The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.Why we cut off our noses to spite our faces on a daily basis mystifies us too. But we're over being appalled.
Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.
Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.
Those not yet numbed by the horror can look at the 2006 stats, much the same as the 2008 ones above. The tee vee bit was inspired by Sen. Jim Webb, who's been at it since March or so. Took from then until now for it to reach the national consciousness, such as it is, which is why we say "Give up now, it's useless."
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