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 It is a little out of date but the trend is still true today.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?

[Great Fiction]

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?

Ethics have been abandoned in my country, which once had measurable ethics. The law is now perverted on every side, which now manifests every kind of wretched socialism, corporatism, and interventionism that can be imagined.

Yet my patriotism for liberty remains

[bluethread]

We could go with Torah law and have no prisons at all.

[help3434]

[Replying to post 21 by bluethread]

I think I would rather have prisons than system that subscribes the death penalty for all infractions that can't be paid for with a fine or purification ritual.

[Haven]

We could go with Torah law and have no prisons at all.

Yeah, we'd just have to stone to death gay people, rape victims, and people who picked up sticks on Saturday.

Not to mention bring back slavery, conduct all kinds of weird animal slaughter "purification" rituals, and consider women the property of men.

I think I'll stick with modern criminal justice, thanks.

[bluethread]

I don't really think that you two are accurately representing Torah law, but I am glad to have given you a reason to be somewhat less critical of the current system.

[DanieltheDragon]

[Replying to post 24 by bluethread]

why should we not be critical of a system that has many failures that should be rectified.

[shnarkle]

So, to answer your question, yes, it's easy to be the worlds leading jailer when you make everything a crime.

So yes, religion does share responsibility for the fact that the US considers a LOT of things to be 'crimes' punishable by imprisonment that other industrialized countries do not.

Who benefits? The pious christian who ostensibly gets the satisfaction of seeing 'evil' people punished according to the archaic laws of a vengeful and prudish deity - who just happens to hate the same activities they do....

When they decided to get rid of "don't ask, don't tell" the military had to line out one sentence, but that one sentence, along with making sodomy legitimate also made bestiality legitimate as well. So at one time the military's view of sodomy was on the same level as bestiality. Who benefits? Regardless of one's religious views, I think at one time most people would have agreed that bestiality was something that should be outlawed. Do you really think that this country needed the religious to figure out that there's something wrong with bestiality? Or perhaps I should have said that those no good vengeful pious christians were the ones behind these archaic laws against bestiality? I seriously doubt that the government waited around to consult with the clergy on that one. Far from finding satisfaction from seeing people punished, the Christian feels that they don't have to worry about their loved ones, or their pets or livestock being molested; well at least they used to feel that way.

Now it's the condescending rebel who gets the satisfaction of seeing sodomy and bestiality celebrated. Where's PETA when you need them?

[help3434]

[Replying to post 26 by shnarkle]

What are you on about? Beastality has not been legitimized. Your rant has nothing to do with the topic of the thread.

[shnarkle]

[Replying to post 26 by shnarkle]

What are you on about? Beastality has not been legitimized. Your rant has nothing to do with the topic of the thread.

What I posted was relevant, and was in response to this:

"My expertise is in human sexuality. Certainly, the US is still living with (or down, as it may be) the legacy of the Puritan ethic that created generations of early Americans with stultifyingly repressed attitudes toward sexuality - the result still showing in the wide range of sexual activities we demonized by codifying them into law. It is only recently that states have begun to uncriminalize the so-called 'sodomy laws that banned such egregious and unholy behavior as..... having oral sex with your own spouse.

So yes, religion does share responsibility for the fact that the US considers a LOT of things to be 'crimes' punishable by imprisonment that other industrialized countries do not.

Who benefits? The pious christian who ostensibly gets the satisfaction of seeing 'evil' people punished according to the archaic laws of a vengeful and prudish deity - who just happens to hate the same activities they do...."

[bluethread]

[Replying to post 24 by bluethread]

why should we not be critical of a system that has many failures that should be rectified.

Your right, a system that is based on rehabilitation rather than protection of the general population does need to be rehabilitated itself.