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High, generally. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and US sentences are an outlier in terms of how long they are (they’re not the longest,
by klodolph 3y ago
High, generally. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and US sentences are an outlier in terms of how long they are (they’re not the longest, but the whole picture is kind of shocking).
- arrowsmith 3y ago> The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world It's actually the 6th: https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-th...
- yau8edq12i 3y agoI get your point, the claim was incorrect. But if you're only beaten by Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, and American Samoa... Well, maybe the overall point stands: "Highest in the world" is hyperbole, that much is true, but the USA has an insanely high rate of incarceration, higher than most countries, and definitely higher than all "developed" countries. As a point of comparison, the next OECD member on that list is Turkey, which has about 34% fewer prisoners per 100k people than the USA.
- dragonwriter 3y agoAssuming the accuracy of that source on the numbers, its actually the 5th. Yes, the United States is the sixth listed, but the 5th listed is part of the United States, not a separate country. (So are several others, but I don't think Guam or the US Virgin Islands are big enough that they move the US overall rating down far enough to matter.)
- lesuorac 3y agoWhen you can't solve crimes you have to make the sentences really long as a deterrent.
- rootusrootus 3y agoA difference in philosophy on prison sentence length. The higher incarceration rate is almost 100% explained by sentences that are on average roughly twice what the UK imposes (as one example).