1 in 100 U.S. Adults have been to jail

Spend_day · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:18

at the risk of creating an i hate america thread am i the only one who thinks thats really stupidly high

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/u...t&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Defcon5 · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:19

That is an insane amount, surely it cant mean they have all served a custodial sentance?

Spend_day · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:22

does any1 know what the british stat is

weringo · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:23

Doesn't seem that high :confused:

Pookie Bear · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:28

Hmmmm, so 1% of the adult population of the US of A has been found guilty of breaking the law and punished by serving time in prison. I dunno, but 1 in 100 doesn't seem all that high. I mean, I am acquainted with a few hundred people and I know half a dozen people who have been to prison. And before you ask, I'm a law-abiding citizen

Zenith · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:30

The thread title is wrong it should read "1 in 100 US Adults are in jail" which does seem quite a lot.

gillywibble · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:30

According to the HMPrison website, the average number of prisoners in UK jails in 2006/2007 was 78880 which equates to 0.12% of the population.

Sauce - clicky

Spend_day · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:31

in my life of 19 years i have met 3 or 4 people who have done jail time

Spend_day · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:33

Zenith said:
The thread title is wrong it should read "1 in 100 US Adults are in jail" which does seem quite a lot.

sorry i copied it from the title on the webpage blame them lol then changed the ending

platypus · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:34

I think that a slightly more worrying statistic is that since the year 2000, 1 in 11 Americans going to jail has been sent there for life.

surfsquid · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:34

Spend_day said:
in my life of 19 years i have met 3 or 4 people who I know have done jail time

edited for truth.

Sankari · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:45

Spend_day said:
at the risk of creating an i hate america thread am i the only one who thinks thats really stupidly high

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/u...t&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Actually, it's "1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars". Which is even worse than "1 in 100 U.S. Adults have been to jail", since the former requires the latter to be true, but the latter does not require the former to be true.

It's an obscenely high amount - and somewhat ironic, considering that the US began as a British penal colony.

The question is, does this reflect legitimately tougher sentencing, unusually high crime rates, draconian legislation, or a combination of these factors?

Nitefly · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:46

They're trying to build a prison, they're trying to build a prison....!

It is a shockingly high amount.

platypus · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:57

Evangelion said:
It's an obscenely high amount - and somewhat ironic, considering that the US began as a British penal colony.

Not sure that's entirely accurate?

OpenToSuggestions · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:59

Zenith said:
The thread title is wrong it should read "1 in 100 US Adults are in jail" which does seem quite a lot.

I can see it being true. As you can pick up a gun at your grocery store I can easily see how how many have broken the law

Sankari · 29 Feb 2008 at 13:59

platypus said:
Not sure that's entirely accurate?

It is entirely accurate. North American was used as a British penal colony for nearly 150 years.

platypus · 29 Feb 2008 at 14:06

Evangelion said:
It is entirely accurate. North American was used as a British penal colony for nearly 150 years.

Indeed it was, but was it started as a Penal colony? I don't think it was.

Sankari · 29 Feb 2008 at 14:12

platypus said:
Indeed it was, but was it started as a Penal colony? I don't think it was.

That's true enough; I must confess to some exaggeration. Georgia was the first penal colony, and the 13th British colony. So the policy did begin at a very early stage.

platypus · 29 Feb 2008 at 14:14

Evangelion said:
That's true enough; I must confess to some exaggeration. Georgia was the first penal colony, and the 13th British colony. So the policy did begin at a very early stage.

Sorry, I wasn't really trying to be pedantic. For probably the first time I can remember :eek:

.

Sankari · 29 Feb 2008 at 14:22

platypus said:
Sorry, I wasn't really trying to be pedantic. For probably the first time I can remember .

No probs; I'm a pedant myself, and would have done the same thing if our roles were reversed.