Prison Nation
From the Sentencing Law and Policy blog by Prof. Berman, http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/
This commentary in the Huntsville Times provides a global perspective on the affinity for incarceration in the United States. Here are highlights:
Alabama's rate puts Pakistan, China and even Libya to shame. Myths have a way of hiding what we don't want to see. Americans, for example, are quick to charge third world dictators with abusive prison policies. But prison incarceration rates tell a different story. Recent reports show that 45 of the 50 democratically elected state governments in the US, including Alabama, imprison their citizens at a faster pace than any of the foreign governments headed by dictators.
Rulers in Libya, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan made Parade Magazine's 2005 world's worst dictators list. And the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, located in Oakland, Calif., has issued a report titled, "US Rates of Incarceration: A Global Perspective," showing the incarceration rates for these five dictatorships — the number of persons in prison for every 100,000 population — ranging from a low of 57 in Pakistan to a high of 207 in Libya.
By comparison, prison policies made in Montgomery locked up 591 state citizens for every 100,000 population in 2005. In other words, Alabama imprisons its people at a rate almost three times faster than Muammar al-Qaddafi's Libya and 10 times faster than Pakistan under Gen. Pervez Musharraf. If inmates held in local jails in Alabama were added in, the spread would be even wider.
Only five states — Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Minnesota and North Dakota — have prison incarceration rates less harsh than Libya's. All other states enforce prison policies that put dictators around the world to shame, including more than 600 inmates per 100,000 population in Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
This commentary in the Huntsville Times provides a global perspective on the affinity for incarceration in the United States. Here are highlights:
Alabama's rate puts Pakistan, China and even Libya to shame. Myths have a way of hiding what we don't want to see. Americans, for example, are quick to charge third world dictators with abusive prison policies. But prison incarceration rates tell a different story. Recent reports show that 45 of the 50 democratically elected state governments in the US, including Alabama, imprison their citizens at a faster pace than any of the foreign governments headed by dictators.
Rulers in Libya, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan made Parade Magazine's 2005 world's worst dictators list. And the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, located in Oakland, Calif., has issued a report titled, "US Rates of Incarceration: A Global Perspective," showing the incarceration rates for these five dictatorships — the number of persons in prison for every 100,000 population — ranging from a low of 57 in Pakistan to a high of 207 in Libya.
By comparison, prison policies made in Montgomery locked up 591 state citizens for every 100,000 population in 2005. In other words, Alabama imprisons its people at a rate almost three times faster than Muammar al-Qaddafi's Libya and 10 times faster than Pakistan under Gen. Pervez Musharraf. If inmates held in local jails in Alabama were added in, the spread would be even wider.
Only five states — Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Minnesota and North Dakota — have prison incarceration rates less harsh than Libya's. All other states enforce prison policies that put dictators around the world to shame, including more than 600 inmates per 100,000 population in Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
posted by Anonymous at 9:42 AM
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