Wednesday, April 23, 2008

We're Still #1

That's in terms of the number of people in jail. That's according to this year's study by the International Center for Prison Studies. We have 751 people locked away for every 100,000 people; the world average is 125. Only Russia with 627 is close.

It's only been in the past 30 years that we have turned in such a stellar performance. Our rate in 1975 was 110. Another change is in the number of people in jail for drugs; in 1980 there were about 40,000; today there are - sit down - 500,000. How much does this add to the cost of our war - it's always a war - on drugs.

One reason why we have so many people in jail is the length of our sentences, which are two - three times as long as those of other countries.

Advocates of keeping these people in jail point to a lower crime rate. But Canada and the US have had about the same crime rate for years even though the rate of imprisonment in Canada has stayed the same while ours has skyrocketed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Illegal drugs would be second only to oil if it were traded on the commodities exchange. I still think that is why we attacked Afghanistan - the Taliban had stopped the production of poppies (that and the oil pipeline). The advantage of money from drugs over money from oil is those pesky taxes.