Prison population in the U.S. vs. in "other lands"

[Boost Assendahm]

Have read recently to the level of boredom how much more of a prison population the U.S. has per capita than most every other forward thinking country on the planet. Reasons given are that we arrest and convict too many people for frivolous crimes and not enough for white collar crimes against the regular folks and the economy in general.

Seems to me (no in depth study to link for those of us who can't breathe or crap without a link) that a huge percentage of our incarcerated are repeat, recycled, reprocessed losers. Talk about a waste of the peoples' money. I'm all in favor of much more effort given to throwing the Wall Street ass wipes in with the general prison population on first offenses to send a message if not cure a societal ill. And for minor drug offenses, particularly marijuana, prison does nothing to correct that business model. Never has. Never will.

And for the so called "serious" or "violent" criminals, there should be a tiered approach to ending their ambitions and/or tendencies. Like for the files jamming repeat offenders, 4th offense = death, no appeals, no delays. Not sure if we the people want to reduce the prison population or to increase it. But if the goal is reduction in population, there are pretty simple and cost efficient ways to achieve that in very short order.

Maybe we have a comparatively large prison population primarily because we are SOFT on crime (real crime) and allow the ever popular (comically so) repeat offenders to enjoy chance after chance after chance to cost all of us lots and lots and lots of money.

Everyone knows our education system needs fixing. And our justice system needs some serious accountability. Not sure most of us even care about either.

 

[dieharddawg62]

I do. The recent fines levied against the banks for manipulating currency rates is a joke. It's stone cold stealing and no one is going to jail. They stole 85 billion and were fined 3. That's a real deterrent. The 85 billion was stolen from someone.

This is how capitalism will fail! Greed that will destroy all trust in the markets and they will eventually collapse.

Idiots!

 

[letthebigdogeat]

I do. The recent fines levied against the banks for manipulating currency rates is a joke. It's stone cold stealing and no one is going to jail. They stole 85 billion and were fined 3. That's a real deterrent. The 85 billion was stolen from someone.

This is how capitalism will fail! Greed that will destroy all trust in the markets and they will eventually collapse.

Idiots!

That's not capitalism, it's just criminal behavior. One of the ways that this has been allowed to happen is because these banks are "too big to fail". They never should have been bailed out during the meltdown. If they had stuck to their core business, they wouldn't have gotten in trouble, but they got greedy and entered shaky speculative markets with the default options and the mortgage backed securities. The right move would have been to allow one or more to go under, and hold their officers and boards responsible for deposits on hand. Do that and you wouldn't have had any bank failures. Oh, and it wouldn't have cost all of us $800,000,000,000 (why yes, I typed all the zeros out for effect)

 

[Dawg to the Bone]

This is an issue caused by many variables and due to the diversity of the cultures in our society I am not sure the USA is even comparable to other nations. Drug laws are unenforceable as they currently stand and need to be reconsidered. When almost 50% of the offenders incarcerated are there because of drug offenses, there is a problem. When Freddie Grey has been arrested 18 times mostly for drugs, how do you change that? That is about 15 times we wasted tax money and resources on prosecuting (and probably defending) him just to put him back out on the street.

The whole system needs to be reevaluated. Some suggestions off the top of my head based on no research, etc.:

Long term prison should be for violent offenders and offenders committing forcible felonies only.
The death penalty needs to be reevaluated and appeals limited and carried out in a timely manner or did away with. Our justice system has made it a joke.
Most non violent crimes need a short term alternative like work farms. Get in, do your time, get out.
Maybe we should consider a type of mandatory service (merchant marine, a special military branch) for repeat offenders.
Maybe we need a relocation plan for repeat offenders. If you can't behave in your community, we will move you away from your bad influences to somewhere else.

 

[dieharddawg62]

That's not capitalism, it's just criminal behavior. One of the ways that this has been allowed to happen is because these banks are "too big to fail". They never should have been bailed out during the meltdown. If they had stuck to their core business, they wouldn't have gotten in trouble, but they got greedy and entered shaky speculative markets with the default options and the mortgage backed securities. The right move would have been to allow one or more to go under, and hold their officers and boards responsible for deposits on hand. Do that and you wouldn't have had any bank failures. Oh, and it wouldn't have cost all of us $800,000,000,000 (why yes, I typed all the zeros out for effect)

I didn't say it was capitalism. I said that this is how capitalism will fail...greed pure and simple!

