never heard of a pres doing that before! And pulling specious facts out of your hat and following up with name calling does not a fact make. It's great for gossiping, though-now that is something republicans know how to do well!

[superc]

It's all about the money.

[TruthbHeard]

Sharia is the answer or at least some sort of punishment system to deter crime.

Also the explosion in the sick hip hop and rock culture/sex culture is 2 blame that promotes drug and rebelion

TV, music, media, games lack of religion, liberal humanist values etc

[PersianPaladin]

Simplistic, presumptuous lazy analysis TruthbHeard.

[TruthbHeard]

Are you ppl dumb asses? your in so much love with your sex culture of USA, the tv, hollywood, games etc that u dont want 2 admit the problem

The problem is the Predominant Liberal Culture pumped into the kids brains through music, tv, games, schools etc

Under a Liberal society Criminals become empowered, the rampant drug, sex and rebellious culture is 100% the problem

Women are sex objects, children are filled with rebelion, ppl hate each other, racism, its secular liberal culture 2 blame

[djzacmaniac]

You are an idiot.. Drug laws are the reason. Look at the numbers. The laws are more harmful that the drugs. Sharia would make the problem worse. Religion has no part in government. In the US, you don't even need to have a religion, so to base the legal system which presides over everyone on religious law is ludicrous. Hip-hop is a social movement, not just a type if music. There is plenty of hip-hop and rock music that is anti-drug. I believe that you are hopelessly, and willfully ignorant.

[StateOfTheArts]

fuck you - u are an idiot ... what the hell Muslims have to do with U.S. Felony laws i said nothing about religion- The U.S. is full of stupid Felony laws since 9/11.... Everybody is a suspect - Drugs are only a fraction of the cause Rapists Child Molesters Prostitution Check Fraud ----Everything in a Nevada Casino is a Felony including card counting or messing with the slots

[djzacmaniac]

That was a response to TruthbHeard, you dummy.

[MrDreambig1979]

your right..... drug laws are insane. legal drugs and alcohol kill more people in a month than illegal drugs do in a year. America is all about acting tough on issues not actually addressing any real problem. America could get rid of cocaine and heroin tomorrow by shutting off just two countries, Columbia and Afghanistan

[mikheii]

Because presidents who openly admit to cocaine and pot use are allowed to brush it off as an indiscretion of youth, while they simultaneously wage war on the underclass.

[GuyaRicanMC]

End the fucking drug war already. All those damn Tea Party assholes who complain about wasteful spending and big gov't should at least be consistent and oppose the wasteful gov't spending on enforcing failed, "freedom-hating" drug laws.

[mikheii]

They do. Obviously you haven't been been paying any real attention.

[GuyaRicanMC]

Of course the libertarians support legalization of all drugs. But if you had been paying attention, you'd realize that alot of those Tea Party Protesters are the type of people who support Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachmann, and Sarah Palin. And I'm very sure that none of those three figures support the legalization movement.

[GetDrunkAndWatch]

@GuyaRicanMC

Many of the "Tea Party assholes" do hate the drug laws. The original libertarians, not the neo-cons that jumped on the bandwagon and ruined the idea of the movement , support re-legalization.

[leesagrrl]

Libertarians and Objectivists are just CONservatives who want to smoke dope and get laid..

[GetDrunkAndWatch]

So can I take it you don't like to smoke dope and get laid? That's fine with me if you don't, but I must admit I don't have much of a problem with either if consisting adults do so responsibly. Or is "smoking dope and getting laid" just some common ground liberals and libertarians happen to share?

[GetDrunkAndWatch]

Honestly, I don't know much about libertarian and objectivist belief, but from the few I've spoken with that had attended tea party rallies... I gathered they hated the "freedom-hating drug laws" that GuyaRicanMC was talking about. I guess not all "CONservatives" are the same.

Some seem to want restorations of civil liberties, less wasteful spending, no involvement in unnecessary foreign wars, etc... not just to "smoke dope and get laid."

To say otherwise is disingenuous.

[leesagrrl]

GetDrunkAndWatch:

Nice nonlinear jump to conclusion.

[leesagrrl]

GetDrunkAndWatch:

Too drunk to pay attention to what I actually said?

It was a statement of fact... and as usual, you found a typical GOPer nonlinear, irrelevant way to not really deal with it.

xoxo

[GetDrunkAndWatch]

Still butthurt over something a random person said a week ago? Wow...

Nice Ad Hominem. Attack my name and not the issue. ;)

Honestly, I have better things to do right now than argue with someone online. I just wanted to make the point that labeling people "CONservatives who just want to get laid and smoke dope" wasn't very fair. Be honest in your critiques and perhaps you can learn from other viewpoints. (Also, I'm not GOP)

[bugglewump]

The sobering implications of this report are undermined by the use of that ridiculous fucking Elvis song at the beginning.

[oh2love4love]

"Why Does The United States Have Such A Huge Prison Population?"

by design.. they make too many damn laws which create criminals.. still waiting for them to outlaw running with scissors! ;p

[twilightawakening]

I feel like the people in this clip would be on the Onion

[fruitsofnews]

lol. ;-)

[SimonPeter168]

because we lock up prostitutes and potheads

[TheGeorgeBush666]

We have alot of blacks, thats why.

[fruitsofnews]

booooooooooooooooo.

[TheGeorgeBush666]

trrrruuuuuuuueeee

[doctorofghetto]

Oh Goodie, Mr. TheGeorgeBush666. Blame it on the Blacks within the United States. Yes! Blame them! Oh, Yes. Thank Senator Byrd of Virginia, who was a former affiliate of the KKK and been in position for 56 years.

Oh thank the Lord! Praise him for bringing in the NWO, Jesuits, and the Antichrist, Obama:

/watch?v=qHbLQZW7340

"Yes We Can." Happy Thanksgiving.

[ubuibiok]

Another Major Key factor, the US kills less and the average time to Kill a prisoner is over 11 years compared to China;s 7 months.

[Mahoivlich]

when you enslave and oppress races of people and make no attempt to repair the damage, you get this......

[TheGeorgeBush666]

How do you "repair the damage"? We have a Black President last time I checked.

[Mahoivlich]

So one black guy gets a good job and bygones are bygones?

What about native americans?

[Churchx77]

Fuck em, they're all dead.