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Yes, but it's a matter of time, and it's more likely that the country would just decline in global status to a state of stagnation. Last I looked the US were s
by Intermernet 11y ago
Yes, but it's a matter of time, and it's more likely that the country would just decline in global status to a state of stagnation.
Last I looked the US were still below 1% of the population being incarcerated (~0.7% total, ~0.9 adult). This is (or was, there may be newer figures) the world's highest rate.
These numbers are disgusting (especially considering the number of people in US prisons purely because they can't afford to post bail), but I think it would take substantially higher rates to cause the collapse of a country.
The detriment of a country is a completely different matter, and this situation in the US is already recognized by most of the rest of the world.
Similar issues are being seen in China and Russia.
From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2... (which is probably well out of date by now):
"Half of the world's prison population of about nine million is held in the US, China or Russia.
Prison rates in the US are the world's highest, at 724 people per 100,000. In Russia the rate is 581."
- ch4ck 11y agoSeychelles 868 USA 698 Russian Federation 468 China 119 http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_popula...
- Intermernet 11y agoThanks for the updated stats! Did you see the graph of the Seychelles since 2006? What's going on there? EDIT: I hate to post links from the UK Daily Mail but they have an article on this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2219618/Will-Thurbin-Our-man-Seychelles-whos-locking-pirates-Indian-Ocean.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2219618/Will... EDIT 2: From http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/feb/23/john-legend/fact-checking-john-legends-claim-we-live-most-inca/ http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/feb/23/... : ""I think countries that small are just not comparable," Wagner said, adding that his group’s 2014 States of Incarceration report filtered out countries with less than a half-million residents." ... "Only Seychelles technically has a higher incarceration rate than the United States. But experts said it’s an outlier because of its miniscule size and largely should be disregarded."
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]