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The U.S. incarcerates more people than China. Not per capita, mind you. More total people. If ever there's a stellar example of the kind of disaster that can re

by qiqing 12y ago

The U.S. incarcerates more people than China. Not per capita, mind you. More total people. If ever there's a stellar example of the kind of disaster that can result from privatizing a government function, this is it. Private prisons have a strong profit motive to increase the number of people behind bars until we have the kind of situation we have today in the U.S. These are folks who can afford to pay lobbyists to create the kind of sentencing that leads to 98 years for 2 robberies, and criminalize non-violent or victimless 'crimes.' Here's a Last Week Tonight segment on the broken prison system in the U.S.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pz3syET3DY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pz3syET3DY

merpnderp 12y ago
I don't know that you can directly compare the two judicial systems. Especially when China executes roughly 61 times as many prisoners - often for petty crimes from repeat offenders. That being said the US puts far too many people in jail, often for far too long of sentences.
- Zikes 12y ago
  I think that's sort of the idea behind the comparison. Even a country with a bar so low for punishment is far outpaced by our own judicial system.
- kpil 12y ago
  Still, I think there is something fundamentally flawed with a society where 40-50 % of all men have been arrested by the police by age 23. I tried to find some comparable statistics and I found that 5-10 % of all 15-20 year old males in Sweden have been -suspected- for a crime. I doubt that all of them were actually arrested.
- qiqing 12y ago
  Also, prison contractors get more taxpayer dollars for lengthy sentences, whereas the state handles executions (that is, there's no profit in executions for the prison-industrial complex).
mikeash 12y ago
I'm not convinced that private prisons are anywhere nearly as influential as people make them out to be. They're a common bugbear in these conversation, but the numbers don't match up. Something like 5% of the total US prison population is in private prisons. I just don't see how such a small proportion of the activity would have so much influence. A much bigger influence is probably things like prison guard unions. They have the same sort of profit motive to increase the number of people behind bars, and that applies just as much (probably more) to state-run prisons.

by qiqing 12y ago

merpnderp 12y ago

I don't know that you can directly compare the two judicial systems. Especially when China executes roughly 61 times as many prisoners - often for petty crimes from repeat offenders. That being said the US puts far too many people in jail, often for far too long of sentences.

Zikes 12y ago
I think that's sort of the idea behind the comparison. Even a country with a bar so low for punishment is far outpaced by our own judicial system.
kpil 12y ago
Still, I think there is something fundamentally flawed with a society where 40-50 % of all men have been arrested by the police by age 23. I tried to find some comparable statistics and I found that 5-10 % of all 15-20 year old males in Sweden have been -suspected- for a crime. I doubt that all of them were actually arrested.
qiqing 12y ago
Also, prison contractors get more taxpayer dollars for lengthy sentences, whereas the state handles executions (that is, there's no profit in executions for the prison-industrial complex).

mikeash 12y ago

I'm not convinced that private prisons are anywhere nearly as influential as people make them out to be. They're a common bugbear in these conversation, but the numbers don't match up. Something like 5% of the total US prison population is in private prisons. I just don't see how such a small proportion of the activity would have so much influence. A much bigger influence is probably things like prison guard unions. They have the same sort of profit motive to increase the number of people behind bars, and that applies just as much (probably more) to state-run prisons.