The United States has many distinctions, but one we probably should not be proud of is that we incarcerate a higher percentage of our population than all but a few countries we probably don't want to be compared to. We aren't quite number one, but we aren't in proud company. Here are the top six:
Okay, North Korea would probably be on there if we had reliable data, but that's scant comfort. And just looking at comparable countries, we're totally off the charts:
And I hope the next picture doesn't come as a big surprise.
Welllll, you might say, maybe we have an exceptionally high crime rate. No, we don't. However, that's rather complicated. I'll take up the question of crime rates next.
No comments:
Post a Comment