3 ms·

The US is the third-largest nation by population. It stands to reason its prison population should be in the top three. China executes many of its prisoners.

by maxk42 7y ago

The US is the third-largest nation by population. It stands to reason its prison population should be in the top three. China executes many of its prisoners. India lacks infrastructure. Most US prisoners are imprisoned at state jails -- not federal facilities. In fact the rate of incarceration at the state and local level combined is about 10x the federal incarceration rate. If you think it's too high, you've got to lobby your state government. The federal prison rate is actually much lower than that of other developed nations such as Switzerland, Germany, and France.

Ozzie_osman 7y ago
China has 1.7m prisoners and executes single-digit thousands each year. With those numbers, the fact that it "executes many of its prisoners" is immaterial for its incarceration rate vs the US (maybe those China #s aren't accurate, I can't be sure).
- maxk42 7y ago
  China also has "re-education camps". The numbers are unknown but the estimate for the Xinjiang re-education camps alone are estimated to hold 1.5 million. [1] So I doubt the 1.7 million number -- or, if accurate, it must discount China's various "re-education" camps and other involuntary political holding facilities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps
  - Ozzie_osman 7y ago
    Sure. I'm not defending China or taking these numbers at face value. But even if the 1.5m in Xinjiang is true, China is still significantly below the US in terms of incarceration rate. And it's sad that that's the comparison we're making.
  - SahAssar 7y ago
    I wouldn't trust the china stats either, but looking at a stats like these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera... I think it's still clear that USA is a outlier and that this is a problem.
dragonwriter 7y ago
> The US is the third-largest nation by population. It stands to reason its prison population should be in the top three. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world (that's prisoner:population ratio.) And there's a big gap between the US and #2, and a bigger gap between #2 and #3. > China executes many of its prisoners. Not really, maybe around a tenth of a percent annually. It has no significant effect on the statistics (leaving out political prisoners from the count does, but even correcting for that China wouldn't be anywhere close to the US.)

by maxk42 7y ago

Ozzie_osman 7y ago

China has 1.7m prisoners and executes single-digit thousands each year. With those numbers, the fact that it "executes many of its prisoners" is immaterial for its incarceration rate vs the US (maybe those China #s aren't accurate, I can't be sure).

maxk42 7y ago
China also has "re-education camps". The numbers are unknown but the estimate for the Xinjiang re-education camps alone are estimated to hold 1.5 million. [1] So I doubt the 1.7 million number -- or, if accurate, it must discount China's various "re-education" camps and other involuntary political holding facilities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps
- Ozzie_osman 7y ago
  Sure. I'm not defending China or taking these numbers at face value. But even if the 1.5m in Xinjiang is true, China is still significantly below the US in terms of incarceration rate. And it's sad that that's the comparison we're making.
- SahAssar 7y ago
  I wouldn't trust the china stats either, but looking at a stats like these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera... I think it's still clear that USA is a outlier and that this is a problem.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> The US is the third-largest nation by population. It stands to reason its prison population should be in the top three. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world (that's prisoner:population ratio.) And there's a big gap between the US and #2, and a bigger gap between #2 and #3. > China executes many of its prisoners. Not really, maybe around a tenth of a percent annually. It has no significant effect on the statistics (leaving out political prisoners from the count does, but even correcting for that China wouldn't be anywhere close to the US.)