Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Product Displacement | Of Razor Clams, East Winds, an... »

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

America’s Prison Problem

posted by on April 23 at 9:20 AM

On page one of the NYT this morning…

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes—from writing bad checks to using drugs—that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

…and from page 13:

An 18-year-old straight-A student accused of planning to bomb his high school was charged Tuesday with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a possible life sentence.

RSS icon Comments

1

Two things:
1) Dan loves anus so much! He loves his own, he loves other mens in bathrooms, he loves Terry's. He has loved thousands of anus's over the course of his lifetime of buggering. Anything that offends the "anui" of the world is like watching the holocaust happen in front of him. To Dan, the persecution of anus's is like watching his best friend get gassed by nazis at aushwitz.
2) I love it when arrogant and ignorant city folk encounter something from the more rural part of this country. Not that any of you have actually shot a deer. No. Yet you go the extra step and conclude that someone who does is a serial killer. BRILLIANT!!! You guys sure do know a lot about life! I mean, between preening yourselves for a trip down to the glory hole, laughing at homeless people and finding new and exciting ways to make your hair look like shit, how do you have the time to chortle at the backwards ways of the common folk?
I take solace in the fact that city will turn into virtual slaughterhouses and you assholes will become cannibals when the impending collapse happens. That is, until you die from some ungodly illness picked up because you have no idea why it's important to core out your prey's asshole.

Posted by ecce homo | April 23, 2008 9:22 AM
2

Yeah, I read that NYT story earlier, and my first thought was "well, if they included the people who get executed in places like China, Japan (yes, Japan), Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc., the number wouldn't be quite so skewed." But yes, no denying that we have a major problem here.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | April 23, 2008 9:28 AM
3

thot ecce was charlton heston - how can he still post hestontastic comments when he daid? ghostly.

Posted by mycolddeadhands | April 23, 2008 9:28 AM
4

Prisons are the plantations of our time. They're privatized so that the wealthy can profit on the free labor of largely african american and latino men. Poverty and a lack of education breed crime, so keep them poor, keep them stupid and we'll have a never ending supply of plantation workers. It's fucked up. I hope the next president takes steps to fix the sitch.

Posted by Carollani | April 23, 2008 9:49 AM
5

I will start to worry when they lock people up for thought crimes. But bouncing a damn check can land you in jail? FUCK! You are scewed when Bank of America "forgets" that you have overdraft protection....

Posted by Andrew | April 23, 2008 9:50 AM
6

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners

@4 is hitting the nail pretty close to the head, however, rather than generating a cheap supply of "plantation workers", what I've noted in previous posts on the subject, and what the quote above suggests, is that prisoners themselves in this country ARE a product, a commodity, created by our mostly for-profit Incarceration Industry.

Take the profit-motive out of putting people in jail - and keeping there - along with the judicial system now designed to feed product directly into the prisons, and you'd see these ridiculous incarcerations for mainly victimless crimes such as drug possession, disappear literally overnight.

Posted by COMTE | April 23, 2008 9:57 AM
7

I wonder how many mentally-ill Iraq War vets will wind up in the clink as their thanks for bringing American-style freedom and democracy to the Middle East?

Posted by DOUG. | April 23, 2008 9:59 AM
8

I've enjoyed the NYT series on "the American Exception." I would recommend people read the one about commercial bail bonds businesses. (How's that for alliteration?) Why hasn't Washington State outlawed them? Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon and Wisconsin have all made them illegal. KENTUCKY for Chrissakes.

Posted by Kim | April 23, 2008 10:06 AM
9

7: You should ask how many mentally ill criminals are being SENT to Iraq. The military is scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for anyone to send over there, and they're even giving some prisoners a choice—do you want to join the army or do you want to go to jail? Literally. This is what's happening. Blatant exploitation of poverty.

Posted by Carollani | April 23, 2008 10:22 AM
10

military state.

Posted by superyeadon | April 23, 2008 10:23 AM
11

@5,

Bouncing a check isn't a crime. Passing bad checks is. Think Frank Abagnale.

Posted by keshmeshi | April 23, 2008 10:47 AM
12

Conservatives love, love, love them some privatization and they've been pushing it as the solution to all government's problems since Reagan. As above commentors have noted, privatization in the prison industry has lead to the conflict of interest where the prison lobby actually wants to generate more prisoners, which goes directly against society's interests and the point of the criminal justice system, which is ideally to have less crime and therefore less criminals.

I can think of only one more blatant example of privatization going directly against the public interest, and that's privatizing the voting process. Thanks, Diebold!

Pitting the profit motive against the public good is the very cornerstone of modern conservative thought. Don't like it? Maybe some time in jail will change your mind, America-hater.

Posted by flamingbanjo | April 23, 2008 10:49 AM
13

@9: Agreed. What a country when the mentally ill and felons rank higher than fags with the military. Maybe the Army is trying to protect us after all *cough*

Posted by Dave Coffman | April 23, 2008 10:49 AM
14

back in 2005 I was playing vagabond hippies in a van with some friends of mmine for that summer

If it wasint for a bail bondsmen I would be rotting in jail in colorado with no time to secure a proper lawyer and delay the trial to avoide my kangaroo trial for sleeping in the back of a car drunk

and later when my friend crash was arrested in cali for marijuna my traveling friends wouldint have been able to bail him out.

i lator came back and dealt in colorado...

not all of us have $1,000 for bail just lieing around

Posted by linus | April 23, 2008 10:59 AM
15

If there's a dime to be made on anything, America will find a way. Prisons make money, people get locked up. Drug war POW? God damn America, indeed.

Posted by john | April 23, 2008 11:13 AM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).