Guess what I learned this week:
The U.S. has more people in prison than anywhere else in the world. China has four times the population of the United States, and their numbers pale in comparison to ours.
For every 100,000 Americans, 751 are incarcerated.
Gives me a lot to chew on.
9 comments:
WOW on those stats!! Does give you something to chew on. I watched a documentary that says how China and Japan's justice system works. They showed people coming before their judicial system. It's no wonder why they don't have nearly as many people in prison as we do. They don't kid around and they do what they say they're going to do to criminals.
has to show something about our country.
Well...the thing is China tends to kill people rather than imprison them, and that makes the statistics look a little skewed. It is true however, that we're sending more people to jail, and for longer, than we should. It's totally time to rethink the "three strike" rule when you consider the fact that there are people in jail for life because shoplifting a loaf of bread was their "third strike." Disgraceful.
And guess what I learned last week - high security prisons allow for more space per person than the vast majority of public schools....!
christine-
i have so enjoyed your blog the last few weeks, ever since i discovered a link to it on my friend jeana's blog. i thought i should finally "introduce " myself and say "thanks" for all the helpful hints and insightful commentary.
as far as this particular post i always immediately think about how many of those prisoners were foster kids. i don't know the exact number, but it is huge. it is heartbreaking.
i know you are involved in the foster system in OK and i've been wanting to ask your perspective on it as my family and i are actually relocating to OKC this summer and would like to pursue foster parenting there. we were foster parents and adopted through the system when we lived in CA but i know each state is very different.
ok-enough talking and time to listen. if you'd be willing to address the OK foster system in a post or a comment i would totally appreciate it.
thanks again for sharing your life with all of your readers. i have learned, grown, and been encouraged for the time spent "in your brain".
kristal
Still chewing. Have a little stuck in my teeth at the moment.
Kristal, got back to you on your blog!
Have you been listening to NPR???
Not sure China is a model of Human Right Defense...really do you think China keeps accurate records? If they keep accurate records, do you really think they report them truthfully? Let just say they do, their rampant imprisonment of Christians is something that leaves me hollow...let's set the bar a little higher for the good old USA...maybe France :).
Prison cells are also the fastest growing housing segment in the United States--and have been, for a while. And when you look at race in the prison system, you can see why lots of African American scholars say that the prison industrial system is THE race issue of the twentieth (and so far twenty-first) century as slavery was in the nineteenth.
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