One out of every 100 Americans is in prison, the highest incarceration rate in the world.
American Blacks and Whites do the same amount of drugs but TEN TIMES as many blacks go to jail for it than whites. With racism having nothing to do with it – we are past that – it must be something else. Um… Like… Hmm… OBAMA! Or Guatemalan children!
I wonder if there might be some correlation to the United States also having the most gun deaths.
So what’s really driving the highest prison rate in the world? I have Googled for an hour and the answer eludes me. Surprisingly I found drug offenses are only about 30% of those in prison. My guess is most people are in prison for probation and parole violations. Though Googling I did find that mandatory sentencing, longer sentencing by far than any other nation on Earth, housing mental patients and handing over prisons to private companies who get state contracts to guarantee 90% occupancy rates have the most to do with it.
John Oliver is correct in that we all like to shove this issue aside. I especially wonder about how Sheriff Joe Apiao gets away with making thousands of inmates where pink underwear and house them in 135 degree tents when they haven’t even been found guilty of anything. And what a hero Joe Apiao is to Republicans, the Tea Party and anyone with more guns than brains.