Prisoner numbers
 

I just heard on Sky News that there is an average of 1 in 100 American males in prison at the moment. I was shocked to hear this figure. It didn't give a breakdown of what they're in prison for but statistics are available.

Does this shock anyone else or is it just me?

the story I saw said 1 in 100 adults, which is even more shocking.

We have much lower numbers of female prisoners in Australia.

I suspect that figure is for male prisoners, which suggests that the overall figure is even higher for the total number.

I've done a quick search and the detention rates for Australia and the UK are a bit over .1% of the population in total.

I know you only posted this because you hate Americans, but we're appalled at the numbers as well. Once we get the Republicans out of the White House and hopefully get a Democrat with some guts, we may be able to shut down the drug war. Maybe it is wishful thinking, but you got to have hope (tm).

This is untrue, but I know you only said that because you hate Australians.

And just to prove it, there are facts concerning Australian prisoner numbers that I find equally shocking (and wouldn't have been aware of had it not been for what I just heard on the news) such as the fact that 24% of our total prisoner population is made up of indigenous Australians. This is shocking because indigenous Australians make up only 1% of the population.

Nope.

I think the statistic I found most saddening about the British prison population is the incredibly high percentage who have literacy problems and the equally high percentage who have mental health problems. Our prisons are full of people who've been thoroughly let down and in many cases outright abandoned by the state from a fairly young age.

I was surprised/horrified/interested to read today that Michigan is one of four states who spend more on prisons than on higher education ($1.19/$1). It would never have occurred to me to investigate that statistic, but now I've seen it, I wonder how it is justified and how much of the $ cross over -how many prisoners are pursuing further education in jail and where is that $ coming from?

http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2...states_to.html

I wonder if prison guards get paid more than teachers.

good question. I know how much Ann Arbor teachers are paid, but higher Ed is a different ballpark and there's no way prison guards get paid more than that.

I work with a bunch of kids who have a parent in prison. I can't imagine being a prison guard, unbelievably depressing work.

One of my cousins is a prison guard. He likes it much better than being a carpenter. I guess he might change his mind the first time someone decides to get a bit cute though.

I would think it would be a crushing bore punctuated with occasional moments of extreme terror.

whatever number it is, I'm left wondering--

how low would be a "good" number of people in prison?

:headshake