Why do you think the America imprisons more of it's population than any other country in the world?

Question

Over 1% of American citizens are currently incarcarated. This is a higher percentage than any other country in the world.

Why do you think this is?

Answer 1

It's the only way the government knows how to deal with problems.

Answer 2

We have 300 million citizens.  2 million convicts.  1/3 of the convicts aren't citizens.  1.4 million citizens are in jail, that is less than 1/2 percent, not more than 1%.  So, first off, your math is wrong and therefore the rest of your argument is suspect.  

Did you just make up your stats ?

The biggest reason for our full jails is we punish drug use.  If we treated drug users in hospitals and summarily executed drug pushers as murderers, then the US would be a great place to live.  And the jails would be full of mostly illegals.

But, if we killed drug pushers, the media would claim that was a racist policy.

Answer 3

Because we don't kill as many as these other countries you named.

Answer 4

Silly drug laws, widespread availability of guns, growing gap between rich and poor.

Answer 5

Well in some societies, North Korea for one, have secret labor camps where they send prisoners too.  

Or other place kill their accused criminals on the spot.  So therefore there is no need for a trial for the aacused, no prison to house the accused or those found guilty afterwards.

Answer 6

1. Local office holders appeal to fear to gain office. Once in office the politician wants statistics to be re-elected.

2. Drastic punishment for repeat offenders. The 3-Strikes law allows the third crime even if it is a misdemeanor to be construed as a felony.

3. The prison industry is one of the fastest growing businesses in America. Private prisons capitalize by selling junk bonds and then blackmail the local community when expenses exceed the profits.

4. Absolutely no rehabilitation efforts. In California, which spends more on prisons that it does education, the recidivism rate of released prisoners is 75% will return to prison within 5 years.

5. America ran out of free space. In the past, one could run away and start anew. No more. Computer record-keeping follows everyone to the grave and stipulates a caste upon society. We are lumping embezzlers along with grand larceny convictions into a single label, felon, for instance.

Answer 7

could it be we have more crime? this country is getting over run with criminals and adding more every day. if they didn't,t  get  such easy treatment in jails, maybe they would think twice before committing a crime. they got rec. time, t.v., library, 3 free meals a day and more  all at our expense.all convicted child molesters, and murders need the death chamber, and do it, not let them set on death row for 15-20 yr.this would cut down on "over crowding"

Answer 8

I think we have more criminals and better law enforcement and we don't resort to the cruel harsh physical punishment some countries do but instead we incarcarate them.

Answer 9

It reflects the agony of US Imperialism.USA is a Police State.

Answer 10

I think its for the same reason why we practiced genocide on  the original inhabatants for 2 centuries,  why a civil war was fought to defend the right to preserve the institution of slavery, and why we execute more people than any other country in the world except for China.

We are barbarians.  Always have been.

You might also look at how many thousands of lynchings of blacks happened in the post Civil War years on up and through the 20th Century.  This tradition died off in the 1940s.

Americans don't want to admit it but we create "legal" systems that prey on the poor and underclasses, and there is a whole system of incarceration that feeds off a never ending stream of people who  fall into the gears of our system of Justice.

Its as much a racket as our war on drugs is.

Answer 11

It's a combination of 1) an effective policing and judicial system 2) the government regulating more areas of life 3) the war on drugs 4) a harsher approach toward repeat offenders 5) breakdown of some areas of American society (e.g. African-American family unit virtually non-existent).

I think this is a pretty fair answer that encompasses concerns of both the left and right.  #1 cannot, however, be overemphasized -- I've lived in Central America, the Middle East, and Africa, and have seen that MOST countries in the world do not have effective law enforcement/judicial systems; if they did, a much higher percentage of their citizens would be incarcerated.  So, really, the premise of the question is flawed.

Finally, crime is actually way, way down in the U.S. over the past 30 years, not up, as at least one answerer suggested.

Repsonse to your added statement:  Yes, mine does.

Answer 12

I believe it catches and imprisons more of it's criminals than other countries. And that is not a bad thing.

Answer 13

Because we accept so many foreigners.

Answer 14

It means statistics are meaningless at times.  In the US we have laws.  Lawbreakers who get caught are thrown into jail.  It is no more complicated than that.

Answer 15

America is the leader in capitalism.The most major commodities of the world are traded in America than any other country.

1.Guns

2.cars

3.oil

4.drugs

We have the most millionaires(Germany has the most millionaires over 100 million) and we have the most billionaires.

Trading these commodities illegally can land you in jail.Right now its the only way to control so many people trying to get rich.Whether it's right or wrong those are the facts.

Answer 16

Enforcement of laws?  Just a theory.  More police and a more elaborate judicial system...I mean I am just guessing here...

Answer 17

I think it's due to two reasons:

1)  We don't execute people at nearly the rate of some of the places that have the worst crime.  China executes its people quite rapidly, with zip for appeals.  Russia made people "disappear" likewise.  If those countries, China in particular, imprisoned the worst criminals, like we do, rather than execute them, China's prisons would be TEEMING.  They do have over a billion people, you know.

2) WE SIMPLY HAVE THE POLICE RESOURCES TO >CATCH< MORE CRIMINALS.

I think that this incarceration rate is used as a poor gauge of CRIMINALITY.  Just because the U.S. has 1% in prison does not mean that we have more crime than other countries.  What if those countries just suck at catching and convicting criminals?

OK, there is more at work here than just those two causes.  I can think of more.  For instance, our culture has been degrading itself for decades.  We have become permissive on crime to the point where we actually allow it to be GLORIFIED.  We make movies that make crime a glamorous pursuit, and its perpetrators "heroes."  (Ocean's Eleven is about thieves.  The Italian Job is about thieves.  Many other movies are about the thief as a noble character.  Likewise about killers.)  We have rap music that seeks to actually mainstream killing, debasement of women, elevation of material wealth above all else.

So we are raising a generation (actually more than one) of soulless, amoral children who have NONE of the values that we would want them to have.  They grow up among criminals, and are taught that that's what they should want to be.  Is it any wonder they commit crimes, get caught, and become part of that 1%?

Answer 18

One word: DRUGS!

Think about all the crimes associated with addiction: distribution, possession, robbery, burglary, rape, homicide, firearms violations, money laundering...the list goes on and on.