> The United States has the largest prison population in the world and the highest incarceration rate. Every time there is a crime thread on HN it is full of an

> The United States has the largest prison population in the world and the highest incarceration rate. Every time there is a crime thread on HN it is full of anecdotal stories about how we can be tougher on crime. It boggles my mind that this is the accepted framing. One possible explication is that the people put into prison are the wrong people. That would explain how many people on Hacker News say we can be tougher on crimes, while also recognizing that many people are in prison for no good reasons. How much people we put into prisons is a variable, but who we put in is another one, and I would argue that it's more important. Focusing simply on the number is partially missing the point. > You would have to think the criminal justice system in the united states is extremely fair and that we have a dramatically different population to place such a high priority on the people that are possibly victims of crimes over people that are inappropriately incarcerated. I think what most people mean by that is "Instead of putting into prison someone for smoking weed once, put into prison the guy that stabbed one of my neighbors, because I don't mind people smoking weed but I do mind getting stabbed and people around me getting stabbed". This is of course an oversimplification and in some cases people stab people for good reasons and they shouldn't end up in prison for that, but that's besides the point for this example here.