Crooked Timber has an astonishing chart comparing the incarceration rate per capita in the US to that of other nations in the world. The US rate is 738 per 100,000. No other nation in the world is above 540 and the vast majority of nations, even ones with terrible human rights records, are far less than half our rate. We beat, by a longshot, nations like Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Iran. And despite that fact, we have higher rates of violent crime by a sizable margin than virtually any nation in the civilized world.
Land of the free?
Try Land of the War on Drugs.
Well, the nations with the lousy human-rights reps don't bother locking a lot of their enemies up, they just kill 'em, which has to skew the numbers a bit . . .
PieterB, that is not the case when you look at most countries on the list such as Canada and UK and Japan, none of those countries has a bad record for human rights and none of them has the death penalty. The numbers are possibly skewed in that the data from countries such as China and Russia may be suspect but even if that is so look at the discrepancy between the US and other democracies.
You have to look elsewhere to explain the discrpancy, the drug situation is more likely part of the problem as is the high level of poverty in the US compared with countires like Canada, UK, Japan etc. Perhaps it is as simple as societies that try to look after their members (health care, minimum wages etc.) have less people that ct in ways against the society. I am sure this is an oversimplification and would love to hear what others think and to see any research done.
I was specifically commenting on the nations with "with terrible human rights records" mentioned in Ed's original post -- not all nations. I hope that you didn't think I believe the USA's incarceration stats are in any way defensible.
Undoubtedly the war on drugs has a lot to do with this, since it's the reason most people are in jail. But even beyond that, what are we doing wrong? We are not the only nation where hard drugs and marijuana are illegal so it has to be something else. Going after the end users and low level dealers too often? Sentences too long for drug offenders?