Why does America put so many people in prison?

[Furrowed Brow]

It is oft said America has 5% of the world population but has 25% of the world's prison population. Why does America imprison more of its population than anywhere else? Here is a comparative chart from wiki. It is a little out of date but the trend is still true today.

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Are Americans more tolerant of imprisonment as a punishment because of a religious ethic that demands retribution, or do America have more criminals because of a lack of religion? Is this a sign of social collapse? Is this a result in the collapse of family values? Has this anything to do with a privatised prison industry lobbying for more punitive sentencing? Is it because of the war on drugs? Is this due to social inequality? Is it down to racism? Is this just down to more people in America making more bad choices than elsewhere? Or is this down to effective policing? Is the American legal system unjust or just highly efficient? Is the graph a sign that America is doing things right and its the rest of the world that is not up to speed? Why is America able and willing to imprison more people?

[lamar1234]

[Replying to post 1 by Furrowed Brow]

Because the prison system in the US is now run as a for-profit venture which creates an AUTOMATIC conflict of interest.

People from other countries are most often shocked, in my experience, to learn this.

I think the court and prison systems in America align too closely with Fundamentalist Christian values.

Before you jump on me, I'm from Texas. That's what I'm most familiar with and my description does hold true here, yee-haw!

Our justice system produces little else than disillusioned recidivism. I took a Master's class on Texas politics and this has been a challenge for Rick "Call me Richard" Perry's administration. Texan values favor small government and private assistance for things like inmate education or job-training. We sort of have 'little' government but private charities have failed and failed and failed again.

Texan's attitudes about this have begun to change in recent years.

We still lag behind the rest of the country in addressing prison over-crowding by releasing non-violent drug offenders but some noises toward that have been made.

The fact that Texans actually believe in and approve of Biblical notions of justice make Texas the killingest State in the Union.

[MasterOfOnesOwnMind]

[Replying to post 4 by Furrowed Brow]

"why so many criminals?" you ask..

Genetics... why so many drug users ,why so many pyromaniacs ,why so many who fail to graduate?

I learned many many years ago not to argue with the laws of nature.

He didn't ask why so many criminals... He asked why is the prison population of USA per capita so high.

@furrowed brow

There is a profit incentive to incarcerating people. There are companies profiting from the abundance of prisoners.

Global Tel Link takes advantage of people who are vulnerable. For example, it costs 17 dollars to talked to a loved one on the phone for 15 minutes.

Corizon makes money by simply not providing sick inmates with health care.

The GEO Group makes profits basically by not doing their job.. i.e. not keeping facilities clean, and by overall just going cheap.

The Bail Industry makes huge profits by charging people in Jail unbelievable amounts of money to get out.

Law enforcement or cops can seize assets by merely suspecting someone of illegal behavior.

Corrections Corporation of America is trying to make prison sentences longer and harsher while simultaneously trying to make laws easier to break.

The reason for the abundance of inmates is due to corruption and greed.