every once in a while i find information that puts class war american style into a certain perspective. this morning's installment started here:
Quote:
There are roughly 2.3 million people in jails and prisons in America, more than any country in the world.
The United States has 756 people in jail per 100,000 people. No other country has more than 700, and only two are over 600 Russia (629) and Rwanda (604).
Of the 2.3 million people in American jails, 806,000 are black males. African-Americans--males and females--make up .6 percent of the entire world's population, but African-American males--alone--make up 8 percent of the entire world's prison population. I know there are people who think some kind of demon culture could create a world where a group that makes up roughly one in 200 citizens of the world, comprises one in 12 of its prisoners. But I kind of doubt it.
One final thought: If you released every black male in prison, our prison population would stand at 1.5 million, leaving us, still, with the second largest prison population in the world. Only China--a country with four times as many people--would have more (and barely--1.57 million). Russia would be a distant third with 890,000.
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Hoodlums - Ta-Nehisi Coates - National - The Atlantic
just in case you don't believe this and want the data in an easy to access form:
ICPS :School of Law :King's College London : World Prison Brief : King's College London
meanwhile, england is moving away from some of the more draconian conservative "ideas" for addressing the consequences of their degenerate views on social policy---abandoning mandatory sentencing, expanding judicial discretion, etc.:
Latest news on the criminal justice system, sentencing policy, prisons and life after jail | Society | guardian.co.uk
what this looks like is a criminalization of class conflict, a decision taken by conservatives while in power to make criminal courts less flexible, expand the range of actionable crimes and essentially use the prison system as a mechanism for siphoning off the social tensions created by their emphasis on military keynesian policies combined with a massive transfer of wealth away from 80% of the population.
what i can't figure out is why on earth anyone imagines that these outcomes are ok.
oops (posted by mistake)...
i suppose this comes to a basic philosophical question though.
do you see these rather shocking numbers concerning prison population as a reflection of neo-liberal (conservative in the states) social policy?
conversely, do you think that a more even distribution of wealth would impact upon these numbers?
or is it more a matter of smaller initiatives like, say, dismantling mandatory sentencing?
why don't more people hear about the incarceration rate more of the time?
have you noticed that when this issue pops momentarily into the "free" press, it does so around issues of prison overcrowding, which is typically presented without much context?
this is obviously a broad topic---maybe things can be narrowed or refined or questions posed or changed if the discussion takes hold...