Re:United States incarceration rate
by zanny on Sunday June 09, 2013 @02:24PM
(#5849906)
The prison industrial complex is the formulation of dozens of compounding effects.
* The civil rights movement.
* Concentrated federal power since the first signing of the constutition to protect rich property interests (as the selfish goal, the other one was to be strong enough to resist European insurrection).
* Culture of fear, and a distrust of the "different".
* A corrections system that isn't correctional, but retributional.
So here are some reasons imprisonment rates are lower in other western nations:
* Monocultures and single race societies (for the most part) mean more cultural congruency and less conflict. Hemp was outlawed because of Mexicians, and Crack was outlawed because of Blacks, and it let them throw vast swathes of them in jail.
* The Finnish / Sweedish / etc corrections systems are correctional and rehabilitate inmates. US inmates get raped and get more access to drugs behind bars than outside them. They get into the prison culture and cycle.
* More foreign corrections systems do not engage with for profit private prisons that make money by having higher incarceration rates.
* Most foreign nations don't have a war on drugs (which is caused by the cultural animosity towards the "different").
* Other nations don't have as much blind nationalistic pride as many Americans do. I'm American - I constantly question and doubt my government. But many people in this country don't, especially those who were around to "win" the cold war.
* The civil rights movement.
* Concentrated federal power since the first signing of the constutition to protect rich property interests (as the selfish goal, the other one was to be strong enough to resist European insurrection).
* Culture of fear, and a distrust of the "different".
* A corrections system that isn't correctional, but retributional.
So here are some reasons imprisonment rates are lower in other western nations:
* Monocultures and single race societies (for the most part) mean more cultural congruency and less conflict. Hemp was outlawed because of Mexicians, and Crack was outlawed because of Blacks, and it let them throw vast swathes of them in jail.
* The Finnish / Sweedish / etc corrections systems are correctional and rehabilitate inmates. US inmates get raped and get more access to drugs behind bars than outside them. They get into the prison culture and cycle.
* More foreign corrections systems do not engage with for profit private prisons that make money by having higher incarceration rates.
* Most foreign nations don't have a war on drugs (which is caused by the cultural animosity towards the "different").
* Other nations don't have as much blind nationalistic pride as many Americans do. I'm American - I constantly question and doubt my government. But many people in this country don't, especially those who were around to "win" the cold war.