Inquisitive Bird reminds us that our prisons aren’t filled with harmless pot smokers:
With 541 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, the American prisoner rate ranks 5th in the world, only beaten by a handful of less developed countries. Owing to its large population size and high prisoner rate, the U.S. has more prisoners than any other country.
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A clear majority of prisoners have committed violent crime (62.5%). Nearly five times as many prisoners are in for murder compared to drug possession (15.0% vs 3.2%).
Even non-violent offenses tend to be serious. Burglary comprises over half of the property offenses. Drug possession only accounts for a small fraction of drug crimes and just 3.2% of all inmates—and even this figure should be interpreted in the light of possible plea bargains.
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The median number of prior arrests was nine. More than three quarters have at least 5 prior arrests. Having 30+ prior arrests was more common than having no arrest other than the arrest that led to the prison sentence (i.e., 1 prior arrest).
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One study of 411 males found that the self-reported number of offenses was over 30 times greater than convictions (Farrington et al., 2014). For sexual offending, studies have estimated the dark figure to be anywhere from 6.5 to 20 times the official figure (Drury et al., 2020). In a recent study of American delinquent youths, the self-reported number of delinquent offenses was 25 for every police contact (Minkler et al., 2022).
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Compared with other highly developed nations, the United States has a much higher rate of serious crime (e.g., homicide). The high prisoner rate is a direct result of that. If we benchmark the prisoner numbers on a per-homicide basis, rather than a usual per-capita basis, the U.S. has a typical number of prisoners and an exceptionally low number of police.
The United State prefers to terrorize its citizens by financial means, chiefly those of extortion and theft, and the imminent, ever-looming threat thereof. But never convince yourself that the cops aren’t themselves criminal scumbags hardly better than the socially dysfunctional freaks they’ve incidentally set loose upon us while the menacing old, white complainers obsessively concern themselves with continually calling 911 about HOA code violations or their grandchildren having fun. There is no political solution.