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U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

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Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#31

Post by masklinn »

eterm wrote: post #30
masklinn wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we ever decriminalize Marijuana at the Federal level, that seems to me like it would mean millions of prisoners held for offenses involving only that drug would need to be set free. Decriminalisation isn't necessarily retroactive, that it's now legal or less illegal doesn't mean it was at the time of conviction. For instance despite the Labouchere Amendment ("gross indencency") having been mostly repealed in 196…

Not just Turing, people still alive are still under great injustice, because it was only Turing who received a pardon. Pardons should have been provided to everyone convicted under those laws.

Completely true.

Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#32

Post by disposablezero »

acbabis wrote: post #27
disposablezero wrote: post #26

Still far-and-away the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world, despite post-truth libertarian propaganda.

Who has a higher rate?

??? Not one major country. The US is the highest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...

Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#34

Post by r00fus »

rayiner wrote: post #20
ClayFerguson wrote: post #12

If we ever decriminalize Marijuana at the Federal level, that seems to me like it would mean millions of prisoners held for offenses involving only that drug would need to be set free. In my mind it is a horrible injustice to jail people for a relatively harmless substance like THC. I think in 100 years, more evolved humans will look back on the THC incarcerations the same way we now look upon the Salem Witch trials,…

There are not millions of people being held for offenses only involving marijuana: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/dofp12.pdf (page 2). There's about 95,000 people in federal prison with a drug offense as their most serious charge. About 11,500 of those charges involved primarily marijuana. (The overwhelming majority of that is for trafficking, not possession.) Rolling Stone estimated about 40,000 people in priso…

Don't a lot of these convicted end up in state or local prisons ?

Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#35

Post by woof »

acbabis wrote: post #27
disposablezero wrote: post #26

Still far-and-away the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world, despite post-truth libertarian propaganda.

Who has a higher rate?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-th...

I believe US numbers excludes juvenile detention, but hey...

Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#36

Post by nodamage »

rayiner wrote: post #20
ClayFerguson wrote: post #12

If we ever decriminalize Marijuana at the Federal level, that seems to me like it would mean millions of prisoners held for offenses involving only that drug would need to be set free. In my mind it is a horrible injustice to jail people for a relatively harmless substance like THC. I think in 100 years, more evolved humans will look back on the THC incarcerations the same way we now look upon the Salem Witch trials,…

There are not millions of people being held for offenses only involving marijuana: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/dofp12.pdf (page 2). There's about 95,000 people in federal prison with a drug offense as their most serious charge. About 11,500 of those charges involved primarily marijuana. (The overwhelming majority of that is for trafficking, not possession.) Rolling Stone estimated about 40,000 people in priso…

It's pretty misleading to look only at federal inmates as they're a relatively small percentage of the overall prison population. There are currently 189,520 total federal inmates (https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/population_statistics.j...) out of the total 2,173,800 incarcerated individuals (as per original article) in the US. Probably better to look for a figure that includes state prisons and local jails as well.

Edit: here's a handy infographic: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html

Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#37

Post by Spooky23 »

starik36 wrote: post #33

When they "drug related crimes"... does that mean these people are in prison for using/selling drugs or for robbing a liquor store to pay for drugs? Because that would skew the stats significantly.

Both. The numbers are skewed.

If you're sitting on your driveway in a chair with a beer and your neighbor backs his car into you, it's an alcohol related accident.

Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#38

Post by timmaxw »

indigo_rex wrote: post #28
austincheney wrote: post #24

The data indicates just how much Americans need to use drugs. Imagine how big the numbers get when you scoop in prescription drugs in addition to prohibited substances. Clearly drug use is more important to large number of Americans than risk of incarceration. Why does America have such a greater drug fascination than perhaps every other country?

I'm not confirming or denying that the US has maybe the worst drug problem in the world - seems plausible. But, on addiction (slightly different, but related), Rat Park is an interesting point of focus. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-...

Follow-up studies were unable to reproduce the Rat Park results.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9148292?dopt=Abstract

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2616610?dopt=Abstract

Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#39

Post by 1_2__3 »

nodamage wrote: post #36
rayiner wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are not millions of people being held for offenses only involving marijuana: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/dofp12.pdf (page 2). There's about 95,000 people in federal prison with a drug offense as their most serious charge. About 11,500 of those charges involved primarily marijuana. (The overwhelming majority of that is for trafficking, not possession.) Rolling Stone estimated about 40,000 people in priso…

It's pretty misleading to look only at federal inmates as they're a relatively small percentage of the overall prison population. There are currently 189,520 total federal inmates ( https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/population_statistics.j... ) out of the total 2,173,800 incarcerated individuals (as per original article) in the US. Probably better to look for a figure that includes state prisons and local jails as…

So if you're right then doesn't that mean that half of all federal inmates are there for marijuana possession?

Re: U.S. Incarceration and Crime Rates Continue to Fall in Tandem

#40

Post by gerbal »

starik36 wrote: post #33

When they "drug related crimes"... does that mean these people are in prison for using/selling drugs or for robbing a liquor store to pay for drugs? Because that would skew the stats significantly.

It probably means a crime where there is also a drug related indictment (or conviction, not sure which). Your example would be a crime of robbery, plus possession.

I wonder how many cases of 'drug related crime' are just defendants who were arrested for another crime while they had small time possession?

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