4 ms·

Well, prison populations are actually really complicated. There's a good piece at The Marshall Project discussing this, with an interesting interactive that il

Well, prison populations are actually really complicated. There's a good piece at The Marshall Project discussing this, with an interesting interactive that illustrates how difficult it would be to dramatically reduce the prison population by only focusing on nonviolent drug offenders: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/03/04/how-to-cut-the-prison-population-by-50-percent#.OtWFszhGW https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/03/04/how-to-cut-the... The drug war was a massive overreach. It's not 100% of the overcrowded prisons problem though, they're related but somewhat independent challenges.

mirimir 11y ago
Thanks. I suspect that much violent crime is also Drug War related. Robberies to buy drugs. Bad influences while imprisoned for drug-related offenses. Few countries imprison such high percentages of their populations. What else could be accounting for that? Lead poisoning? Dysfunctional culture?
tyingq 11y ago
A fair amount of the overcrowding is also driven by sentence length. Things like "three strikes" and "enhanced charges" drive sentence lengths in the US that don't match up with any other civilized nation.
- burfog 11y ago
  The court system is also badly clogged. The "three strikes" laws reduce the problem by limiting how many times a person can go to trial.
  - tyingq 11y ago
    You don't think 3 strikes would increase the number of jury trials vs plea deals? http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/23/us/3-strikes-law-in-california-is-clogging-courts-and-jails.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/23/us/3-strikes-law-in-califo...
    - mirimir 11y ago
      Plea deals are evil. It's fundamentally class-based. Or about money, which is what stands for class in the US. With no money for competent representation, accepting a plea deal is your best option. Many lives get ruined out of that.
      - tyingq 11y ago
        True, but not really in context. I mentioned them only because the claim is that three-strikes somehow streamlined the court system.

mirimir 11y ago

Thanks. I suspect that much violent crime is also Drug War related. Robberies to buy drugs. Bad influences while imprisoned for drug-related offenses. Few countries imprison such high percentages of their populations. What else could be accounting for that? Lead poisoning? Dysfunctional culture?

tyingq 11y ago

A fair amount of the overcrowding is also driven by sentence length. Things like "three strikes" and "enhanced charges" drive sentence lengths in the US that don't match up with any other civilized nation.

burfog 11y ago
The court system is also badly clogged. The "three strikes" laws reduce the problem by limiting how many times a person can go to trial.
- tyingq 11y ago
  You don't think 3 strikes would increase the number of jury trials vs plea deals? http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/23/us/3-strikes-law-in-california-is-clogging-courts-and-jails.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/23/us/3-strikes-law-in-califo...
  - mirimir 11y ago
    Plea deals are evil. It's fundamentally class-based. Or about money, which is what stands for class in the US. With no money for competent representation, accepting a plea deal is your best option. Many lives get ruined out of that.
    - tyingq 11y ago
      True, but not really in context. I mentioned them only because the claim is that three-strikes somehow streamlined the court system.