Does a poor economy equate to higher rates of incarceration?

Question

One in 100 Americans are currently serving a prison sentence, why?

"2,319,258 Americans behind bars in 2008, most of any nation"

source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.prisons29feb29,0,2057053.story

Answer 1

you could think of it that way

More and more people will do illegal things out of desperation to support themselves and their families as the economy slowly comes down

Answer 2

I wouldn't say so. I'd go with poor judgment on the part of the individuals committing crimes.

Simply stay out of trouble. Stop raping, stealing, and killing and they wouldn't be there. A man/woman doesn't rape or kill because of the economy, he/she chooses to do it. A man/woman doesn't steal or rob because he/she is poor, he/she does it because he/she is too lazy to work and stealing is easier money than working a 40 hour a week job.

Answer 3

No it does not, if a poor economy were the reason, then you would have a higher incarceration  rate in India, where poverty there is truly abject and grinding.  

In fact, one of the strange things about economics and crime is that crime seems to go up when there economy is doing well ... so for example, crime went up in the United states during the "roaring 20s"

The high incarceration here in the United States is universally blamed on the highly punitive drugs laws...in europe and other parts of the world, drug use is treated as a medical problem,not a criminal problem

Approximately half of the federal prisoners in the US are there for "non violent offenses" in other worlds drug use or sale...The US also has some of the most punitive laws in the industrialized world, things like "3 strikes and your out" etc...

But the main reason for the high incarceration is because we have chosen to criminalize drug use to a level not seen elsewhere

Answer 4

I read that, too.  It's shocking, isn't it?  I asked the same question on Y/A yesterday in the gender and women's studies forum.  It's still an open question if you want to check out the answers I got.  My take on this:  yes, the economy has something to do with it, but nothing has more to do with this than does the war on drugs.  I'm in college right now studying chemical dependency counseling, and in the 2 years I've been studying this subject, I've learned a few things.   (Learned by experience, as well, sadly.)   Most of those people that are locked up are in jails or prisons because of drug-related offenses.  Most of those offenses are for possession (being caught being in possession of drugs.)  That means, it's not mostly drug dealers, it's mostly drug users, in jail.  We have some of the toughest sentencing in the world for drug offenses.  And obviously, these tough sentences aren't deterring anyone from using drugs.  We need to change our approach.  Locking people up isn't the answer.  Now I'm all for locking people up who commit violent crimes, or theft, and if a drug user commits these crimes, he/she (in my opinion) should do the time.  But locking people up for simply being a drug user (and that being their only "crime"), to me, is wrong.  In Seattle, a few years back, we passed Initiative 75, which made marijuana the lowest enforcement priority for police.  Since then, we've saved a heck of a lot of money.  Made fewer arrests, and, public consumption of marijuana has NOT gone up, as some had feared it might.  I-75 is being hailed as a success, and other cities around the nation are looking more seriously at doing what Seattle has done.  Here in WA we have drug courts, we have treatment as an alternative to jail time for drug offenders.  And, it seems to be working.  Less recidivism, more successful rehabilitation, and we're actually saving tax payer dollars.  Right now Washington state is in the national spotlight for drug reform policies because it's being shown that it's working.

What happens when you lock up a drug addict, don't give him/her treatment for the addiction, brand the person a felon (who then becomes stigmatized for life, has a criminal record), can't find employment after they get out (because of the stigma of being branded a felon)?  Well this is what you get:  the person gets out of jail, goes right back to the only thing they've ever known:  a drug-addicted life.  Can't find a job, ends up dealing, stealing, or finding other illegitimate means of "getting by", and the downward spiral continues.  He/she ends up back in jail for longer and longer periods of time.  They cycle CAN be broken, however.  And states like Washington, with their innovative approaches to the drug problem, are leading the way.

Answer 5

A poor economy does contribute to a higher rate of incarceration.  Also, America is fairly aggressive when it comes to warehousing people.I mean,its lovely to lock someone up and make them work for you for 30 bucks a month building products that taxpayers are told cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,and when you can feed an inmate 3 meals for less than 5 bucks a day and then collect somewhere in the vincinity of 80 bucks a day  to allegedly cover the cost, while operating on budgets that far exceed 100 million dollars a year (Thats for 1 small state)then  what's not to love? capitalism at its finest.....

Answer 6

I believe the large numbers of people incarcerated in this country is directly connected with the war on drugs.

  America refuses to rethink  its position on drugs , especially marijuana. This makes a lot of people jump from the category of ignorant drug abuser to criminal.... and these so called criminals fill our prisons.

   There are a number of ways to look at the problem of drug abuse .

    This country just can't admit it's wrong . We spend billions because we made a whole new class of criminal and we refuse to revisit the subject.

                           God Bless America