 

[Radi Nabulsi]

I do. The recent fines levied against the banks for manipulating currency rates is a joke. It's stone cold stealing and no one is going to jail. They stole 85 billion and were fined 3. That's a real deterrent. The 85 billion was stolen from someone.

This is how capitalism will fail! Greed that will destroy all trust in the markets and they will eventually collapse.

Idiots!

When I saw that officials were "considering" individual prosecutions I about blew a gasket. How the hell do yuo expect to stop stuff like this if yu don't throw folks in jail who committed the crime? "Well they lost their jobs...' so what? So did the guy arrested for DUI the second time.

 

[letthebigdogeat]

I didn't say it was capitalism. I said that this is how capitalism will fail...greed pure and simple!

Gotcha. I guess I was trying to point out that these leaches, who usually support Democrat candidates (shocking), game the system, and the Occupy crowd scream that Capitalism doesn't work.

 

[dieharddawg62]

Gotcha. I guess I was trying to point out that these leaches, who usually support Democrat candidates (shocking), game the system, and the Occupy crowd scream that Capitalism doesn't work.

Agree, we are watching the downfall of capitalism. Crony capitalism is not capitalism. Resources are not distributed by the highest and best price, they are fixed by idiots that have the power to do so. Republicans do more damage to capitalism that liberals ever could by corrupting what it really is through greed and control of markets. That's what they did when they rigged the currency markets in there favor. They knew they wouldn't go to jail. The justice system has been bought and paid for by banks. This is just the beginning. It's all coming down. The markets can't be trusted. This is how it fails.

 

[Boost Assendahm]

Agree, we are watching the downfall of capitalism. Crony capitalism is not capitalism. Resources are not distributed by the highest and best price, they are fixed by idiots that have the power to do so. Republicans do more damage to capitalism that liberals ever could by corrupting what it really is through greed and control of markets. That's what they did when they rigged the currency markets in there favor. They knew they wouldn't go to jail. The justice system has been bought and paid for by banks. This is just the beginning. It's all coming down. The markets can't be trusted. This is how it fails.

Is this "Mr. Robot?"

 

[JungleRecon]

Have read recently to the level of boredom how much more of a prison population the U.S. has per capita than most every other forward thinking country on the planet. Reasons given are that we arrest and convict too many people for frivolous crimes and not enough for white collar crimes against the regular folks and the economy in general.

Seems to me (no in depth study to link for those of us who can't breathe or crap without a link) that a huge percentage of our incarcerated are repeat, recycled, reprocessed losers. Talk about a waste of the peoples' money. I'm all in favor of much more effort given to throwing the Wall Street ass wipes in with the general prison population on first offenses to send a message if not cure a societal ill. And for minor drug offenses, particularly marijuana, prison does nothing to correct that business model. Never has. Never will.

And for the so called "serious" or "violent" criminals, there should be a tiered approach to ending their ambitions and/or tendencies. Like for the files jamming repeat offenders, 4th offense = death, no appeals, no delays. Not sure if we the people want to reduce the prison population or to increase it. But if the goal is reduction in population, there are pretty simple and cost efficient ways to achieve that in very short order.

Maybe we have a comparatively large prison population primarily because we are SOFT on crime (real crime) and allow the ever popular (comically so) repeat offenders to enjoy chance after chance after chance to cost all of us lots and lots and lots of money.

Everyone knows our education system needs fixing. And our justice system needs some serious accountability. Not sure most of us even care about either.

Just like to point out that less than 1% of the prison population is comprised of people who got caught with weed. So, don't fall for that lib argument when you hear them spew it.

 

[letthebigdogeat]

Just like to point out that less than 1% of the prison population is comprised of people who got caught with weed. So, don't fall for that lib argument when you hear them spew it.

But, but, but, it IS mostly weed convictions, and all the cop killers, rapists, and pedafiles were unjustly convicted anyway! You're mean, using all those facts and stuff.

 

[bwarren10]

Agree, we are watching the downfall of capitalism. Crony capitalism is not capitalism. Resources are not distributed by the highest and best price, they are fixed by idiots that have the power to do so. Republicans do more damage to capitalism that liberals ever could by corrupting what it really is through greed and control of markets. That's what they did when they rigged the currency markets in there favor. They knew they wouldn't go to jail. The justice system has been bought and paid for by banks. This is just the beginning. It's all coming down. The markets can't be trusted. This is how it fails.

"That's what they did when they rigged currency markets in their favor."

Can you elaborate on this statement?