For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator.And remember: They hate us because we're free.
Friday, February 29, 2008
The 1% Solution
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Remember what Ayn Rand said in Atlas Shrugged:
"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. "- Ayn Rand
That's a great quote Stephen. I saw the 1% statistic in the Wall Street Journal this morning, depressing. Especially since it doesn't raise any red flags to the bulk of the population. How could we possibly have the world's most criminal citizens, I mean civillians?
I was once told by a retired deputy: "By the time you get up and eat breakfast you have broken a bunch of laws. Live your life and don't worry about it. They can arrest anyone at any time."
Looks like Ayn Rand was right. The powers that be WANT to make criminals out of us, just so they can threaten us with incarceration if we don't do what they say. And they're doing it doubletime on guns so they don't have to face any pesky uprisings.
How is the prison population divided with respect to the crimes? If the majority are violent crimes, it's not necessarily a bad thing, except for the fact that 49 billion is quite a price to pay for pretending that a Citizen's right to defend himself does not exist.
I have no further arguments without actual, detailed data. The Pew Center also picks 1988 for a comparison year for spending without explanation. Anyway, more detailed information can be found here, and a detailed report containing methodology is linked here, (although I can't verify because I have yet to read it in its entirety.)
Here's why it's a bad thing regardless of the percentages for this crime or that, TJH: It reflects on the utter failure of government and society as a whole--from a system that incubates and fosters personally and societally destructive dependencies and behaviors, and that implements and enforces policies where crime is the inevitable and predictable unintended consequence--with the ultimate result that we all live less free.
How many of those people locked up are there on drugs, well, because of drugs? Be it use, distribution, growing, whatever. How many are the because of crimes committed to further their habit and to pay for the artificially high cost due to unconstitutional prohibition? How about people who hurt nobody but went against one of the BS laws that target other behaviors that hurt no one else?
related, volokh had this:
http://volokh.com/posts/chain_1204226748.shtml
looking at prison vs mental institution rates the other day. I wonder if the Ohio governor's plan to close mental hospitals will have any bearing on this in the near future.
That's what I'm thinking, Hairy Hobbit, but I read the report since my first post, and they didn't list crimes committed, sentence lengths, and their demographics include only age and race categories.
Here are several other things I think we should consider:
Incarceration rates rise and fall. The reason I picked on their reporting period is because they purposely trimmed the range of data to suggest that it's only been going up. Notable drops in incarceration rate in the 20th Century occurred during wars [1].
All incarceration rates aren't comparable. It's a good idea to keep in mind, when comparing historical rates with other countries, that Germany had a drastic decline in its incarceration rate in the 1940s. I include this point because the Pew Center report supports its case by comparing our rates to those of the PRC.
I'm going to double-check this, but their explanation of methodology suggests that the data was a "snapshot" from the first of the year.[I double-checked: their snapshot was New Years Day, and the numbers were estimated -- see report page 24.] Also: longer sentences will increase incarceration rates over time.
I'm not sitting here celebrating, wearing a big foam finger that says "#1", but the incarceration debate has been manipulated in various ways for political points in the past, so I'm going to be skeptical.
I think it's very important to know the specific crimes and distribution of sentence lengths, especially in a state where one can be charged with being a gun trafficker by being a victim of burglary.
Oh David, you don't support the troops, you're with All-Quaaeedaa. I'm being facetious. I can't take the neocons anymore. Come November, we'll be hearing how 'conservative' McCain is, and how he'll keep us safe from All-Quaaeedaa.
Most people who are imprisoned by the government do not deserve to be. Most are convicted of counterfeit "laws" such as non-violent drug offenses and such. Add to those the "tax" offenders, those imprisoned for gun offenses, sex offenses between consensual parties, and on and on. It is clear too many people are imprisoned, whether we stay "number one" or not.
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