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By now, plenty of you know that incarceration in the US is a major problem. As of 2015, 655 per 100,000 are incarcerated (the highest rate in the world). In fact, the US has a larger prison population than China, an authoritarian country with a population more than twice as large. As of 2018, 2.3 million people were behind bars in the US.
Here is a pie chart of inmates by their most serious crime:
View attachment 67240378
Decriminalizing drug use is a good start as half of federal prisoners are in for drug offenses but federal prisoners only make up 10% of the total inmate population. Most inmates are state prisoners and about half of those are in for violent crimes, very few for drug possession. Now perhaps the war on drugs is indirectly responsible for increasing violent and property crime by encouraging gang violence and leading people to steal to fund their addiction (drugs being illegal make them more expensive).
A major problem is that after inmates are done serving their sentences, many of them eventually end up back in within a few years. A 1994 analysis by the DOJ tracked the release of former inmates from 15 states for 3 years. For property crimes and illegal weapon crimes, over 70% went back to prison within 3 years. Meanwhile, only 2.5% of released rapists committed another rape and 1.2% of murderers committed another murder. The US government is putting people in jail but it isn't preparing people for life outside of the jail cells.
Another problem seems to be mandatory minimums. In the early 80s, both the state and federal governments enacted many "tough on crime policies" with mandatory minimums being one of them. Three strike laws (after the third felony, the mandatory minimum increases or maybe even life without parole) in particular may be responsible for the rise in incarceration. Another thing that came about in the 1980s were private prisons which then had an incentive to keep more people in jail (they lobby the government for stricter sentences).
Source of pie chart:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html
In contrast to the US which focuses on punishing criminals to deter crime, Norway focuses on rehabilitating criminals to prepare them for their eventual return to the outside world. In Norway, the incarceration rate is 74 per 100,000, much lower than America's 655 per 100,000. The recidivism rate over 3 years is just 20%.
other sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recidivism#Recidivism_rates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-so-successful-2014-12
Here is a pie chart of inmates by their most serious crime:
View attachment 67240378
Decriminalizing drug use is a good start as half of federal prisoners are in for drug offenses but federal prisoners only make up 10% of the total inmate population. Most inmates are state prisoners and about half of those are in for violent crimes, very few for drug possession. Now perhaps the war on drugs is indirectly responsible for increasing violent and property crime by encouraging gang violence and leading people to steal to fund their addiction (drugs being illegal make them more expensive).
A major problem is that after inmates are done serving their sentences, many of them eventually end up back in within a few years. A 1994 analysis by the DOJ tracked the release of former inmates from 15 states for 3 years. For property crimes and illegal weapon crimes, over 70% went back to prison within 3 years. Meanwhile, only 2.5% of released rapists committed another rape and 1.2% of murderers committed another murder. The US government is putting people in jail but it isn't preparing people for life outside of the jail cells.
Another problem seems to be mandatory minimums. In the early 80s, both the state and federal governments enacted many "tough on crime policies" with mandatory minimums being one of them. Three strike laws (after the third felony, the mandatory minimum increases or maybe even life without parole) in particular may be responsible for the rise in incarceration. Another thing that came about in the 1980s were private prisons which then had an incentive to keep more people in jail (they lobby the government for stricter sentences).
Source of pie chart:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html
In contrast to the US which focuses on punishing criminals to deter crime, Norway focuses on rehabilitating criminals to prepare them for their eventual return to the outside world. In Norway, the incarceration rate is 74 per 100,000, much lower than America's 655 per 100,000. The recidivism rate over 3 years is just 20%.
other sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recidivism#Recidivism_rates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-so-successful-2014-12