Big Dogs Weblog

US Has More People in Prison than Anyone Else

by Big Dog on Dec 12, 2006 at 04:50 Uncategorized

A recent study showed that the US had more people in prison than any other country. This is based on numbers per 100,000 people and not raw figures. One in every 32 people is in jail, or on parole or probation. This is attributed to stricter laws and tough drug policies. Some groups are using this study to try and show that people should be released from jail and that we need to take a look at why we lock people up.

“The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population. We rank first in the world in locking up our fellow citizens,” said Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, which supports alternatives in the war on drugs.

“We now imprison more people for drug law violations than all of western Europe, with a much larger population, incarcerates for all offenses.”

Ryan King, a policy analyst at The Sentencing Project, a group advocating sentencing reform, said the United States has a more punitive criminal justice system than other countries. Yahoo News

All of this might be true but I do not think we put enough people in jail. The liberals have fostered a do what you want atmosphere and it has prompted people to do what they desire regardless of the consequences. Then, judges allow people to walk free a half a dozen times or so before they actually hand out jail time. The recidivism rate for violent crime is around 63% which means out of every 100 violent criminals released tot he streets, 63 of them will commit another violent crime. If we kept them in jail we could reduce violent crime by that very 63%.

The study does not indicate the incidence of crime for each of the nations. For nations that actually report crime figures and do so accurately, the rate is higher for them than in the US. The crime rate in Europe is higher in many categories and I am willing to bet that the crimes are committed by people who have been arrested before.

One thing we do not need to do is to fall into the trap of believing that we can reform people and that they should be released. For non-violent offenses I agree that a person would better serve society with community service than a year in jail but in crimes where violence occurs or a firearm is used then people should spend a lot of time in jail. This also holds true for those who abuse children and the elderly (sexual or otherwise), those who steal identity and those involved in gangs and organized crime. These folks should all go to jail for a long time and it really does not matter how that makes us rank in the world.

The idea that people can go unpunished for crime is how societies crumble. People commit more crime and they soon learn that the punishment will not be bad. The profit from the crime is greater than the punishment. In order to stop this trend there needs to be stiff jail sentences. When getting caught is very painful and costs more than what was made from the crime, then criminals will think again before being bad.

One other thing we should do is hold judges accountable for the criminals they release. If a jury finds someone not guilty it is a different story, but for these judges who refuse to put violent criminals behind bars, there should be accountability. Too often there is news of a judge releasing some criminal only to have the criminal commit an even worse crime. It happens with child sex predators all the time and the tragedy is that often children die before anything with real consequence is done. If a judge releases a person who committed a violent crime and then that criminal rapes, maims, or kills someone, the judge should have to go to jail for the rest of his life. That might make them think before they carelessly release animals back into the population.

Cross Posted at America’s Victory 08

Tags: Commentary