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Prison Map

prisonmap.com

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Re: Prison Map

#11

Post by adityasankar »

sandworm wrote: post #8

Prisons are the symptom, not the disease. They are the visible end result of social policies. Those policies are dictated by an elected government. It far easier to criticize prisons than to address the beliefs that create them. America lacks any proper mental health care for the poor, a political decision. America lacks proper treatment programs for drug addiction, a political decision. America prides itself on bein…

Not a US citizen, but I was under the impression that the "War on Drugs" was another major contributor to incarceration. Intent to sell (bad) and indeed even possession (harmless?) of marijuana could land you in jail, correct?

Re: Prison Map

#12

Post by sandworm »

adityasankar wrote: post #11
sandworm wrote: post #8

Prisons are the symptom, not the disease. They are the visible end result of social policies. Those policies are dictated by an elected government. It far easier to criticize prisons than to address the beliefs that create them. America lacks any proper mental health care for the poor, a political decision. America lacks proper treatment programs for drug addiction, a political decision. America prides itself on bein…

Not a US citizen, but I was under the impression that the "War on Drugs" was another major contributor to incarceration. Intent to sell (bad) and indeed even possession (harmless?) of marijuana could land you in jail, correct?

Yes. Drugs, at least the illegal ones, can/do/will land you in jail and eventually prison. Marijuana possession alone is enough, depending on how much you have and/or how it is packages (ie "with intent to distribute"). This depends on which state you are in, whether you are caught while crossing a state line (air travel) and the colour of the uniform on the officer who catches you (federal v. state). Some states have decriminalized possession but the US fed has not.

As a general rule, US "jails" house people awaiting trial and/or serving short sentences. "Prisons" house people with more than one year to serve. Prisons are generally much nicer places than jails.

(I went to a US law school, spent lots of time dealing with low-level offenders all of which were drug related. It's a horrible horrible system.)

Re: Prison Map

#13

Post by discardorama »

tzs wrote: post #4

> And there are more jails and prisons than colleges and universities in this country This seems reasonable to me, considering how people end up in jail and college, respectively. College is something people generally go to voluntarily, with the consent of their family, and generally at a time when they are transitioning from living with the parents as a dependent to living as an independent adult. They are looking f…

> This seems reasonable to me, considering how people end up in jail and college, respectively.

On the other hand: we are spending about $35K per prisoner per year, which is more than we spend on college students...

Re: Prison Map

#14

Post by rhino369 »

adityasankar wrote: post #11
sandworm wrote: post #8

Prisons are the symptom, not the disease. They are the visible end result of social policies. Those policies are dictated by an elected government. It far easier to criticize prisons than to address the beliefs that create them. America lacks any proper mental health care for the poor, a political decision. America lacks proper treatment programs for drug addiction, a political decision. America prides itself on bein…

Not a US citizen, but I was under the impression that the "War on Drugs" was another major contributor to incarceration. Intent to sell (bad) and indeed even possession (harmless?) of marijuana could land you in jail, correct?

While simple possession could land you in jail, it's very rare for that to happen. There are 750,000 weed arrests in the US and maybe 500 people are in jail for simple possession only.

The big way weed gets you to jail is because it's a conviction that breaks your parole and you get sent back for your previous crime.

Re: Prison Map

#15

Post by dang »

MichaelAO wrote: post #6

Probably should have posted this link instead: http://prisonmap.com/ Edit: Pretty cool why/how he got satellite imagery of all 4,916 facilities ( http://prisonmap.com/about )

Thanks, we changed the url to that from http://www.wired.com/2015/01/josh-begley-prison-map/.

It was posted 4 times previously to HN, including twice 3 years ago, but has not had significant attention.

Re: Prison Map

#16

Post by discardorama »

beloch wrote: post #9
tzs wrote: post #4

> And there are more jails and prisons than colleges and universities in this country This seems reasonable to me, considering how people end up in jail and college, respectively. College is something people generally go to voluntarily, with the consent of their family, and generally at a time when they are transitioning from living with the parents as a dependent to living as an independent adult. They are looking f…

To put things in perspective, the U.S. has the second largest incarceration rate in the world, behind only Seychelles, which is tiny enough to be statistically aberrant. Despite the many similarities of Canada to the U.S., Canada has just one sixth the number of people in prison. With this statistic in mind you'd think the lawless streets of Canada would be far more violent and dangerous than those of the U.S., but e…

> The best theory I've seen put forth is that prison's are a booming for-profit industry in the U.S., and profits breed corruption.

