Sad isn't it?! I've read it here earlier today http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2862169320080228
America - the world's leader in imprisonment
by Gopher 11 Replies latest social current
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Forscher
First, I think China's official figures on how many are incarcerated there should be taken with a grain of salt.
We certainly can't count on it to be honest with that figure. Second, China executes many more people for many more crimes than the U.S. does. We incarcerate, rather than execute, people for many of those crimes. That alone could account for the supposed lesser incarceration rate there.
I do agree that if we would give up our ridiculous war on drugs, our modern form of the failed prohibition, we could cut our incarceration rate in half. Unfortunately that war has spawned a complete industry, of both law enforcement and penal, which would fight its elimination tooth and nail. So it isn't going to happen.
Don't blame it all on conservatives, liberals had control of the law making body of the federal government for most of the time the war on drugs has been waged.
Forscher