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On this subject, I was blown away by this a week ago: https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/ https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-

by tmsh 6y ago

On this subject, I was blown away by this a week ago: https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/ https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/

jlokier 6y ago
Great site. Wow: - "The United States holds more people in jails and prisons than any other country by far, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of population." The numbers are stunning. Around a quarter of all Americans have a criminal record. - "Almost no one gets a trial" - "The blue icons are the portion of incarcerated people who got trials, around 2%" My mind boggles at this. Conviction is without trial in 98% of cases? People avoid trial when they don't think they'll get a fair one or they can't afford a decent lawyer? No wonder it's a hotbed of racism. No, wait, I was assuming conviction: - "Unconvicted Americans are the 4th largest incarcerated population in the world" Now my mind boggles even more. There are more unconvicted Americans incarcerated than convicted people incarcerated in almost all other countries. - "What if you've spent your whole life believing that you live in the freest country on earth, when the reality is precisely the opposite?" Good question...
- lopmotr 6y ago
  Careful with the trick statistics. If you're ranking the size of groups, the result heavily depends on how you define the groups. That "4th largest" makes no sense because the 3 above it aren't broken down the same way and should really be split into 5 groups for consistency. Then there's the fact that the USA is the 3rd largest country by population so it should be weighted by population. It's a complete fail of a statistic obviously designed to shock without informing.
  - jlokier 6y ago
    > Then there's the fact that the USA is the 3rd largest country by population so it should be weighted by population Most of the statistics I cited are already weighted by population; they are per-capita and percentages: "as a percentage of the population"; "a quarter of all Americans"; "almost no one gets a trial"; "2%". Those population-weighted values are astonishing. I agree the 4th largest thing is not weighted, but the astonishing part of that is that USA unconvicted incarcerations rank significantly at all, when compared with convicted in other countries. USA population size is not sufficient to explain this. It's the opposite of what I'd hope and expect, for a country where people talk of "land of the free" and "rule of law".

by tmsh 6y ago

On this subject, I was blown away by this a week ago: https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/ https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/

jlokier 6y ago

Great site. Wow: - "The United States holds more people in jails and prisons than any other country by far, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of population." The numbers are stunning. Around a quarter of all Americans have a criminal record. - "Almost no one gets a trial" - "The blue icons are the portion of incarcerated people who got trials, around 2%" My mind boggles at this. Conviction is without trial in 98% of cases? People avoid trial when they don't think they'll get a fair one or they can't afford a decent lawyer? No wonder it's a hotbed of racism. No, wait, I was assuming conviction: - "Unconvicted Americans are the 4th largest incarcerated population in the world" Now my mind boggles even more. There are more unconvicted Americans incarcerated than convicted people incarcerated in almost all other countries. - "What if you've spent your whole life believing that you live in the freest country on earth, when the reality is precisely the opposite?" Good question...

lopmotr 6y ago
Careful with the trick statistics. If you're ranking the size of groups, the result heavily depends on how you define the groups. That "4th largest" makes no sense because the 3 above it aren't broken down the same way and should really be split into 5 groups for consistency. Then there's the fact that the USA is the 3rd largest country by population so it should be weighted by population. It's a complete fail of a statistic obviously designed to shock without informing.
- jlokier 6y ago
  > Then there's the fact that the USA is the 3rd largest country by population so it should be weighted by population Most of the statistics I cited are already weighted by population; they are per-capita and percentages: "as a percentage of the population"; "a quarter of all Americans"; "almost no one gets a trial"; "2%". Those population-weighted values are astonishing. I agree the 4th largest thing is not weighted, but the astonishing part of that is that USA unconvicted incarcerations rank significantly at all, when compared with convicted in other countries. USA population size is not sufficient to explain this. It's the opposite of what I'd hope and expect, for a country where people talk of "land of the free" and "rule of law".