Corruption need not be direct, or directly for profit. The Corrections Officers' Union in California is a formidable force. They can make sure that only those "tough on crime(tm)" get elected; and until recently, they were all for prison expansion, harsher sentencing (remember "three strikes"?), etc.

But, thankfully, recently they seem to have been shown to be defeatable: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/09/california-prison-g...

Re: Prison Map

#17

Post by [deleted] »

rhino369 wrote: post #14
adityasankar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a US citizen, but I was under the impression that the "War on Drugs" was another major contributor to incarceration. Intent to sell (bad) and indeed even possession (harmless?) of marijuana could land you in jail, correct?

While simple possession could land you in jail, it's very rare for that to happen. There are 750,000 weed arrests in the US and maybe 500 people are in jail for simple possession only. The big way weed gets you to jail is because it's a conviction that breaks your parole and you get sent back for your previous crime.

[deleted]

Re: Prison Map

#18

Post by crdoconnor »

sandworm wrote: post #8

Prisons are the symptom, not the disease. They are the visible end result of social policies. Those policies are dictated by an elected government. It far easier to criticize prisons than to address the beliefs that create them. America lacks any proper mental health care for the poor, a political decision. America lacks proper treatment programs for drug addiction, a political decision. America prides itself on bein…

>Those policies are dictated by an elected government.

Oligarchy is responsible for the biggest abuses of the prison system, NOT "dictatorship by an elected government".

The fundamental driving forces of the high number of prisoners is the push for more draconian policies by corporations that build prisons (> profits) and corporations that use them as a cheap source of labor (> profits).

>America prides itself on being "tough" on crime

"Tough on crime" was the marketing message used to ensure compliance by the electorate. Like all sales pitches, it did not accurately depict the actual product - e.g. mandatory sentencing for non-violent drug offences.

Re: Prison Map

#19

Post by pcthrowaway »

rhino369 wrote: post #14
adityasankar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a US citizen, but I was under the impression that the "War on Drugs" was another major contributor to incarceration. Intent to sell (bad) and indeed even possession (harmless?) of marijuana could land you in jail, correct?

While simple possession could land you in jail, it's very rare for that to happen. There are 750,000 weed arrests in the US and maybe 500 people are in jail for simple possession only. The big way weed gets you to jail is because it's a conviction that breaks your parole and you get sent back for your previous crime.

Please do some research on this. I guarantee you there are more than 500 people in jail at any given time for possession of weed. At least two out of roughly 40 people in my pod when I spent a week in jail were there for possession of marijuana alone.

Re: Prison Map

#20

Post by marincounty »

rhino369 wrote: post #14
adityasankar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a US citizen, but I was under the impression that the "War on Drugs" was another major contributor to incarceration. Intent to sell (bad) and indeed even possession (harmless?) of marijuana could land you in jail, correct?

While simple possession could land you in jail, it's very rare for that to happen. There are 750,000 weed arrests in the US and maybe 500 people are in jail for simple possession only. The big way weed gets you to jail is because it's a conviction that breaks your parole and you get sent back for your previous crime.

I know a guy who went to the Midwest to sell small amounts of weed. Some "Silm Shady" type bought from said friend. Slim Shady decided to shoot someone over a bag. Said friend is in jail for 20 years. Said friend knew nothing of the murder, but the judge felt said friend should be punished--because he supplied an Idiot with weed, and broke federal and state law. The sad part is somehow he talked his brother into joining him in the Midwest. 'Hay, leave your Waiter position. We can sell small amounts of Mendocino's finest, and as long as we keep the weight low; we can live comfortably, with low risk.' His older brother got caught up in the drama, and was thrown in ail along with his brother. The judge called them Drug Kingpings. They found less than a pound of weed in the house, but still threw the book at the two.
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