US has highest rate of prisoners in the world -- higher than China

What happened in 1980 to cause such a rise? Sorry if it's been answered I just skimmed the article.

 

That was around the time crack rocks were rose to popularity due to it's low cost, extreme high effect. It caused a lot of people to pour out whatever they had in cash and items for more and more, and basicly just ouright commit crimes to get their next high.

 

The war on drugs. I believe the majority of prisoners are convicted of drug crimes.

 

when prisons became privatized that's when they started opening new jails and filling them. they get paid something like 100k per prisinor

 

Haven't seen this thread before.

We Americans love to throw people in jail for any little thing. Our laws are archaic, and benefit only the rich. Our justice system lacks justice, and there are tons of prejudice people calling the shots. I'm honestly not surprised by this.

 

Social security and food stamps provide far more benefit to the poor than to the rich.

 

Those are not laws.

 

exactly it's prejudice people running the show, they put kids in jail for little to nothing for long periods of time for that $$$

 

They exist because laws were passed that created them and that govern how they operate.

 

Government assistance programs?

I'm talking about a system of rules that regulate the people within a country.

Examples:

Criminal Law
Civil Law
Constitutional law

 

The prejudice is not within the law, it is within the enforcement. And when it comes to humans, there is always prejudice.

 

I said prejudice people. Where did you get prejudice law from?

 

I would say that most of the benefit the rich get are not from the laws themselves but the implementation of those laws through the criminal justice system, courts, police interactions, better legal council, etc.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv6Mzcs8Vuw

 

I decided to write a paper on this for a class last semester and here a few snippets/info about the Prison State of the U.S.

Edit: Skimmed this last page. Perhaps saying laws benefit the elite rather than the rich. Depending on all your ideologies and all that jazz, one can feasibly argue anything that does happen is because the elites want it.

Double edit: Don't forget about all the other shitty U.S. prison policies, from how we treat juveniles, to the abuse of solitary confinement, how we have (and have not) sentenced people using insane laws. Also, I'm not sure where it is and cba to look it up right now, but a very high percent of those in prison are awaiting trial (I think it's over 30%.)

 

I hadn't considered the effect on voting that mass incarceration has. I am very opposed to removing the right to vote for criminal offences. It does not make much sense for a lot of crimes such as drug crimes. These things should not be illegal to begin with and those who are convicted are likely going to agree with that more than the general public but after they get out of jail they will not be able to vote for what they believe.

 

Yeah I'm right there with you. That and when people do get out of prison, it is so hard for many prisoners to start a life again. If you don't have a family, you're on your own with $20 and finding it incredibly difficult to get a job. Hello being set up by the system to go right back to prison. California provided a great example of what to do about this and in the implementation of (I think Proposition 36) they made programs for formally 3 Strikes Your Out prisoners to enter when they got out of jail and the re-entry rate is under 2%.

On top of this, you have Prison Gerrymandering taking place all over the United States that is further messing up voting rights/power of the vote/etc.

For those who are not aware, Prison Gerrymandering is similar to actual Gerrymandering, but districts are drawn in such a way that a districts constituents are highly inflated. Lines will be drawn i such a way that there are (enter number here) of constituents, but 50% of them are actually in prison and cannot vote. Saying so, this other 50% that can vote has effectively twice the voting power.

 

That is insane, but at the same time the US legal system is much more developed than Chinas

 

I do not know enough about China's legal system to argue against this, but even if the U.S. system is further developed, it does not excuse the ridiculous incarceration rate.

Horrible policies are the cause of mass incarceration and they can be fixed, it's just a matter of fixing them.

 

you will have to bring it the america eyes before you do that