Should America be considered "free" when it has more prisoners than China and Russia combined?

Question

Is it hypocritical to claim to be "free" when a country that has 4.7% of the worlds population but has 25% of all the worlds prisoners, some forced to work in modern slavery? Should America re-brand itself to reflect a more acurate image?

Answer 1

Ever hear of organized crime.  We don't have very much of it, because we put them in prison.  Criminals in prison adds to freedom for the rest of us.  Government isn't the only thing that assults freedom.

Answer 2

You could if you look at it as an overall prisoner status..but we don't put people in jail for political reasons...most of the prisoners had broken some sort of law..most of the prisoners are drug related and with those mostly users and not sellers. If we were to revamp our drug laws to help those users then the prison population could drop almost by 1/2.

Until then people just have to use restraint or use while at home and not go anywhere.

Answer 3

We don't use our Death penalty as often as Communist China and Russia does. Of course you have a smaller percentage actually in prison when you either execute or work prisoners to death.

Answer 4

Besides being rhetorical, it is a very good question.

But the answers exceeded my expectations:

1.“shilo9i” is suggesting that USA is free because we keep in prisons all those trouble makers!

2.“Matt A” is suggesting that we are free, because prisons protect us from organized crime!

3.“Anna P” is implying that CIA, which provided us with the most reliable information on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,  is an “independent third party”…

4.“wwpetcemetery” tells us, that we have bulging prison population, because “most of the prisoners had broken some sort of law…”

5.“imintowater” tells you that “we have more crime”

6.“bittermeds” suggests “America has almost half of all prisoners in the world”.  

7.“WakeUpYouMugs” states that “ANYONE is FREE to EXPLOIT ANYONE”!

8.“smsmith500” muses that our prison population swells because “We don't use our Death penalty as often”

Congrats! It sounds like you hit a jackpot!

Almost nobody who answered your question is capable of understanding a very straightforward concept expressed in not very complicated English

Assuming that answers came from that part of USA population, which isn’t in prison yet, I would suggest that this mini survey reflects a “more accurate image” of USA, than we are willing to admit…

Answer 5

>America is considered to be free as we are free to own property, speak freely, and select our government.<

This a ridiculous quote from contributor above. He is respectively WRONG,WRONG and WRONG on those points.

1)You're free to own property ONLY if you have money. Millions of Americans are destitute. Five dollar murders?

2)You're free to speak about subjects NO-ONE IN COMMAND OBJECTS TO. If they don't like it, they'll string you up for it, by calling you UNPATRIOTIC, ANTI-SEMITIC and a million others. Free speech bollocks.

3)You don't selct your Govt--you vote for person (A) or person (B)--BOTH of whom could be FU*KWITS. That's not choice.

To answer Asker's question, the US is the Land of the Free only in the respect that ANYONE is FREE to EXPLOIT ANYONE--if you see a mug with money, go for it. It's LEGAL here. This country was BUILT on it. If you're going to let inequality expand at the speed of light you should expect crime to expand with it. Most billionaires=most prisoners?

Answer 6

How free do you think we would be if we let criminals "free" to roam the streets?

Seriously though, you are using two different concepts of the word free to create an improper argument.

America is considered to be free as we are free to own property, speak freely, and select our government.

This is different from the concept of free pertaining to imprisoning criminals.

One has very little to do with the other.

Answer 7

Russia has the highest prison population per capita in the world. America has almost half of all prisoners in the world. Virtually all of our illegal drugs and contraband is brought in through our southern border which neither party has seen fit to close or man with our over extended military commitment in Viet Iraq. We virtually invite every Latin immigrant into our country without examining what makes their countries systems so dopey and dysfunctional- Its' crime that we are exporting.

Answer 8

If you think we have more prisoners than China, you really should go back to school and learn research.  

Edit:  I stand corrected that there are purportedly data out there that say there are 25% of the world's prisoner population in US prisons.  However, numbers from a place like China (and even Russia) are not able to be verified by independent third parties, including the CIA Factbook.  Also, the definition of a prisoner is different in different countries.   Retelling these numbers doesn't make them accurate.  And what prisoners are forced to work in modern slavery?  THAT is in China and probably Russia and many other countries.  

However, we definitely have too many prisons and too many people are going to prison for what should not be crimes.  It is terrible that prisons is considered a growth industry in the US.  Most of these people will get out some day and be worse than before they went in (assuming they were guilty).

Answer 9

"We don't use our Death penalty as often as Communist China and Russia does."

Wake up. Russia has no death penalty.

Answer 10

We have more prisoners, because we have more crime. Read more, lawyer.