Why does the US have the highest (737per100,000) rate of people in jail, in the world?

Question

UK 148 per 100,000

ref

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm

Answer 1

Cuz we have rules and we catch people

Answer 2

the government are not looking for other ways to punish criminal rather than give them food, place to live/stay........... while there are poor people who didn't commite any crime are not even getting enough food or place to live. government has to do sometihng about it.  

Answer 3

dont worry the uk aint far behind ya ,introducin a new crimainal offence everyday

Answer 4

because they have more jail space.  here people are given sentences to reduce the number of people in prison. America takes the no tolerance stance - maybe we should too??!!!

Answer 5

I think the reasons are the following: 1.) It serves as a form social control. The high numbers of prisoners and inhumane treatment everyone jokes about (getting raped, etc.) scares people into becoming more law abiding and obedient. 2.) High numbers of prisoners mean more prisons, cheap labor, etc. The prison-industrial complex benefits a few. 3.) Drug use, an individual freedom, is criminalized to further the enumerated reasons 1 and 2.

This is my take on it.  

Answer 6

Leading cause? We treat drug abuse as a crime rather than a health issue.

Others include a lock 'em up mentality (3 strikes laws, federal mandatory minimums) which have swelled prisons to overflowing and an ongoing legacy of race-related issues that are really largely economic.

Answer 7

US Laws are ridiculous... that's why.

Take California for example... If you are caught with pot/marijuana 3 times, you receive a LIFE SENTENCE....  

Answer 8

I have found out that large corporations are using prison labor to create call centers for corporations. Corporations contract the labor through the federal gov and the states. I think it is a new form of oppressed,slave labor. Air lines, and big hotel chains set up call centers in prisons to take reservations. Companies also use the prison labor to do marketing research and data entry.Alot of these jobs in the private sector start at 9 to 10 bucks an hour. I think this nation have allot of economic terrorists like corporations that send our jobs over seas, pharmaceutical ,and big oil companies. companies that lay people off when they are pulling million and billion dollar profits.Rent Micheal Moore's documentary Downsizing.Also gov. contractors like halibutron,blackwatwer and kbr that are ripping the tax payers off of billion dollar no bid contracts.

Our laws are set up to where you can go to jail for just about anything. Because of the Patriot act you can be accused of something taken away with no search warrant our home and assets seized. They throw you in jail for thing that are legal on a state level ( Ca.) like medical marijuana but illegal on a federal level.  They are filling up the federal prison system full of people who don't need to be there and letting out the murders and rapist that need to be executed. And when you are on probation it is so expensive that you can't afford the payments  so back to prison you go

  As far as guns i never owned one till I got car jacked last year. The guy stuck a stolen gun in my face.I never felt so vulnerable in my life. I thought he was going to kill me. I am a responsible legal gun owner and I will never look down the barrel of another persons gun again with out a fighting chance.

  Our gov puts money into prisons not education> That really makes me go Hmmm? There up to something........

Answer 9

America is a country under the spell of moralistic hypocrites and racists that use government and the law to punish nonviolent behavior and to keep disadvantaged minority groups disadvantaged.

Answer 10

open borders

Answer 11

Because it has more jails than any where else of course. Mind you Russia used to be the worlds leader here and China would too if they did not shoot so many.

Answer 12

Maybe we have better law enforcement in the States.

Answer 13

A number of people here have the right idea.  The real reason is that we Americans are in denial about a lot of things.  We want simple answers to complicated questions, and we vote for whoever had the simplest answer, whether it will work or not.  For 30 years now politicians have been trying to outdo each other in being 'tough on crime'.  30 years ago most first-offenders got probation but now they get prison sentences.  We have doubled prison sentences for nearly every crime and then doubled them again because it was easy for politicians to sell the idea to the public that tougher sentences mean less crime.  Any politician who has the courage to go against this idea is immediately jumped on by his competition as 'soft on crime', so none of them do until they are retired.

The fact is, if locking more people up would make our streets safer, we'd have the safest streets in the world.

Answer 14

Because the US has the most criminals.  We also have a government which constantly makes new laws against things which really aren't all that bad...ie pot.  Congressman Barney Frank's proposal to legalize pot will undoubtably reduce the population of our prison system if it is passed.

Answer 15

because they are all allowed guns - glad we aren't in the UK!

Answer 16

Because we catch our criminals and we show them mercy.  many countries just shoot them.  

Answer 17

We have a higher jail rate because we have much stricter drug laws than most European countries, and we execute less people than the more Authoritarian countries such as Iran, Cuba, N Korea etc...

Answer 18

It's bad when you have to compare the US to other countries like Cuba and N Korea to make your point.  Strict drug laws are one of a litany of factors.

Answer 19

Prove it.

You can't because China, Russia, Iran, and others dont have a free press and don't report things that make them look bad. China probably has more, but will never report it to the world.

Answer 20

I don't think that Yahoo wants answers to this question, submission justs provides a permanent coffee break message.

This answer did succeed where all my originals failed. These were along the lines that the USA figure is 0.737% of their population, ours is 0.148%. Assuming crime rates are similar in most countries, for our population of 60 million that means we have 88800 criminals on the loose each committing several crimes.

Thats what happens when society protects the perpetrators and not the victims.

Answer 21

Because they face up to the perpetrators and wrong doers!Not feel sorry for them!

Answer 22

A few reasons are    the three strikee law  

can go back  for  a petty crime  of anything

Another  is  people are in prison  for drugs

most  weed   and problaly not more than an ounce

some parts of okla  and tex   you can go  for  seeds

another  is   paroll vilations  not paying fines ect

cant get or find work   because of the  classes you have to take  for  paroll     so no work  cant pay   fines   so

the prison system  is a spinning door

the goverment  makes  big money  of the inmate population

the more  spaces field  the more   cash  in  the goverments  pocket

stupid  laws  

that is a few of my thoughts  on why we have  the largest  prison population  in the  world

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