3 ms·

I don't have the articles handy, but The Economist had some statistics on prison populations in the US. That's where my information comes from. IIRC, even Chin

I don't have the articles handy, but The Economist had some statistics on prison populations in the US. That's where my information comes from. IIRC, even China doesn't have as many people in jail as the US.

shpxnvz 17y ago
The Bureau of Justice Statistics contradicts your information. The official numbers on their homepage show that in 2005, 53% of state inmates were sentenced for violent crimes, versus only 20% for drug crimes. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm Note that the statistics only count the most serious of the offenses for which the person was sentenced, which means that some of the violent offenders may have also been charged with drug crimes.
- req2 17y ago
  Suppose every violent crime has a sentence of one year, and every drug crime a sentence of five years. You'll retain drug inmates and lose violent inmates, quickly yielding a situation in which there are more drug inmates than violent inmates. (This is simply to demonstrate a logical contradiction in your proposed evidence, and is not intended to make a factual argument.)
  - req2 17y ago
    It's not kosher to complain about a downvote, but this is a logically sound and complete demonstration of why the evidence posted above doesn't actually support the purported claim. It indicates, yes, but it is in no way, shape, or fashion proof. I'm not sure how a correction is liable for downvotes.
    - Dilpil 17y ago
      Because HN is turning into Digg.
- timwiseman 17y ago
  Thank you for the citation, it is informative.
SamAtt 17y ago
I assume you're talking about this story: http://www.naturalnews.com/021290.html http://www.naturalnews.com/021290.html If so I'd have to dispute it. I do think the U.S. imprisons too many people for drug charges but I also think China and Russia have a lot of people imprisoned "off the books". Also keep in mind the statistics don't tell the whole story. We all know Russia doles out a lot of punishment via hit squad and China, who won't release their capital punishment numbers, admits to executing more people than any other country on earth (though not per capita thanks to Iran) If China has fewer people in prison because the execute far more people than your argument isn't really a valid one
- req2 17y ago
  China executes at most a rounding error of the US prison population. 2005's high of 10,000 is less than half a percent of the current US prison population, and they would need to have been performing at that high for seventy years to hit the US population. Furthermore, they have a billion extra people! Nowhere close to the American rate(!) of imprisonment. (They'd need approximately five times as many their official imprisonment rate 'off the books' to equal US.)

shpxnvz 17y ago

The Bureau of Justice Statistics contradicts your information. The official numbers on their homepage show that in 2005, 53% of state inmates were sentenced for violent crimes, versus only 20% for drug crimes. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm Note that the statistics only count the most serious of the offenses for which the person was sentenced, which means that some of the violent offenders may have also been charged with drug crimes.

req2 17y ago
Suppose every violent crime has a sentence of one year, and every drug crime a sentence of five years. You'll retain drug inmates and lose violent inmates, quickly yielding a situation in which there are more drug inmates than violent inmates. (This is simply to demonstrate a logical contradiction in your proposed evidence, and is not intended to make a factual argument.)
- req2 17y ago
  It's not kosher to complain about a downvote, but this is a logically sound and complete demonstration of why the evidence posted above doesn't actually support the purported claim. It indicates, yes, but it is in no way, shape, or fashion proof. I'm not sure how a correction is liable for downvotes.
  - Dilpil 17y ago
    Because HN is turning into Digg.
timwiseman 17y ago
Thank you for the citation, it is informative.

SamAtt 17y ago

I assume you're talking about this story: http://www.naturalnews.com/021290.html http://www.naturalnews.com/021290.html If so I'd have to dispute it. I do think the U.S. imprisons too many people for drug charges but I also think China and Russia have a lot of people imprisoned "off the books". Also keep in mind the statistics don't tell the whole story. We all know Russia doles out a lot of punishment via hit squad and China, who won't release their capital punishment numbers, admits to executing more people than any other country on earth (though not per capita thanks to Iran) If China has fewer people in prison because the execute far more people than your argument isn't really a valid one

req2 17y ago
China executes at most a rounding error of the US prison population. 2005's high of 10,000 is less than half a percent of the current US prison population, and they would need to have been performing at that high for seventy years to hit the US population. Furthermore, they have a billion extra people! Nowhere close to the American rate(!) of imprisonment. (They'd need approximately five times as many their official imprisonment rate 'off the books' to equal US.)