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Cost aside, the U.S. have the largest government in history, and it's created the largest prison population in history. There's either something specially crim
by JasonFruit 5y ago
Cost aside, the U.S. have the largest government in history, and it's created the largest prison population in history. There's either something specially criminal about Americans, or else that huge government is occupying its excess capacity unjustly criminalizing its most vulnerable people.
- hkt 5y agoThere is money to be made running private prisons - the fact is that there will without a doubt be a very strong pro-incarceration lobby in the US that will be highly successful at pushing an agenda which profits them.
- Ekaros 5y agoI probably could argue that whole perversion in judicial and legislative system stems from political system. Harsh on crime gets votes. As such people increasing penalties or getting more people jailed get more votes. Thus increased pressure for such activities. As person who lives in country with 4 different elections(presidential, unicameral, municipal and EU) I find the amount of elected positions USA just bizarre. Specially voting for judges or sheriffs or prosecutors...
- nerdponx 5y agoI don't think the size of the prison system is causally related to the size of the government. The main cause as far as I can tell was a wave of drug addiction epidemics and crime in the 70s, leading to a "tough on crime" sentiment in the 80s that persists to this day. Also there's a huge industry around private companies supplying contract services to prisons (including "public" prisons). Not to mention the fact that prison labor is dirt cheap it is an explicit loophole in anti-slavery laws. Follow the money.