filed under Activism | America | Civil Rights | National Media | Social Justice
America Behind Bars
11:34PM ON
04/23/2008
BY
Ariel Werner
For some reason, it takes fancily-worded articles in the New York Times for my family and friends to realize what I’ve been hollering about for years… America’s addiction to incarceration. Anyway, props to Adam Liptak for consistently bringing these issues to public eye. Today, Liptak sheds light on an important and staggering statistic: that the US, with 5% of the world’s population, incarcerates nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners. He writes:
Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.
Oh, and speaking of crimes that would not produce prison sentences in other countries, scope my bit on how lil’ Rhody incarcerates its debtors in this week’s Phoenix.
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4 Comments on “ America Behind Bars ”
April 24th, 2008 at 6:08AM
JOE BERNSTEIN Says:
Too many people are locked up on drug possession charges.Most other states such as New York have misdemeanor violations for smaller amounts of hard drugs-not RI,and additionally RI has the most ridiculous long probation sentences I’ve ever seen.
The imprisonment for not paying”costs”is counter-productive if the individual is not re-offending otherwise.
Aliens(legal and illegal) serving sentences for non-violent or less serious drug offenses should be deported in lieu of being incarcerated at state expense.I’m not suggesting this apply to violent or other serious felons or drug traffickers.
Then maybe sexual predators won’t be able to hit the street until they’re on walkers,or maybe never at all.
[Reply]
April 24th, 2008 at 7:11AM
Not the whole story... Says:
Try getting at the root sources of crime - not making life easier for those who commit them!
Also from the NYT article -
“As one might expect, a good case can be made that fewer Americans are now being victimized” thanks to the tougher crime policies, Paul G. Cassell, an authority on sentencing and a former federal judge, wrote in The Stanford Law Review.
From 1981 to 1996, according to Justice Department statistics, the risk of punishment rose in the United States and fell in England. The crime rates predictably moved in the opposite directions, falling in the United States and rising in England.
“These figures,” Mr. Cassell wrote, “should give one pause before too quickly concluding that European sentences are appropriate.”
Other commentators were more definitive. “The simple truth is that imprisonment works,” wrote Kent Scheidegger and Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in The Stanford Law and Policy Review. “Locking up criminals for longer periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far offset the costs.”
[Reply]
April 24th, 2008 at 1:02PM
JOE BERNSTEIN Says:
Use the space to lock up predatory criminals-sex offenders,robbers,burglars,and the randomly violent thugs who attack others with no provocation.Also commercial level drug traffickers.
.Have shorter terms of probation with more intensive supervision.I am no kind of liberal or bleeding heart.I just believe in putting resources where they are likely to do the most good.
[Reply]
April 29th, 2008 at 11:26AM
Adam Liptak Strikes Again | Providence Daily Dose Says:
[...] time with a commentary on race and the death penalty. I’m starting to love this guy. In today’s Times, Liptak examines a forthcoming study by the Houston Law Review on racial [...]